OK, I'll admit it... I bought the first few issues of the original X-Force by this creative team in the early 1990s. I'd heard the buzz about Liefeld's work on New Mutants (and I'd enjoyed his work on the Hawk & Dove limited series from DC), and I decided to check it out. His art struck me as being a bit rough, but it was fun, in an over-the-top sort of way. I lost interest pretty quickly, but at its heart, X-Force was just a light, fun super-hero series. Colorful heroes, colorful villains and plenty of action. Though the same creative team and the same characters have been brought back to revive the series, for some reason, the traditional super-hero approach hasn't made it along for the ride. Instead, we get a mix of barbarian adventure and science-fiction seemingly designed to completely alienate the reader.
While he and Domino engage in some meditation, Cable is set upon by assassins from the future, or to be more specific, the alternate future from which the powerful mutant hails. Cable realizes that an old enemy -- one that doesn't exist yet -- is making a move against him and all of humanity, and in order to oppose him, he'll need help. He's already got Domino at his side, and a trip to a hidden mountain retreat yields not only another old ally, but an artifact that's key to the villain's plans.
I know, I know... it comes as no surprise that I didn't care for this comic book. I assure you, though, I came in with an open mind. I thought back on the original Liefeld/Nicieza X-Force stories, and I thought maybe some of the same kind of oddly charming, goofy character concepts (remember Forearm?) might turn up. Sadly, such is not the case.
Liefeld apparently inks his own here, and he's poured a lot of detail into much of the book. Unfortunately, his focus should have been on anatomy. The characters are often distorted visions of human physicality. The characters' heads are often disproportionately small as compared to the rest of their bodies, and torsoes are often elongated to the point of looking as though Mr. Fantastic might have replaced Cable as the leader of the title team. There are some clear perspective problems here as well, most apparent in the scenes in which Shatterstar, swords in hand, fights generic baddies.
Speaking of Shatterstar, the bloodthirsty, almost nihilist edge the creators try to instill in him just doesn't work, not in the context of bloodless super-hero comics. The first thing we learn about Shatterstar here is that he is uncontrollably violent, that he yearns "to plunge cold steel through warm flesh." He doesn't have to wait long for the opportunity, but somehow, this uncontrollable, violent warrior only punches the bad guys while holding his swords. It makes no sense. Even Wolverine uses his claws from time to time.
Also implausible is the notion that there's yet another baddie from the future Cable is sworn to fight, one he's neglected to mention to anybody up to this point. He seems aware there was always an ever-present threat, yet he'd done nothing -- not even pondered it -- for years. Another problem with the book is the overly stilted dialogue. There are no grounded characters to be found here at all. Shatterstar's purple prose is silly enough, but even more laughable is when he breaks "character" all of a sudden and uses a modern buzz word ("weapon of mass destruction") just to include a kewl, seemingly resonant line.
Many are saying the new X-Force series is yet another sign that the industry has cast its sight back to the early 1990s. I don't agree. X-Force in the 1990s was more fun than this.
