by Randy Lander

X-FORCE #120 "X-Force: Snikt!" Highly Recommended (9/10) Marvel Comics Writer: Peter Milligan Artist: Mike Allred Colors: Laura Allred Letters: Mike Allred & Blambot Editor: Axel Alonso Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN It's interesting that X-Force, a commentary on creating mass media icons, is itself doing the same things. Wolverine's appearance is mocked on the cover, but it probably will bring in a few sales. Doop is as much a created icon for comic fans as the X-Force team is for the inhabitants of the Marvel Universe. These are but two examples of the self-aware media-mocking style that Milligan has brought to the book, and how it works. As the story arc began, it looked like things were going to end before they truly began, with the corrupt X-Force collapsing under its own weight, but instead the team has excised some corruption while retaining enough to remain interesting. I'm not entirely sure where the book is going from here, but it hasn't let me down yet. I don't have the fondness for Doop that some at Marvel have predicted we all would have, largely because he doesn't really seem to do much. However, he opens and closes this issue, and there are hints that he's much more than he appears. I'm now genuinely curious about him, rather than simply amused by his visual, and I thought using him to bring in Wolverine was done in a way that made sense and didn't feel at all like a gratuitous sales booster. While all of the team members have been pretty interesting, it seems that the stars of the book for right now are The Orphan and U-Go Girl. Edie has been a star from the start, fitting into the drugs and depression personality that many media starlets have, and her conflicted morality and background is put through even more tests this issue. She and Guy are quite different in their approaches to life and their morals, and it's interesting to see them coming to something of an agreement. Milligan is giving us character archetypes we don't see a lot, with an overly sensitive (almost weepy) guy as leader of the team and a drug dependent, casual sex-happy girl who is being played as much more than titillation material for a fanboy audience. This issue also introduces the notion of true corruption and evil within the organization. While there's always been a sort of casual amorality about the team members, the Coach reveals a thoroughly dark side this issue, and the video of him and Axel is certainly disturbing as well. As Guy himself notes in the pages, he can now tell the good guys from the bad guys. I'm a little concerned that these characters may be presented as more heroic now, but it may be simply that they appeared more heroic in comparison to monstrous actions, and I hope we'll still get the more conflicted and interesting morality in future issues. X-Force has never been a book I thought much of, but the dark humor and character development being done by Milligan is great, and Allred's artwork continues to give the book a very unique look to go with its unique outlook. With the first arc complete, it seems we can now declare X-Force more than a neat experiment that only has a few issues of interesting material, and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next issues. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.