Comic Info
Comic Name: X-Force (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Mike Allred
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2001
X-Force (1) #116
Reprints X-Force (1) #116-120 (July 2001-November 2001). X-Force is the hottest mutant team on the market…just ask its members. While the original X-Force wish they had done more to copyright their name, the new X-Force is lighting up Hollywood and all the talk shows. Under the watchful eye of Coach and with videos of their adventures shot by Doop, X-Force is number one, but being number one can have its price…and someone is always gunning for you!
Written by Peter Milligan, X-Force Volume 1: New Beginnings was a soft relaunch of the first X-Force series with new writers and artists. The comic featured art by Mike Allred and was released to critical acclaim. The collection followed the Counter X storyline X-Force: Rage War and was also reprinted in the X-Statix Omnibus and X-Force: Famous, Mutant & Mortal.
I loved, loved, loved the new X-Force. It was one of those Marvel Comics that I couldn’t wait to get and couldn’t wait to see what happened. Unlike many comics now, X-Force was priority reading and every new issue I savored. While I had had a pretty good run of the original X-Force, it was rather mundane and cliché ’90s mutant comic. Milligan and Allred’s X-Force changed up the game.
The series went for extreme humor and built upon the clichés of books like the original X-Force. There was a lot of anger from fans of the original characters when it was revealed that X-Force would take a humorous approach, and the book might not have been meant for people who like that style of X-Force…but it became one of the most original titles on the market.
X-Force (1) #120
What was great about X-Force was that you didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. X-Men had a habit of killing a member of a team near their launch (like Thunderbird), but X-Force set-up a bunch of new characters and immediately slaughtered all of them. They brought in new, new characters and continued to pick them off as well. Though the Anarchist, the Orphan, and U-Go Girl were put up as the priority characters, you weren’t exactly sure if they were safe.
The series was also added by Allred’s art. Like his Madman comic, the series has a throwback style to the character, but no throwback in the storytelling. Allred’s wholesome style intentionally clashes with the rough, adult, and edgy look of the comic.
X-Force 1: New Beginnings was a great start to a great series. The comic is fun, funny, and still has enough action and danger to not simply classify it as a “funny book”. It was tricky balance struck by Allred and Milligan and they succeeded. X-Force 1: New Beginnings was followed by X-Force 2: The Final Chapter.
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