It took a while, but I finally got a comic that I loved at Zia Comics. Granted, it cost $45, but it was probably worth it. It was a bit of a pricy Free Comic Book Day.
Not having any games that weekend to watch, I decided to go out to the comic book store for the event. Unlike past FCBD’s, I arrived on time for this one (not too early or too late). Walking over to the store, I passed some smiling young women gushing over their comics, so I knew I wouldn’t get shutout this time. (There were several excited girls out for this event, sometimes with boyfriends.)
The store had plenty of free comics there and said to take three comics, which I did. My biggest trouble was just picking three. I’d pre-decided I was going to buy something while I was there, so looked around. I found this X-Force volume in the trades section. I’m not sure if I’d noticed it before and passed over it because of the price, but I’d read some of these issues before and enjoyed them.
I was feeling generous and picked it up. The girl at the register was ecstatic. (I hope at least a few other people bought something after getting the free comics.) She told me to go ahead and pick up three more free comics. That was nice of her. I ended up not getting anything else, which was a mistake. I gave away two of the three comics I got to a co-worker for her kids. I could have gotten some better kid-friendly comics for them if I’d thought about it at the time.
(I got the usual Archie and a surprising find, a Mobile Suit Gundam comic, and a Conan comic. I gave away the Archie and the Gundam after reading them myself.
The Conan comic wasn’t violent, but I decided it wasn’t appropriate for kids to give away. The comic sets up a bigger storyline that’s going to run in their regular comics. It’s the new Conan produced by Titan Comics (3-17-25). I’m still not enamored with their take on the character. It looks right, but doesn’t sound right. It’s just a little off. It’s not quite Conan for a “modern audience,” but it’s cozying up to it.
The X-Force volume is a 500-page book. It comprises 20 issues, including a double-sized 75-th issue. This is no quick read. It took a couple sittings just for me to skim over it afterward to review it. I’d read many of these issues in the 90’s. I didn’t get them new, but had gotten them at a bookstore. I’ve forgotten the name of the place, but they had stacks of comics lying around there, old and new. I sort wish I’d gotten more at the time, but I was pretty happy getting a stack of fairly new issues of X-Force.
This was a title I never bought regularly, except for probably the first issue for collecting purposes. I think I had the original New Mutants issues with Rob Liefield when the book was later rebooted as X-Force. It was a more combat-oriented comic that I wasn’t hugely interested in. The 90’s were when I mostly stopped collecting. My favorites at the time were Sandman and Gen 13, as unlikely as that combination was.
One thing I appreciated about Gen 13 was this group of young people with superpowers, who were “casual” superheroes. It wasn’t their job exactly and the rest of the time they were hanging out. The Road Trip issues of X-Force remind me of that. A caption in the book sums them up, “X-Force Fun Fact: While many superhero groups are funded by the government or wealthy patrons. The members of X-Force refuse to sell out. Consequently, they’re broke.” It’s an interesting concept for a mainline superhero, although Spider-Man and his perpetually broke alter ego, Peter Parker, has mined this take for decades.
I looked up some online reviews of the book after I’d bought it and the results were decidedly mixed. The book is called Zero Tolerance and the issues here are really only on the periphery of that X-Men storyline, so it’s a misleading title. (It should have been called Road Trip.) Also, Cable and Deadpool, the team’s most popular characters, make cameos in several issues, but it’s just a tease. They aren’t part of the main story, except where the team breaks off formally from Cable and that’s only the tail end of one issue. I can see where others would see this as a bunch of B-List characters in directionless, meandering adventures.
Your enjoyment of this will depend on how much you buy into the concept and if you like the artwork and the characters that are presented. Much of the art is by Adam Pollina. It’s very expressive, nearly cartoony, and quite distinctive. The other artists in the volume aren’t far off in style. I’m a New Mutants fan from way back. (I had the first 10 issues and stopped, unfortunately, right before it got more interesting.) If you don’t have an attachment to these characters, and some of the characters on the team I’m not familiar with, you might not be into them. Characters do drop in and disappear and plots are left dangling over the course of the book.
I’ll overview some interesting parts of the volume. The first issue starts with most of the team on the hunt for a missing Warpath, James Proudstar. This leads to a mission, via SHIELD, to extract an undercover agent from the Mutant Liberation Force, Dani Moonstar. The story then stops to do a flashback issue of a young James. This must have been part of a company-wide directive, as it is numbered “-1.” I really like the Warpath character, so I enjoyed this diversion, though it has direct consequences to later issues.
I remember James as an honorable member of the Hellfire Club Hellions (their version of the New Mutants). He’d rejected the X-Men, since he’d blamed Professor Xavier for the death of his older brother, Apache Chief, just kidding, Thunderbird. Warpath was also a main character on the TV show, The Gifted, so he has some appeal. Basically, the character is analogous to Captain America, without the shield, but with advanced senses.
Dani is also another one of my favorite mutants. I don’t know why I’m favoring two Indian/Native Americans, but I like the characters. She never exactly formally joins the group. Dani just seems to be at loose ends and decides to follow along with X-Force, since she knows them. Not having a lot of motivation, she fits right in with the team. I was a bit disappointed they didn’t do more with her, but she is an integral support character.
The main story picks back up as X-Force fights the MLF and advanced human-ish Sentinels from the Zero Tolerance task force. Some members of X-Force captured, but later freed, and they’re reunited with Cable. Ironically, this leads to their breakup with him. He wants the group to go underground with new identities. X-Force uniformly rejects that idea and Cable leaves them to find their own destiny.
The road trip starts here, as the group is left broke and traveling. James suddenly rejoins them, but then takes off with Theresa (Siryn) to chase down a lead on the people who massacred his tribe years ago. The rest of the team takes a side job working security for a questionable individual.
James and Theresa manage to find the mad doctor behind the slaughter of the tribe, but it costs Warpath his life. Thankfully, this is a comic book. It turns out this is a plot by deceased villain, Stryfe, to have James take his place in Heck. The team shows up to save him and Stryfe gets what he deserves.
What a better time to go party. X-Force goes to the Flaming Colossal Dude festival (just a joke there). They are briefly reunited with former New Mutants teammates, Karma (Shan), who is exploring an alternative lifestyle (which was completely out-of-character and I think handwaved by later writers), and Cannonball (Sam). This is awkward, since Tabitha (Meltdown), Sam’s erstwhile girlfriend, and Bobby (Sunspot), his best friend, are having an affair. Also, Cable finally formally bows out of the team’s affairs.
I love these two back-to-back pages: the team as badass superheroes and the team in matching bowling shirts. They’re perfectly illustrating what to expect from this title from here out. In this issue, the story picks up with Shatterstar and Rictor, who’d wandered off earlier in the volume, but then they disappear again from the storyline. The big revelation, though, is that Sam finds out about Tabitha and Bobby and flies off angry.
Polina’s best artwork is probably in the next story, The City of Lost Children, which is a fill-in issue with a different writer. (John Francis Moore writes most of the volume.) It’s a shame that the story isn’t quite up to the artwork, but at least makes it readable. It’s also set in the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico. I assume it’s a stand-in for Las Vegas, New Mexico.
There are several subplots weaving along in these stories. In the next three issues, they pay off Sunspot being stalked by his evil alter ego, Reignfire, with a massive fight in Las Vegas. With this, the group makes it to San Francisco, where Bobby gets reconnected with his trust fund and finally X-Force has some money. Flush with cash, he treats them to a Hawaiian vacation. Hijinks ensue. This was also Polina’s last issue.
The group finally reconnects with Domino and picks up a new member, but just as quickly, they’re whisked away from them to reconnect with Sam, who is protecting two superpowered beings, one of which can turn thought to reality. It leads to kind of a nice moment where Sam is asked why he didn’t wish for the X-Men to show up and help him. “Ah was thinking about who Ah’d want covering my back, and it was you guys,” he says. The friendship between the members of X-Force carries the book.
Overall, the individual issues may not be as great as the overall concept of superheroes making a road trip and not having any real defined mission. I haven’t read any issues past this, so I don’t know how long they carried on with this. It was a radical departure from the previous militant X-Force. I enjoyed it. Maybe it was nostalgia. Maybe I just liked the concept and/or the characters. Your mileage may vary.
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