X-Force, Bd. 8: Familienfehde

X-Force (2019)

by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill (illustrator)

Schon Wochen steht Colossus insgeheim unter dem verderblichen Einfluss seines diabolischen Bruders Mikhail. Ausgerechnet jetzt soll er die X-Force in eine neue Ära führen. Aber bereits die erste Mission schlägt fehl und bringt sein Team in die Bredouille. Während Sage, Domino und Deadpool mit dem Rücken zur Wand stehen, erlangt Piotr Rasputin die Kontrolle zurück. Und seine Rache wird fürchterlich.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

Kindle Edition

Published July 31, 2024

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

So after almost 40 comic book issues in waiting does the Piotr compromised story pay-off? For me it pays off in the superb X-Men Hellfire Gala: Fall of X, but not so much in it's parent book, this one, X-Force. Less Logan and less becoming-Dark-Beast did not really impact the series either way. Overall with one final volume to go another take-it or leave-it X-Forces season, a Three Star, rounded down to 6 out of 12 read.

2025 read

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now with Beast and Wolverine (Logan) out of the picture I found myself enjoying this tale of X-Force pre- and post-Hellfire Gala a little more engaging, the battling brothers Rasputin were a strong story thread and I enjoyed seeing Sage's hopeful leadership in action.


And, of course, any opportunity to watch Domino battling robots while rampaging through a Russian Bathhouse is one worth taking!

[Matthew Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been very excited to find out where this story went with Piotr that felt like it started 40 issues ago and I’m very glad we got this volume and the ending we did regarding this arc!

[Anna Quilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satisfying conclusion to Mikhail and Piotr's story.
That kind of brings together quite a few strands.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

A good conclusion to Piotr's arc, which has been an underlying theme for many episodes. Satisfying, even if the drawing is rather generic.

[Tor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really haven't enjoyed most of this run at all, but #47 was actually good and I want to see where it goes from here.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t think I’d feel so robbed of a climax about the end of the painstakingly drawn out Colossus arc, but this issue managed to go lower than even my own bottom-dwelling expectations. This felt like a best hits album of X-Force arcs of yore, with the team fighting the miniature virus which caused so many issues in what feels like a lifetime ago. None of it made real sense or added anything to the plot other than giving the team something to do while Colossus went through his feelings. I’d think there was nowhere else to go but up in the next arc, but I’ve been proven wrong before on this series.

[Bertazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Percy was able to salvage some of the Colossus as a traitor plot. Not as sophisticated as Kieron Gillen, but way better than Beast as a villain.

[Aisling · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Alex Sarll]

One of the many reasons Fall Of X sucked was the way Gerry Duggan completely failed to weave in the stories the other, better X-books had been telling for years, which set up vulnerabilities in the Krakoan idyll that could have blown up in catastrophes far more interesting than "Nimrod falls, everybody dies'. It must have been deeply frustrating for the writers who'd done all that wasted establishing work – but X-Force, at least, could work some of that frustration out on the page. Not just through being a violent series, but because one of the snakes in this particular corner of Eden was a writer within the story, whose narration powers were being used to suborn Colossus, and who gets understandably exasperated when his boss, Colossus' evil brother Mikhail, informs him of the abrupt change of direction. Percy, the writer outside the story, thereby manages to do a mostly satisfactory job of salvaging some form of closure to that arc, though it does come at the cost of sidelining other members of the team, especially Quire. Hopefully their moment will come in the next and final volume

[Michael Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well we finally get to see the end of the whole Mikhail and Colossus storyline…as part of the fallout from the Hellfire Gala Mutant Massacre. What has bugged me about all of these stories is that there’s a time jump. This horrific tragedy happens, and that becomes the status quo for weeks before we see anything more. In some regards, it makes sense, it just feels like an awkward pacing issue for stories. I’ve always found that with big events in comics that wind up compressed. I remember Invincible had a huge buildup to the Viltrumite War, and it lasted a couple of issues. I want to see more detail. Instead, you don’t get to build any tension for the actual resolution. You tell me people have been missing for months, but it’s just 2 issues and all we see is them disappear and then get rescued.

That being said, I enjoyed the story. It’s really become about Sage and Domino, and I’ve grown to like them both over the series. Even concluding Piotr’s story, he doesn’t get a ton of panel space. I hope there will be more as fallout from this. I think the most satisfying ending from this is for Chronicler.

Robert Gill’s art and GURU-eFX’s colors really stand out. I liked the whole volume for the most part.

Percy still can’t help himself from throwing in nonsense swear words all the time (with the #$%& type of bleeping in their place). It’s become something that annoys me about comics in general, because it’s not always obvious which swear word would make sense, and it would work just as well without the nonsense characters. They work alright in isolation, but use them too much and it becomes meaningless.

I haven’t said much about this volume in particular. I liked it. I like the resolution. There’s not much to it. I think there’s some deeper questions you could ponder, but it’s pretty loose.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
After all the chaos of chasing Beast in the last Volume, I wasn't 100% sure where this was going to go, other than stuff with Colossus. Turned out to be mostly Colossus, his brother Mikhail who was controlling him, and a absolutely amazing character (have we ever seen him before anywhere?) The Chronicler, who is the real power behind Piotr's control as he has mutant powers to write things and they come true.
(Example... he might write.... "Adam wrote the review about X-Force V8 and he had many things to say about how awesome his new friend The Chronicler is..." Like that!)
Domino and Sage work together to find X-Force in the post-Hellfire Gala scene, they are trapped in some way by Mikhail.... and it takes Colossus ripping the heart from Mikhail's chest in order for the chaos to stop. But now Piotr must make amends...

Heading straight into V9, so I can finish up this run of X-Force. Working my way towards the end of "Fall of X"...

Good read. Deep emotionally and good amount of action. Recommend.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's that you say? The 'Colossus as sleeper agent for his brother' storyline ends here?
Holy hell! Do wonders never cease?

This volume sets up a new batch of problems and ties up some old loose ends.
- QQ / Quentin Quire is back (but not at full strength??)
- X-Force gets a kick ass mobile Krakoan base (piloted by Black Tom)
- The Rasputin brothers takeover/sabotage of Krakoa finally gets resolved
- Alpha Flight cameo (technically the rogue Alpha Flight)
- That mutant author finally gets 'written out' of his puppeteering narrative....

It wasn't the worst collection, but it still has that Beast 'stench' hanging over it. Luckily, they got rid of the albatross around their neck, AKA 'Piotr as puppet'. Sometimes the long game doesn't need to be SO long....or SO whiney. It's like a poorly done copy of the time Peter lost faith in the Xavier dream and joined Magneto's Acolytes.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I surely should have read this right after the Hellfire Gala, since I think I skipped past the temporal framing where I know Domino and Colossus and Sage are working to reclaim some Mutant dominion on Earth post-Krakoa, and poor Quentin…

I’m honestly glad they tied up the loose ends with Mikhail and Chronicler but it felt really rushed. So much happens to Colossus so, so quickly, and there needs to be some reckoning for Laura too, especially given how her younger self has now been imprisoned in a defacto loop at least similarly but totally differently to older Laura from the Children of the Vault timeline. Again…all of this feels super weird given the fall of Krakoa. Like it all stretches credulity a bit much, even for the X-Men universe, that all these narratives stay detached from one another.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was better than the previous arcs as finally one of the big plot points comes to fruition and we see Colossus being controlled story play out and we see X-Force vs Mikhail and well this Chronicles and how and why it happens and tie-in into Fall of X and the stuff with changing reality and a void with which Mikhail is controlling and all that ad how all X-Force members in this run come together and what the face of the Colossus is.. its interesting and we finally moving towards the end vs Beast next arc which I hope is way better than this volume atleast. But decent ending to this long running plot point and a character salvation for Colossus finally!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The penultimate volume of X-Force brings the Colossus storyline home to roost at last, while Beast continues to spiral further and further into villainy.

It's always fun seeing long seeded stories finally bearing fruit, and this Colossus story has definitely reached the point where it can't go on much longer by this point without becoming silly. Does it wrap itself up a little too satisfyingly? Yeah, probably. But there's a lot to do before the series ends at
#50, so we'll forgive them for that.

[Khurram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not a big fan of the Colossis under the control of his brother story arc. I thought it had been going on for too long, especially for all the people who did know about it.

The only good thing I can say about this book it atleast it was more action-packed than the other X books. A decent fight at the end, the last minute saviour probably got this book an extra star from me, but even the ending was rushed, the Helfire Gala was covered in a page.

With the way the rest of the X books are going, it should be interesting to see what happens next with X-Force and even who the membership will be. The book finishes with a huge varient cover gallery.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, that long and winding road involving Colossus being under his brother's control comes to something of a conclusion (not entirely, though). It's good to have something to wrap things up, because that story was plainly getting a bit too convoluted--you can't stretch these things out indefinitely, past the breaking point, and we were pretty much there. X-Force is needed now more than ever in the wake of the Fall of X and what happens next, only time will tell (will Beast get what's coming to him?). Good stuff.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ughhhhhhhhh!!! When are we going to escape evil Beast!!! I’m so over it. I was so ready to 100% enjoy this volume until the final page. God! I’m so happy we finally not just acknowledged the kidnapping of Colossus’s mind but actually solved it too. As weird as that got it was just nice to have closure for it. Man has been under foreign control all year I think. Not excited for what’s next knowing that’s it’s more Beast bullshit.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

who would've thought i'd actually care about the x-force team but now i've spent so long with these reformed baddies and stuck with them through dealing with all these internal betrayals. and wow the team's been able to find each other and make a little base. i'm proud of how far they've all come :')

also phoebe surviving the hellfire gala in diamond form like emma did after genosha :'))) what about the other four though :'(((

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The "Colossus is being manipulated by his brother" storyline finally moves to the foreground - and is relatively quickly settled. I would have liked more Mikhail scheming and less Beast shenanigans, honestly. This was the first X-Force volume in a while that really caught my attention and felt fresh and new. Of course, it's a bit of a sidequest from the Fall of X stuff, but I appreciate that Percy is wrapping up loose ends even here amidst the Fall.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una pena que de la sensación de que la trama de Mikhail utilizando a Coloso era algo que aún necesitaba de algo más de desarrollo para calar más toda esta situación de "traición" a mayores de la situación villanesca de Bestia. Pero claro, la Caída de Krakoa se daba quisiera Benjamin Percy o no. Y la verdad es que aún logra que todo el asunto de Chronicle y esa metanarrativa condensada guie suficientemente bien este conjunto.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It FINALLY comes to a head that Colossus is being controlled by his brother. For once, this arc was pretty solid. Maybe, because for once it wasn't about the Beast turning evil. That final panel though did not make me happy. I am curious about this new direction although I'd be more excited about a new writer on this book.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been low on Percy's Krakoan contributions, but I'll admit I was hopeful the resolution promised in this story had me hopeful for some satisfaction.

It wasn't terrible, but it also felt like taking the shortest route home. Kinda like everyone was done with the Rasputin drama, so let's just end it.

Maybe the Beast stuff will wrap well?

[Matthew Randell · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much wrapping up condensed into a single page. The Beast storyline has gone on for so long that this felt rushed. I actually really like the way it ends but I wish they'd spent a bit more time on that, they certainly had the space with the 50-issue run. Deadpool was unnecessary as always, but it's nice to have a bit more muscle in the group in the form of Colossus and Laura.

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel conflicted about this Vol. The premise is fun and could have been taken in a myriad of different directions, however, the volume was very short and solved pretty quickly. This has been built up throughout the entire run and has been dealt with very quickly, a little disappointing. Grade: C

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The muddy story of Piotr, Mikhail, and the Chronicler gets a good ending here, with everything finally coming into focus. But what happens to Piotr next? Is there even a next in the mess that is Fall of X?

[Micah Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, focused, complete (while maybe not fully satisfying in its execution) “conclusion” to a long-running story thread with solid art. Definitely nice to feel a change of pace while simultaneously tying up what’s come before. It gives me hope for the final volume of this series.

[Andres Pasten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cuando parecia que por fin despejaban la x-force para que se enfrente a Orchis... otra vez lo mismo?

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Consistenly excellent.