X-Force, Vol. 1: New Beginnings

X-Statix (Collected Editions) #1

by Peter Milligan (Writer), Mike Allred (Artist)

Adored by humans, reviled by their fellow mutants, X-Force does the dirty jobs that others can't, or won't. All they want in return is fame, money, sex, power and lucrative endorsement deals.

Collecting: X-Force 116-120

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2002

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[Printable Tire · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1993 I had a subscription to the Amazing Spider-Man, right before it got really really stupid and spawned a series of stupidities involving Clones, Spider-Girls, and who the hell knows what else, not me, that's for sure, I quit new comics altogether shortly after and only would peer at them every once in a while at comic book stores with sheepish interest. Then in 2004, I was in a comic book store in Boston and I caught sight of an issue of X-statix. I don't know if you can say I was blown away, but I was certainly caught off guard: Marvel was publishing a comic book with pop-art illustrations and a story involving money-grubbing, selfish mutants? It seemed like a righteous middle-finger to the fanboy culture of consumerism I so despise in comic books, a culture devoid of any innovation or intelligence, but a Borg-like entity of anal archivers of useless trivia and history and the same tired, stupid, lowest common denominator self-serious smirkfest stories over and over. I couldn't believe Marvel was publishing a mag like this, and I couldn't believe Milligan and Allred were getting away with it.

I immediately got a subscription to show my support to this innovative, intelligent comic (sidenote: can you even subscribe to comic books anymore? Too bad if you can't, it was fun) and I received every issue until its untimely demise, at which point Marvel sent me a substitution comic book that only showed how every other stupid comic book they were publishing paled in comparison to X-Statix.

X-Statix began in X-Force, which began as another off-shoot X-men comic book, one involving Cable and his motley crew of testosterone junkies, if I remember correctly. But it doesn't matter. You don't have to be a X-men fan (I'm certainly not) to like X-statix. Right off the bat you know you're in a whole different universe when it comes to an elevation of satire and parody, a saturated post-post-modern ultra-ironic world where mutants act as people, selish and in it for their own interest, and more or less complete dicks to each other in their elusive quest for money. Money runs everything in the X-statix world: the bottom line is money and power and money, with the Media Lords controlling it all at every turn.

So this isn't your usual trite "poor muties fightin' bad guys" stuff: there's nary a supervillain in the whole thing. It's really a comic book about Media Lords, greed, and consumerism, with plenty of doses of criticism on gender, race, sexuality and other fun stuff thrown in for good measure. It brilliantly merges satire with stellar character development, offering over the top characters that are nonetheless easily identifiable as real people with real feelings, secrets, and motivations. So yeah, good stuff. It hits all the right notes in ways I can't even remember now. It starts out shocking (this is a comic book where characters actually die) and keeps on going strong.

Nonetheless, there are certain qualities to the comic that may be off putting to some people. It can be ruthlessly cynical one minute and the next almost sickingly sentimental and sincere. Most of the characters are jerks or will be dead before you can even care about them. Some of their powers are confusing (why can Mr. Sensitive/The Orphan fly?) The art is great but Allred ain't the best at portraying fight scenes, so most of them look like a bunch of characters with puzzling face drifting in the air. There's also a definite late 90's vibe to the comic, with characters named Phat and U-Go-Girl and the fact that X-Statix parodies more of the boy band/real world/survivor generation of Media Lord bullshit than their more recent vacuous holes of cunning mindless bullshit currently bombarding the internet airwaves.

But this is still a perfect comic book for me, one that incorporates all the fun elements of the medium without making you feel like a dumbass for reading it. No wonder it didn't last too long, and no wonder nobody ever talks about it. In a lot of ways I still feel it's too cutting edge and subversive for people to get, but maybe that's just me thinking I'm smarter than everybody else.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It was fun and most of the characters that lived were pretty good. However, the plot was very up and down for me and I had trouble with trying to stay interested occasionally. The ending definitely got saved with the reveal right at the end even if it was pretty obvious from the get-go.

My main issue was that when they killed somebody off it was very hard to care. I mean when you are only around for 1 or 2 issues and we don't know anything interesting about you or have any reason to care for you in any way we just don't care. There is no impact at all.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buenas sensaciones en esta relectura con la que regreso a la etapa de Milligan y Allred. Me ha vuelto a gustar cómo reinterpretan La Patrulla X original bajo el prisma de nuestro siglo (los superhéroes como celebridades públicas, la exposición a los medios y las redes sociales), y la visión de la nueva carne de Charles Burns; cómo los poderes son una manifestación de la condición psicológica de los personajes. Muy superficial y efectiva. También he disfrutado con lo bien que se realimentan entre sí, con los golpes de efecto constantes, más o menos gruesos, y lo evidente que parece el método Marvel, con trasquilones en la narrativa solucionados con diálogos o transiciones abruptas. Superhéroes muy frescos y con (un cierto) sentido.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really love what Peter Milligan and Mike "Mad Man" Allred did here with both X-Force and X-Statix. It's really the only X-Force I ever cared about. No giant shoulderpads and enormous guns here! Allred's art is at top form. And you never know what's going to happen next. No one is safe.

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suicide Squad meets reality TV.

Fresh, funny and satirical, X-Force keeps one entertained from start to finish.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining as f**k.

[Benji Glaab · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really fun. Love the wild Pop art style and colour scheme. I was planning on reading X-Statix but decided to pick things up with the tail end of X-Force Vol.2 We get the team that's living the good life enjoying all the riches and fame that being a Sup can bring, but dang there is a really high mortality rate that comes with the job. And along comes Mr. Sensitive AKA the Orphan he has a moral compass and can finally band this Misfit Team together. Definitely worth checking out and I think the 2000's have just the right amount of nostalgia for me to be jumping all over this year in my tbr pile. I'm sure I'll be enjoying this run

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

First time reading Milligan's mutants. I think this used to be called X-static or something similar. The original X-force was the public X-team but this....??? I have to admit I'm not a fan of the art or the writing.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of you want something different than your average Marvel comic, this is it. Faces are melted, guts spilled, everyone is an asshole, and no one is safe.

On top of all of that, we get Mike Allred's fantastic art.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

They're rich. They're surrounded by groupies. They're hounded by the paparazzi. They have their own franchise souvenir store. Rockstars? No. Movie Stars? No. Superheroes? Absolutely. Like rockstars they're bought and sold by a multi-million dollar conglomerate. Like movie stars they're pampered and spoiled. That's why the X-Force have to be put away and replaced by a new batch of heroes.

Peter Milligan's brilliant story starts out with a bang and never lets up even to the last page. His impressions on the cult of celebrity and how it manages to corrupt even the most noble hero is sheer genius. Mike Allred's art has improved ten-fold since Madman and Red Rocket, and that's saying a helluva lot.

The new X-Force seem to be teetering between the forces of sheer greed and vanity against the old school principles of valiant herodom. The age old dilemma: to stay true to your ideals or sell out. The suicidal leader of the team is The Orphan, who bears an intentional resemblance to Kurt Cobain. Standing between her selfish desires for fame and fortune and her need to do the right thing is U-Go Girl, who reluctantly develops a crush on The Orphan. Will she be seduced by the sacred or by the profane? Read on. You won't be sorry.

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Peter Milligan manages to satirize X-comics, reality T.V., the ultra-violence of the prior X-force, and late 90s/early aughts cultural narcissism, this book must have been extremely frustrating to those who had X-force completely reset. Indeed, the only similar X-book reset was David and Stroman's revamp of X-factor at the beginning of the 90s, although this has far more Vertigo derived sensibility. If it was for some humor reference Domino and Wolverine showing up--knowingly to boast sells--this would not even feel like it was in the Marvel universe at all. Milligan, even in his run on Animal Man and Rogan Gosh, was always incorporating more high concept and contemporary explorations, and Mike Allred's art pairs incredibly well with it.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 5 out of 5]

La mejor reinterpretación de cero que haya visto de una serie mutante. Cinismo y mala leche a raudales para una de las críticas más salvajes que haya leído al "amewican wei of laif", aunque tenga unos pifies dignos del más bruto de los yanquis (la pobre interpretación que hacen los autores de Argentina, por ejemplo). El dibujo está al nivel de la historia -y por momentos casi que lo supera-, y no deja de sorprenderme que un mormón tenga tanta cancha y soltura para ilustrar cosas que seguramente hagan algo de ruido con su religión. Tanto el final del primer capítulo como el del quinto y último son dos de las mejores vueltas de tuerca que haya visto en cualquier historia, no porque sean completamente imprevisibles sino por lo duro y fríamente ejecutadas que están. Se recomienda leer con el estómago vacío y la moral abstraída, o bien aceptando de qué va el juego, que vendría a ser un "vale todo" de la cultura pop contemporánea.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hated this ten years ago. I wasn't ready for it.

['kris Pung · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best X book I've ever read and seriously when is Doop going to get his own book?

[G. Derek Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything doesn't quite fire as well as it should, some of the satire is overly creaky - but I like it a lot better than other deconstructions of hero teams, and that art is fucking tops.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Really loved this. I found the fist four volumes for a bargain, and decided “what the hell”, and it ends up being one of my favourite X-Men books.

Feels like it’s revelling in a lot of late 90s alt comic vibes. Where it’s this snarky anti-consumerist takedown in an era slowly being defined by gossip and reality tv. There’s a deeply mean-spirited vibe to a lot of this that I really ate up, and mainly because it’s balanced out by Milligan’s good grasp of character.

Guy/Mister Sensitive/The Orphan is the perfect type of good-hearted character to centre this story. Edie is the hot mess with a heart of gold, who I’m looking forward to learning more about. And despite his power being disgusting, Tike ends up being the most normal well-adjusted guy on the team.

Mike Allred’s art is this delightful mix of simplistic and gross. It makes the carnage that unfolds in just under 200 pages go down smoother. Doop especially feels like he’d be disgusting in any other context. Some of the powers make me think of Generation X, where there’s a heavy dose of body horror. Prepare for things to get bloody.

So much of this has the energy of 90s adult cartoons. There are some jokes here that feel straight out of MAD magazine, but it works when there’s still that strong character voice and sense of stakes. It’s not just madcap nonsense. It feels grounded in our reality and authentic and “about something” without being preachy, in a way I don’t often get when Marvel tries to stretch themselves. Most of the characters are assholes, but it it’s for actual interpersonal reasons…and money.

I laughed out loud. I felt for all our characters (even the ones set up to bite it shhh). Hell, I even teared up at the end of Guy’s arc. Excellent read.

…oh who cares it’s a 5/5

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a bit of context I read the last couple of issues before Milligan and Allred turned up and it was two of the ugliest, stupidest comics I have ever read. Poor Ian Edginton is a writer I usually really like but this felt like comics written out of desperation and distress. So when I read the first of the Milligan run and saw Allred’s beautiful designs it felt like the greatest thing ever

Pete Milligan never quite feels like he’s had the big break he deserves. His 2000AD stuff is great, but he tends to be the reserve British comic creator of choice: your big name has gone, so go for the solid second one (and then try Jamie Delano). He’s never bad, and I really like his run on Shade: The Changing Man, but this is something far, far more interesting. It feels like he’s trying to see how much subversion he can get into the comic, as well as daftness, with the whole media mutant thing being a really nice approach. Doop immediately feels like a revelation, one of those weird little side characters mainstream comics always throw up during their best runs. The decision to have him and Wolverine be best buddies is both absurd and beautiful

And can we just talk about Allred for a moment? He’s managing to fuse the cartoony sixties Marvel style with the alternative comics greatness of the Hernandez brothers here and it’s a joy to read. Funny, clever and occasionally just simply beautiful. It’s an aesthetic I never tire of

[Emilie]

I wasn't much of a fan of the version of X-Force before this, with characters with big muscles, small feet, and big guns. Also, there was lots of unnecessary mysteriousness about Cable, with eventual clues as to how he fit into the Summers family tree. "Summers Family Tree" has become a trope indicating that something is hopelessly convoluted. I've explained the Summers family tree a few times, and watched as the eyes of the person I'm explaining it to glazed over, and they hastened to agree with the "hopelessly convoluted" verdict. I thought the whole Maddie/Goblin Queen thing that preceded that and added to the convolutions was pretty stupid, with the exception of the sight of temporarily-overcome-by-evil Havok in the tiny tatters of his costume. Anyway...

So that was the old, and then there was this. I was looking for the "first 'on-screen' same-sex kiss" (paraphrasing) in Marvel comics, as noted in their Pride issue. There's this large, bright pink character, formerly known as Rainbow and now known as "Bloke." Another reviewer references the "Bury Your Gays" trope in regards to Bloke. He kisses his boyfriend goodbye, joins X-Force, and gets killed off right away. Admittedly lots of other team members were being killed off shortly after they joined, but I didn't care for that either. This is not especially a proud moment as things go.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeitgeist's X-Force team is called in to handle a light case of domestic terrorism, but the job goes awry leaving most of the members dead. Surviving the incident are U-Go-Girl, Doop, and the Anarchist. To fill in the missing slots, X-Force coach, "Coach", recruits Mister Sensitive (who later changes his name to Orphan), Bloke, Phat, Vivesector, Spike and Saint Anna. The team proves dysfunctional right away, with U-Go-Girl vying for team leadership and the other members hoping for celebrity brand deals. And this sets the tone for Peter Milligan's lengthy X-Force/X-Statix run, with the gorgeous artwork from Mike and Laura Allred. Serving as a critique on celebrity culture and media consumption, Milligan's X-Force is filled with vapid individuals who hope to exploit their mutant abilities for gain over standard superheroics. Funded by a billionaire who chooses missions for them, this X-Force team also lampoons the military industrial complex and takes pot shots at other superhero comics that are more focused on upholding a status quo. Innovative from start to finish, and with a mortality rate that would make any run of Suicide Squad blush, this is easily one of the great and slept on modern superhero runs.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like Suicide Squad meets reality TV meets the X-Men. Lots of ultraviolence, cynicism, and sadness, but also lots of tragedy and flawed people trying to do good. Well, kind of. Some, or maybe most, of the characters see X-Force as their way to break it big, become rich and famous, and live a life of luxury. Reality stars, divas, all caught up in a struggle for popularity and whatever semblance of 'respect' they can get. I found it oddly entertaining how many characters were featured in this, and you can never be sure who's going to survive the issue let alone the entire series. But personally I didn't like or care about most of the characters so I wasn't holding my breath. It's a unique angle I don't think I've read too much of before, or if I have it wasn't done to this degree. But I liked it enough.

[Colm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this. What if, instead of being the same superheroes that we've seen a million times over in different costumes, these mutants were cynical, money grabbing, fame whores? What if they were all looking out for number one and indifferent to their teammates dying on a regular basis? What if everything they did was managed with media ratings and demographics in mind? Well I need wonder no more, and the results are amazing.

Favourite moment was probably where a certain X-Men stalwart appeared on the cover and within the pages of said issue explicitly stated "I'm here to boost circulation."

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017...

3.5 stars.

Well, this one was different. While I don't always love unnecessary restarts in comics, I would say that X-force needed a new direction more than the other x-books at the time. And this? This is a cool way of tackling the mutant world while critiquing American "reality" culture in a most excellent manner.

I'd say it fits a little tenuously within the continuity, but it is a very entertaining story. Well worth a read and I am curious where they go with it next.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Allreds’ pop art is great, all thick lines and flat colors that pop off the page. I think this is the first Milligan comic I’ve read, and I’m enjoying his satirical take on turn of the century media culture mashed up with a totally new X-team. It’s very of-its-era (there’s an Elian Gonzalez-esque rescue mission), but feels more like a time capsule rather than dated. I also like how its melodrama balances cynicism and idealism without feeling edgy or sneering.

[M. J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Irony poisoned unimaginative story with a weak veneer of social critique. Some artists names were dropped, some crude form of political humor / commentary was hinted at and lots of characters died. Superhero comics for people who don't really like superhero comics. With so many decades of potentially amazing X-books that I still intend to read, I'm somehow grateful for Peter Milligan for relieving me of the chore of reading this series. The art was nice.

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best X title since Claremont & Cockrum brought them back.

Milligan & Allred breathed new life into the moribund mutants of marvel with this take on the new X-Force, a team sponsored by a trillionaire, they're all about money avid game. The mutants within are suffering from any others. names like the orphan, U-Go girl and others. All original and fun.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't get to attached to anyone. Everyone is expendable.
Bonus points for a gay character and a gay kiss but whipped them straight away again when that same character died in the very same issue. No more with the Bury your gays trope, please.
Otherwise an enjoyable comic.

[Casey Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for the Allreds unique visuals. Story was creative too.

[Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani · Rating 2 out of 5]

weird. random. and interesting

[Trevor Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 4.75 stars. Quirky and nihilistic, yet optimistic at the same time Milligan and the Allreds make a beautiful team. Not for everyone.

[Jamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The epitome of mutant satire
All hail Milligan and Allred