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Strikeforce (2019) #2
STRIKEFORCE VOL. 2: FIGHT ME
Can this team of misfits stay together long enough to complete its mission? Strikeforce must contend with the menace of Moonstone, A.K.A. the psychotic psychiatrist Karla Sofen! But what does a manipulator of minds want with a hospital full of the dead and dying? Then, where death goes, Deadpool soon follows! With hundreds of shape-shifting Vridai sneaking their way through Midgard, Strikeforce is the only one who can stop them — and that brings Blade and his allies to King Deadpool’s Monster Island! For Angela, the battle gets personal as the one-time Queen of Hel faces off against the Queen of the Vridai! But who will enter a death match of no-holds-barred sports entertainment?
COLLECTING: STRIKEFORCE (2019) 6-9
COLLECTING: STRIKEFORCE (2019) 6-9
120 pages, Paperback
Published December 8, 2020
About the author
Bryan Edward Hill
389 books79 followersBryan Hill is a screenwriter, photographer, tv writer, and director. He is known for his work on the DC show TITANS and for his work in comics, most notably his outings on DETECTIVE COMICS, POSTAL, AMERICAN CARNAGE, KILLMONGER and ANGEL.
His writing is infused with esoteric principles, which can also be found in his photography and music.
He lives and works in Los Angeles.
His writing is infused with esoteric principles, which can also be found in his photography and music.
He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 18, 2021
... and another one’s gone and another one’s gone; another one bites the dust!
Yep, another book I was really enjoying gets canceled. A real shame, the stories were entertaining and the artwork on this one was awesome. I could even forgive it having Angela in it.
Oh, well. Play us out Freddie...
... Steve walks warily down the street, his brim pulled way down low...
My next book: The Amazing Spider-Man: The Daily Bugle
Yep, another book I was really enjoying gets canceled. A real shame, the stories were entertaining and the artwork on this one was awesome. I could even forgive it having Angela in it.
Oh, well. Play us out Freddie...
... Steve walks warily down the street, his brim pulled way down low...
My next book: The Amazing Spider-Man: The Daily Bugle
April 2, 2021
I found the storytelling in this to be awful. Tini Howard doesn't explain why things are occurring, they just happen. There is a half-baked solution to the Virai problem but it was unsatisfying to me. Meh.
August 23, 2021
I don't think this volume was as well organized as the first? It felt very, VERY exposition heavy and I was more than a bit confused. I assumed I just didn't remember the plot from the last volume, but there's a lot going on in this one.
There's still some of the team dynamics I really loved from the first one. I enjoyed the stuff with Angela and Freya. I liked that Strikeforce functions as a mixed/mashed team to handle one job and they all have to learn to work together. The art was great!
I'm sorry to see it go, but I wish it had a stronger second volume.
There's still some of the team dynamics I really loved from the first one. I enjoyed the stuff with Angela and Freya. I liked that Strikeforce functions as a mixed/mashed team to handle one job and they all have to learn to work together. The art was great!
I'm sorry to see it go, but I wish it had a stronger second volume.
April 5, 2021
Some really fun moments, and Spider-Woman is amazing, but the plot is so confusing and weird I had no clue what the hell was even happening by the end. The art also got kind of bland by the end too. Sadly I think Marvel didn't have much hope in this series so gave up. Sadness.
June 21, 2021
a yawn fest but jess looked so good ❤️
September 30, 2021
Ok. At some point, it's not the books, it's me. Despite all of my (many, many) complaints, I keep reading these nonsense books. This one, I even enjoyed, despite the appearance of Deadpool. The story makes little sense, and yet I felt the team did a good-ish job. Somehow, I just felt the effort in this one, like the writer / artists / etc. were like: we're gonna do this right goddammit! The internal logic isn't . . . horrid. The final issue, which goes off in a slightly different direction, has stellar art and colors. I used to read the Punisher back in my high school days, terrible as that storyline is (family killed therefor gets to trounce around and kill 'bad guys' pretty much forever). So maybe the problem isn't these bananas comics. Maybe it's me, peeling the bananas again and again.
August 6, 2020
too good to cancel :(
August 16, 2020
I carried on reading this for Spiderwoman and Spectrum – two of my favourite characters. But the writing was so patchy and at times preposterous that it was pretty much a waste of time.
March 3, 2021
The bonding between Bucky and Billy
January 24, 2021
I was worried going into this book - it was cancelled almost entirely out of the blue to the point where a solicited issue was removed before it could be released (thank u pandemic), and so I thought these four issues might not have given the story enough closure, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The first issue deals with the end of the Moonstone/Ghost story from last volume which is an odd way of cutting the trades, but who even knows anymore. The art here is by Jacopo Camagni, and it's not his best work although it's done well enough.
Then we're back to the Vridai story for the last three issues in a story that travels across the realms before ending in a literal cage match between the members of Strikeforce as the finale. Almost all the questions are answered (although one villain presumably gets away off panel and isn't referenced), and it's a decent if not entirely satisfying ending. Tini Howard does kind of stack the deck in favour of Angela and Spider-Woman, so the others get a bit of short thrift except a few quips here and there (Bucky during the fight scenes is hilarious).
German Peralta rejoins the series to finish it off, and his art's as good (or as bad) as it was before. It's still a little static, and everything seems to have a depressing blue sheen, but it does the job.
Also included is the Strikeforce one-shot from War Of The Realms, which I thought was only shoved in here because of the name, but it's actually thematically appropriate since the Black Bifrost and Freyja show up in the main book, so even if the story isn't entirely relevant, it's inclusion isn't totally out of left field.
Strikeforce never really had a chance to get itself going, but it manages to tie up almost all its loose ends and get a few laughs along the way. Fingers crossed Angela shows up somewhere again soon, because I always enjoy her.
The first issue deals with the end of the Moonstone/Ghost story from last volume which is an odd way of cutting the trades, but who even knows anymore. The art here is by Jacopo Camagni, and it's not his best work although it's done well enough.
Then we're back to the Vridai story for the last three issues in a story that travels across the realms before ending in a literal cage match between the members of Strikeforce as the finale. Almost all the questions are answered (although one villain presumably gets away off panel and isn't referenced), and it's a decent if not entirely satisfying ending. Tini Howard does kind of stack the deck in favour of Angela and Spider-Woman, so the others get a bit of short thrift except a few quips here and there (Bucky during the fight scenes is hilarious).
German Peralta rejoins the series to finish it off, and his art's as good (or as bad) as it was before. It's still a little static, and everything seems to have a depressing blue sheen, but it does the job.
Also included is the Strikeforce one-shot from War Of The Realms, which I thought was only shoved in here because of the name, but it's actually thematically appropriate since the Black Bifrost and Freyja show up in the main book, so even if the story isn't entirely relevant, it's inclusion isn't totally out of left field.
Strikeforce never really had a chance to get itself going, but it manages to tie up almost all its loose ends and get a few laughs along the way. Fingers crossed Angela shows up somewhere again soon, because I always enjoy her.
August 22, 2021
You know you're in trouble when your back-up is better than the main comic, which is the case here. A throwaway episode from the War of the Realms, featuring She-Hulk, Punisher, Blade, and Ghost Rider outclasses the main event, from the writing to the artwork...It's no wonder this title was quickly consigned to the rubbish pile.
Read
August 10, 2022Bucky was pretty entertaining in places, and there were some cute twists as characters in the team got to know each other. I'd read some of those Dark Avengers and Dark Reign comic books, so I at least knew the basics of who Moonstone is. To Noh-Varr, in his brief stint as the Dark Avenger version of Captain Marvel, "I have a little Kree in me." There, Moonstone is speaking of the stone that's the source of her power. Later it becomes sort of more literal, as she relieves Noh-Varr of his virginity when it comes to Earthlings. (lol!) Noh-Varr's expressions as he realizes thanks to Karla's casual commentary afterward that the Dark Avengers are evil are priceless. Moonstone herself inadvertently causes Noh-Varr's tenure as a Dark Avenger to be so very short. There's no humor in her turn here, and her accompanying villain, the Ghost, is generally portrayed as being horrible.
Hellstrom learns that Billy is the being destined to become the Demiurge, although the summary at the beginning of the series says that Billy will one day become the Demiurge, but is presently struggling to learn to do his own laundry. Fair enough. Billy's learned a lot in the few years of comic book time since he was sixteen. Here he's in his early twenties or so, presumably. He knows magic better, and has a good amount of willpower, but he's also learned some caution about using his reality-warping powers. Marvel superheroes aren't generally known for their maturity levels, so Billy's about average, maybe a bit above average, by that standard.
Deadpool's appearance is entertaining enough. The last few issues heavily features arcs for Jessica Drew and Angela, and wraps up loose ends. Billy went off to space for the Empyre event soon afterward. In an early issue of Strikeforce, he's seen sending the picture to Teddy that Teddy sees in the first pages of the Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling comic book. The other team members went off to do their own things? I would have been happy to see more forced teamwork and Bucky not being too mature, the ways he's shown acting in between the cage matches the team ends up in. Noting that I don't know if that's the first time Bucky's seen putting his hair up into a man-bun, but I know that was fan service for a certain part of the audience.
It was worth it to me to read those last four issues of Strikeforce. I kind of wish that Billy had been able to work with Bucky and Daimon Hellstrom again. However, Emperor Hulkling's actions did cause Richard Rider to exclaim, "Blue blazes!" when Rocket told Nova to catch up on the latest space news. That would have been lost on me if I hadn't read Empyre.
This run of comics was kind of a throwback to how anybody in the Marvel Universe might happen to run into anybody else. Another reviewer characterizes it as "old-school" that way. I think that adds to the fun, as long as it's not random people always meeting with a character who is hugely overused. This wasn't that. The basic premise was that relatively lesser-known characters needed to work together.
Hellstrom learns that Billy is the being destined to become the Demiurge, although the summary at the beginning of the series says that Billy will one day become the Demiurge, but is presently struggling to learn to do his own laundry. Fair enough. Billy's learned a lot in the few years of comic book time since he was sixteen. Here he's in his early twenties or so, presumably. He knows magic better, and has a good amount of willpower, but he's also learned some caution about using his reality-warping powers. Marvel superheroes aren't generally known for their maturity levels, so Billy's about average, maybe a bit above average, by that standard.
Deadpool's appearance is entertaining enough. The last few issues heavily features arcs for Jessica Drew and Angela, and wraps up loose ends. Billy went off to space for the Empyre event soon afterward. In an early issue of Strikeforce, he's seen sending the picture to Teddy that Teddy sees in the first pages of the Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling comic book. The other team members went off to do their own things? I would have been happy to see more forced teamwork and Bucky not being too mature, the ways he's shown acting in between the cage matches the team ends up in. Noting that I don't know if that's the first time Bucky's seen putting his hair up into a man-bun, but I know that was fan service for a certain part of the audience.
It was worth it to me to read those last four issues of Strikeforce. I kind of wish that Billy had been able to work with Bucky and Daimon Hellstrom again. However, Emperor Hulkling's actions did cause Richard Rider to exclaim, "Blue blazes!" when Rocket told Nova to catch up on the latest space news. That would have been lost on me if I hadn't read Empyre.
This run of comics was kind of a throwback to how anybody in the Marvel Universe might happen to run into anybody else. Another reviewer characterizes it as "old-school" that way. I think that adds to the fun, as long as it's not random people always meeting with a character who is hugely overused. This wasn't that. The basic premise was that relatively lesser-known characters needed to work together.
March 20, 2021
Not as good as the first volume but still worthy of 4 stars. It felt somewhat rushed towards the end which I assume was a need to get the story sown up before the run was cancelled.
This has a nice guest appearance by Deadpool, who is written/drawn well and not overused.
For the main team these final issues were very Angela and Jessica heavy. I needed more Bucky, Billy, and Damien.
Also included a War of the Realms Strikeforce issue from before the destruction of the bifrost, with a different team (Blade, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk, and Punisher). Not much fun and a bit of a non event since I've not read WotR.
This has a nice guest appearance by Deadpool, who is written/drawn well and not overused.
For the main team these final issues were very Angela and Jessica heavy. I needed more Bucky, Billy, and Damien.
Also included a War of the Realms Strikeforce issue from before the destruction of the bifrost, with a different team (Blade, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk, and Punisher). Not much fun and a bit of a non event since I've not read WotR.
September 24, 2021
Fight Me wraps up the Strikeforce team's existence in bland fashion. The team dispatches Moonstone and her "ghosts," then returns to the Vridai plotline that opened Trust Me. Basically, the Vridai need a home, so Strikeforce works to find them one. Do they belong on Monster Island with Deadpool? If your comic needs a cameo from Deadpool to have any zing, it's not a great comic.
The final issue, a War of the Realms ones-shot that's barely related to Strikeforce, is leagues better than the rest of the volume. That's an issue. The art, the character work, the dialogue, all much improved. Oof.
The final issue, a War of the Realms ones-shot that's barely related to Strikeforce, is leagues better than the rest of the volume. That's an issue. The art, the character work, the dialogue, all much improved. Oof.
September 10, 2023
This second volume of the book was a great opportunity to address the team's lack of a proper dynamic and make them more relatable as a unit. And while there were some efforts towards the end, most of this collection still has them being swept away by the plot more than anything else.
The last bit involving Spider-Woman's big plan to solve other challenges felt a little forced or rather tonally weird. It felt more like something maybe in her prior comic run or even in a Deadpool comic, but the lack of a core identity for Strikeforce itself made it harder to figure out what the actual tone "should" be.
The last bit involving Spider-Woman's big plan to solve other challenges felt a little forced or rather tonally weird. It felt more like something maybe in her prior comic run or even in a Deadpool comic, but the lack of a core identity for Strikeforce itself made it harder to figure out what the actual tone "should" be.
March 4, 2024
This book ends and it'll probably be forgotten before too long. Howard's plot is all over the place and accomplishes nothing. The rag-tag crew assembled (kind of) last volume finishes their self-imposed secret mission (kind of). The antagonists continue to lame but Deadpool is added but not in a fun way. Its absurd and not in a fun way. I still am unclear at what this was supposed to be but it failed. The art was solid but didn't wow me. Overall, I liked this book less and less page after page.
February 2, 2021
Well, that's that. The cancellation is kind of a shame because I had been enjoying this book, and the ending is clearly very rushed. This volume wasn't quite as strong in the first, partially because a lot of characters who aren't Angela or Spider-Woman got really short shrift. Deadpool has a guest stint, and it's naturally worked into the storyline, he isn't overused, and Howard wrote him rather well. I'll miss this one, if only because I won't get regular doses of Billy anymore.
Read
April 11, 2021A similar series, in many ways, to the current Avengers run, really running with the sheer variety that exists in the Marvel Universe, using it to throw elements and characters of wildly different tones into contact and see what happens. Similar too in that sometimes the results are great fun, and other times they really don't come off. Still, I would have liked to see where else they could have gone once they'd dealt with the memetic mushroom men.
December 20, 2025
Honestly, I found this story to be boring, and I didn't feel like this Strikeforce was a compelling team. This series ends with Angela calling the rest of the Strikeforce her friends, but I just don't believe it. They didn't act like friends. There was very little relationship or character development whatsoever. Angela and Jessica Drew had some good moments, but none of the other characters really got their time to shine. This was a let down.
March 8, 2022
I enjoyed this arc and its focus on Jessica Drew and her complicated relationship with shape-shifters more than the first volume. Not "an extra star" more. But more. Overall an ok series, but -- when I picked it up predominantly for Wiccan -- somewhat disappointing
September 1, 2020
lmao nawet się nie skapnęłam, że to cancelowali, oops
December 13, 2020
I found the writing over the top at times.
February 11, 2021
Disappointing conclusion. Why does Jessica have her old costume?
February 14, 2021
4,5 stars.
March 24, 2021
Apparently this was canceled suddenly and prematurely and oof it shows. The plot is an absolute mess, and there are too many characters for them all to get enough screentime
July 16, 2021
Enjoyed this a lot, really loved the character dynamics and how Deadpool came into it all!
August 12, 2021
Deadpool…I mean he sells comics!
I honestly am not always satisfied if it was a team up, a Asgard book, a Deadpool book or…well it kind of junks around.
I honestly am not always satisfied if it was a team up, a Asgard book, a Deadpool book or…well it kind of junks around.
September 18, 2021
idk I really love these characters and their dynamics together, but this didn't hit the same level of intrigue and fun that the first volume did. a wholly underwhelming finish.
October 3, 2021
pretty art, confusing story
January 19, 2022
I like odd groups and weird team-ups, but they can be dicey....
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews