X-Force Epic Collection, Vol. 7: Zero Tolerance

X-Force Epic Collection

by John Francis Moore, Adam Pollina (Illustrator), Jim Cheung (Illustrator)

Zero tolerance - maximum action! As the U.S. Government's mutant-hunting Prime Sentinels target the villainous Mutant Liberation Front, X-Force is caught in the middle! What is their old friend Dani Moonstar doing with the MLF? And when the Sentinels capture half the team, can the ragtag remainder pull together to rescue them? Meanwhile, Domino is targeted by an old foe with a vendetta...and X-Force breaks away from Cable and hits the road! But their cross-country trip may prove fatal for Warpath, who's in for a hellish time - with Stryfe! Plus, Sunspot and Meltdown get close, but what is Bobby's connection to the ruthless Reignfire? Karma returns as the team attends Burning Man! Moonstar runs afoul of the Deviants! Flash back to the early days of the Proudstar brothers! And Domino battles...Shatterstar?!

COLLECTING: X-FORCE (1991) 66-84, -1

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

496 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2022

About the author

John Francis Moore is comic book writer known for stints as writer on such Marvel comics series as X-Force, X-Factor, Doom 2099 and X-Men 2099. He also wrote Elseworld's Finest and co-wrote Batman/Houdini: The Devil's Workshop, with Howard Chaykin, for DC's Elseworlds series, and was the writer for Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! series. He wrote some episodes of The Flash and Freakazoid television series.

Reviews

[Martycoffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the prime issues that I really grew up loving, but I was surprised how well this held up. Still love X-Force.

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous art throughout, notably by Adam Pollina and Jim Cheung. The story was a tad too choppy for my taste, but I respect how big of swings were taken on trying out new things.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume has a strong start. New author John Francis Moore comes aboard and takes X-Force through Zero Tolerance, with a focus on the MLF, finally closing out the Dani in the MLF plotline that had been stewing for years.

But the rest of the volume is largely forgettable. X-Force takes a very long road trip and has totally forgettable adventures along the way, either with no name characters or with great characters used poorly (such as the horrible Selene at Burning Man anniversary issue, which also brings a very unlikely betrayal of Sam by Bobby and Tabitha to a conclusion). There's also a very mysterious Reignfire arc that retcons Reignfire into being a mutant parasite. What!? I mean, I know the original story wasn't good, but this wasn't either.

The very end of the volume, bringing in new character Bedlam, bringing back Sam, and introducing the Deviants as a new foe feels like it has some potential, but, well, the rest of the Moore run will tell.

PS: I'm also disappointed with the mapping of this volume, something that Marvel is usually great at. But we'd had a series of Omnibuses that covered from New Mutants #98 - X-Force #43 and then those degenerated into a series of TPBs covering X-Force #44-61 and then that line was abandoned, leaving us with a gap of X-Force #62-65 prior to this. Maybe Marvel will return to the omnibuses at some time, but at this point the X-Force collections have become erratic between the Omnibus and Epic lines.

[October Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading John Francis Moore's work on X-Force has given me a new appreciation for his take. As an adult, the nuance he created in the relationships between long-established characters is more visible and appreciated. He took several concepts that had run their course, and while I didn't care for all of his reinterpretations (Reignfire still confuses me) most of them landed with charm and believability. This is a really good book about a group of young adults traveling through America in search of old friends and new relationships.

[Thomas Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great art throughout and more relationship-driven stories with superheroes on the side, which is surprising as someone who was only ever familiar with the more extreme takes on X-Force. Even for an older comic, there is a lot of exposition, I would say to the point of distraction. Would love to see John Francis Moore come back to comics in some capacity.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I hoped to have more of the Operation Zero Tolerance story here so that I could see Bastion in his initial appearance, this volume of X-Force serves as a sequel to the New Mutants with a road trip backdrop.

[Rob Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hidden gem of the late 90s stays far away from X-drama. It's got great art, soap opera story lines, bizarre villains, and a ton of pop culture references. What it doesn't have is any kind of stakes, or distinct voices for the characters, or cool ideas that last more than one issue. Reignfire isn't X-Men crossover dumb, but he is still very dumb. Still very much worth reading.