X-Force/Cable: Messiah War

X-Force/Cable: Messiah War #1-7

by Craig Kyle, Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Christopher Yost

It's the exciting sequel to 2007's Messiah CompleX Cyclops has complete faith that his son, Cable, will do everything he can to protect the so-called mutant messiah - who he believes will save mutantkind.

But he also knows what havoc former X-Man Lucas Bishop has wreaked in the nightmarish future. So now he's sent his black ops team, the X-Force, on a risky, time-traveling mission to save Cable and the child, completely unaware that there's something else waiting for them in the future. Something not even Bishop was counting on...

Collecting: X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop 1-3, Cable 11-15, X-Force 14-16, X-Force/Cable: Messiah War One-Shot, & X-Men: Future History: The Messiah War Sourcebook

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

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2009

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always wanted to find out more about Hope and the Messiah War stuff, but I never really knew where to start.



And, if I'm being honest, I'm still not sure where to start.
But this was story came in between X-Force Not Forgotten & Necrosha, and I had always wondered what had happened between the time they all disappeared and the time that X-23 fell out of the sky and fucked that evil chick up.



So. Now I know.
And it was actually really interesting! In fact, this was good enough that I'm going to try to hunt down the rest of Cable and Hope's story.
The gist is that Hope was the first (and so far only) mutant born after M-day, and because of what he lived through (in the future) as a child, Bishop is convinced that she will destroy the world. He loses it and tries to kill her in the hospital. Cable managed to save her and slide forward into the future, but now his time machine thingy is fried, and he can't go back. But Bishop is still after them, so he and Hope keep hopping forward in the timeline, getting into adventures and whatnot while she grows up. And just when things are at their worst, Cyclops sends the X-Force forward in time to try to save the mutant's only hope. <--Hope!



This was really good and I'm excited to see how it all pans out.
Also, Deadpool was awesome in this.

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another 'interesting concept, could have been done better' X-books event. Cyclops finally manages to get X-Force sent into the future to aid Cable, only for the team to realise they've walked into a trap! With some huge hitting villains and lots of gore, we get to see all the action, a huge come-back and Hope's first interactions with mutants now she's old enough to understand them. Just a Three Star, 6 out of 12, I am afraid.

2018 read

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, that's how you do a crossover! Only two books involved, nice artwork, fast-paced, action-packed, high stakes, no excess fat and some genuine surprises! I enjoyed this one a lot.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following up on Messiah Complex, this is at least a big chunk of the saga of Cable taking Hope on the road. I haven't been following the story through Cable's series, and I'm not likely to do so. I picked this up for the X-Force connection. I'm not sorry I did. Sure, it's basically a Cable story, but X-Force are more than just backups here. They're used really well.

Hope is seven in this story, and believe it or not, she actually read like a slightly more mature than average seven year old. Not a much younger child, not a tiny adult. And Cable is actually a pretty decent father figure to her. In other circumstances, he'd have made a good dad. Of course, they don't get that chance, because Bishop is after them and he's gone way, way off the deep end.

There's a fair bit going on, mostly because there are tons of catastrophes being thrown at Cable and Hope. But it doesn't feel that overwhelming. Maybe because I'm used to comics being a never ending rota of bad things happening, I don't know. But it probably helps that there are a few small chances to breathe here and there, and that the book isn't devoid of humor or emotions deeper than wanting to blow something up good.

After a bunch of issues of Cable and a few issues of X-Force, this collection closes with a miniseries that's basically the complete life of Bishop. It's not bad, and something like this was necessary. I mean, Bishop was an X-Man, and now he's totally unhinged. We needed a good explanation as to why, and this is a good explanation. There's a lot that's still murky, but the long and short of it is that Bishop feels quite certain that he can blame Hope for his miserable early life and the state of mutantkind in his own time. It doesn't make him any less crazy or dangerous, but it does put him losing it entirely into perspective.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I am an X-fan, before reading this book I'd never ever read any story with Cable, Deadpool, Stryfe, or Bishop, and I wasn't familiar with their history. I'd not yet read Messiah Complex (which this book is the sequel to). In spite of all this, I still enjoyed this book. Here's why:

Absolutely everything you need to know about anybody in this story is supplied between its covers. There's a bonus feature that explains who's who and what's what. There's a 3-part story of the life of Bishop, from birth 'til the "Messiah War" story. The opening chapter of the main story does a great job of recapping what went on before.

"Messiah War" itself has all the ingredients for success: time-travel, evil clones, double-crossings, and a healthy dose of violence (par for the course for X-Force!). The dialogue is crisp and clever; Deadpool can be hilarious, though by the end of the book I found my patience had run out and he was just annoying. Now let's talk about the art: Ariel Olivetti's is gorgeous and Mike Choi's is just awesome. Clayton Crain's art is an acquired taste; at times, it seems a bit rushed and comes out muddled (especially in the last chapter). Had Olivetti & Choi handled all the art chores, this book would've been so much more enjoyable to read... There are also parts in the story that seem decompressed, as if they had to stretch out some bits to fill six chapters.

Why did I ever give this book away?! And a hardcover, too! GAH!

NOTE: This book is part 2 in a trilogy. It follows Messiah Complex and precedes X-Men: Second Coming.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read as Cable travels through time trying to hide the child named Hope. An X-Force team follows in an effort to provide back up as Bishop pursues to kill the child. But Bishop isn't the only danger as old enemies rear their heads.

I enjoyed the art and if you enjoyed Yost's X-Force work or read the Messiah Complex this is one you'll want to read too.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was funny as fuck.

Okay so the X-Force team gets sent into the future to save Hope, Cyclops daughter. Cable is still protecting her and is like no-go, she's mine to protect. But of course still have that asshole Bishop like "NO SHE MUST DIE" because he's a fucking psycho. Oh yeah and did I mention Apocalypse kid is here? I never even heard of this dude but he looks like a guy straight out of game of thrones mixed with Final Fantasy 12. His freaking armor is huge, some world of warcraft shit. Anyway he's omega powered of course. Oh yeah and Apocalypse returns. Oh and did I mention Deadpool is in here? That crazy fuck is back.

Good: I really enjoyed the inner dialog moments of each chapter with different points of views. My favorite being Hope, Wolverine, and Cable. The stakes actually feel pretty high and everyone is brutal here so no nice X-Men to be seen. Also this is pretty damn funny. Deadpool makes me laugh, wolverine makes me laugh, and phraser makes me laugh. Everyone made me laugh really.

Bad: The art flip flops between Cable series and X-Force and it doesn't match well. Cable series is bright and with a lot of life, X-Force is dark (on purpose) and gritty. It just doesn't add up well. Also apoc's kid is a fucking loser and hated his "I'm all mighty speech" that he gets from his dad with his dumb armor. Also the ending was meh.

Overall this was a lot of fun, fast paced, and funny as heck. Sure it had a weak ending and weird art flip-flopping but overall it was solid good little cross series event. A 3.5 out of 5.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spin off de la saga principal sin mucho que aportar. Cable y hope van saltando dimensiones en el tiempo perseguidos por Bishop que no cesa en su empeño de matar a la última mutante. Pasable pero para muy cafeteros.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute masterpiece of a crossover event!

While the previous story in the Messiah Trilogy X-Men: Messiah CompleX was an over complicated and incoherent mess of an “event” Messiah War is the complete opposite. Bringing together two pretty average books X-Force, Volume 1: Angels And Demons and Cable, Volume 1: Messiah War and making one excellent story.

Where Messiah War succeeds (and where CompleX fails) is that I actually care about what’s going on, specifically what’s going on with Hope, the character that the story centers around. In CompleX we’re constantly told how important this girl is because blah blah blah. Who really cares?

In this story (and in Cable’s solo series) we’re actually SHOWN why she’s so important, and it’s not because she’s some mutant baby Jesus plot device, its because she is an innocent, cute and likeable child! We want her to survive because we like her, and because the reader actually cares about Hope, we can then care about Cable more. I’m not really a Cable fan, but I was rooting for him so hard in this book because of how hard I was rooting for Hope, and Hope cares about Cable, so then I do too.

In fact, Hope and Cable’s father daughter relationship is what makes this story so engaging. While the X-Force team’s bits were great, nothing in this story made me feel so much emotion as when Cable and Hope are slowly dying of thirst and starvation. I almost cried at one point.

Good action all around, with some soft twists and a few turns. One of the best X-Men stories of all time! A must read.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

A mutant is finally born even though it looked like there would be no more mutant births. Unfortunately, she grows up to make the world a horrible place. Maybe. At least in Bishop's timeline. So he decides to kill her as a child to prevent the horrible future. The X-Men instead see her as a great Hope for mutantkind, so Cable grabs the child and leaps forward through time in order to save her. Bishop chases Cable and the child through time, and then X-Force chases Bishop in order to help Cable. Then Stryfe gets involved, and Apocalypse too.

Overall it sounds confusing, but really, this was one of the easier to follow X-Men stories as far as the basic plot goes. And it even had a somewhat cohesive ending.

The art was really good between Ariel Olivetti and Clayton Crain, and the backstory on Bishop was interesting as well.

I'm a huge fan of this version of X-Force, and this volume continues the run of good stories featuring them.

[Klaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the collection that made me spend the last two years reading all the previous X-Men comics from the '60s until this.

In itself it's really good. In the context of Messiah CompleX, then the Cable (vol. 2) series, it's emotionally moving and pivotal to the entire mutant narrative. In the context of the entire history of Cable, Stryfe, Deadpool, Apocalypse, Bishop, X-Force, Hope, Cannonball, and everyone else involved, it's a real masterpiece, and that's not even considering the incredible artwork across all involved series'.

This is a return to some great characters and themes from the 90s, that haven't had much attention lately, mixed seamlessly with modern production from art to storytelling.

[Shane Stanis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chrises on Infinite Earths: The Pitch Episode (Messiah War pt.1) & Baby Time Clock (Messiah War pt.2)

I tried the Bishop 3 parter, but couldn’t get past the art style. The main X-Force/Cable crossover starts out somewhat promising, but both the art and writing take a nosedive in the second half. The art is very stylized throughout, and I’m not sure why, but initially it worked for me, and by the back half, it absolutely didn’t. Hope, in particular looks like a horror movie character. The last 2 issues they story lost me to the point that I couldn’t wait for whatever Deus ex machina would get everyone home and end it.

Read if you need to know all the X-things.

[Nii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing art style and really compelling and interesting plot structure. Can't wait to follow along with Hope's story!

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A truly engrossing, action-packed (side) story! Loved it!!! Plus, this was my first encounter with Apocalypse...how cool is he?! This series is kicking some major ass.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

(This review was originally published by GraphicNovelReporter.com on January 6, 2010)

MESSIAH WAR picks up a few months after the close of MESSIAH COMPLEX, with Cable having escaped into the time-stream with his adopted daughter, Hope. Hers is the first mutant birth since M-Day, a holocaust that reduced the world's mutant population from several million to fewer than 200. She is either the savior of mutantkind or the one who damns them all. Cable believes she is the key to preventing the dystopian future, where mutants are corralled into prison camps in a post-apocalyptic nightmare.

They are hunted across the centuries by another time traveler and former X-Man, Bishop, who believes she is responsible for the nightmarish future that follows her birth. He has teamed up with Stryfe, an old enemy of Cable's, and is setting them all on a collision course that could reshape the future-history of all mankind. Working to stop Bishop is Wolverine and his X-Force team, a covert black-ops squad tasking with finding and protecting Hope.

MESSIAH WAR is the middle volume of the saga surrounding Hope, the mutant messiah. It's slower paced, allowing for a bit more breathing room and considerations regarding this child and her role in the destiny of mutantkind. Each side has a reason to either protect or kill the young child, and beneath the furious action there is fairly deep mediation on fate and the unknown consequences of choice and the impact of nature versus nurture. Cable does his best to guide Hope and be the father figure she needs, believing that his protection and guidance can prevent a war that will forever destroy the fragile peace and politics between human-mutant relations. Bishop, himself an outcast from the apocalyptic future where mutants are branded and imprisoned, believes he can correct the future-history and that there can be no changing what this little girl will become. She must die.

It's a thoughtful examination regarding the birth of the messiah and her role in the world, taking the time to reflect on the possible repercussions of the decisions made in MESSIAH COMPLEX. There are generous amounts of violence that have a darker edge to it than the prior book, largely because the writing team for the X-Force sections are skewing toward an older audience. Even the artwork there is darker and dingier than the overall body of work shown in MESSIAH COMPLEX, but it works very well and looks beautiful. The art for the Cable issues have a cleaner, painterly effect to them, which is an odd contrast to the grungy, bloody panels of the X-Force chapters.

The book is presented in an oversized hardcover collecting the issues of X-Force and Cable that comprise MESSIAH WAR, along with plenty of bonus material. In addition to the main story, Marvel has chosen to include X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop, a three-issue miniseries that chronicles Bishop's childhood in the future concentration camps and his eventual journey through time to join the X-Men. It helps to give a bit more background behind Bishop's reasoning for betraying the X-Men and why he wants to kill Hope. There are also plenty of character bios, dubbed the Cable Files, which flesh out the background to all of the main characters and some closely affiliated people that are mentioned. Also included is an interview with Cable writer Duane Swierczynski, in which he discusses some of the editorial and collaborative decisions in writing for that series in the wake of MESSIAH COMPLEX and working with X-Force writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost to craft the MESSIAH WAR crossover.

While MESSIAH WAR has a slower pace than the frenetic MESSIAH COMPLEX, the X-FORCE/CABLE crossover serves as a vital follow-up and sets the stage for SECOND COMING, the third and final part to the saga of the mutant messiah. It is a meditative work, yet filled with the requisite action set pieces and some deft character moments, that helps propel the larger narrative toward its conclusion.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the exceptional X-Men: Second Coming crossover event, which is essentially a sequel to this book, I decided to go back and read Messiah War to fill in the gaps. What a waste of time that turned out to be!

As the middle point in the Messiah Complex/War/Second Coming trilogy of X-Men tales, this one is the weakest by a large margin. Where the first and last entries do a fantastic job of juggling multiple arcs and dozens of characters, culminating in massive, earth-shaking battles, this one just kind of plods along with a couple of boring storylines and fizzles completely at the end. Nothing seems to really matter, and the reliance on a been-there-done-that time travel setup really hammers home the blandness of the affair.

Basically, Cable has taken charge of Hope, the mutant "messiah," (AKA the first mutant born since Scarlet Witch wiped all of them out). In order to protect her as she grows up, he's taken her far into the future to avoid Bishop, who is stopping at nothing to kill her. Unfortunately, Stryfe, an ultra-powered clone of Cable, is also in the future, and wants Cable dead just because why not. He's mad about something from a 90s story I guess.

I want to take a minute to talk about Stryfe. I mean, what a ridiculous bad guy. He could not look any dumber. He is basically wearing the Super Shredder armor from the second Ninja Turtles movie, only with somehow MORE spikes all over it. He looks like a big stupid pincushion. On top of this, his only real character motivation is the ever-present "Daddy Issues," the laziest motivation in all of media. He's mad that his dad, Apocalypse, didn't love him more. Or something? I hate this character.

Anyway, X-Force also gets tossed to the future to help Cable. Fine. Then Deadpool shows up, also for no reason, and his explanation for how he got 900 years in the future is very, very lame. It seems like the writers just threw Deadpool in because they wanted comic relief, but didn't bother to A) accurately setup a reason for Deadpool to be around or, more importantly, B) learn how to write comic relief. Deadpool is at his most annoying here, never shutting up, but also never saying anything actually funny. He just vomits more and more words to read onto the page. He's like plot molasses.

The action plays out very predictably, with not one, not two, but THREE separate instances of Bishop raising his gun to shoot Hope, saying something like "Looks like this is the end of the road, kid," and then getting stopped because he didn't just fire his damn gun. He spends more time pointing a gun menacingly at Hope than I have spent chewing food in my entire life.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, the art in this book is terrible. Seemingly every page had a new instance of me going "Really? That's what you think a human face looks like?" Particularly with Hope and, in a flashback story, young Bishop. The artists in this book have absolutely no idea how to draw children. They all look like monsters. I was too horrified by the incredible weirdness of these children's poor, deformed bodies to even worry about what might happen to them.

In the end, everything is fine and everyone moves on. It's like this story didn't even have to happen. I would say just read Messiah Complex and Second Coming, and don't even bother with this garbage.

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super intense set of stories. This is the chronicle of Cable's efforts to protect the first mutant child born after "M" Day (named Hope Summers by Cable) from a once ally who becomes obsessed with killing the child, and in his mind, saving the future. Cable is from the future, one in which the mutant scientist created him using DNA from Scott Summers and Jean Gray (although his mother was a clone of Gray). All Cable knows how to be is a warrior, and he proves that he won't stop until he sees Hope safe.

The artwork is gorgeous overall. I really appreciate Ariel Olivetti's work. It looks as lavish and lushly colorful as museum pieces. I wasn't as fond of the art in "The Life and Times of Lucas Bishop, but I definitely enjoyed the narrative on this former X-Men's life. It is important to understand what could drive him to such extremes. But seeing the world he was born and lived in, it clarified his motivations for me.

I liked the tie-in to the X-Force arc. I read this first, and recently read X-Force, Vol. 3: Not Forgotten, and that one takes up shortly after the climatic events in this collection.

Extensive dossiers on all the pertinent characters are included, and that was enlightening. Also included was information about Cable's preferred weaponry and devices. He is quite the gadget man. Due to my obsessive nature, I love dossiers and character bios. When I get into something, I like to find out everything I can about it. I like that the creators put it all here for readers.

I love that Marvel put this collection together. It's a great way to get caught up on some very important stories in the X-Men universe. I think this was a great find at my library, but it is also worth it for bonafide fans of the Messiah War story arc and the character of Cable, Bishop or Hope Summers, and even other X-Force-related characters.

[Jared Millet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

It started off so promising, too. The first chapters give a great setup: Cable and Hope (the child who will either save or destroy the mutant race) are on the run from Bishop, who is chasing them into the future. The idea that Bishop is engineering global holocausts to restrict Cable's movement is a great Big SciFi concept, as is the handicap that Cable can only leap forward in time. It creates for a great "man on the run" atmosphere, and as he goes farther and farther into the future, the Earth becomes even more barren and lifeless, which ratchets up the tension nicely.

Then the story starts - or rather, comes to a grinding halt. Once Cable hits a future he can no longer time-jump out of, his old buddies X-Force show up, as well as Bishop and Cable's evil twin Stryfe. If you don't know who Stryfe is, Google him. He's got absolutely the most ridiculous super-villain armor ever created. Anyway, the buildup is great, but the rest is just a protracted fight scene in the Silly Nineties' style with lots of posing and big brawny men weilding firearms the size of small trucks as if they were handguns. (Although it's funny when Deadpool does it. He's one of the book's saving graces.)

Also, the internal continuity errors start cropping up early. Follow the math with me: when the book opens, Cable is already several hundred years in the future. He jumps a hundred years ahead in time to avoid an apocalypse, and ends up in a wasteland. Then he jumps a thousand years ahead to see if life has returned. It hasn't. Then he jumps even further ahead, and the fight scene begins. The year, we are told, is 2997. Am I the only one for whom that date obviously doesn't make sense?

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "Messiah War" is not an amazing story and is only made enjoyable by the art of Clayton Crain. There is nothing worth noting in this story that is clearly a bridge for the upcoming "Messiah: Second Coming; nothing is learned about the characters, there is a clear distinction between the good guys and bad guys and the most annoying aspect is that nothing is learned about Hope. This is a standard go-back-in-time-to-fix-something-so-that-our-future-is-insured story with a bad guy tower of doom and thousands of minions to complete it. We get a brief glimpse of what she may be at the end when Elixir claims to know what she is but it is never revealed. Clayton Crain's artwork is nice but other than that I see no reason to pick up this book.

[Elin the Lightship · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually pretty much what I expected it to be! Both good and bad.
Good - because I kind of already knew everything that was going to happen but it still kept me hooked and didn't disappoint.
Bad - it didn't exceed my expectations.

You pretty much know what you will get;
Lots of time-jumping
The big boy Cable and our little Messiah Hope
X-Force-over-the-top-action
Bad bad guys with big arms
Hilarious Deadpool
Hidden agendas
Confusing timelines and different futures

Found myself a lot of times rather confused over how I wished my fellow mutants should act. Do I want him/her to stab him/her or just find another way/be calmer(*cough*Wolverine*cough*) and sort things out? Can things even be fixed?
At this point in mutant history - nothing looks really fixable.

[Anchorpete · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a soft spot for Cable's convoluted back story, which ties him with Stryfe and Apocalypse. Though this crossover was based entirely on that, it still felt a lot like going through the motions to basically get to what happens in the end. It was cool to have narrations from various characters that you don't usually get to hear the narration from, such as Bishop, Stryfe and Apocalypse.\
What gives this book five stars, for me, is the comprehensive collection of character descriptions and history at the back of the book. Now, I can actually make sense of Cable's history.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really love it because I don't really like X-Force, but my girlfriend will love it because she loves X-Force, and there's a lot of X-Force in it but also a lot of Cable, who hasn't been a good character for like 20 years. There's a payoff for this being an X-Force book that doesn't happen till the sequel, which doesn't exactly make me like this book more? Or maybe it does. I had to get through it really fast so my girlfriend could read it, I'm not complaining just telling you.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, they've allowed the atrocious Larry Stroman to unleash his misbegotten pen on the story of Lucas Bishop. Other than these horribly ugly pages, this is pretty good stuff, though it also suffers from the multiple-climax (which never concludes) construction of too many X-Men stories. Anyone else tired of all the time-jumping?

[Julia França · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 2/3 of the Messiah Complex Event.

Also 3,5 stars.

Random thoughts:
- Deadpool is as sassy as I imagined and it was so awesome to read about.
- Didn't learn about what Hope really is the way I wanted to, but guess it'll happen in part 3.
- The ending with Bishop: WHAT? HOW?
- The art was ok.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty awesome story with superb art by Ariel Olivetti, and some nice savage painting by Clayton Crain.
The book is stuffed with typical Marvel filler, the last fifth of the book actually, but on the whole this was cool.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I think I prefer villains to heroes. they are more interesting.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Messiah CompleX era had some fantastic stories, and this one is no exception.

[Ben Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

The final panel ending the book by saying ‘the beginning’ is meaningful and fitting, but I couldn’t help laughing at it, because it reminded me of Brian Griffin doing that in his book in that one episode of Family Guy.

This doesn’t have that big dick final chapter energy from Messiah Complex, as it feels more like a side story in this trilogy, but very entertaining regardless. It’s much more down to earth, focusing on the relationship between Cable and Hope, trying to survive and get by in this wasteland, and they were rather compelling. I liked their chemistry, and while the big tough guy with a little child trope is usually annoying, overplayed, and cliche, I think this does a good job with it, as both characters are written realistically, Cable is a stoic, but caring father figure, and Hope is confused, but loving and competent kid as she has grown up with him.

Them getting drafted in this… war? (There isn’t really a war in this story, just an invasion of a city and fight with 1 guy) is a pretty cool direction to go in, we get to see the X-Force, learn what happened with the X-Men in the past after Messiah Complex, and even see Deadpool, who’s a lot of fun. I’ve never really been a fan of X-Force, they just don’t really click with me, and this continues to prove me right, I still like individual characters within it, like Wolverine and Angel, but the team don’t really have an interesting dynamic, and most of the members aren’t particularly compelling. The invasion of the city was fun, especially with the sub plot of Deadpool alluding to being on Stryfe’s side, but constantly contradicting himself, it was very in character, and juxtaposes nicely with his horrifying backstory. Stryfe is a character I’m not very familiar with, but he was alright. I don’t see the point of him being Cable’s clone, but I’m guessing they have a big backstory together I didn’t read, however his role as a villain was just fine, he doesn’t do much apart from fight, and then Apocalypse comes in to kill him, in fact, I think Bishop is much more a main antagonist in this story.

The final 3 issues depicting a more detailed version of Bishop’s history was a harrowing way to end the story, it gives a much deeper perspective into why he’s so desperate to kill Hope, as we get to be invested in how he grew up, how he viewed the X-Men, and what his mindset is. I like how it ties into Messiah Complex, making that story more meaningful by extension. This makes Bishop one of the best characters in this whole trilogy, as he’s more complex than ‘maahh! I hate mutants! I want to kidnap this child for no reason!’

Like in Messiah Complex, the art is very hit or miss, sometimes it looks beautiful and other times it looks a bit shit, it’s much more consistently good than it was in Messiah Complex, but also like in that, the character design would change between issues, so Cable would go from a big tough guy, to a skinny anime boy.

Despite how it’s a step down from the predecessor, it’s still a good read. I like the main characters, it’s got a cohesive and enjoyable story, a powerful ending (thanks to Brian), and some cool moments. I forgot to mention the whole Angel and Apocalypse sub plot, so I’m mentioning it now, that was some good stuff. Overall, I’m excited to see the finale.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dentro de la "trilogía Hope", que se iniciaría con Complejo de Mesías y acabaría con Advenimiento, La Guerra del Mesías sería un punto intermedio, que se desarrollaría no en todas las colecciones de mutantes como sí hicieron las otras dos, sino en X-Force y Cable, lo que tenía su encanto, ya que Cable había sido el fundador del equipo en su primera formación, en los tiempos de Rob Liefeld.

Al final de Complejo de Mesías, Cable había saltado al futuro junto con el bebé que había provocado el estallido de la trama, el primer mutante nacido desde la maldición de la Bruja Escarlata, la niña llamada Hope. Y había sido perseguido por Bishop, decidido a matar a la pequeña, que a las alturas de La Guerra del Mesías, ya contaba con nueve años y estaba siendo entrenada para sobrevivir por Cable. Y mientras, Cíclope, decidido a encontrar a Hope a cualquier precio, ha conseguido de La Bestia unos aparatos que permitirán a X-Force viajar en el tiempo para encontrar a Cable y Hope, pero con un estrecho margen de tiempo que quizá les deje en el futuro... o incluso los mate. Mientras localizan a Cable y Hope, X-Force continúan haciendo frente a los regresados de Bastión, y en esta ocasión ha llegado el turno a una conspiración que incluye a Graydon Creed, Bolívar Trask y la Reina de los Leprosos, dedicada a cazar y drogar mutantes con un derivado del virus del Legado, lo que hace que sus poderes se descontrolen y estallen provocando centenares de muertes. Y entre los mutantes capturados por la Reina de los Leprosos, están Bum-Bum, Infernal y Tensión. Pero cuando están a punto de rescatar a Bum-Bum... Cíclope activa el emisor temporal, por lo que X-Force son lanzados al futuro.

Lobezno, X-23, Dominó, Sendero de Guerra, Arcángel, Desvanecedor y Elixir aparecerán en el futuro, y durante la Guerra del Mesías, cruzarán sus pasos con Cable, Hope, Masacre (sí, continúa vivo cientos de años en el futuro...), pero también con Bishop y un nuevo aliado, Dyscordia, en lo que se convierte en un homenaje de manos de Kyle, Yost y Swierzinski (el escritor de Cable) a La Canción del Verdugo, cuya trama giraba precisamente alrededor de Cable, Dyscordia... y Apocalipsis, que también tendrá presencia en esta historia, donde todos esperan conseguir el dominio sobre Hope, y por lo tanto, el futuro de la raza mutante.

Como ya habían hecho anteriormente, Mike Choi y Clayton Crain se irían turnando en los lápices, con Choi encargándose del preludio y el epílogo de la saga con la lucha contra la Reina de los Leprosos y una pequeña saga sobre X-23 y su enfrentamiento con Kymura y La Fundación, y una historia bastante secundaria sobre Loba Venenosa y su amante asgardiano, el príncipe Hrimhari; y con Crain en la parte más siniestra, en el futuro distópico de Dyscordia, aunque se iría turnando con el espectacular Ariel Olivetti, que se encargaría de las páginas de Cable.

Aunque mucho más contenida que Complejo de Mesías y Advenimiento, la Guerra del Mesías mantendría el espíritu desenfrenado de X-Force, sumado a mucha nostalgia noventera en el personaje de Dyscordia, lo que le da mucho encanto... encanto oscuro y sangriento, claro, que estamos en X-Force...

[Michael T. Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not a bad story - in fact, it's a perfectly entertaining story. But it has some problems.

The number one issue is that very little actually changes. This doesn't really change the status quo of any of the characters (except one, more on him in a second). We get to see the X-Force kicking ass, we get to see Cable trying to save Hope, but all of that is stuff we could get in both of the series.

The one character who KIND of changes is Bishop. He makes the decision early to make some terrible compromises to accomplish his mission, pushing him to take more and more drastic actions to kill Hope (which was already a pretty terrible compromise). We get to see him closer to his goal than ever, but he barely questions it - he even gets to square off against Cable, but they don't do much damage to each other, so there's some plot armor present.

Still, all of that would make it a 4-star book, except for a few issues:

The art is inconsistent - both artists are really, really good, but they aren't keeping consistent tones/designs/lighting, so it's jarring to switch back and forth between them.

I don't care about Apocalypse or Stryfe, and I'm not terribly invested in Angel/Archangel either. And while they do a good job of making these characters relevant to the story, it's not like we're tying up loose ends - everybody believed Stryfe was dead when the comic started, and except for giving Hope another look at an alternate Cable, not much results from his inclusion that we couldn't have gotten from any mutant warlord.