X-Force #6

Beast gives readers anatomy lesson in X-Force #6, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Stephen Segovia, colors by GURU-eFX, and letterer Joe Caramagna. Beast breaks down the anatomy of an X-Force in this one… but has he made the right choices?

X-Force is on a mission to the country of Terra Verde. They are attacked by plant monsters. The day before, Xavier and Black Tom have come to the capital of Terra Verde to sign a treaty with the president when they are attacked by men and women who transform into plant monsters. Black Tom is able to hold them off. Back on Krakoa, Beast and Sage figure out the real target of the attack- the president of the country’s son. Beast and X-Force go back to the country, which leads to the events of the beginning of the issue. X-Force learns that the president’s son was working with the ones who captured them; they didn’t want him to sign the treaty with Krakoa and wanted to continue working on their own biotech. X-Force is able to clean up the situation… for now.

This one gets very interesting. The country of Terra Verde had begun to experiment with telefloronics, plant based biotech, when Krakoa came around. At first, they started saying that mutants were copying them, but settled down eventually and offered to sign the treaty. Beast, X-Force’s handler, sees Terra Verde’s telefloronics as a threat to mutantkind- he fears that eventually, it would be like Omega Sentinel tech and it would allow humans to augment themselves in ways that would make them dangerous to mutantkind.

Benjamin Percy puts the focus on Beast throughout the issue as he does his job of running an X-Force mission. He breaks down Beast’s thoughts on the matters on the issue expertly, allowing readers an insight into why exactly Beast feels that the telefloronics of Terra Verde are such a threat, then he shows readers why they are through the scenes of the team on their mission. He also shows the lengths Beast will go to in his mission to keep Krakoa safe. In the past, Beast has been against X-Force and its black ops missions, so it’s intriguing to see him not only run the team, but how he does things. While he’s willing to get his hands dirty, he doesn’t go all the way in this particular case and that may come back to bite him.

Stephen Segovia’s art is pretty good. Nothing in the script calls for anything as flashy as things in the last few issues. His design for the plant people is a little cliche, but other than that, there’s nothing bad about his art. Nothing particularly memorable either, though.

X-Force #6 feels like a nice one and done issue that will have greater consequences in the future. Percy focuses on Beast in this one, showing how he runs black ops. His mindset is very scientific and methodical, which fits him perfectly. The art by Stephen Segovia is good. It serves the script very well. All in all, this is an entertaining issue with an ending that shows that maybe Beast doesn’t go far enough in his methods.

Grade: B