X-Force #1 // Review
Forge has access to this asset. It’s called The Analog. It allows him to target crisis points...patch things up before they become a problem. So he’s assembling a team to patch them. He’s already got one member aboard. He’s asking a couple of powerful telepaths to join. Betsy says no. Rachel says yes. So they join the team in X-Force #1. Writer Geoffrey Thorne starts-up a whole new Marvel Mutant group with artist Marcus To and colorist Erick Arciniega. It’s a cute and enjoyable opening to what might prove to be a fun team...for both artists and characters.
It doesn’t take long before they’re deep into their first mission. Sortachi-Shio, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Satellite imaging is all static. The city is dark. No communications traffic at all. It’s just a total blank. So they’re going to have to go-in blind. To make matters worse, a couple of the most powerful telepaths on the planet can’t use their power to scan the area because they don’t want to alert a possible threat that might suddenly pop-up and kill them. So they’re completely blind. They’re quite experienced, though. And quite powerful. What’s the worst that could happen?
Thorne has a pretty solid grasp of what makes a Marvel Mutant team work on the comics page. They need to seem capable and powerful and get somehow also completely in over their heads. Thorne does a solid job of making this work. And all of the personalities involved are interesting enough to maintain a powerful sense of drama about the situation. The issue begins to come in where it tries to connect up with a larger picture. Some of the characters have been through a hell of a lot and a lot of revisions over the years and it's difficult to tell exactly, which Forge or Psylocke might be involved this time. And no one has ever been able to do justice to Rachel Summers since Claremont’s departure back in the 1990s...
To frames the action quite well, but there’s something about the production that makes it all look a little blurry and fuzzy. Arciniega’s color looks beautiful for the most part and some of the depth the colorist lends to the page IS impressive, but the bleariness of it all robs the visual of some degree of impact. To does a good job with the likenesses of some of the characters. Forge might not look nearly as cool as he should be, but there’s a very appealing power and beauty coming from Betsy and Rachel that lends some elegance to the page.
On the whole, the team is doing a really good job with a group of characters who aren't necessarily A-list X-Men. There is a respectable amount of intrigue about the story that has a very solid pacing and rhythm to it. It looks good so far. It will remain to be seen whether or not the momentum can be carried through the issue.
