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A series spin-off from the events of Messiah Complex, X-Force is the group of X-Men that will cross the lines that the X-Men themselves won't cross. Made up of the best trackers and killers that the X-Men have, X-Force's first mission is to take down the head of the Purifiers, a mission that proves much more difficult than they expect, especially with the unexpected return of Bastion.

A dramatically darker storyline than your normal X-Men story, this volume deserves its 'Mature' rating. The themes dealt with in this volume, including the over-the-top body count, definitely makes this a more 'adult' X-Men title. Even so, it is a decent spin off from the Messiah Complex storyline and I'm interested to see where this story goes from here. ( )

Oh my god, I love this title. Why the hell didn’t I start buying it when it came out? I have no idea! But I love it!This is the line the X-Men never would cross, but Cyclops has finally realized that there are things that just need to be done. Nasty things like revenge and torture and murder, things that he wouldn’t put on any of the X-Men’s hands, but if they have to be done… what do you do?You call Wolverine, of course.I love Wolverine’s conscience; he knows he’s damaged goods and will happily take out the Purifiers, a bunch of religious zealots formerly run by William Stryker who are bent on purging mutants from the world. But Logan doesn’t want vengeful murder to be on Rahne, Warpath, and Laura/X-23’s consciences. Wolvie’s got enough blood on his hands that he believes it’ll never come off; he’ll never be completely free of all the things he’s done. But he doesn’t want the others to become what he thinks he is. Oh, Wolvie. I LOVE that he decks Cyke when Cyke tells him that he’s already asked Laura to join the team.It’s kind of nice to have a team-based book with the same level of violence that the mature-rated Wolverine titles have. It’s also nice to see Wolverine have to take on the mantle of leader despite his own hesitation and his protests that he’s no leader. This works with his show of conscience; he’s now responsible for the team, not just his own ass, and he knows that he’s responsible for turning them into murders, just like him. I’m really hoping we’ll get some serious, dirty character development out of this title. Same goes for Laura; I love seeing her struggle to understand what being human means, instead of just being a weapon. It’s a very nice juxtaposition against Wolverine’s internal struggles.And the cast of villains? AWESOME. That’s all I’ll say.The artwork, by Clayton Crain, is amazing. It’s very dark but incredibly clear and downright beautiful, even when he’s drawing scenes of carnage. And the artwork meshes perfectly with the storytelling, so the story progression is clear and understandable. If that sounds like something weird to observe, I’ll just say that I’ve been reading a lot of Claremont lately and leave it at that.One last thought: HOORAY FEMALE SHIELD LEADERS! ( )

If you've read more than a few of these reviews,you've heard me complain about how brutalizing and horrible comics have gotten, and one would have expected the new X-Force to be a prime offender. Cyclops commissions Wolverine to get together a team of broken rageaholics to go out and do the jobs the X-Men can't (=killandkillandkill)? Terrible idea, reversing decades of character development for a much less interesting status quo. But it actually sort of works--logically enough, the book whose explicit premise is "dark mutants kill everybody" has to address the psychic fallout. And in a weird way that makes it sweeter and more nostalgic than most of what's on the market these days, which is more "X-Force made killing everybody okay! Let's get to this." So it turns out it wasn't the grimness that got me down--it was the not treating it with respect. ( )

This is part of an alternate Xmen storyline in which most mutants have been destroyed and those few left live in fear of the new religious "Purifiers" who aim to wipe the rest of mutantdom off the earth. The sophistication of the storyline and art make this an interesting read. ( )