X-Force #21 Review: Coup De Gràce

[Wolverine12]

I haven't seen a review for this issue and I really enjoyed it so I figured I'd type one myself.

The issue starts with an industrial chemical spill at the Warroad Site that is flooding into the ocean. It's shown to mutate animal life and make them aggressive or kill them. X-Force is dispatched by Sage to do clean up before it reaches Krakoa because it has the potential to harm the island. The team shows up with Ecto packs straight out of ghost busters (I loved this so much I can't even begin to describe it) that spray a neutralizing solution. A fishing boat is attacked by a mutated Sea Lion and the fisherman on the boat is ripped from the ship by what appears to be Man-Thing. X-Force see's this happening and intervenes, Wolverine attacks the Man-Thing creature causing him to drop the human and run off, the human tells X-Force that he thinks the creature was trying to save him, not hurt him. We cut back to Krakoa where Sage is telling Beast about the spill and she thinks it created multiple variants of Man Thing, and that there are new tele-floronics being deployed around the globe on humans to control them, specifically they are being used on humans that support Krakoa and it's drugs. The field team is still in Washington and are now trying to track down the creature they saw earlier, after a small scuffle they convince the creature they just want to talk. Wolverine tells the creature he's been in the same spot, hiding alone trying to get away from his own pain or the pain he's caused others, this seems to convince the creature to talk. He tells X-Force, when asked where that is he tells the team "Weapon Plus." We then cut to a scene in a lab in Weapon Plus with Doctor Bloodrot talking to the Peacock Tattoo man from Xeno, they are collaborating to work against Krakoa. Finally the issue ends with a data page where Dr. Reye's is theorizing about plant intelligence and development. She talks about Krakoa, Terre Verdean and the Man-Thing strains, specifically how they are symbiotic in nature. She ponders if eating, breathing and living on Krakoa is the beginning of symbiosis for the mutants and Krakoa, going as far as calling in an infection.

Like I said above I really enjoyed this issue, we got Cassara back on art duties to you know that the art was top tier, he rivals Larraz for best at Marvel imho. I've really enjoyed Percy on this book and Wolverine, and nothing has changed about that. I think a fair criticism of Percy has been that his stories haven't been moving forward fast enough and this issue felt like a giant leap forward in the story, for both the Terre Verdean stuff and a little bit for Xeno. I thought it was really cool how he tied into the Weapon Plus one shots we got awhile back, I remember seeing some Man-Thing creatures in tubes from those books and this picks right up on that, stuff that links up like that is always fun. It makes me curious if Beast has become his own worst enemy in utilizing tele-floronics to control others, as we see that same tech being used against the mutants now, did someone steal this tech from Beast and deploy it against him? It feels like everything is about to come to a head and it's going to be X-Force vs everyone and I personally am very excited for that fight.

[loke13]

Beast must be stopped. Or lobotimized.

[Wolverine12]

Beast must be stopped. Or lobotimized.

I'm all in for his continued fall from grace. So far every other one of the O5 has gone evil. P5 Scott, Archangel, Iceman froze the planet and of course Dark Phoenix Jean. Let Hank have his moment in sun

[Winter_fury]

Beast must be stopped. Or lobotimized.

Hell no i like this version of beast. Hope he’s around for a long time.
It was a good issue. And i like the art.

I’m still disappointed wolverine get the ohc treatment before this series.

[Grunty]

Beast must be stopped. Or lobotimized.

Would it be too much to hope that eventualy his mind gets rebooted to his pre-Morrison self or it turns out Dark Beast has left a memory seed of himself in Beast when he abducted him a long time ago (ala what Sinister had done with others), so when either the former happens or the later is discovered and corrected, Beast has a massive "what the hell have i done?" moment" calling out the various stupid things he has done over the past years ("E-Gene? Stars and Garters why would i come up with such humbug?") before quitting X-force (leaving it to Sage) and seeking penance by requesting to joining (or leading) the Dark Riders and travel the globe hunting monsters with them for a while?

I think seeing some sweet old moment of him in the Gambit thread just made me really miss the flawed but fun and well meaning Beast of the old days.

[Krakoa]

This continues to be probably my least favorite book in the line. It just feels like Percy has kind of abandoned so many of his storylines -- I know the Russia stuff will come up again eventually, but it felt like we were gonna get immediate follow up on that before X of Swords and then we barely did afterwards. The bigger thing for me is the personal stories though... like Domino's whole struggle of her resurrection and trauma just kind of disappeared, I'm still unclear on if Colossus is even in the cast of this book, Wolverine's development is saved for his solo, Quentin had that one issue, and otherwise it's really just Beast being bad and Sage kinda saying no. I don't have a sense of the dynamics between any of the team members or what their journeys are. Jean was the best part of this book and I was liking Percy's take on her a lot, with her gone I don't really know where this is going.

[Omnipitus]

I like the book, but the reason it is on my pull list is for the rare Colossus sighting. The fact that JDW hates the character has been beaten to death, but I do hope for some page time for Peter. That said, I am enjoying the book, Percy is a great writer, and I like the art for the most part. Good review.

[jwatson]

The quentin thing is getting old. We get it, he was a jerk in the past and you want us to like him, we do, can we stop treating the guy like a literal punch bag. Beyond that i think Percy is really hitting his stride with this book and it is very engaging. He has found the perfect middle ground to question krakoa, show nations do bad things but still keep heart there which has me suprised since i was weakest on his books but now i'm strongest on his books both Wolverine and X-force. I do think the team needs to expand a bit more but not if it means hurting the characterization because one thing i appreciate about x-force is that the character voices are consistent, even beast and i can see their motivations.

I also love the idea of there being a lot of man things out there and it makes me think of when iceman was confronting global warming in marauders and makes me interested. There are a lot of interesting concepts here. 9/10.

[loke13]

It's kinda of hilarious that Black Tom, Jean, and Colossus. Have pretty much just disappeared from the book and Domino and Wolverine pretty much have no character Arc in this book.

Honestly I think the cast of This Book needs a pretty big shake-up. Wolverine already has his solo tile and in my opinion Domino could be a supporting character in that book. I think they've Ben Percy is hitting his stride again however this building needs to be bi-weekly because the plotting is just SOOO SLOOOW. There's absolutely no reason why I 20 issues and we should still be dealing with a villain introduced at the first arc. Not to mention the Cerebro Sword arc that has lasted way too long without much progression. I'm also baffled why that's not a top priority for X-Force the supposed Intelligence Agency of Krakoa. Correct me if I'm wrong but the sword literally holds vital State secrets that could really screw over Krakoa. Xavier and co. should be scouring the Earth for it! But instead we get MORE plant monsters -_-


Idk the first few issues of this book had so much promise I just think it took Percy far to long to deliver on some of it.

[jwatson]

It's kinda of hilarious that Black Tom, Jean, and Colossus. Have pretty much just disappeared from the book and Domino and Wolverine pretty much have no character Arc in this book.

Honestly I think the cast of This Book needs a pretty big shake-up. Wolverine already has his solo tile and in my opinion Domino could be a supporting character in that book. I think they've Ben Percy is hitting his stride again however this building needs to be bi-weekly because the plotting is just SOOO SLOOOW. There's absolutely no reason why I 20 issues and we should still be dealing with a villain introduced at the first arc. Not to mention the Cerebro Sword arc that has lasted way too long without much progression. I'm also baffled why that's not a top priority for X-Force the supposed Intelligence Agency of Krakoa. Correct me if I'm wrong but the sword literally holds vital State secrets that could really screw over Krakoa. Xavier and co. should be scouring the Earth for it! But instead we get MORE plant monsters -_-

All of this is very true. It does move super slow but i kind of feel like it may have been because so much was coming he was in a holding place. I fully expect the mutant CIA to be expanding to mars in some capacity and maybe he knew that was coming so was in a bit of a holding pattern. I think these next few issues will be very telling because there is so much that has been opened up for this book.

[loke13]

All of this is very true. It does move super slow but i kind of feel like it may have been because so much was coming he was in a holding place. I fully expect the mutant CIA to be expanding to mars in some capacity and maybe he knew that was coming so was in a bit of a holding pattern. I think these next few issues will be very telling because there is so much that has been opened up for this book.

Yeah I was also getting the impression some internal situation was going on behind the scenes. I think the original plan for the Cerebro sword had to do with X of Swords judging by the earliest promotional art but then that was obviously scrapped in favor of this Rasputin plot which I feel like was supposed to pick up after X of Swords finished but then that got pushed back in favor of the Cerebro plotline to align with Hickman's Inferno event. All speculation of course *shrug*

[Jackraow21]

It's kinda of hilarious that Black Tom, Jean, and Colossus. Have pretty much just disappeared from the book and Domino and Wolverine pretty much have no character Arc in this book.

Honestly I think the cast of This Book needs a pretty big shake-up. Wolverine already has his solo tile and in my opinion Domino could be a supporting character in that book. I think they've Ben Percy is hitting his stride again however this building needs to be bi-weekly because the plotting is just SOOO SLOOOW. There's absolutely no reason why I 20 issues and we should still be dealing with a villain introduced at the first arc. Not to mention the Cerebro Sword arc that has lasted way too long without much progression. I'm also baffled why that's not a top priority for X-Force the supposed Intelligence Agency of Krakoa. Correct me if I'm wrong but the sword literally holds vital State secrets that could really screw over Krakoa. Xavier and co. should be scouring the Earth for it! But instead we get MORE plant monsters -_-


Idk the first few issues of this book had so much promise I just think it took Percy far to long to deliver on some of it.

I agree. This book has lost a lot of steam since the early issues. Which is a shame because the Cassara art is so damn incredible IMO.

Some sort of shake-up is badly needed here. Cast, writer… just keep Cassara on art duties please! And for the love of God, man, no more plant monsters!!! I implore you, Ben Percy.

[Steroid]

I agree. This book has lost a lot of steam since the early issues. Which is a shame because the Cassara art is so damn incredible IMO.

Some sort of shake-up is badly needed here. Cast, writer… just keep Cassara on art duties please! And for the love of God, man, no more plant monsters!!! I implore you, Ben Percy.

Agreed. I want to love this series but I'm so sick of plant monsters. I feel for Cassara especially as his talents are being completely wasted.

[Jackraow21]

After the awesome scenes he did in X of Swords of Logan’s battle with Summoner across all sorts of weird landscapes, I kind of want to see Cassara on SWORD. And, yeah, maybe it’s also because that seems to be where adult Cable will be showing up now that he’s back. Since Al Ewing said they had “big space plans” for him (hopefully beyond his Reloaded one-shot). So a little self-serving, sure. But Cassara would kill it on that book IMO. He is indeed being wasted here, drawing plant monsters month after month. At least IMO.

[Rnap22]

When this book came out it was really well done and interesting and now it’s just this same dull **** of Beast being an ass and teleflora stuff. Can we have something new. Sage pretty much does nothing. This is a book about Beast and Quentin