Force Works .any fans?

[danielsan52]

I would have liked to have known more about the 50 State Initiative Iowa Force Works team.

I think the only known member was Suzy.

[Steroid]

I was very excited for the series when it first got announced but I dropped it after first issue because I was pissed about Wonder Man.

[marhawkman]

I would have liked to have known more about the 50 State Initiative Iowa Force Works team.

I think the only known member was Suzy.

Yeah, just looked on the wiki... and... that's rather disappointing. Suzi Endo who was part of Force Works at some point.. is literally the only character mentioned as part of the Iowa team apparently. Oh wait.... Force works was the NAME of the Iowa team? um... is this supposed to be a hint as to other members? It's re-using a team name but not listing members?

The worst part.... this wasn't the worst example.... the wiki only lists 28 of the 50 teams that presumably should exist.

Iowa - Force Works - Suzi Endo

North Carolina - U-Foes - Yes, really it's the Fantastic Four villain team... as heroes. Not even imitations. the same guys who fought the FF.
Washington - Earth Force - 3 members... who are a team from one of the late 80s/early 90s Thor story arcs.
Wisconsin - Great Lakes Initiative - is actually the Great Lakes Avengers renamed.... has the same roster.

I could go over the other 24 too but the idea needed a LOT of development. A lot of the Initiative teams weren't new. Also, Gravity is listed in two of the rosters. That was a neat idea, but REALLY needed more development... sadly it got sidelined.

Oh wait.... I found the mention! One of the books DID say they're "sending the Force Works people over there". Maybe it really IS meant to be the same Force Works team? Or well.... we have no idea who's on it other than Suzi.... Pretty sure the previous version of Force Works has everyone on some other team? But Suzi has connections to Iron Man and War Machine and was in the original Force Works comic book. So yeah seems like the implication was that the Iowa initiative was some new version of Force Works. Which kinda makes sense considering Tony Stark was one of the masterminds behind the Initiative.

[Nomads1]

UGH. I hated Hercs "90's" look.

I'm a HUGE Herc fan, but I have to agree, it wasn't a great look. I wish they'd put him in a purple costume he used in a Ron Frenz poster of the 90's line-up. It wasn't all that great either, but it was light-years better than what we acutually got, IMHO, of course. But I guess the jacket would have looked awful with that costume, and, in the 90's Avengers, everybody had to wear their jacket.

Yeah, just looked on the wiki... and... that's rather disappointing. Suzi Endo who was part of Force Works at some point.. is literally the only character mentioned as part of the Iowa team apparently. Oh wait.... Force works was the NAME of the Iowa team? um... is this supposed to be a hint as to other members? It's re-using a team name but not listing members?

The worst part.... this wasn't the worst example.... the wiki only lists 28 of the 50 teams that presumably should exist.

Iowa - Force Works - Suzi Endo

North Carolina - U-Foes - Yes, really it's the Fantastic Four villain team... as heroes. Not even imitations. the same guys who fought the FF.
Washington - Earth Force - 3 members... who are a team from one of the late 80s/early 90s Thor story arcs.
Wisconsin - Great Lakes Initiative - is actually the Great Lakes Avengers renamed.... has the same roster.

I could go over the other 24 too but the idea needed a LOT of development. A lot of the Initiative teams weren't new. Also, Gravity is listed in two of the rosters. That was a neat idea, but REALLY needed more development... sadly it got sidelined.

Oh wait.... I found the mention! One of the books DID say they're "sending the Force Works people over there". Maybe it really IS meant to be the same Force Works team? Or well.... we have no idea who's on it other than Suzi.... Pretty sure the previous version of Force Works has everyone on some other team? But Suzi has connections to Iron Man and War Machine and was in the original Force Works comic book. So yeah seems like the implication was that the Iowa initiative was some new version of Force Works. Which kinda makes sense considering Tony Stark was one of the masterminds behind the Initiative.

The 50 State Initiative idea was, IMHO, one of the best things to come out of the Civil War, however, as with many of the ideas of that era, they never got to explore it as well as they could and should have, before, as trained chimpanzes, moving on to the next bright, shiny thing.
As for the membership of Force Works then, they were using all the names they had for those teams, rehashing all the team names they had ever used in Marvel such as the Rangers, The Order (because, legally, they couldn't use the Champions), Earth Force, Freedom Force, the Defenders, Force Works, etc... I think Star Masters was one of the few that escaped.
As for the membership, though she was never actually Cybermancer in the Force Works book (it was an alternate version of her), Suzi Endo was one of the few with attachmentsto the team that was avaliable at the time. Century was nowhere to be found, probably exploring other dimensions, though they could have used him if they really wanted. Wanda was insane and on the run. U.S. Agent and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) were over in Canada, with Omega Flight and Simon and Iron Man were over at the Avengers (until Norman Osborn took over, but that's another story).

Peace

[marhawkman]

The 50 State Initiative idea was, IMHO, one of the best things to come out of the Civil War, however, as with many of the ideas of that era, they never got to explore it as well as they could and should have, before, as trained chimpanzes, moving on to the next bright, shiny thing.
As for the membership of Force Works then, they were using all the names they had for those teams, rehashing all the team names they had ever used in Marvel such as the Rangers, The Order (because, legally, they couldn't use the Champions), Earth Force, Freedom Force, the Defenders, Force Works, etc... I think Star Masters was one of the few that escaped.
As for the membership, though she was never actually Cybermancer in the Force Works book (it was an alternate version of her), Suzi Endo was one of the few with attachmentsto the team that was avaliable at the time. Century was nowhere to be found, probably exploring other dimensions, though they could have used him if they really wanted. Wanda was insane and on the run. U.S. Agent and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) were over in Canada, with Omega Flight and Simon and Iron Man were over at the Avengers (until Norman Osborn took over, but that's another story).

Peace

Yeah, kind of a shame. Great concept, just.... not finished. They really scraped the barrel... and... that's it? didn't really use most of them at all either :/

[Kaijudo]

I'm a HUGE Herc fan, but I have to agree, it wasn't a great look. I wish they'd put him in a purple costume he used in a Ron Frenz poster of the 90's line-up. It wasn't all that great either, but it was light-years better than what we acutually got, IMHO, of course. But I guess the jacket would have looked awful with that costume, and, in the 90's Avengers, everybody had to wear their jacket.



The 50 State Initiative idea was, IMHO, one of the best things to come out of the Civil War, however, as with many of the ideas of that era, they never got to explore it as well as they could and should have, before, as trained chimpanzes, moving on to the next bright, shiny thing.
As for the membership of Force Works then, they were using all the names they had for those teams, rehashing all the team names they had ever used in Marvel such as the Rangers, The Order (because, legally, they couldn't use the Champions), Earth Force, Freedom Force, the Defenders, Force Works, etc... I think Star Masters was one of the few that escaped.
As for the membership, though she was never actually Cybermancer in the Force Works book (it was an alternate version of her), Suzi Endo was one of the few with attachmentsto the team that was avaliable at the time. Century was nowhere to be found, probably exploring other dimensions, though they could have used him if they really wanted. Wanda was insane and on the run. U.S. Agent and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) were over in Canada, with Omega Flight and Simon and Iron Man were over at the Avengers (until Norman Osborn took over, but that's another story).

Peace

Yeah, I LOVED the 50 State Initiative idea and enjoyed most of the line-ups we got to see (not counting the ones where it's literally a team of villains covering as heroes, like the aforementioned U-Foes or the Force of Nature). As someone who loves a good deep-dive with second-to-twelfth tier characters, seeing some of those characters brought back and slotted onto the teams they were was a genuine thrill for me...some good mixes of known characters, barely known characters, and brand new characters. It's just too bad it seems like most of those teams have gone away.

Beyond teams like Jennifer Kale's Command, Two-Gun Kid's Desert Stars, and Ultra Girl's Cavalry, I would have read the HELL out of a book featuring Hawaii's Point Men with Stingray and Devil-Slayer defending Hawaii against Lemuria and kaiju from Japan. I mean, Dr. Demonicus is custom-built to be that team's Doctor Doom.

[Thirteen]

UGH. I hated Hercs "90's" look.

I'm a HUGE Herc fan, but I have to agree, it wasn't a great look. I wish they'd put him in a purple costume he used in a Ron Frenz poster of the 90's line-up. It wasn't all that great either, but it was light-years better than what we acutually got, IMHO, of course. But I guess the jacket would have looked awful with that costume, and, in the 90's Avengers, everybody had to wear their jacket.

Oh yeah, Here got that football shoulder pad-like armor apparatus instead of a jacket...

[Nomads1]

IS there space in today's market for a book like Force Works? What could the mission statement be? Would there be a link with the Avengers or not? Who would be in it? Who would you like to be the creative team?

Peace

[Captain Craig]

IS there space in today's market for a book like Force Works? What could the mission statement be? Would there be a link with the Avengers or not? Who would be in it? Who would you like to be the creative team?

Peace

This is a question asked of a variety of team concepts and there are factors working against these smaller fan favorite niche groups. The giant in the room Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four soak up eyeballs and dollars. In todays market that is some serious dollars if said buyer is also getting some solo titles. When these ancillary teams had books, they were cheaper and typically the economy was seen as better. As a kid in the 80s and teen in the 90s it was pretty easy to get a variety of books. As an adult I just really watch $4/5 book prices for 22+ pages of content, that is with an LCS discount.

Bigger Team names over the decades, imo
Force Works
Invaders
Defenders
Champions (the OG team for me not Teen Titans MC)
Alpha Flight
Midnight Sons
New Warriors
Silver Sable/Wild Pack
OG Guardians of the Galaxy aka Guardians 3000
Inhumans
Agents of Atlas
Thunderbolts
Heroes for Hire
Legion of Monsters

Lesser groups that got little exposure or no series
Crusaders
Slingers
Great Lakes Avengers
Avengers AI
Asgardians of the Galaxy
The Union

Clearly either category has more than just these, i was just spit balling off memory.

I can't recall it now but at the end of the Red She-Hulk short lived series a team concept shown with Betty, Man-Thing, Machine Man, Rick Jones maybe another based out of Mount Rushmore...maybe with ties back to Tesla. Really wish that series had continued to see more of that or that it got a mini-series. What was that groups name??

[RogueWhistler]

I find it interesting how Force Works parallels Extreme Justice, with each having very 90's-ified names for what are pretty straightforward revamps of a prior team roster.

[gurkle]

Also (sorry to repeat this) it was never announced that way but both relaunches were probably inspired by "X-Force." The New Mutants had the same problem as the West Coast Avengers, they were both the first-ever spinoff teams from their parent books, and as time went on it became hard to see what actual in-universe purpose they served. Same goes for the Justice League Europe, though it wasn't as successful.

So New Mutants was canceled after 100 issues and relaunched as the edgier X-Force, a proactive team that would do what the X-Men wouldn't, and West Coast Avengers was canceled after 102 issues and relaunched as the edgier Force Works, a proactive team th at would do what the Avengers wouldn't, and Justice League International was canceled and replaced by Extreme Justice, a proactive team that would... you get the idea.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Also (sorry to repeat this) it was never announced that way but both relaunches were probably inspired by "X-Force." The New Mutants had the same problem as the West Coast Avengers, they were both the first-ever spinoff teams from their parent books, and as time went on it became hard to see what actual in-universe purpose they served. Same goes for the Justice League Europe, though it wasn't as successful.

So New Mutants was canceled after 100 issues and relaunched as the edgier X-Force, a proactive team that would do what the X-Men wouldn't, and West Coast Avengers was canceled after 102 issues and relaunched as the edgier Force Works, a proactive team th at would do what the Avengers wouldn't, and Justice League International was canceled and replaced by Extreme Justice, a proactive team that would... you get the idea.

As we all know, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are HaRDKorrE!

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

I was very excited for the series when it first got announced but I dropped it after first issue because I was pissed about Wonder Man.

Stole my thunder, lol.
I dropped it after issue #3, though. I still have them and my LCS had them in their dollar bin a while ago.
Might actually give this a serious read after I get done with WCA again.

[kcekada]

I was very excited for the series when it first got announced but I dropped it after first issue because I was pissed about Wonder Man.

I think I did the same. I did pick up a few of the later issues during the Crossing era. Personally, wish they had just kept publishing WCA.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Did anyone ever figure out the pop up cover from issue #1?