I accidentally voted wrong, but it's Moore for me. Loved the rustic roadtrip vibes, and the art was still killer.
I accidentally voted wrong, but it's Moore for me. Loved the rustic roadtrip vibes, and the art was still killer.
Queen of Mutants, Mistress of Magnetism, Magnetrix and the MII, Pestilence of the Horsemen of Apocalypse, the Krakoan Oracle and creator of the Sanctus Sacrum Tournament Key, the Threshold Seed Shaper, Brood Queen of the Fall of the House of X, Lorna Sally Dane, Ph.D., of the House of M, Polaris of the X-Men
That run was fun, but never felt like X-Force to me. It was basically New Mutants Redux IMO.
X-Force boils down to "X-men + G.I. Joe" as its basic concept. Say what you will about Liefeld, but he has a childlike mind for knowing what will leave an impression on kids, and so taking mutants and putting weapons in their hands and making them a paramilitary type squad was kind of the secret sauce that made X-Force a hit. I remember back in the day they had their own spinoff line of toys from Toy Biz, discrete from the X-men line of figures.
And so without a grizzled old solider leading them, whether it be Nathan or Logan, it just doesn't feel like X-Force. At least not to me.
“Not as good as I once was… but I’m as good, once, as I ever was.”
2 is title defining, and a great time where it was building characters and relationships and long plays for the team, allies, and enemies, especially MLF.
The early part of 4, the road trip part, was unique to any X-title before it and character building.
I got into X-Force via Firestar through The New Warriors.
I picked up my first NW comic (#31) because it had Firestar from the old cartoon. In that issue, X-Force members were guest stars along with Empath and Magma. So basically the era of Fabian post Liefeld is my favorite.
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Last edited by danielsan52; 04-04-2024 at 08:49 AM.
TO KNOW HER IS TO FEAR HER: JESSICA DREW THE SPIDER-WOMAN
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW 2024 SPIDER-WOMAN SERIES by STEVE FOXE!!!
MISSING:
Synch's Aura
Northstar and Aurora's shiny hair
Spider-Woman’s cowl costume
I feel like the Road Trip era was an interesting third act gap year kind of story with characters we've followed since they were kids.
First we were students primed to be X-Men (and then weren't), then we were a paramilitary squad, and then they decided they didn't want to do that either. It's early 20-somethings trying to figure out who they are but in a crazy comic book world.
Nicieza - peak 90's. established a lot.
JFM - this one was pretty solid actually. there was a lot going on and the road trip stuff was great.
Loeb - quite a bit of changes and different looks. some okay stuff but honestly was a bit of a miss.
Liefeld - it was a start but that's about it
Revolution - honestly didn't care for this and this is when I dropped the books. never liked Wisdom and felt most of the changes were just big misses.
I could maybe do the road trip era as first but I'd stay in this order for the most part
There was something really special about Moore's run, and it makes me sad that mainstream American comic books just aren't capable of doing anything like it anymore. He had room to meander, and even when his characters were literally just driving around and waiting for a plot to find them, it always felt purposeful.
Does anyone here know just what the hell happened to JFM? It's like he blinked out of existence at the end of the 1990s—which is fitting, I guess, because the comics he wrote were some of the most Nineties of all.
(side note: who else noticed and remembers how he tried to burnish the image of lame-o Liefeld MLF villain Forearm?)
EDIT: notice that I am enough of a JFM fan to have a line from X-Men 2099 as my PFP.
Last edited by Itchpfork; 04-04-2024 at 09:06 AM.
TO KNOW HER IS TO FEAR HER: JESSICA DREW THE SPIDER-WOMAN
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW 2024 SPIDER-WOMAN SERIES by STEVE FOXE!!!
MISSING:
Synch's Aura
Northstar and Aurora's shiny hair
Spider-Woman’s cowl costume
The Liefeld era has been tattooed on my mind. I just wish he would have finished his X-Ternals and Cable/Stryfe stori.
Revolution is the one I remember most... for being WTF inducing. Like having a character be an LMD.... who just randomly explodes after hanging out with the team for a while because why not?
I voted for Nicieza, but Moore's run is a tie with it, for me.
I hated Loeb's run. Everyone seemed out of character. Nice art, though, and it wasn't quite so bad that I dropped the series. That distinction was saved for Revolution.
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
- Helen Keller
Can't decide between Nicieza/Capullo's run and Moore/Pollina's road trip era, so I won't.
That said, I miss when X-Force meant the next generation's third way between Xavier and Magneto and wasn't just the kill squad.
Technically it was Cable’s third way… at first. Then at one point I remember that he declared he was choosing to follow “their way” in reference to Sam and the rest. This was after he’d “died” at the end of X-Cutioner’s Song and returned.
“Not as good as I once was… but I’m as good, once, as I ever was.”