4 out of 5

It’s easy to read X-Force now, without context, and criticize it for all its Miiligan-ness: its ineffective action; how it goes out of its way to make literary references; the soap opera dialogue; the on-the-nose plotting…. These things work really well for Pete when applied in a certain realm of outlandishness, e.g. Johnny Nemo, and it works in flashes of awesomeness in the occasionally media-parodying X-Force, but those moments where the book has to concede to its crowd – you know, to being a Marvel book – the Millie method becomes blurry: Sometimes he’s joking, and sometimes the same line is actually serious.

Familiar with Pete’s style, I see this now.  But that misses what was true at the time if these issues’ release: How much of a game changer then recent EiC Joe Quesada’s actions were, kicking off the Ultimate line, tossing wildman Grant Morrison onto New X-Men, and giving underground guys Pete Milligan and Mike Allred license to completely dismiss the existing 100+ issue X-Force team and go in a radically different direction from the Liefeld inheritance the title had primarily followed.  It was pretty damn mind-blowing.  And that first issue, introducing a pop culture savvy mutant team – celebrities who market themselves and film their heroic exploits and have managers and branding – was astoundingly sharp, and reads as such even today.  The ending, which blew up the team it just introduced, was an equally amazing doubling down: Where the heck would this book go next?

Well, frankly, it would stall.  Milligan would roll out predictable fame vs. morality quandaries, vaguely baiting issues of gender, race, and sexuality – though not saying much about them beyond short quips – and Allred would do the same art thing he always does, which is great except in how it never changes.  …And isn’t really suited to action, which inevitably looks floaty and fake in his retro style.  As long as the book is firmly tongue in cheek (again, see: that first issue – 116), this is sublime.  But elsewhere it just creates that mismatch I’ve mentioned: Are we supposed to be laughing or not?

Filtered through era context and with an acceptance of comic book soap opera, these are very fun issues, detailing the new- new-X-Force’s squabbles over new leader “the orphan” and stopping by to lampoon various concepts of media manipulation, with great hero design work by Allred.  And read on a diet of straight DC / Marvel, this is still fresh.  But if you’re already inclined to reading indie-er stuff of this era, you’ll get the joke immediately, appreciate the quality of things, and get sort of bored as the reading doesn’t build much.

Given an extra star for the game-changing context, however.