Double The Force With X-Force #27 and X-Force Annual

It’s a new era on Krakoa but X-Force’s job remains the same: do what needs doing to protect this sacred land. First, X-Force is on the offensive to stick a blow at Orchis in X-Force Annual #1 by Nadia Shammas, Rafael Pimentel, Carlos Lopez, and Joe Caramagna. Then they pivot to defense against an attack from within in X-Force #27 by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, GURU-eFX, and Joe Caramagna.

Zachary Jenkins: In 1931 a British Brigadier-General wrote a journal entry about the attitude of one of his fellow soldiers saying “I fancy Military Intelligence to him is a contradiction in terms.” Since then it’s become a famous oxymoron, military intelligence. It’s a belief that the leaders of the free world don’t truly know enough to run it. I’m just old enough to remember a time before the United State’s twenty-year catastrophe in Afghanistan, I’ve become jaded about the military and the ideas of American imperialism masquerading as exceptionalism. It’s why I’ve been enjoying this era of X-Force. This is a book about bad people trying to justify their horrific actions. Are they justified? That’s a harder question to answer.

Cassie Tongue: There’s something to be said for a creeping new take on a character finally becoming definitive: whether you agree with it or not, having a settled, consistent arc of growth helps the storytelling move better, faster, and more efficiently. Beast is in his biggest Bastard Era yet, and it’s been a long time coming. Really digging into the unpleasant guts might leave a stain on some of that old fun-loving energy, but he’s had a lot of unparalleled power, power corrupts, and I have to say: it’s refreshing that we’re not pretending he (and others) don’t straight up suck right now. To be blunt.

Field Trials

Zachary: Our first story comes from the X-Force Annual. This isn’t written by series scribe Ben Percy, but instead by Nadia Shammas. Readers may not be aware of Shammas, her biggest work has been with things like a Ms. Marvel OGN for Scholastics and the recent, and highly acclaimed, Squire. Some may have noticed her from Newburn from Image, but it’s fair to say she is a newer name in direct market comics. 

We will be hearing a lot about Nadia Shammas in the years to come.

This Annual takes a one-and-done approach that distills the core of X-Force into a pure, serialized form. This is the black ops team doing an op. It’s fun action, quippy one-liners, and a saved day. It’s also framed with Emma Frost, fresh from her Inferno power plays, scoring up her leverage with the closest things Krakoa has to a military. It adds a level of intelligence to the proceedings. This is still an action comic, but a thoughtful one that does a lot with limited space. Cassie, what did you think of this episode?

Cassie: This is a beautifully scripted and structured comic made full-throttle by Rafael Pimental’s graceful, character-led art. In many ways, this feels like a classic X-Force story: it’s a down-to-the-wire adventure of impossible odds eventually overcome by teamwork; it plays with the affordances and constraints of the team’s mutant gifts; it makes time not just for a few witty lines but for unsentimental acts of caring and service between teammates. Plus, it has a ticking heartbeat of a mystery: it knows how to play out clues, when to reveal information, and when to hold back a conclusion. There’s an elegance to it that you have to admire, and an energy that I wish was more consistently reflected in the mainline. Don’t you love it when an annual really hits the spot? 

Zachary: It gave me what I wanted. This is a solid issue that knows it can’t upset the status quo but works as a tryout to prove that these creators have what it takes to steer a bigger ship. 

I enjoy how they lean into the intelligence angle, Orchis wants to know about these mutants, but so does Beast. He can’t torture them to get the information, they are his allies, but he is willing to let his enemy do the dirty work. A heady concept in decision making asymmetric information, where one party knows more than the other. This is a powerful tool and gives you leverage. 

Beast, in his shortsightedness, just wants the information because that’s “his job”. He is the head of X-Force, he needs all the military intelligence he can get. He doesn’t care that the power of that intelligence comes from him knowing something his enemy doesn’t. His actions threaten to weaken X-Force and Krakoa as a whole. Since the start of this run, Percy has been setting up Beast to be a victim of his own hubris. Shammas does a great job emphasizing that point in this one.

Cassie: We’re moving closer to the inevitable fall that follows all that pride. The question is: how much damage can Beast do to Krakoa’s safety before that happens – and who else will suffer as a result?

Oversight

Zachary: X-Force #27 is a bit of a different beast. It’s a very direct follow-up to X Lives Of Wolverine, looking at the repercussions of Omega Red’s “time coup”. While a title like the phenomenal Sabretooth is reckoning with the carceral state, X-Force grapples with the moral ambiguity of their violent actions in a different way. Sage takes center stage and chooses not to let the Quiet Council deny their deniable operations. She admits that what X-Force did to Omega Red way back in issue #15 is what got them in this situation. Sage advocates for mercy.

Cassie: It will come as little surprise to readers of recent X-books that Beast won’t even be satisfied by the barbaric punishment of the Pit. He suggests that Omega Red’s Cerebro backups are expunged and that he suffer a permanent death. This is what’s best for Krakoa, he says, but it’s also what’s best for Beast: if all traces of his actions are wiped in righteous fury, there are no telltale hearts ticking away to weigh down his conscience (if he still has one). 

Zachary: One thing that I think has been somewhat lost in conversations about Krakoa is that this is a young nation of immigrants. Beast grew up American, he was raised in the half of Illinois that isn’t a Chicago suburb. For all Krakoa’s grand speechifying about being evolved, its’ leaders are undeniably tied to an outdated way of thinking. Krakoa was founded on the idea that there would be no graveyards, Beast’s grand plan is to ensure death comes to those he thinks deserves it.

Cassie: Percy doesn’t shy away from how critical, or difficult, this stance is. In an era that redefines even the X-Men’s longtime belief in mutant villain redemption, it’s rare to see someone stand in an ugly idea and own it. And it’s good storytelling to follow the thread: when Beast insists he be beyond questioning and reproach by way of his title – well, it’s an extremely common political practice. Nothing here feels out of reach or out of the question.

It also provides a new yardstick for the characters around Beast. Take good old Quentin Quire, who, over the course of the book, is continuing a journey of new perspective and a little less arrogance, even as Beast’s grows ever suffocating. Or Domino, whose respect one gains slowly but can lose in the blink of an eye. Or Sage, Beast’s most frequent adversary. There are interesting and deeply combustible layers of tension here. 

Zachary: The scenes where our cast reacts to the proposed reparations show just how much they have changed in the last few years. Forge, who maintains his own distance from the more questionable aspects of X-Force, stays ever the cynic. He might question decisions but he is still a good soldier. He does as he is told, a habit that gets him killed. Beast himself has taken stock of the situation as he slowly realizes that his old flame, Abigail Brand, is his only ally left. If only he was intelligent enough to figure out that he’s sleeping with the enemy.

Gill provides strong visuals but struggles in comparison with others on the line. He lacks the drama and dynamism that Cassara had on X Lives of Wolverine. He’s a good hand but doesn’t do much to impress here. I wonder how much of that is tied to the big moments featuring an evil Cerebro helmet that lands well past imposing and right into silly?

Cassie: There’s really only so much you can do with a glowing helmet, but it’s also true that we don’t really get a sense of the gravity of an infected Cerebro helmet. Mutant life as we currently know it is built on that helmet; I wish it felt more terrifying to see it so in danger.

Design Of Experiment

Zachary: What I find interesting about these two issues coming out on the same day is how they show two different approaches to telling a similar story. Ben Percy is a novelist and a legitimately talented one at that. He is taking a long, serialized approach to his greater X-Force & Wolverine stories. He’s layering plot beats and character arcs on top of one another over time. We’re at a pivot point, yes, but it’s just an act break. Nadia Shammas on the other hand has one shot to take the groundwork Percy laid, and tell a complete tale. They are flexing different muscles and to me, it highlights the strength of the story engine that is Krakoa.

Cassie: One of the great things about reading these issues together is that while they differ stylistically, they feel linked. You’re right that it’s a sign the line is rich and the talent is strong, but I also think it’s a great way to really see how characters have shifted, grown, or changed in a different setting, in a different writer’s tone, moving under a different artist’s hand. It offers an opportunity to really notice Percy’s work and reflect on where we are in the narrative. 

We can see how old teammates and ex-lovers Domino and Wolverine work together effortlessly in the field; we see the near-parental care they take when Kid Omega is vulnerable and in danger (there are shades of Wolverine and the X-Men, where Quire and Logan were linked in journeys of self-improvement); we see how Beast and Emma Frost, who once adored each other (remember when he pieced her shattered diamond form together, painstakingly, in New X-Men?) now ideologically opposed and icy. Paradise has arrived; while we slept, the world changed; an annual remains a fantastic opportunity to see ongoing trends in a new light. 

Zachary: I don’t think either of these issues will make converts out of readers who aren’t already aboard the X-Force express. Those who want a smart action comic that doesn’t leave you with easy answers will be pleased to know that X–Force remains exactly as it was.

X-Traneous Thoughts

• So something something sci-fi magic mixed Cerebro with Omega Red, yeah?
• Brand touching Beast’s eye socket walks a very fine line between tender and unsettling.
• Rafeal Pimentel had a single professional comics credit before this Annual. Mark my words, in five years he will be a big deal.
• You think global politics have complicated the big ol’ Russia plot?

Zachary Jenkins

Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.

Cassie Tongue

Cassie is an arts and culture writer living on Gadigal land in Australia. For 10 years she’s been working as a professional theatre critic, and is delighted to finally be writing about her other love: comics, baby.