Props to Marvel for making X-Force the sleeper hit in an already crowded lineup of hits. The very first issue blew us all away with a Xavier death we didn’t see coming so soon. It proceeded to explore the intelligence and covert ops side of Krakoa quite well while layering in ideas of predator and prey well. In this third issue, Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara pull off everything great in the first two issues even more impressively. It’s a good one folks.
X-Force #3 opens with an incredibly gruesome scene. It’s borderline horror in its close up depiction of torture that’ll make your skin crawl. Percy and Cassara basically make you wish for pain on the mutant enemy in this story. The story cuts ahead in time to where we left off with Wolverine and Quentin Quire further validating their actions in the lab. There’s plenty of action in this scene with every character involved getting to let loose or at the very least connect with the reader. Once again I love how Wolverine is written here and I think we’re in good hands with Percy with Logan’s upcoming solo series. In fact, read our interview with Percy all about writing this series and Wolverine which is out in February.
This series continues to add some thoughtful reflection from characters to add a bit of weight and meaning to the bigger picture. In the first issue, we got that from Beast and Wolverine talking about prey and predators and here we get some choice wisdom from Jean. It’s about life, death, and what it means when you never die. Interesting stuff. There’s further interesting introspective writing involving one of the corpses, but I’ll let you read that for yourself!
A touching beat.
Credit: Marvel Comics
The data pages in this issue serve as prose style exploration of a story that could have otherwise been written and drawn. It gives the book a denser feel and progresses things nicely.
The art by Cassara with colors by GURU-eFX continues to get better with each issue and they were great to start. The opening page of horror and torture is proof of that. The close-up panels do so much to tell a story and bring us to the pain the character is suffering in. There is a tender moment with Wolverine and another character that you’ll linger on as it’s so perfect for Logan, yet so out of the norm for him. If you look closely at faces or clothes you’ll notice there’s a texture to them via lines or hatching that adds a sense of depth to the work.
This third issue is filled with surprises, continues to offer an interesting perspective on the bigger picture, and sets in motion a new war. Characters continue to be written exceptionally well too. If you weren’t already all-in on this ride this will do it for you.
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