Rob Liefeld. Upon hearing that name, many comic fans will be split down the middle. Many will cringe at his absurd anatomical work, his love of cross hatching or his disregard for the human foot. Others will grin at the fond memories they have with his work, how it exploded with energy and felt like a knowing, relevant cry for the Nineties. Whatever the opinion, his work on “X-Force” #1 remains his most well-known venture, as well as being one of the highest selling comics in history. Now, with the titular team arriving on-screen in the upcoming Deadpool 2, I’m checking back in with one of the most notorious X-Comics in history to see how it holds up.
Written by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza
Illustrated by Rob Liefeld
Colored by Brad Vancata
Lettered by Chris EliopoulosX-Force sets out on their first mission! To defeat the MLF and to stop the terrorist called Stryfe, the team heads to Antarctica!
Liefeld and Nicieza waste no time in dropping you into the action here. Because make no mistake, “X-Force” is, like it’s teams core motifs, straight to the point. From the first page, we get a sense of the urgency that is sprinkled throughout. Cable and the team drop off at a mysterious snowy mountain range in a slick futuristic jet, gear up and give the readers all that they need to know in saying how long they’ve waiting for this opportunity and that the MLF’s terrorist actions “…COME TO AN END”. Turn the page, and you’ve got a classic, showy double-pager of the whole team. Contrary to the popular belief of this era being home to countless numbers of these spreads, this is the only one we get in this thirty page issue, and it serves its purpose. This, after all, would’ve been many a reader’s introduction to the team, so Liefeld and Nicieza introduce them with guns ablaze and on full display on the biggest possible playing field, not cheapening the moment with repetition throughout the issue.
Structurally, everything necessary is present and contained well within this issue. In the dynamic opening action scene, every character gets a moment. We get Sam’s thirst for importance at wanting to spar more than grunts. We get a great show of Shatterstar’s arrogant warrior attitude, but respect for his partner’s ethics by choosing to spare Reaper’s life. We even get a great reverse as Feral quips with the best of the them while shredding Wildside to near death. And capping off the action scene? Nothing but a confrontation with Cable’s big final boss Stryfe himself, hinting further at Cable’s origin and the pair’s complex relationship. From there we get former teammate Sunspot training with an old enemy, hinting at some interesting plot developments and reunions for readers to look forward to down the line. Then we get a quick show of the X-Force base (veritable candy for the hardcore followers of the nineties), a reveal of Cable’s never-before-seen Telekinesis, and his discourse and relationship with the team. It’s character development, plot setting, foreshadowing and well-paced action all in one jam packed series debut, making it easy to see why this title sold so well.
Then there’s the obvious to address. There’s a lot of cheesiness and cliché one-liners in this book. As far as complex and intellectual reading, this book might not hold up. But “X-Force” is different to it’s contemporaries in this way, as it never set out to be a complex, layered soap-opera. Liefeld and Nicieza wear their influences on their sleeve, having this book work almost as a homage to action movie greats. Cable himself draws influence from Arnie’s Terminator and the structure and morale code of the team itself feel like The A-Team. Pair that with the concept: a super soldier from the future but actually from the present strings together a bunch of headstrong and aimless superpowered teens to fight an invisible ‘war’, and we’re shown that this is a comic that revels in its absurdity. Once you get past the fact that “X-Force” isn’t trying to be the next dramatic tragedy in the X-Men saga, it becomes a whole lot more fun. Piecing together Cable’s secret origin is overly complex but super fun to explore. Listening to Feral screaming through the air “YO—WILDSIDE! YOU SCRATCH MY BACK… I’LL SCRATCH YOURS” is so perfectly on the nose that it brings a grin to my face. Partaking in this book’s superbly grunge/punk aesthetic may seem shallow, but once you accept it and move on, it’s hard not to enjoy the sheer insanity it infects you with.
Continued belowNow, here’s the big catch. Liefeld’s art, as I said, is straight up divisive. Countless times have I tried to redeem him on Facebook groups and message boards, but some people are simply immovable on this topic. Yet, here I go again in the same old situation. Liefeld is an incredibly stylised and absurdist artist. When paired up next to other X-Men artists like sleek Hollywood replicators Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri and While Portacio, his work seems over the top, anatomically ridiculous, and unrefined. But again, it’s important to note that “X-Force” is a comic with its own agenda. “X-Force” is nineties showmanship, with big bodies, overly dressed “heroes” and frenetic, child-like energy that won’t sit still no matter how many times you tell it to. It’s for this reason that Liefeld’s art is perfect for this book. If you look at Liefeld’s art on “X-Force” not with a discerning cinematic eye but within a more absurdist lens, his work becomes so much more fun.
Throughout this issue, Liefeld has a great sequential flow that never seems to take a breather, perfectly in tone with the jam-packed nature of this debut. Every panel in sequence seems is tilted in the direction of action, naturally guiding the reader’s eye to wherever Cannonball is firing off to, where Boom Boom is slinging a time-bomb, or who Feral is ferociously leaping at. Look closer, and you’ll see that his characters too are constantly in motion. The Shatterstar battle scene is a personal favorite of mine in this regard. Shatterstar reels from an intense weapon clash, before psyching out Reaper with a white-eyed scream, battering him with one sword hand and proceeding to slice off Reaper’s good hand with the other. The camera reels from face-on, to birds-eye, to rotating back at eye level around the characters in a 360 degree angle. On top of this, Shatterstar is always in motion, either flinging his swords backwards, leaping at Reaper or slicing a hand off with such impact it flings the limb to the reader with a speed and eye-popping sense of depth to challenge even today’s stereoscopic technologies.
Then there’s the obvious shots that Liefeld is notorious for. Some techniques work well in context, but some don’t hold up as much. Opening with the positives, a lot of readers give Liefeld flack for his abuse of cross-hatching. It’s immensely on display here, but works perfectly in-tone with the issue. The punk, ADHD nature of the comic is well conveyed by Liefeld’s hyper-detailed inking. The inks in every panel are copious and loose, adding to the fluid kinetic motion of his art and boosting the sequential feeling throughout the issue. Another classic Liefeld quip is his decidedly monotonous facial expressions, ranging from gaping, angered mouth to pursed, brooding lips. This works for the most part at conveying the anger and rebellious attitude of these characters. It does feel warranted considering they’re all outsiders of the X-Men, who are in turn outsiders to society. But it does get a little heavy handed in the quieter scenes, like the conversation with Cable, Sam and Domino about Stryfe and Cable’s “son”. Then, there’s the irredeemable shovel crotch. It’s a given in any of Liefeld’s work, but still feels awkward especially when a character is striking a dynamic action shot. It’s fine in some instances, but doesn’t help everyone’s favorite Commander Bridge, who’s already overstuffed in costume design.
Like Liefeld’s pencilling, Brad Vancata’s colors are bold and dynamic. The best scenes are with the team appearing in the mountain base at the start, where the characters’ get to contrast their brilliant, flashy outfits against the cold, clinical pink of the base’s architecture. There’s some hilarious shading choices, especially on the closeups of Shatterstar and his vividly orange hair, but one of the often-overlooked decisions I love is how Cable’s eye flashes a golden glow whenever he appears to use his psychic ability – something that wasn’t known to the readers at the time. It’s subtle color usage as storytelling, something which wasn’t hugely prevalent in the nineties but works even better here in retrospect.
“X-Force” #1 is comics as reflective of pop culture as they get. It was perfectly timed, giving readers exactly what they wanted – great action scenes, memorable one-liners, ridiculously flashy and impractical costume design, and less-than-glamorous heroes. Yet there’s still good storytelling underneath all that, with clever foreshadowing, solid character interaction/development and frenetic pacing. On top of that, Liefeld’s art is at its dynamic peak, rendering characters constantly moving and agitated, keeping readers at the edge of their seat. It’s not groundbreaking, thought provoking, or particularly sensitive. But in that way, it was the uncompromising, perfect summation of its time.
