Sometimes when a book changes, it barely moves the needle. Like the new lineup in Thunderbolts. But sometimes, rarely, we get something truly and radically different.
This is one of those times.
It’s not just the lineup: A cast of mutants we’ve never seen before with truly bizarre powers. It’s also the artist, Michael Allred, whose work has a strongly independent look. There is very little “Marvel” about it.
And then there’s the story itself.
It starts with the (unnamed) Zeitgeist throwing up all over a group of Qat-chewing terrorists (which dissolves them because his vomit is his power), and then having a threesome in his hotel room.
We move then to a press conference. We’re just “dropped into” this story–with no references points or even acknowledgement that this book used to be heavily tied to the X-verse.
This X-Force are a group of mercenaries who live in Beverly Hills and just want to be famous. To that end, they save a pop singer (from the group Boys R Us) who is being held hostage.
U-Go-Girl is a teleporter and she brings the group to the site.
But almost as soon as they get there, a giant drone with machine guns slaughters nearly all of them.
And that’s just the first issue.
X-Force will later become X-Statix, and at the time (and actually every since) there has never been a team with more death. Most of its members appear for only a few issues. Hence, the tag about death, below.