Once the brainchild of at the time hot artist Rob Liefeld, the new X-Force series by Chris Yost and Craig Kyle has taken up the mantle of the brutal and violent X-series with incredible vigor. A ‘wetworks’ team assembled by Cyclops at the conclusion of Messiah CompleX, X-Force is a dirty secret ops team with clearance to take down hostiles using any means necessary. It’s funny that Cyclops made this move after taking a high moral stand against his one time mentor Charles Xavier.
The new X-Force team is lead by Wolverine and includes his clone/’daughter’ X-23, Warpath and Wolfsbane. More recently Archangel and Domino have joined up in addition to Elixer and villain the Vanisher. The third volume has been a major hit and is headed toward its first crossover with Cable called ‘Messiah War’ (it just struck me how odd that sounds out of context). Christopher Yost recently announced a spin-off 3 part series entitled ‘Sex and Violence starring Wolverine and Domino and gave the juicy details to CBR.com:
Yost said that, while the “Sex and Violence” miniseries stands alone, it will feed into plans for the second year of the ongoing series. “The relationships you see in this book are going to carry over into the main book. We’re not going to ignore it, it’s not going to be the ugly stepchild,” the writer said. “In fact, it’s going to be the beautiful stepchild. It’s not the big Bastion story arc, but it’s going to be part of continuity.”
“What we’re shooting for is maximum number of slashes, maximum number of big spreads and really impactful shots and exciting moments,” Kyle said. “We want every one to really count because that was part of the mandate: what we’re really looking for more than anything else is a way to showcase these characters, and dell’Otto’s work, and the sort of fun moments we can do in the most distilled way. It should be a hell of a ride, and though very reflective of the tone of ‘X-Force,’ unlike anything we’ve done in the last year.
With two “X-Force” series, animation projects including “Wolverine and the X-Men,” and assorted other comic book projects, Kyle and Yost will be keeping busy in the next year.
Gabriele del’Otto’s beautiful art may look familiar to readers as it graced the pages of Secret War (the mini-series that missed many readers due to scheduling problens). While I enjoy Clayton Crain’s art in the main series, the combination of Yost and del’Otto should make for a terribly graphic read.
There is no word currently on a release date
Recommended:
X-Force Vol. 1: Angels and Demons (v. 1)
X-Force Volume 2: Old Ghosts (v. 2)
Secret War (New Avengers)
