Writer: Ed Brisson

Art Team: Dylan Burnett, Jesus Aburtov, VC’s Cory Petit

Release Date: February 27, 2019

Cover Price: $3.99

The X-Men lineup of books are a bit all over the place right now. However the one consistent I personally seem to favor is that the titles written by Ed Brisson tend to be my favorites within the line lately. Titles like Old Man Logan, Extermination, Dead Man Logan, and now X-Force have been some of the highlights for me and this site/podcast for this line to name a few off hand.  So lets jump back into the adventures of this version of the X-Force team and see if they can put a stop to this madness in Transia once and for all because its getting CRAZY!! Lets find out what goes down.

The issue continues the action from last issues cliffhangers, as the majority of the team fights of the heavy artillery attacks of the Transian military, at the Refugee outpost they’ve setup. Meanwhile Deathlok, in disguise with the teams Transian spy Andrei, attempt to access the Federal Headquarters. However Deathlok is quickly sold out by Andrei leading to even further complicating their initial mission.  I personally enjoy this fast paced action style of this title, and this issue continues that pacing here, even adding to it in a way with a few twists and turns, keeping the reader on their toes, and making it not just a straight forward shoot ’em up.

Events start to turn and improve for the X-Force at the camp, as they fend off the military with a little surprise help from Boom Boom, whom Domino was previously in contact with in prior issues.  Yet over at the Transian facility things aren’t moving according to plan. Ahab seeing weakness, takes opportunity to make his move weaseling himself free from capture, leaving a violent calling card in his wake. Now wondering free he’s looking for exit possibly but more likely just going to cause more trouble. Andrei continues playing further into the events at hand too as he locates the time portal in the basement. This is the same portal Transia’s seemingly been getting these future tech weapons from, and with the former spy for the good guys now stepping through to the other side, killing the guards in his wake, it adds a bit further to the the mystery at play in an intriguing way.

Some good does come out of the breach of the military facility as Deathlok eventually frees some more refugees. DL gets word back to the team at camp, who head towards his location, but only after some further drama with the team ironing out their level of trust for Young Cable … again!  If I had one minor complaint about this series so far its that the “do we or don’t we not trust Cable” aspect of it feels tacked on and not needed before every move the team makes.  Hopefully its just a thread running throughout the first four issue arc here, and he either proves his worth, or bounces out of town to do his own thing … which I wouldn’t actually want because I’ve come to be a huge fan of Young Cable and what he brings to the table. I love his no-nonsense approach. Continuing on we get a great cliffhanger that peeks my interest in the end, I wont spoil it here (other than saying it brings together our parties wondering the base) but its getting me excited for the finale to this story next issue.

Overall, X-Force as a series continues to stand out to me in a crowded X-Men comic book lineup.  The action heavy approach works perfectly, especially because Ed Brission, Dylan Burnett, and Jesus Aburtov do a great job of moving the story forward with these action scenes, meaning it never just serves as filler to eat page space. The story is just never stuck in place which I love. It’s like a Fast and Furious movie a bit, some of the team might get a little lost in the shuffle of events, but the series as a whole is a fun experience to me with enough character to keep you invested. I also really really look foward to Dylan Burnett on art and find his take on characters unquie working perfectly with this book right now.

8.5/10