Writer: Ed Brisson
Art Team:Dylan Burnett, Damian Couceiro, Jesus Aburtov, VC’s Joe Caramagna
Release Date: May 12, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

This iteration of X-Force unfortunately doesn’t seem too long for this world, with solicits only up to issue ten being listed, and another X-Men relaunch on the horizon, which is sad because this is one of the few books in the X-Men line, in the last seven months or so, that I’ve enjoyed. With the villainous Stryfe now reintroduced to readers I’m hoping we get back to the action and adventure we previously found in this series that made it fun. All that said lets discuss X-Force while we still can.

The issue begins with Deathlok attempting to get the time machine up and running as the teams hopes to put together a rescue effort and save Cable. Thus far its been four days and Domino is growing more and more concerned putting a bit of pressure on Deathlok here, however due to his recent adjustments made at the hands of Ahab, things aren’t going quite as smoothly as they could be.

From there its off to 2000 years into the future, where Stryfe is torturing Cable in an attempt to locate the Askani clan. Cable refuses to give up any information, and with his “power dampener on and telekinetic abilities ‘off'”, his body is being taken over by disease resulting in him going full terminator mode. To add insult to injury Stryfe is killing Cables crew mates right in front of him, in further attempts to goad the information out of him, really showcasing he’s going to get his way through one method or another. I found the setup here to be very sufficient for characters I didn’t know very well coming into this. Admittedly the entire Cable/Stryfe relationship always confused me to no end, especially as a younger comic reader years ago, but Ed Brisson does a great job of spelling it out plainly here that I’m in from the start.

The story does a lot of jumping back and forth between timelines (the present day and future 2000 years from now) but never becomes confusing or jumbled. I’ve been a fan of a lot of Brisson’s Marvel work, and find that one of his strengths is that he handles time travel in a way as to not confuse the reader. It’s something I’ve always had a problem wrapping my mind around in stories, especially when things jump around a lot, and effects of actions made in the present, or future, start messing with things. That is not the case here and I cant explain enough how very grateful I am for that.

Looking at both sides of the coin there are few things in this issue that bring it down a bit, like some wordy character moments lingering a bit too long, as well as the scenes in the present being kind of stuck in place due to the circumstances the team finds themselves in. Its actually the moments in the futures scenes I tend to like more this issue which I did not think would be the case coming in.

The art done by Dylan Burnett, Damian Couceiro, and Jesus Aburtov is great. I love Burnett character designs to the point he is entering must buy territory for me, regardless of the name of the title he’s on. The work done on a transforming Cable in this issue is both amazing and gross, truly some mind bending stuff and I loved it.

As the issue concludes, it seems like we’re headed back to that awesome action I crave which has me pumped to see how things are going to wind down here in this series. I’ve really enjoyed the kid Cable character and will be interested in how he develops and if his connection to Cyclops will go on. While this was ultimately a big setup issue to get us where we need to be for the ending of this series, I have a good time reading it, and think if you’ve enjoyed X-Force so far this will be more of what you like. It’s also not a horrible jumping on point for someone looking to see how this series ends either.

Overall, X-Force #7 takes its time to setup what looks like is going to be a pretty exciting finale to this story. Ed Brisson does a great job giving some characters a bit of shine we haven’t heard from much in the book up until this point, and Burnett and company provide some awesome art, to keep your eyes glued to the page. Warning glancing at a morphing Cable for too long might haunt your nightmares. Basically, if you’ve been enjoying this book so far I think you’ll be pleased about where this is headed.