For their second arc, each of the Counter X titles went back to explain how the Counter X status quo came to be, in four-part stories dubbed "Shockwave." Instead of doing on a full-on flashback, X-Force juxtaposes the flashback scenes with a present-day story in
which the team reunites with Domino in the wake of Pete Wisdom's death and helps her combat a murderous pursuer. It's safe to say neither story sets the world on fire. There's definitely an effort to create a group dynamic for the cast, as well as attempts at starting ongoing mysteries, but uninspired plotting and action scenes, fairly lifeless characters, haphazard plot elements, and general malaise prevent this story from being any good.As mentioned, the story follows two threads. In the past, Pete Wisdom recruits all willing members of X-Force to join him in combating wrongs perpetrated in the Black Ops community, and former team members depart in anger. He proceeds to teach the team new ways of accessing and expanding their powers, while indoctrinating them to his mission. In the present, the team mourn Wisdom's passing, and reunite with Domino, to help her combat Marcus Tsung, a mutant killer who is pursuing her, using 'virtual bullets' to kill his targets from afar. They also investigate an alien device implanted onto Domino's back, while Pete's sister Romany Wisdom hangs around the fringes of the story to hint at her brother's less than heroic past.
The flashback material is really thin here - to the point where, in the final issue, it gets all of one page. Unlike, say, Generation X, which devoted the full four Shockwave issues to flashbacks, this title intersperses a small number of flashback scenes with the Domino story. The only reason I can see for this is that there isn't much of a story to tell for X-Force. Outside of the old team splitting up, it's ground that we all covered in the previous story (in terms of
Wisdom’s mission and the powers stuff). The break-up of the previous team is really contrived stuff. Domino and Moonstar have such an adverse reaction to Wisdom taking over and using the team for a bigger purpose, but it doesn't make much sense. Neither of them offer an alternative, and they agree that the team needs a purpose. So Edginton tries to create tension but having everyone yell a lot. Beyond this, the other scenes are fine. There is a nice idea behind expanding the team powers - the last story before Counter X saw the High Evolutionary wipe out the mutant gene. When it was returned, each mutant now had complete access to their full potential, hence, hence things like Proudstar flying. Beyond this, the flashback scenes are thin. The characterization doesn't really work in the break-up scene, and, beyond that, the team kind of just listens to Wisdom talk and shouts about their powers.So it falls on the present-day scenes to carry the story. It's fairly uninspired on that front. The gist of that story is that Marcus Tsung is trying to kill Domino. Seems simple enough, but Edginton can't seem to decide what he wants the story to be about - is it about Tsung cutting a swath of destruction across America as he looks for her? There are a few simple scenes showing his cold bloodshed, and they are actually good. Unfortunately, the story is cluttered with a bunch of unnecessary crap - extended nonsense about a living alien device growing in Domino's back, the introduction of three Black Ops types to help determine what's going on with the device (all pointless characters, very quickly killed off), and the machinations of Romany Wisdom and her crew, who pop up when necessary. The problem is that the Tsung story doesn't have anything to it. Edginton tries to pad it out with his backstory, but that gets convoluted when we learn Domino has already encountered him and it resulted in this thing growing out of her back. Huh? That just seems to come out of nowhere, and I don't understand why she didn’t tell the team right away. Any intrigue surrounding Tsung’s character is ignored in the final issue, a big fight in the streets with helicopters and explosions. It looks dreadful, has no life to it, and removes any interest from this story. Tsung is also never given a proper motivation. He is killing all mercenaries hired for an old mission (of which Domino is one). Ok. For what reason? The final big fight doesn't even try to discuss that. By that point, we'd become so embroiled in the thing in Domino's back that it's possible Edginton hoped we forgot the villain had no motivation. I'm not even going to touch further on the crap with the three agents investigating Domino's back - what a pointless, waste of time.
The Romany Wisdom scenes are really the only ones of note. Her changing appearance (which I initially figured must have been an art error - I wouldn't put it past this book - until one of the characters mentions it), and general benevolence towards the team are interesting. We don't know where her loyalties lie, and that's potentially a good story here. She drops a bomb on the last page - that Pete himself used to perpetrate the same type of black ops crimes against mutants that he assembled this team to fight against. Yes, it's contrived, clunky, and presented to us as a big exposition dump on the final page - but it could potentially be an interesting story to pursue.
Unlike the first story, there was
some effort at characterization here. Unfortunately, most of it is shrill and whiny. The bulk of it is built around the fact that the team went with Wisdom and not Domino, and now they've all got to work together. Most of it falls flat, because Edginton insists on having everyone gripe, bark, and shout at each other. Gone are the Cannonball and Proudstar of old, two sensitive, intelligent young men, or the energy and fun of Meltdown. They're all replaced by whiny kids who yell at each other, when Edginton even bothers to give them dialogue. There is also a lot of talk about how this group are the outsiders, marginalized by the rest of the mutant community. It's all talk, to make this an 'edgy' title, from what I can see. This group is deliberately cut off from the rest of the mutant world because the Counter X titles deliberately did that, not because of anything happening in the story. (Also, I have to mention the high rise tower the team now resides in ... actually, the less said about this twist the better).It doesn't help the art is a haphazard mess - two issues co-drawn by Portacio and Lan Medina, one by Olivetti, and the final by Breccia. Olivetti actually does a great job, for the most part. His angular, expressive style is more in keeping with the tone of the book than Portacio's art has ever been. He makes use of open space nicely, as well. Medina's clean style does the job on his flashback scenes. The other two are terrible - Portacio has one good scene (when Tsung invades a birthday party and kills everyone). The rest is rushed and ugly. Breccia is perhaps the worst offender. His closing issue, the big fight scene, falls completely flat, with stiff figures, cramped settings, and ugly characters. The big fight was already a cop out from a story point of view, and the art certainly doesn't help it. The whole story feels rushed and ugly as a result of the changing art.
So, another story down for Counter X X-Force and nothing's changed. The plotting is completely uninspired, the characters are miserable to read about, and, with Ellis' influence diminishing, Edginton takes the story in completely unnecessary directions. With the rotating art teams, it makes the book feel like a rushed product, running to keep up.
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