X-Force and John Francis Moore, part 2

I'm moving on in my reread of John Francis Moore's run on X-Force. Artist Adam Pollina leaves the book with #81, after which Moore shifts from his non-conventional roadtrip storyline to a much more traditional superhero book, albeit one with a strong focus on the characters and some fairly detailed plotting.

This period covers X-Force#82-100. I seem to remember the momentum trailing off . Well, I'm halfway through it, and if anything things are only heating up. When Adam Pollina leaves the book, the team moves into a warehouse in San Fransisco. From there, Moore's core five characters (Warpath, Meltdown, Siryn, Moonstar, and Sunspot) are joined by returning characters Domino and Cannonball and new character Jesse Aaronson. Except he's not entirely new. He and his brother Chistopher appeared as the Bedlam brothers in Age of Apocalypse. More than 3 years later, Moore revives the character in the main Marvel Universe, taking this blank slate and running with it.

There are two main story threads running through the first half of this period. In one, Jesse struggles to learn about his past and missing brother, a mystery which nicely winds its way through the other stories and comes to a head in some marvellously ominous and suspenseful issues. #87, where brother Christopher's plans begin to fall into place, is the strongest of this very strong group of issues. The other story thread is an odd one - Moore has dredged up Marvel's Deviants characters and decided an X-Men spinoff was the place for them. I don't think I'm off-base in saying no one has ever found these characters interesting. But I'll give Moore credit for weaving them neatly into his stories - they are connected to the woman who sought revenge on Domino during Operation: Zero Tolerance, they were behind the town that performed genetic experiments on its children, and their influence pervades a number of other areas. I'm cautiously optimistic because their story is just fine right now.

The character work is where Moore's real strength lies. I mentioned in my last entry that the roadtrip issues really felt like disillusioned youths running off to find their own place in the world. Things aren't quite so amibitious here - it's pure soap operatic character drama, but Moore excels at it. And just because it's soapy, it doesn't have to mean the characters don't feel real. Bobby and Tabitha's relationship is quickly burning out; Sam is struggling with his best friend and ex-girlfriend being together; James continues to grow and mature in the wake of discovering what happened to his family; Danielle is struggling with unusual new powers. It's also a lot of fun to have Domino back, without Cable around, She treats these kids as equals in a way Cable didn't and Moore writes her well. Jesse swoops in from nowhere to take a pretty large spotlight. He's hesitant and unsure of himself, and not particularly liked by the group. His journey has been enjoyable to read.

Jim Cheung took over as artist from Pollina with #82. It's not a jarring shift, even though their style's are polar opposites, because, like Pollina, Cheung brings his own unique look to the book. It's a book that has had a strong visual identity since Pollina first started on it, and it needs an artist unafraid to bring that approach. Cheung's style is more conventional in nature, but his characters have a very unique look, and the energy he brings to the pages in incredibly strong. I'm a big fan of his style. The one area where things don't work visually is the costumes. The yellow and purple outfits looked dumb when they were introduced in 1995, and have definitely outlived their welcome by late 1998. Pollina really started using them less as the team wandered around the US, and rightfully so. There was no need for those stories to have a traditional superhero look. With Moore taking the book back in that direction, the costumes return, and are starting to look a bit dumb. Really, all of these stories could be told without the costumes.

Moore has taken this title back to a more traditional route, and I can't help but be slightly disappointed after the roadtrip year. Still, stellar character work and layered plotting and story progression shine through in every issue. If you haven't read Moore's X-Force and are under the impression there's no worthwhile X-books from the 90s, it really deserves a look.

X-Force and the Burning Man festival

I've been rereading John Francis Moore's run on X-Force lately. That might bring out snickering from the crowd, but it's quite good stuff. It's just got a couple comic stigmas against it - 1990s X-book, it was started by Rob Liefeld. Moore picked up the baton from a truly bland run by Jeph Loeb (who in turn picked it up from Fabian Nicieza, who had been doing some good work on the book) and ran with it.

The above cover is from #75, a true favourite comic of mine. At this point, Moore had pared down the team to five (Sunspot, Warpath, Siryn, Meltdown, and Danielle Moonstar) and had them turn their backs on Xavier and Cable, going on the road with no money to their name. This is a beloved era for fans. The X-books have always been steeped in youth, but how often hadthose youths legitimately rebelled against their elders? Yes, Kitty called Professor X a "jerk" (sidebar: Uncanny 168, what a great comic) and the New Mutants went off a couple times when Xavier said "no." But this X-Force represented a different opportunity. These characters weren't the youthful teens of earlier mutant books, but characters in their later teens/early 20s, who had all been around Xavier's school and dream long enough that they were a little bored and jaded with it. Moore had them go off and try to build something for themselves.

The art for this run was from series mainstay Adam Pollina. I don't think Marvel ever recovered from losing this guy. His characters alternated between lithe and attractive and bizarrely ugly, but they wore it well. His females almost always bared their midriffs, and Pollina was so relentless with this look that he made you believe that this is the only possible style of top, and any woman who didn't wear it is impossibly out of style. His page layouts dazzled, his body language was sublime, and his art style was uniquely his own.

The entire road trip story, which ran for almost a year, is great fun, but #75 is a true gem. Moore has the team stop at the Burning Man festival, where a boatload of stuff happens. There's a fight with Selene and an animated Burning Man and guest appearances from Karma, Cannonball, and Cable, but, like all of Moore's run, it was all about balance. The focus remained squarely on the characters and advancing their story arcs. So while this issue is a wild trip through the festival, there is always space for James to reflect on his family's death and be comforted by Dani, Dani to question her place in the team, and Tabitha and Bobby feel a growing attraction to each other. Moore expertly brought this balance to his entire run, including the Operation: Zero Tolerance crossover issues, where ongoing plots and character arcs never stopped for the sake of the crossover.

John Francis Moore's run on X-Force is highly recommended stuff, with the highlight being these road trip issues (#71-81). At a time when the main X-books were floundering, he brought believable character growth, well-structured long-term plotting, and fun to a book that had always been perceived as a joke, because of its roots.