Xforce 2018 |link| Today

Characterization in this volume is lean but effective. Kid Cable, a younger, more ruthless version of the iconic Nathan Summers, serves as the moral foil. He is pragmatic to the point of coldness, believing that the ends always justify the means. In contrast, Shatterstar—a genetically engineered warrior from a violent dimension—begins to question his own purpose. Having been raised for combat, he struggles with the idea of free will. His arc culminates in a powerful moment where he refuses to execute an unarmed enemy, not out of mercy, but out of a desire to break his own programming. Deadpool, often used as comic relief, is instead portrayed as the team’s tortured conscience. His jokes are hollow, and his healing factor becomes a curse as he endures repeated, gruesome injuries for a cause he barely understands. The book asks: What does loyalty mean when you are immortal?

One of the most striking elements of the 2018 run is its visual storytelling. Dylan Burnett’s art is kinetic, jagged, and almost punk-rock in its energy. He draws violence not as choreographed ballet, but as chaotic, messy, and brutal. Panels are often crammed with motion lines, blood splatter, and distorted anatomy, reflecting the fractured mental states of the characters. This is not the clean, heroic violence of the Avengers; it is the ugly, desperate violence of cornered animals. The color palette, dominated by cold blues, harsh whites, and splashes of arterial red, reinforces the atmosphere of a techno-thriller horror story. Burnett’s design for the future-timeline “Old Man Cable” is particularly haunting—a withered, vengeful ghost who feels more like a horror villain than a mentor. xforce 2018

In the vast, interconnected web of X-Men comics, the team known as X-Force has always occupied a dark, necessary corner. Unlike the main X-Men teams, who strive for peaceful coexistence and public heroism, X-Force exists to do the jobs too dirty, too violent, or too morally ambiguous for Cyclops or Jean Grey. The 2018 volume of X-Force , written by Ed Brisson with art by Dylan Burnett, arrived at a pivotal moment in mutant history—the so-called "Age of Krakoa" was still a year away, and the mutant race was scattered, hunted, and traumatized following the events of Extermination . In this bleak landscape, Brisson and Burnett crafted a lean, mean, and surprisingly philosophical story about what it means to be a weapon when you are no longer sure who the enemy is. Characterization in this volume is lean but effective