﻿‘Deadpool 2’ is the cinematic debut of X-Force,
and I’m shocked it took this long to adapt one of the defining teams of the ‘90s comics boom.
Its debut issue moved over 5 million copies,
to this day the second highest selling comic ever,
just behind Jim Lee’s 'X-Men' #1.
But despite all of the cartoons, movies, and game adaptations of the X-Men,
‘Deadpool 2’ is the first time we’re actually seeing the militaristic mutants in action,
so it’s time for a little refresher.
Hit it!
I’m Andrew, and today, I’m asking a simple question:
Who the F?ck is X-Force?
When ‘The New Mutants’ premiered in 1982,
they were a refreshing throwback to the days when the X-Men were actually kids in a school,
instead of angsty 30-year-olds and ancient Canadians.
Your country needs you!
I'm Canadian.
It started off strong,
but sales took a dive until a rising artist named Rob Liefeld took over in 1989.
The book rocketed to the top of the charts,
making instant stars of its debuting characters like Cable, Domino, and of course, Deadpool.
Liefeld and co-writer Fabian Nicieza transformed the group of awkward teens,
into an elite paramilitary unit.
One that could do the dirty work Charles Xavier’s goody-two-shoes team couldn’t.
Kinda like 'Suicide Squad,' but better.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Garbage.
With issue 100,
‘The New Mutants’ was cancelled and relaunched with a new title that better suited the book’s take-no-prisoners style:
‘X-Force.’
And leading the charge was a mysterious mutant mercenary from the future:
The man called
Cable
He was created to be the polar opposite of Professor X,
a man of action who took no crap and had no time for changing hearts and minds.
Do you think the world has been changed?
Right now, Beast, I really don't care.
But beyond that,
Cable’s creators never really thought about who he was or where he came from,
he was just an ass-kicking drill sergeant with a bionic arm,
a glowing eye,
and plentiful pouches.
I loved him a lot as a kid, it's one of the only action figures I've ever owned. Cable and the Riddler.
Wow, you wanna talk about a dream match right there.
Yeah, maybe Cable's got this one. 'Riddle me this, Cable!'
Meanwhile, Cyclops and his then-wife Madelyne Pryor,
an evil clone of Jean Grey, by the way,
had just given birth to a bouncing baby boy named Nathan Summers.
Apocalypse infected their son with a techno-organic virus that turned his limbs into living metal,
and with no hope for a cure in the present day,
Nathan’s parents tearfully sent him into a war-torn future.
If that wasn’t complicated enough,
Marvel decided to merge the baby’s origin with Cable’s,
and revealed that the grizzled, grey-haired gunslinger was a grown up baby Nate,
hardened by decades in a post-apocalyptic hellhole,
and packing a helluva punch.
Mr. Sinister created the Jean Grey clone to breed the most powerful mutant on the planet,
and the resulting child was bursting with telepathic and telekinetic potential.
Unfortunately, Cable couldn’t tap into his vast psionic power,
because he had to constantly use it to hold back the techno-organic virus.
You know how when you think about breathing,
you stop doing it subconsciously and have to focus on it?
What kind of place is this?!
It’s kind of like that, only if Cable lets up his psychic hold on the virus,
it’ll mutate out of control and kill him.
His power levels have waxed and waned over the years,
but Cable remains one of the most formidable fighters in the X-Men family.
Still, a general is only as good as his soldiers.
so let’s move on to the next member of X-Force in ‘Deadpool 2,’
Bedlam
Although 616 Bedlam is a martial arts expert,
he’s more useful as a walking EMP, or electromagnetic pulse.
That means he can fry electronics,
complex machinery,
and even the human brain using his bioelectric field.
Bedlam has a pretty deep backstory involving his long-lost evil brother,
who he tag-teamed with Domino to take down,
but for the movie,
it looks like they’re mostly using the character for his cool codename and building on that,
kind of like Bill Skarsgard's character,
Zeitgeist
X-Force has gone through a lot of iterations over the years,
but none as weird as the 2001 run by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred.
They re-imagined the team as pre-packaged pop stars,
who were more concerned with their Q-rating than the fate of mutantkind.
Their leader was Axel Cluney, A.K.A. Zeitgeist,
a mutant with the power to spew acid vomit from his mouth.
It’s not exactly the Phoenix Force,
and it didn’t help him much against the helicopter that disemboweled him in his very first appearance.
Still, the ‘Deadpool’ series has a habit of making stars from one-shot characters,
And you are...?
just look at Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
Negasonic Teenage what the shit?!
There’s always a chance that Zeitgeist could be the movie’s breakout character.
That is, if
Shatterstar
doesn’t steal the show.
Out of all of Rob Liefeld’s creations,
I think I’m most surprised to see Shatterstar on screen.
I’m not trying to get all ‘Yellow Spandex’ here,
that's Kya's wheelhouse and she would actually probably literally kill me,
but my dude is rocking one of the most ludicrous superhero looks since Superman went electric.
He’s got some amateur boxing headgear,
dual-bladed katanas with a spiky grip because why not,
and the ultra-rare pony and pigtails combo.
It's like if somebody in an RPG found a bunch of endgame equipment and put it all on,
and it was just so crazily mismoshed.
Whaddya think? Pretty slick, huh?
All I need to complete the outfit is-- Ahh!
I shouldn’t be too hard on the guy, though,
after all, he’s from another dimension.
Mojoworld, to be precise,
where he was genetically engineered to compete in ‘Running Man’ style gladiator bouts.
Shatterstar is also from 100 years in the future,
so he’s not just an alien,
he’s a time-travelling alien.
Maybe he has two hearts!
His origins and powers have always been kind of murky,
but he’s got superhuman strength, speed, and agility,
and on occasion he’s been known to teleport and bust out a shockwave or two.
Sounds like he belongs in the DC Universe.
More importantly, Shatterstar is also one of the all-too-few queer superheroes.
His complex sexual identity broke new ground for LGBTQ+ representation in comics,
and his relationship with fellow X-Man Rictor led to the first male-male kiss in Marvel history.
I’m really hoping ‘Deadpool 2’ doesn’t use it for joke fodder,
although they’ve made some surprisingly progressive choices,
like casting Zazie Beetz as the dynamic
Domino
Governments in the Marvel Universe have an unsettling obsession with eugenics,
just look at the first X-Men movie, it's all,
'I wanna be a mutant but not really but also mutants are bad but also I'm a fishman but also I can melt through bars and now I'm water.'
Senator Kelly 2020.
Domino was the result of yet another program designed to breed the perfect mutant.
Everyone wants the perfect mutant, it's like being the 'It' girl in 2005 except you get programmed to kill people.
After she escaped, Domino honed her fighting skills as a ruthless mercenary willing to take on all targets.
She and Cable helped form the paramilitary group Six Pack,
which led to her joining and eventually leading X-Force.
Not bad for someone who’s superpower gets shit on by Deadpool.
I'm lucky.
Luck isn't a superpower. And certainly not very cinematic!
Yes it is.
Let's meet in the middle and say no it isn't.
I’m gonna have to disagree with DP here,
because Luck can absolutely be cinematic,
once you understand how it works.
Domino possesses telekinesis on a subconscious level.
She’s not directly in control of her power,
but it kicks in whenever she’s in danger to subtly shift the odds in her favor.
New plan! Use all of your imaginary powers to stop Cable from killing that kid!
If someone puts a gun to her head and pulls the trigger,
her power causes a jam.
If she gets launched into the air by a massive explosion,
she’ll psionically maneuver herself into the safe and comfy arms of an inflatable panda.
At one point she even managed to take out two Sentinels with one extremely unlikely bolt of lightning.
It’s really cool, and can totally work on screen… if you try.
I mean, probability manipulation is supposed to be the Scarlet Witch’s thing too,
but the MCU didn’t bother and just gave her vague wispy magic instead.
A lot of it is like this:
Really takes me out of it. Scarlet Witch is so much cooler in the comic books.
Elizabeth Olson you need to talk to somebody, get a good costume, and better powers because you could be messing stuff up.
Still, I bet a talented action director like David Leitch can play with the power in some really clever and surprising ways.
Speaking of surprises, ‘Deadpool 2’ introduces a mysterious, brand new member of X-Force:
Peter
Peter has no powers, no costume and no codename.
So obviously,
he’s in.
Any power you wanna tell us about?
I have both type 1 and 2 diabetes.
As it turns out we are looking for someone with diabetes.
Peter's your man.
Naturally, this has theorists in a tizzy speculating over his ‘real’ identity.
Could he be Pete Wisdom, the British secret agent extraordinaire?
Morph or Mystique in disguise?
Hugh Jackman in a ‘Mission Impossible’ style mask?
Or maybe… JUST MAYBE…
He’s a joke character with no deeper meaning besides
‘it’s hilarious to have a normal-ass dude running around with mutant maniacs.’
X-FORCE!!!
We'll have to wait for the movie to find out,
but we won’t have to wait much longer for more X-Force.
The slightly derivative team is shooting a spinoff this fall,
just before the Disney/Fox merger is scheduled to finalize.
It could be the last stand for a group we’ve only just gotten to know.
It’s an extremely strange, borderline parody version of X-Force,
but it’s X-Force nonetheless.