Hands up if you're remotely interested in X-Force: Shatterstar.  Yeah, me neither.

There's not much to be said about this, really.  It's notably more competent than X-Force.  At least there's a passably coherent plot.  Shatterstar and Pierce join forces to tail the woman who wanted Pierce dead, and a big fight ensues.  Spiral turns out to be behind it all.  She wants the magic sword that Pierce is guarding.  Another big fight ensues.

I didn't say it was a complicated plot.  But at least it clears a threshold of basic coherence, which is a step in the right direction.

Nonetheless, it's difficult to imagine why anyone would really be interested in this title, other than a hugely devoted Shatterstar fan.  Basically, it's Liefeld but less so - a Liefeld concept, with the worst of the rough edges removed, the plot hammered into some semblance of order, and the art slightly improved.

But none of these improvements bring the title into the realm of actually being good.  They just mean it isn't awful.  And, for those who genuinely enjoy Liefeld's work - there must be some - it means that the book lacks (or at least tones down) the elements that make him distinctive.

Utterly ignorable.

Rating: C-

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