X-Force.  Oh god.

The nicest thing to be said about X-Force #6 is that at least it's the final issue.  Remarkably, the series ends by killing off Cable.  Nicieza's script throws in a line to the effect of "Oh, I'm sure he survived", which I can only take to mean that Marvel are planning to kind of forget about the whole thing.

Since this is an X-Force series, about half the team aren't even in the final issue, which consists of Cable, Cannonball, Shatterstar, an alternate future version of Domino inexplicably dressed as Stryfe, Wolverine and half of the Fantastic Four fighting a big monster thingie for the entire issue.  It's downright incoherent crap.  The Helix turn up for no apparent reason, and Liefeld can't even make up his mind how many of them are there. 

It doesn't even seem to occur to Liefeld that when the big finale involves Cable killing the villain with the magic sword from issue #1, it might perhaps be nice to draw him using the magic sword from issue #1, rather than a different weapon entirely.  I mean, come on, that's about as basic as it gets.  I think there's possibly meant to be some sort of idea about Cable absorbing the sword into his body, but it's less than clear, and it would be a remarkably stupid idea if that was the intention.  It's a fucking sword.  Hit the bad guy with it.  It's not hard!

Nicieza makes a futile attempt to lend some sort of weight to the proceedings, but it's completely beyond salvage.  Some people defend Rob Liefeld's comics by saying that people like me just don't have time for brainless entertainment.  I have no problem with brainless entertainment.  But to be brainless entertainment, a comic must first qualify as entertainment.  X-Force, unfortunately, only qualifies as brainless.

This really is an offensively terrible comic.  Does anyone involved in this series, with the possible exception of Liefeld himself, actually believe it deserved to see the light of day?  What exactly did editor Mike Marts contribute to this fiasco? 

Pander to the lowest common denominator if you want, but at least do it well.  This series was little more than a public declaration that Marvel will publish anything, absolutely anything, irrespective of quality, if they think it'll make a quick buck.  And even if that's true, it's probably best not to be quite so obvious about it.

Rating: D-

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