Just look at Wolverine when they get to Angel’s compound and Angel wants to help. All Logan says to him is Go Find Elixir if you want to help so bad. The dude commands respect in every room he is in. People hate him, but he’s a tough guy.

The writing is amazing. Kyle and Yost kick it out of the park. Warpath isn’t a killer, but because they hurt his friend Rahne, he is going all-out to enact his revenge. To get those who hurt those he cared about (including Caliban) it is all or nothing for him now. Wolverine is silent through most of the book. This isn’t his book. This is X-Force.

But the entire team tears through a room of people like a hot knife through butter. And the entire team they are searching to find Rahne we are getting more background on the actions of the Purifiers and Bastion in particular.

They found the Magus (part of Warlock from the New Mutants) and the Purifiers are using him. After finding Magus, the Purifiers are going cross-country to find enemies of the mutants.

SPOILERS ON!!

They exhume the body of Graydon Creed. They find Cameron Hodge. They retrieve Donald Pierce. They stop the execution of the Leper Queen (she being a slightly smaller character mainly only used during Pete Milligan’s X-run). We get a bunch of mutant haters together in a room, and what happens?

The final splash is a 2 page spread. Like the last summer, Bastion sits in the middle. Flanked by Creed, Pierce, Leper Queen, Bolivar Trask, Hodge, and Stephen Lang. All of whom are either being powered by the Magus or being amplified and brought to life by it. But man is it a starkly strange thing to see all of these murderers of the mutant race all together, in one room, ready to start a new war.

X-Force really has their work cut out for them.

Clayton Crain. A lot can be made of his artwork. It’s too painterly. It’s too computer-generated. I say: it is wonderful. It isn’t wooden like other artists who use paints and computer graphics. It is action-oriented. It is strong when it needs to be and subtle when it needs to be subtle. It is such wonderful work that I feel bad for the day when his work starts getting late (which judging by the upcoming schedule there will a be a lull in it coming soon). But alas, I love his art. And thankfully, Marvel isn’t being stupid. They are filling those late months or months off with One-shots and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, they can get a good fill-in artist to fill in those months he can’t hit. Just like they did on Uncanny with Billy Tan and Clay Henry. Please?

Final word:
Book of the week. Easy. This book does it all: espionage, intrigue, love, war, bloody gruesome deaths and a mystery very deeply rooted in X-history. The book to beat, and the best of the new bunch following Messiah CompleX. Keep reading, it looks like it’s going to get better from here.