X-FORCE #12 – July 1992

Traitors To The Cause

Credits: Rob Liefeld (plot), Fabian Nicieza (script), Mark Pacella (penciler), Dan Panosian (inks), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), John Cebollero (colors)

Summary

In Madripoor, Gideon recruits Crule to kill Cable. When he returns to Denver, Gideon pummels Sunspot for asking too many questions and wasting his time. Now that X-Force knows that Domino is a spy (but not that she’s an imposter), Cable makes plans to fake the team’s death and destroy their headquarters. Weapon Prime approaches X-Force’s headquarters just as Cable announces that the team is going after Tolliver.

Continuity Notes

Gideon’s mutant power is revealed to be the ability to duplicate the “genetic-energy templates of any super human” in his proximity.

Vanessa, disguised as Domino, claims that Tolliver sent her to spy on Cable because he wants revenge for the job Cable “screwed up in Cordillera de Carabaya.”

Rictor claims that he watched Cable kill his father over ten years ago.

Review

This is another issue in the transitional period before Rob Liefeld is officially gone. It’s a pretty odd time for this series, characterized by a heavy focus on the X-Ternals, imitation Liefeld art, and Cable missing half of his face. The coloring during this run also looks a little washed out for some reason. I can understand the reasoning behind hiring a Liefeld stand-in to finish the story, but it really doesn’t work (aside from the obvious reasons). Rather than coming across as a seamless transition, these issues just seem like a pale imitation of earlier issues of the series. My memory is that this goes on until the X-Cutioner’s Song crossover, which is about four issues away. Greg Capullo will take over as artist, giving the title a huge boost in quality.

Weapon Prime is given a full introduction in this issue. Its members are Bridge, Kane, Wendigo, Tygerstryke, Rictor, and Grizzly. Some of the characters had cameos in the last issue, but this is the first time that every member is named. I’m assuming that Tygerstryke is making his first appearance in this storyline; I don’t think anyone with a name like “Tygerstryke” was showing up in Quasar. He’s not given any dialogue, or any reason for wanting to hunt Cable. Why exactly Wendigo is there is also a mystery. Even as a kid I was bored by these issues, and I think the poor introduction of Weapon Prime is one of the main reasons.