"X-Force: Zero Tolerance” by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber

 

            The following is a review of “X-Force: Zero Tolerance” graphic novel by John Francis Moore & Joseph Harris with Jay Faerber as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            X-Force is a mutant strike team, organized by Nathan Summers/Cable, to fight for mutant rights in a world that hates and fears them. Recently, the United States government has instated Operation: Zero Tolerance to arrest mutants to be held in a detainment facility. It is headed by Bastion. The Sentinels are giant mutant hunting robots, but Bastion has become deceptive and created the Prime Sentinels, robots that either look like or are partially ordinary human beings, so effective that telling a human being or Prime Sentinel apart by looks alone is almost impossible. X-Force has now found themselves in the crosshairs of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

            Gloria Munoz/Risque finds herself on the run from the mutant Caliban, who is able to locate other mutants. Risque had been romantically involved in the past with X-Force member James Proudstar/Warpath, but the relationship ended after Risque’s betrayal to X-Force, and since Warpath’s romantic feeling for X-Force deputy leader Theresa Rourke/Siryn, who only thinks of Warpath as a best friend. Risque escapes, but X-Force is able to subdue Caliban and bring him to their base, the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where Cable takes care of Caliban’s fractured, childlike psyche. Meanwhile, Risque has forced Warpath into working for the mutant Sledge, whose friend the teleporting mutant the Vanisher has been stuck between dimensions. X-Force associate Domino, who goes by many different aliases, has been taken in by the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistic Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.), where she finds out that former New Mutants member Danielle “Dani” Moonstar is actually an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

            Dani has infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.), a mutant terrorist organization founded by evil mutant Stryfe, a clone of Cable, believed to now be vanquished. Zero Tolerance has found the location of the M.L.F. and sent in a task force to apprehend the extremist mutants.

            In the past, Warpath and his now deceased older brother John Proudstar (the mutant who would go on the be called Thunderbird) along with fellow Apache Native American Michael Whitecloud had encountered twisted geneticist Doctor Edwin Martynec, who has purposely mutated himself into a monstrous being in his illegal genetics laboratory where he was attempting to create a race of warped super beings.

            Back in the present, X-Force is assaulted by Zero Tolerance commander Ekaterina Gryaznova, a Prime Sentinel with a grudge against Domino. X-Force members Tabitha Smith/Meltdown, Julio Richter/Rictor, and Shatterstar are all apprehended, and Zero Tolerance launches an assault upon the Xavier Institute, forcing Cable and Caliban to escape. Domino is apprehended as well, and Gryaznova placed in implant into Domino, which negates Domino’s probability powers and slows down her movements. Once all the members of X-Force are reunited, Cable sets up the members with false identities, but this causes a schism, and X-Force decides to cut their ties with Cable and hit the road on their own.

            Roberto DaCosta/Sunspot, finds his trust fund blocked and X-Force realize they are broke, and between stops they must stay at cheap, seedy motels. At one stop, X-Force rescue Richie Alegria, a young man from a rich family, who offers to hire X-Force to be his bodyguards. Dani, Sunspot, and Meltdown agree, but they discover Richie to be less than savory, and the team again leaves.

            Meanwhile, Siryn and Warpath hunt down Michael Whitecloud, who has information about the massacre of Warpath’s tribe. Also, Reignfire starts his evil machinations to torment Sunspot, who are believed to be the same entity, but Reignfire was actually an escaped lab experiment. On the trail of information, Siryn and Warpath have an encounter with Edwin Martynec, who is also searching for the same information that Warpath is. Martynec then sends Warpath to the underworld where he has an encounter with Stryfe. Dani, who has had a connection with the Valkyries, is able to lead the rest of X-Force to rescue Warpath.

            The team then travels to Texas during the Exploding Colossal Man Shindig and Hullaballoo, an eclectic yearly festival. Unbeknownst to X-Force, this is also during a convergence, which evil mutant Selene wishes to take advantage of the event to gain incredible, godlike powers. Warpath is able to intercept this, but accidentally gives powers to the Exploding Colossal Man effigy. At the festival, Sunspot and Meltdown start to feel a mutual attraction, but exploration to these feelings is interrupted by the arrival of Samuel Guthrie/Cannonball, former member of X-Force, current member of the X-Men, Sunspot’s best friend, and Meltdown’s current long-distance boyfriend.

            Villains Mojo and Arcade attempt to defeat Domino by setting up a trap, forcing her to enter into gladiatorial battles to save the life of Rictor.

            Cannonball accidentally discovers Meltdown and Sunspot kissing and leaves X-Force, which he was considering rejoining, but leaves after the betrayal of his best friend and girlfriend.

            X-Force stop at the town of Almost Reno, New Mexico and investigate a series of mysterious deaths.

            X-Force stops at the home of old friend, Sally Blevins/Skids, who wishes to stay out of the super hero gig and goes to college.

            Reignfire then takes Siryn, Dani, Sally, Meltdown, and Sunspot hostage in Las Vegas, but doesn’t take into account the absence of Warpath, who comes to his friends’ and teammates’ aid, forcing a major confrontation between X-Force and Reignfire. Sunspot, whose trust funds had been frozen due to the belief that Sunspot and Reignfire were the same person, gets his fortune back and purchases a warehouse in San Francisco to serve as X-Force’s new base, but first, the team takes a vacation to Hawaii, where the find themselves in conflict with Risque, Sledge, and Vanisher to prevent the species known as the Deviants from setting off every volcano in Hawaii and destroying the islands, teaming up with Hawaiian goddess Pele.

            Upon returning to their base, they find that a mutant named Jesse Aaronson has found his way in. Jesse is looking for his missing brother. Jesse had been aiding Domino to get her revenge on Gryaznova in exchange for her aid in finding his brother. Gryaznova now goes by the name Gryphon. X-Force reluctantly agree to accept Jesse as a probationary member of the team.

            Cannonball returns to his hometown of Cumberland, Kentucky to visit his family, reconsidering his membership in the X-Men and ends up aiding Deviants to escape from the Sword. Arcadia, a Deviant, accidentally teleports X-Force into the heat of the battle, and after the successful rescue mission, Cannonball asks to rejoin X-Force.

 

            If you’ve never read a review of mine, I will inform you that this was a synopsis of a Marvel Epic Collection, a graphic novel which contains a rather large amount of content. As you can tell by my more than 1,000 words that a lot happened in this book.

            I have to say that I really enjoyed this graphic novel. I’d never really read much of the original run of X-Force, so I thought upon purchase that I may have some difficulties reading something I know nothing about, especially since this book was only one side of a comic event called “Operation: Zero Tolerance” which I have never read before, but I picked up on the story right from the beginning. I will say, don’t confuse this graphic novel with the graphic novel “Operation: Zero Tolerance” because the content of that graphic novel has very little connection with this graphic novel I am reviewing, pretty much aside from the title. Also, the entire graphic novel was not reserved to “Operation: Zero Tolerance,” there was a lot of other content as well, as you could probably tell if you’re still actually reading this (and if you’re still here and plan to keep reading this, you are THE BEST!). It’s somewhat rare for me to enjoy every story in an Epic Collection, but I will say I enjoyed pretty much the entire graphic novel’s stories. And, of course, this is a GRAPHIC novel, which means that the stories are accompanied with art. I’ve talked about that with almost every Epic Collection I’ve reviewed. I always think of a graphic novel as half-and-half: half of the book is the story, half is the art. You could have a graphic novel with the most amazing story you’ve ever read, but the artwork was a complete eyesore, or one with a horrendous story, but the artwork just makes up for it slightly. I found the artwork in this graphic novel to be amazing. I’ve said before that comic book art has standards depending on the time period of the penciling. I’ve also said I love comic book art from the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s, and the content of this book were published between 1997-1998, which was basically why I picked this Epic Collection to purchase. Let me tell you, this book did not disappoint with the artwork. I’ve also said that because of comic book art changing over the years that it is good artwork for the time or just good art. I have to say in my opinion that the artwork in this graphic novel still holds true today. I feel that this was just good art, period. My eyes were very pleased to look at the artwork in this graphic novel. So, I loved the stories, I loved the art, I just loved the graphic novel, one of my better purchases, I have to say. Some of my reviews have talked about how dismal I found the graphic novel to be, whether story, art, or both. Nothing in this book disappointed me.

            I will say that if you are considering reading this book, I feel like you should have some background knowledge about the characters before you read this, whether you’ve read Marvel X-Teams graphic novels either before this was published or from more recent years, but otherwise, I feel that this is easy enough to pick up with little knowledge. To me, the book felt pretty much self-contained and doesn’t require you to have read the entire series before this, but I still feel you might need a little background knowledge if you’re considering reading this book based on just this review, this might not be the perfect jump-in point or to start reading this even if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before, but I still think first timers should be able to pick it up easily enough.

            Next up is, in my opinion, the most important part of the review, but feel free to disagree with that statement: my numeric score. It’s simple enough to explain. It’s based on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst score, ten being the best score. In this case, I have to take everything about this graphic novel into consideration, the story and the art. Now, you can expect a great score based on how I ranted and raved for so long. BUT! I just can’t quite call this perfect. Sadly, I have to give this a nine. There’s just something, I don’t know what, but there’s something preventing me from giving this graphic novel a ten. I felt this was a great graphic novel, but it’s just not perfect. There must have been a little flaw in one of the stories, I can’t quite place its exact location.

            Anyway, you probably want to know if I recommend reading this graphic novel? Now, if you’ve read this entire review and are now curious about if you should read this or not, then just read it. I wasn’t disappointed, and if you read the actual graphic novel, I have a hunch that you’ll probably like it. I hope that I didn’t give too many spoilers in this review, there’s possibly a chance of it, but I hope I didn’t ruin too many surprises, I tried to be as vague as I could. Still, if you liked this review and are interested in reading this graphic novel, I say go for it.

            Now, before I let you go after 2,000 words, I will tell you that this blog has dozens of reviews, mostly Marvel prose novels, Marvel comic events, and Marvel Epic Collections, but you might find some other things here and there. I am an unsuccessful journalist, so I do this blog to feel like I’m doing something in the field I have a bachelors’ degree in, and I do this for free, so I hope you appreciate it, but I also write editorials, essays, short fiction, short nonfiction and poetry on this blog as well, so please feel free to keep browsing, I’ve done over 100 posts, you might find something else you like. Please feel free to like, comment, or share this or whatever you do on these websites, and I leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!