Era #9, Part 12: Armageddon Now

Grade: B

John Francis Moore and Jimmy Cheung continue their run with a story that focuses on loyalty. Jessie Bedlam found X-Force while he was looking for help to find his brother. The team accepted Jessie into their trust, but Jessie is immediately put into a position where he must choose his new friends or his only family. Christopher Bedlam (now called King Bedlam) now leads the New Hellions which includes new characters Paradigm and Switch along with an apparently resurrected Tarot (killed by Fitzroy in Era #06, Part 02), former X-Force member Feral, and former New Mutant Magma.

King Bedlam is more of a nuanced character than he might first appear. Emma Frost attempted to recruit him into the original Hellions, but he elected not to fight in somebody else's war. Instead, he chose to wage war against humans in a way that allows him to profit from the conflict.

I have two issues with the run. Jimmy Cheung draws the team a younger and innocent. His artwork doesn't jive with the premise of the book of rebelling 20-somethings with para-military tendencies. This is also ANOTHER storyline in which X-Force is under the control of the enemy (as recently as the last post, Era #08, Part 15). Maybe this a subtle hint on how easily angry youth can be manipulated, but it seems overused in this title.

All-in-all, Armageddon Man is one of the better John Francis Moore tales. Jessie makes a fateful decision that he must live with, Feral again shows why she is so dangerous, and Siryn must deal with the loss of her powers.

[3-Stars] X-Force #87 - "Family Matters" Jessie Bedlam finally finds his long-lost brother, but the discovery tests his loyalty to X-Force. Christopher Bedlam now goes by the name King Bedlam and leads the New Hellions.

[3-Stars] X-Force #88 - "Blood & Betrayal" King Bedlam and the New Hellions captured and enslaved X-Force to help release and unleash the Armageddon Man, a mutant so powerful that he was imprisoned and hidden away by the US military in 1959.

[3-Stars] X-Force #89 - "Hellions Triumphant!" The New Hellions capture Senator Owen Danville, the commanding officer of the unit that originally discovered, contained and imprisoned the Armageddon Man. King Bedlam wants the Senator to be present when they reawaken the powerful mutant. He also wants the retired general to negotiate a sizable ransom with the US government to prevent the destruction that the respected Senator knows first-hand will result from the Armageddon Man's release.

[3-Stars] X-Force #90 - "Rude Awakening" King Bedlam learns too late that he is unable to control the Armageddon Man and escapes with the New Hellions leaving X-Force to deal with the powerful, and very angry, mutant. In the final battle between the two teams, Feral literally goes for the jugular severally damaging Siryn's larynx, the source of her mutant powers.

[3-Stars] X-Force #91 - "Fallout" Siryn wanders San Fransisco trying to deal with the loss of her voice and her power. Bobby and Tabitha break up just minutes before he is picked up by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for overstaying his student visa.