Era #9, Part 24: Rage War

Grade: C 

The Revolution reboot comes to a close for X-Force, and with it, the end of the title (for me) This final collection continues the super-spy direction with two stories from Ian Edgington. In Rage War, the team investigates several cases in which normal families suddenly turn into monsters. The team learns that these families are Soviet-era sleeper agents finally being activated by a rogue scientist with an agenda. In Epitaph, X-Force finally discovers who has been after them, and it is someone close to Pete Wisdom.

This new espionage premise wears thin quickly. The exaggerated spy cliches (like a super-secret black-ops organization beyond the touch and even knowledge of the world's powers that happens to be run by Pete Wisdom's sister) is beyond over-the-top. The sleeper agent angle was interesting but didn't really go anywhere. To make it less appealing, Jorge Lopez's art adds to the overall messiness of the run. 

This set ends the original X-Force lineup. The title continues with a new team of media-centric heroes. I wasn't interested in following along, so this marks the end of an era that started with the New Mutants in 1983. Fortunately, the characters have "graduated" from here to become even more integrated into the core X-Men books.   

Rage War

[5-Stars] X-Force (1991) #110

[5-Stars] X-Force (1991) #111

[5-Stars] X-Force (1991) #112

[5-Stars] X-Force (1991) #113

Epitaph

[4-Stars] X-Force (1991) #114

[4-Stars] X-Force (1991) #115

Collected in Counter X: X-Force: Rage War