Things I Kind of Wish Were Still Around: Volume One

I can't remember how or why this popped into my head just now, but the more I remember Marvel Comics' X-Force/X-Statix, the more I wish they were still around in some capacity.

Honestly though, there's an appeal to something that ends after a good sized run of stories over a handful of years. X-Force/X-Statix ran regularly for three years and forty issues from 2001 through 2004, with an additional five issues in 2006; not a bad run by any stretch, and not unlike the brief runs of other things I've enjoyed (The Office, Arrested Development, Veronica Mars, Justice League Unlimited). That's not to say I enjoyed the run as it was coming out, not entirely -- while I followed the early issues of X-Force based on the previews of Mike Allred's artwork, I stopped following the series with #119. Not because of the quality of the titles, but mostly because I started my first year of college and kept mostly to series I'd been following for more than four issues in lieu of ridiculous expenses. Over the next few years I kept up with the series through the odd issue discovered in dollar bins, finding about five or six that way.

It wasn't until the release of the 2006 five issue limited series X-Statix: Deadgirl and the various character profiles in the monthly Marvel Handbooks out at the time, that my fondness for the series was stirred full-on. I started with the second volume of X-Force, figuring that since I'd read all but one of the issues in the first volume I was fine (I should add for folks curious, that the whole run started with issue #116 of X-Force, ending with issue #129, and then relaunching with #1 of X-Statix for another 26 issues). Thankfully once I'd finally tracked down a copy of the out-of-print first volume I found a nice twist at the end of the missing issue. From there I started buying up X-Statix volumes, finding all but the third which introduced a Princess Diana analogue intended to have been the real-deal until Marvel got squeamish (and, if allegations are true, it was this bit of business that upset the X-Statix boat and lead to the end of the run).

The bright side though to a run being cut short like that in mid-stream is that it doesn't run the risk of growing stale or repetitive, and because it was contained to a few years it usually hasn't gone off in different directions and tangents with new characters (usually at the expense of older characters) and reads or watches more like a novel. And because the run was so short it's easier to review the whole thing in one go over a few days or a week, the long-form equivalent of a single-sitting, I suppose.

(It's at this point I pause to caution that, while reviewing this posting before hitting the "publish" button, I noticed a few spoilers below, so if you haven't read the series or if it's been long enough that some of the story bits aren't widely known, I advise against continuing, at least until the last image.)

Peter Milligan and Mike Allred crafted a remarkable series that was set in Marvel Comics Universe but fit into it's own little corner, only touching lightly on events or situations happening concurrently (while similarly being seldom referred to during to during said events or situations outside of the rare group-shot or handbook). Sure the "high-concept" take on the book was superheroes-as-celebrities, but the big appeal was in the characters. The four leads -- the Orphan, the Anarchist, U-Go Girl (who, despite having died at the end of the first major arc, continued to factor heavily into the series), and Doop, quite possibly Marvel Comics most ingenious creation: A mutant potato with it's own language and power on-par with the Mighty Thor. It's understandable that X-Force/X-Statix has been pretty much kept to the side of things when one of it's leads bears that kind of character description, but come on -- that's bloody brilliant. One of my favorite call-backs to the series in Marvel's similarly clever but more successful series Runaways is the Doop doll owned by one of the leads. I could give or take the X-Men story by Milligan that brought back Doop because of how oblique the whole thing was though.

Sadly the whole X-Force/X-Statix series is out of print. I really wish they'd revisit it down the line since the run stands as one of my favorites and, like myself, I'm sure Marvel would find new fans for the series who missed out the first time. It's really an example of comic book perfection for me. Not to say it doesn't falter or that the quality is consistently top-notch, but it's emensly enjoyable and ultimately satisfying -- even the Deadgirl series, which is a nice coda for the run, wrapped up in a engaging bit of story in it's own right. If you, dear reader, are lucky enough to find either the issues are collected editions, I heartily recommend snapping them up, since you're in for a treat.

And that's the story of something I kind of wish was still around (but it'd be fine that it isn't, so long as the books were still in print).