X-Force #15 Art

X-Force #15 Spoilers

Spoilers: We pick up from #14, with UberHope fretting in the lab over how to fix Fantomex, while Dr. Nemesis continues to churn out Cable copies to send after UberFanto. UberFanto breaks into the lab, with Hope attempting to talk him down only to be rebuffed by E.V.A, who notes that they "purged" her once and can do it again. With his stasis tank shattered, Cable - the original model - enters the fray, using his psimitar to channel off some of the Volga effect and stretch out what few minutes he's got left, though even with him the rest of the squad can't hold UberFanto for long. However, E.V.A's choice of words gives Hope an idea, as she recalls that Volga said a 'full psychic burnout' would be needed to cure the process. So Hope uses her borrowed telepathy to absorb all the mental garbage and inadequacies from Psylocke, Marrow, Domino, Nemesis and even Forgetmenot, and focuses it into a physical object - a black heart - that she then forces into UberFanto. Fantomex, being the 'perfect man', can't handle it and demands E.V.A execute a full systems purge on himself, which takes out the psychic trash...and robs him of his new powers. The Volga effect is thus cured. Hope copies it while Fantomex gets his ass handed to him by the rest of the team, before Psylocke psycho-stabs him, which seems to destroy E.V.A and leaves him free to understand his own failings for once. Two weeks later, Cable awakes in a hospital bed, free of the Volga effect and in possession of two eyes and two arms, thanks to Mojoworld science apparently. Hope talks to him through a nearby computer, telling him that Fantomex is presently docile, Mojo has been sent home, and that though she gets he wasn't fully responsible for the bad things his copies did, she can't be around him without thinking about it. Cable understands and tells her X-Force will be waiting when she's ready. Hope corrects him, though - HE'S the one who's off the team.

X-Position: Si Spurrier

CBR: Si Spurrier joins us for one final "X-Force" X-Position and answers your questions about everything from the nature of continuity to Psylocke's addiction to killing and his future -- possibly "Secret Wars"-shaped -- post-"X-Force" plans .

In your run on "X-Force" you got to use a lot of characters with really long and sometimes confusing pasts, like Psylocke, Cable and Fantomex. How do you as a writer distill all the discrepancies and decades of continuity down into something you can use? Did "X-Force" provide any unique difficulties?

Spurrier: Continuity's something you have to be a bit grown-up about, y'know? I think all of us -- as Marvel readers and fans, I mean -- have a very sophisticated inbuilt capacity for dealing with this stuff. Oh sure, there's the noisy 1% who're so dedicated to the minutiae that any perceived adjustment or realignment, no matter how positive, will always be met with outrage. Remember: factions speak louder than herds.

But most of us -- reasonable human fiction-consumers, I mean -- are capable of regarding the tangled histories of our favorite characters with impressive flexibility. I'd argue it's a similar psychology to that of mythology or legend. We stow-away details of these characters' lives, but if something new comes along which doesn't quite align -- no biggie. As long as the spirit of the character is retained -- or improved! Or evolved! -- then the new stuff overwrites the old. It's never a question of Fact vs Fact; it's just one folklore syncretizing with, and eventually overlying, another. You only really run into trouble when the retcons are tacitly less positive than the former canon. Then, no matter how much the writer or publisher insists this is for the good of the character, and it'll pay dividends in the long run -- and it usually will -- readers will struggle not to feel robbed of something they formerly cherished. That's the price of a longform narrative, I'm afraid. You don't get to have a continuum of happy endings.

Anyway, this relationship between fans and continuity constitutes a lot of pretty astonishing mental acrobatics, and we're all doing it 100% of the time whilst reading comics. We're endlessly making these subconscious abstractions -- glossing-over stuff which doesn't make sense; deliberately ignoring details which don't fit or which seem crass; forgiving outright mistakes -- because we love the characters, we love the stories, and the payoff is so much greater than the investment. It's remarkable and very special.

In terms of my work with "X-Force," it all played rather neatly into my mischievous schemes. As I've said elsewhere, "X-Force" feels like one of the only books where it makes sense to deliberately face up to some of the inherent problems with the superhero genre, which would be subconsciously waved-away (as described above) in any other title. In fact, it felt like the sort of book where it would've been irresponsible not to confront these things. Namely: if you've spent your entire life as a warrior, an ideologue, a crusader, a dirtier-of-one's-own-hands, then you better believe you're going to be screwed-up in a lot of creative ways.

In that sense "X-Force" was far less concerned with the fiddly detail of the characters' continuity than it was with the emotional and behavioral baggage which derived from it all. The challenge in each character's case was not only to ponder how he or she would really feel about the world, but also to invent the ways that each of them can continue to function, rather than going stark staring bugfuck mental.

I mean... if you want to get really real about this stuff -- like, assume that all the continuity is 100% real and accurate and unchangeable, assume that your favorite heroes spend all day every day fighting, bleeding, getting smashed-up, seeing people die, saving lives, failing to save lives, having a unique and privileged view of the world, and yet still somehow manage to crack wise, have pool parties and seem like well-adjusted people -- then I'm afraid you're obligated to come to the conclusion that they're all absolutely and rabidly insane.

Obviously that's a ghastly and very unsatisfying conclusion -- and a betrayal of the stories we all love -- so instead (for 99% of super-hero books) we make allowances, we don't get too horribly cynical about things, we cheerfully buy-in to the morality and ideological purity of the fiction... because it's such an awesome world to visit.

Alternatively -- for 1% of superhero books, like "X-Force" -- we find interesting and nasty ways to explain how and why our fucked up heroes continue to do what they do. And we don't flinch from looking at the results.

You've mentioned you had planned an arc in which Psylocke would attend a support group for her addiction to killing. Since this is not gonna happen now, how do you see Psylocke's arc in your "X-Force" run? Is her addiction now more core of who she is or do you feel she will overcome it at some point?

Spurrier: I think, in part, this goes to the stuff I was discussing before about continuity and reader sophistication. It's part and parcel of the same phenomenon that readers are able (for example) to parse the notion of a character being in two full-time titles at the same time. Even when the characterization is subtly different between the two, most of us fans are still able to reconcile the versions and enjoy the character for who they are, rather than being bumped out of the fiction by the distinctions.

I mention this to illustrate a point: even if this whole "addicted to violence" thing never gets referenced again, it becomes a part of Psylocke's mythological makeup, and readers are cheerfully entitled to put more or less importance upon it as their tastes dictate when reading newer Psylocke stories. Up until the point that another writer tacitly uses or contradicts it, these points of emotional color continue to have an influence. The beauty of all this is that -- apart from these brief windows of Present Tense Alteration -- it's not really up to the writer to determine how fans choose to clothe, animate and understand their favorite characters.

Anyway. For what it's worth, without wishing to spoil episode #15, Betsy gets a big breakthrough... of sorts. Which, I hope, will satisfy your question, as well as providing fertile ground for the sorts of lasting conjectures I mentioned above.

X-Force #15 Preview

X-Force #15
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist & Cover by: Rock He-Kim

The Story:

• THIS IS IT!
• In the final showdown with Fantomex, X-Force gives everything they have to defeat their power-mad teammate-turned-adversary!
• And in the end, not everyone will emerged unscathed... 

In Stores: February 11th, 2015

X-Force #14 Art

X-Force #14 Spoilers

Spoilers: Fantomex is on a rampage to attack and destroy the international black-ops community to prove he’s the best, but X-Force keeps getting late to his location. X-Force regroups at their HQ, and ForgetMeNot relays a message from Hope. He says Hope feels lonely and wants Marrow to hold her hand. Once she does so, the comatose Hope mimics Marrow’s bone generation and healing factor and achieves motor function. Hope starts walking and plays a video, revealing to X-Force that Cable actually has been baiting Fantomex into hitting other superspies, making him Cable’s own weapon of mass destruction. Cable is unapologetic and justifies it because now Mutant Nation is not at the bottom of the pile anymore. Hope mimics Psylocke’s powers and broadcasts X-Force’s location to Fantomex as part of her plan. Cable is upset that she’s taking leadership; Marrow kills him. ForgetMeNot tells Psylocke, Domino and Marrow to wear Fantomex down because Hope has a plan. Dr. Nemesis teleports Fantomex next to Hope’s comatose body so that she mimics his godlike powers and regains conscience. The ladies of X-Force learn to work together to take on Fantomex, which includes Psylocke doing a fastball special, throwing Marrow telekinetically at Fantomex. Meanwhile Hope, Nemesis and ForgetMeNot work on a way to cure Cable and Fantomex. Suddenly, Hope sends an army of Cable clones to help X-Force against Fantomex.

Spurrier Sends "X-Force" on a Final Mission

CBR: In today's "X-Force" #14, Simon Spurrier and artist Rock-He Kim kick off X-Force's final two-part arc which pits Cable's squad against former comrade Fantomex. Spurrier joined CBR News for an in-depth discussion about that battle, the role the relationship between Cable and his comatose daughter Hope Summers will play in the final two issues, plus a look back at his run on the book.

CBR News: Hi Simon!

Simon Spurrier: Hello! Great to be back. I warn you now that I'm in a loquacious sort of mood, so expect me to splurge all my energy and truth on the first few questions then rattle through the rest in a fit of oh-god-I've-got-deadlines-to-hit panic. 'Twas ever thus.

[Laughs] Fair enough. We appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. "X-Force" comes to a conclusion with issue #15. Did you have time to wrap up all the threads you were playing with and bring the book to what you felt was a satisfying conclusion? Is your story going to end the way you originally envisioned it?

Mmmmostly, yeah. It'll come as no surprise to readers familiar with my work that I'm fascinated by the shape of stories. If you'll forgive me the icky indulgence of paraphrasing one of my own characters (the titular "Six-Gun Gorilla," FWIW), I believe that in order for the important parts of a story to really have meaning the only thing that truly matters is that it ends. "Happy" or "sad" doesn't come into it.

That's obviously problematic when it comes to ongoing series. My approach therefore is always to construct an interlinked chain of modular stories, each with its own preoccupations and conclusions, which themselves should form the beats of a wider macro tale.

In today's climate one can realistically expect a mid-tier series to last somewhere between 10 and 24 episodes before a relaunch, change-up, paradigm-shift or whatever-it-may be (and that's a phenomenon I'm all in favor of, by the way, for some of the same reasons as the above waffle about endings). Hence it's a smart strategy to go into each gig with ideas for a good half-dozen modular stories, knowing that you probably won't end up using them all.

The upshot is that in this case there are definitely things I would have liked to touch on with X-Force but didn't -- but that would always have been the case. (Off the top of my head, there was an arc about Psylocke attending an AA-style group for people addicted to killing, only to discover everybody in the group was an assassin sent to kill the others.)

But, honestly, the macro arc is as complete and as satisfying as I could've wanted.

In the final issue of the last series that you helped close out, "X-Men Legacy," you and former "Legacy" scribes Christos Gage and Mike Carey introduced the world to the mutant known as ForgetMeNot, and in "X-Force" #13 you revealed he was still alive. What made you want to bring him back in "X-Force?" In issue #13 he almost felt like a Greek Chorus-style figure delivering some Meta messages. Was that your intention with the character? How big a role will he play in the final issues of this series?

ForgetMeNot is one of my most cherished creations. He -- quite accidentally -- ticks every box I could ever have given him. He's the antithesis of all my gentle concerns about some of the less healthy margins of superhero culture. He quietly gets on with doing what's right without expecting recognition or reward. He understands that morality isn't binary, but there are fundamental behaviors you invest-in if you intend to live in a safe and happy society. He watches and tries to understand before acting. He doesn't associate justice with the destruction-of-evil, but with the creation-of-good. That's a very important distinction. He's frightened and occasionally selfish and kind of out of shape. He gets shit wrong. And, for god's sake, his fucking super-power is to be forgotten.

He's basically the nearest you can get to a balanced fusion between a superhero character and a normal, good person.

So, I couldn't help myself putting him into "X-Force," because by the time he arrived we'd reached a point -- a point I knew would come -- that we desperately needed someone untainted to be present. It's a question of POV -- it's incredibly helpful to be able to step out of your "main" characters' heads during periods when they're behaving badly, as long as you can step back in afterward.

(The classic movie "The Apartment" does this better than anything: there's a sequence in which the protagonist is being kind of a dick, during which we seamlessly take a vacation through the eyes of his romantic-interest, up until he gets his shit together and becomes relatable again -- all done as smooth as silk. Like I said before: I'm a bit of a nerd about the shapes of stories.)

In the case of "X-Force" there's a line in episode #13 which really crystallizes some of my perverse intentions for this book. In fact it's basically a transcript of my own thoughts when I was first offered the gig, and there's literally nobody else who could've said this out loud except ForgetMeNot. It goes like this:

"It's everyone's guilty pleasure, right? Cheering-on the grim-dark heroes. That one team that gets a free pass on all its nasty £$%& because -- hey! -- it's all for the greater good! All heading to a positive outcome! "Except -- whoops -- now and then there's a mission with no outcome at all. And that's when you have to hope that people, normal people, start to wonder:

"Were they secretly just cheering for the nasty £$%& all along?"

I'm not saying that question represents the culmination of all my plans for this book, obviously. Above all else I wanted to craft a cool story about big and important stuff going on in the real world, and introduce some really fascinating conflicts amongst fascinating characters.

But yeah, down in the grimy underwear of it all I wanted to pose a quiet problem for the readers. I wanted them to see this team in action, to cheer them on, to buy-into their goals and feel thrilled by their methods. And then very... very... very... slowly... I wanted to adjust the camera and show people exactly what they'd been rooting for.

In that sense, ForgetMeNot is my cameraman.

ForgetMeNot helped thematically illustrate that turning a group of psychically scarred characters like X-Force into a covert ops team is incredibly problematic and that the team members might not necessarily be heroic anymore. Is the big difference between X-Force and, say, MI-13 ultimately that MI-13 has members like Faiza Hussain and Pete Wisdom who are more emotionally and mentally equipped to make the morally murky decisions covert operatives must make? Or do you feel there is something ultimately corrupting about secret groups like this?

"X-Force" was me doing realpolitik in a superhero world. It's that simple.

Listen -- 99% of superhero comics invest in a very beautiful, very sensible illusion. They posit that there are all these incredible men and women who spend their entire lives at war, being violent, shouldering countless burdens and battles, propagating and defending a particular ideology -- but then at the end of the day they're still fun, hopeful, likable people. I mean, you can see why that's such an attractive paradigm, right? We're talking about a willfully embraced mythology: a modernist pantheon of colorful pseudogods who are both entertainingly powerful and somehow recognizable or relatable. Better yet, they present a seductive worldview in which morality is simple and any problem can be overcome with the right combination of heart, effort and teamwork. Given how monumentally complicated and difficult most of us consider our lives to be, it's easy to see why readers gravitate to that ideal. I've written countless comics which luxuriate in that fiction and I look forward to writing countless more.

But "X-Force" isn't that book. "X-Force "is one of the very few titles whose reputation is built on slightly drawing back the curtain in one way or another. One of those ways, once upon a time, was simply to depict excessive brutality. This was still a team of superheroes as-you-know-it, but they also shot people in half and punched their heads off in between the preppy bon-mots. For me, approaching this series, it felt like that side of things had been kind of done to death, and frankly I'm a tad iffy about the value in it anyway. I wanted to keep the same spirit of taking a more hardline approach, but tackle it in a rather more psychological way.

(Here's an aside, which is actually a conversation I've heard several times between comics writers, often in the pub. Kieron [Gillen] does a bit about this in a very presentation thingy he's given a couple of times, which I expect is now online. It's about "Watchmen." See, when that seminal work first came out, the comics industry rightly lauded its sophisticated, truthful and analytical approach to what a world containing super-heroes might really be like. The word "mature" was bandied about. It was fully expected to herald a new era in super-hero fiction -- and it did, in a way. Because, actually, what the industry really took from "Watchmen" -- that "mature" approach they decided to emulate -- was nothing to do with sophistication or truth or structure, and everything to do with Rorschach breaking a guy's fingers for no good reason. We missed the point by a country mile. I digress.)

So yes, "X-Force." The One That Does It Differently. For me it felt like one of the very few titles in the Marvel canon which can not only get away with confidently presenting a more problematic view of the superhero mythology, but which arguably has a duty to do so. After all, this is a book about a group of killers attempting to make the world better through covert death and destruction. Pretending that they're all well-adjusted, non-scarred, functionally normal people would be as icky as it would be disingenuous. So hey, I thought, lean into it.

I feel like I've probably been more successful than not. Maybe. The biggest challenge has been presenting these characters' various flaws and breakages while still giving us something to root for, to hope for and even relate to, no matter how guilty or shameful that empathy might feel. I slightly regret positioning the first six episodes as a "start at the end"-style mystery -- I think there's a limit to how many different kinds of challenges you should deploy when launching a new title. But I'm delighted by how many people got it, stayed the course, and now look forward to the meaty moral mess the team's adventures have become. Most importantly, throughout, the team have always got the chance of redemption hanging above them. (And now here we are back to the stuff about Endings I mentioned above.)

Anyway, whenever it got so dark that I was afraid I'd lose people I had ForgetMeNot's perspective to borrow. If I've done it right -- as we shall find out by the end of episode #15 -- there's been an even more important redemptive candle flickering, and an even more profoundly relatable perspective built into it all from the beginning.

Perhaps the most morally damaged member of X-Force is Fantomex, who has become a full-blown adversary to the team after using the Volga Strain to transform himself into an all-powerful super human. When Fantomex turns on Cable and X-Force he comments on how the team broke their promise to help him find his other selves. This leaves me to wonder, does his almost psychotic superiority complex stem from the fact that he does not feel like a whole person? Or do you think this is something that would have plagued him even if he had remerged with his other two selves?

Interesting point. Actually, apropos of the whole "unused storylines" thing I discussed above, the possibility of Fantomex going off to rediscover his two lost selves was obviously one of the posited plots I had in reserve. For a little while I was deliberately keeping the door open for it to turn out that our Fantomex was actually the evil one -- Weapon XIII -- but in the end that felt like a cheat which somewhat undermined the core of his struggle. It's too cheap, in a book like this, to say, "People do evil things because they're evil." Anyway -- would things have turned out the same way if Fantomex had been re-merged? Probably.

For me the defining aspect of Fantomex as a character is something which (I'm guessing) was probably included as a bit of a joke in his creation. To wit: he's incapable of conceiving of anything greater than himself. That's what's caused aaaaaall of this stuff.

What's beautiful about that one little characteristic of his is that we all know someone who's a bit like that. Instant relatable-douchebag syndrome.

What's really beautiful about it is that it chimes really nicely with the realpolitik vibe I mentioned above. See, we live in a world where being as unilaterally strong as possible is the guiding principal of almost every institution there is, rather than, say, being as collectively connected as possible, or even something frilly like being as happy as possible (which to me feels like the more valuable goal). Fantomex's unfortunate delusion -- "the flaw of flawlessness" as Eva puts it -- is simply an ugly reflection of the dark war raging on the sidelines of our world at all times. Nowadays it takes the form of predator drones, Special Forces, super surveillance, economic sanctions, tighter civilian controls, censorial approaches to satire, yadda yadda yadda, but at its core exists as a simple but wretched idea: If you can't make yourself stronger from the inside, you secretly work to make everyone else weaker from the outside.

It's pretty disgusting. And it's everywhere you look. And, as we're now learning, it's the very principal which X-Force in general (and Fantomex in particular) has been blindly following all along. Only now, as we enter the final furlong, do its members start making decisions about their commitment to that principal.

These last two issues deal with the team's confrontation with Fantomex. How big does this battle become considering it's the entire against a lone superhuman former teammate?Issue #13 showed Fantomex's rampage has been a very public and global one, so can readers expect X-Force to step out of the shadows to confront him?

In a way, yes. In fact, the grand finale plays out in a strangely confined albeit epic way -- no spoilers about that -- although the crux of these last two issues is precisely about the public impression you mention.

When X-Force does confront Fantomex they'll do so without Hope Summers who was impersonating the mutant Meme, but voluntarily went back into a comatose state after seeing something off panel in issue #13 that enraged her. Will we learn what Hope saw in these final two issues? What kind of role does her relationship with Cable play in the "X-Force" finale?

I can't say much here. I struggle somewhat to answer the question because it's based on a slightly wonky assumption. Because actually Hope Summers is very much a part -- the part, you might say -- of the final chapters. And yes, we shall indeed learn what she saw.

As for her relationship with Cable, well -- again I don't want to spoil things, but I can truly say that -- despite aaaaaaaaaaall the pompous waffling I've gone through above -- that's at the raw and bleeding heart of this series, and has been all along.

You kicked "X-Force" off with artist Rock-He Kim and now he's back to draw these final two issues. How does it feel to be bringing the book to a conclusion with Rock-He? Personally I've enjoyed his flair for action and surreal fever dream-style scenes. Will these two issues give him a chance to run wild with the action and bizarre visuals?

Very much so, yeah. I think it took me a little while at the beginning to start writing for Rock-He's strengths, and he's stepped-up over the series in a huge way too. Obviously he's perfect for those big crunching splash-panel impacts, but -- more surprisingly -- he owns the batshit psychedelic stuff.

It was nice to have the exquisite Jorge Molina along for a few episodes in the middle (he does those comical beats and snarky asides incredibly well), and my "Legacy" brother Tan Eng Huat with his beautifully skewed innocence in reintroducing ForgetMeNot, but the book's clearly been defined by Rock-He's aesthetic from the start. The last two episodes go all-out to harness that: ludicrous levels of action, fizzing deployments of godlike power, and Doc Nemesis having a tantrum in the midst of it all. Perfect.

Let's start to wrap up with a look back at the series as a whole. What were some of the more challenging aspects of writing this incarnation of "X-Force?" And what were some of the more enjoyable aspects?

[Laughs] I think I've probably circled around the "challenges" drain hole with a little too much disarming honesty already. Listen, with any series -- particularly one in which you tacitly set out to do something unusual -- you're going to learn lessons along the way, and inevitably foster some couldawouldashouldas. I mentioned above that I probably went too hard too fast into the territory of WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?! STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT! That's generally a pretty handy hook to build into a series, except when you're already dealing with a bunch of less-than-flawless characters, some seriously unconventional art and a looooot of high-concept metaphor. That's arguably a few layers of difficulty too many.

Likewise, some would say I made a rod for my own back by playing up aspects of Marrow's crazy syntax in episode #1. It all gets explained and rationalized pretty quickly, of course, but I could've eased people into the frame better. (Actually, this has just reminded me there's a weird story about the lettering in episode #1, to do with the fundamental psychological differences between dialogue appearing in lowercase text and uppercase text, which caused a bit of a last-minute scramble -- but it's frankly too technical and dull to repeat here. Needless to say: lessons learned.)

Bottom line: It's bloody gold in collected form, but I reckon I could've made it a little easier on the monthly readers.

But on the whole I'm super proud of this book. It's unflinchingly dark, and I use that word with great care and design, without simply implying "it's really violent." Which, I suppose, it also is.

At the very least I can say with my hand on my heart it's about something -- actually it's about some things -- of great importance. Things to do with the world, with tribes, with struggle, with family, and above all with responsibility.

By the end of episode #15 I feel I've made my point, I've drawn together everything that's gone before, and I'm utterly satisfied with the story as an entity. That's quite a privileged position to be in.

With "X-Force" coming to an end fans only familiar with your Marvel work might be curious what to try next. Which of your current crop of titles do you recommend to them? And I understand if you have to be vague here, but is there any more Marvel work in your immediate or near future?

[Laughs] This all comes with huge thanks and respect to anyone who's made it down this far. Like I said: I was feeling loquacious today.

I'll get to the Marvel work in a moment, but regarding the non-hero work I tend to ask people to start with "Six-Gun Gorilla," which was collected in '14, with art by the amazing Jeff Stokeley (you're going to be seeing a lot more of him).

Pretty much the one thing I can assure anyone about that book is that it's not about what you think it's about. Down amidst the epic sci-fi strangeness, suicidal TV-entertainment, clockwork civil war and trippy psychic visions there's a Harvey-nominated Western about the importance of fiction, loss and endings. Trust me, it's strong.

I can't talk much about the other creator-owned projects I'm beavering away on at the moment, but they'll variously be announced over the next few months. This year's going to be very, very interesting indeed.

As for my Marvel commitments, I'm working on the Next Thing right now. I so wish I could tell you more about it, but of course I can't. All I can promise you is that it's a whole new string to my Marvel bow, the artist is one I've been wanting to work with since the very beginning of my career, and I've never been more excited to dig into a Marvel project than this one.

"X-Force" #14 by Simon Spurrier and Rock-He Kim is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

X-Force #14 Preview

X-Force #14 Writer: Simon Spurrier Art & Cover by: Rock-He Kim The Story: • Fantomex is on a murderous rampage, taking out each and every one of the world's secret intelligence agencies, working his way closer to getting revenge on X-Force! • Knowing the confrontation is inevitable, Cable and his team ready themselves for the fight of their lives... In Stores: January 14, 2015

X-Force #13 Art

X-Force #13 Spoilers

Spoilers: ForgetMeNot reveals how Hope implanted hallucinations on Fantomex’s mind so he would think he had defeated X-Force.  While X-Force escaped, Fantomex is on the loose again killing anyone who might be better than him. Mojo is still being held prisoner of X-Force in their HQ and Cable caught Volga solo while the others were asleep. For the past three days, Hope has been talking to ForgetMeNot even though she can’t actually see him; Cable and Marrow have been torturing Volga so that he reveals how to fix Hope; and Psylocke and Domino relieve their anger training with each other (Betsy later hugs her and cries). ForgetMeNot calls Hope on X-Force’s bullshit, saying that they’re supposed to be heroes. He tells her that because of her piggybacking on MeMe’s powers, she should be able to remember their chats. FMN says X-Force has been too distracted to realize the monsters they have become, unable to see the goodness around then: the real MeMe whose echo grabbed a handhold in X-Force’s ship and has been fading ever since. FMN reveals the real MeMe saved his life just because it was the right thing to do. Meanwhile, Volga tells Cable there is no cure for Hope. Cable doesn’t believe him. Volga tells Marrow she never volunteered to the treatment and that they had her drugged to do so. Marrow kills him, which upsets Cable. FMN tells Hope that MeMe wanted to show Hope something to change the way she thinks. FMN shows her a video stating a “Core Corruption underway”. Five hours later, X-Force gathers to turn off MeMe, meaning, that Hope will go back to being in a coma. Psylocke says that even in her sleep, she can sense Hope’s anger.

X-Force #13 Preview

X-Force #13

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Art by: Tan Eng Huart

Cover by: Rock-He Kim

The Story:

• The fate of Hope Summers revealed!

• Fantomex takes on each and every one of the world’s secret intelligence agencies!

• And on the outs with the rest of his team, Cable hatches one last scheme…

X-Force #12 Art

X-Force #12 Spoilers

Spoilers: Psylocke pulls Hope back successfully from the Yellow Eye mainframe. The remainder of the team talks about how Cable could employ Fantomex even knowing he was unstable, and why he apparently forgot he'd sent Domino off on a solo job just before Alexandria. The arrival of fresh stormtroopers snaps Betsy out of her funk, and as she wipes them out she acknowledges that it's wrong and doesn't care, and perhaps likes the fact that Cable in his current state can't be relied on to pull her back from the edge, though Hope seemingly still can. They confront the mastermind, who pleads - in the process, letting everyone else know that Betsy's been shagging Cable on the sly - before Betsy cuts him open...and out pops Mojo. The ratings of his original gladiator program fell and, rather than get stuck hosting educational TV, he escaped to Earth with enough advanced tech to start anew, and saw an opportunity with anti-mutant hatred running high. Cable shoves a gun in Mojo's face and demands the keys to the Yellow Eye network, but apparently its breakdown failsafe has already triggered. Mojo goes back to pleading, spitting out some more lurid secrets the team's been keeping from each other and before Betsy can stop him, he's grassed up 'MeMe's identity to Cable. This does not go down well with Nate. After much Summers family drama and some exchanged insults, the team plants C4 everywhere and make a break for it, with Mojo captive. Suddenly they come across Dr. Nemesis and another Cable, who broke into the facility while the main team distracted everyone and so got to the mainframe before it could crash. Both Nates are unapologetic about this deception, and Psylocke tries to kill one of them, only for Hope to stop her, saying "he's not worth it". Fantomex returns, now with green tentacles growing out of his head-hole, and slaps everyone around with psychic blasts. It turns out that, through hacking Hope-as-MeMe's mind, Fantomex was able to copy the psychic abstract version of the Volga virus that Hope accidentally caught from Cable back in Alexandria, and thanks to it being digitized through their respective mechanical minds, Fantomex was able to iron out the self-destructing flaws in the process, and having his brain 'rebooted' by death got the whole shebang functional. Fantomex teases Hope to the point of breakdown before one of the two Cables tries to take him out with the music-triggered self-destruct. Fantomex counters by telekinetically crushing him into nothing. Ignoring Hope's advice, Psylocke charges with her sword out, but Fantomex disarms her and rips the entire team apart with projectiles launched from his wings Archangel style. The issue ends with Fantomex standing over everyone's corpses and a flickering Hope hologram smiling.

X-Solicits for February 2015

X-Force #15

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Art & Cover: Rock-He Kim

• THIS IS IT!

• In the final showdown with Fantomex, X-Force gives everything they have to defeat their power-mad teammate-turned-adversary!

• And in the end, not everyone will emerge unscathed…

X-Men #24

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Art by: Roland Boschi

Cover by: Terry Dodson

• Trapped deep underground in the sinkhole that mysteriously appeared in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, Storm battles her claustrophobia while trying to find answers.

• Meanwhile, her teammates above ground discover that the phenomenon has ties to old enemies…

X-Force #12 Preview

X-Force #12

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Art & Cover by: Rock-He Kim

The Story:

"Ends/Means" Part 2 of 5!

• Fantomex's compulsion to be THE BEST has put him at odds with X-Force! Turning on his former teammates, can a squad of killers hope to escape science's perfect living weapon?

• Also! The true identity of the villain X-Force has been pursuing is revealed...and it's an all-too familiar face...

X-Force Rumoured to be Cancelled

BleedingCool: Comic book creators are often a gossipy lot. Especially in the New York bars after a comic convention. And sometimes it takes a little while to filter through a variety of sources.

Such as which upcoming books are being cancelled. Some we’d heard before, but now we have issue numbers.

I understand from such sources that the current run on X-Force will be published until issues #14 or #15. The upcoming trade paperback goes until #10, so #15 feels more likely.

X-Force #11 Art

X-Force #11 Spoilers

Spoilers by CraigTheCylon: All of X-Force (minus Doc Nemesis) have followed the bug-tracer planted via ForgetMeNot's sacrifice in #10, arrive at the portal station we saw in #7, and go through into the Yellow Eye base. Much fighting ensues while a narrating voice shares Hope/MeMe's musings over her squadmates. Upon finding the monitor tech used by Yellow Eye, Cable seems to amend his mission plan from 'destroy' to 'subvert', much to MeMe's consternation. While the baddie stormtroopers fall in droves, a particular elite henchman puts up more of a fight, and Fantomex starts gibbering again when he misses his shot at them. Because of this, and because he apparently dumped her between issues, MeMe hacks into Fantomex' head mid-battle and scans his memories, confirming that he was at Alexandria in search of Cluster and Weapon XIII, hoping to be whole and perfect again. The Yellow Eye boss and elite henchman retreat behind a...flesh wall and in the downtime, Fantomex angrily calls MeMe 'Summers', revealing that he's been able to counter-hack her mind during their liaisons and knew who she was the whole time. This leads to a mental discussion wherein Fantomex goes completely off the rails, instructs E.V.A. to forcibly eject MeMe from his cortex, then pukes her up and uses her to incapacitate the rest of the team. He monologues about how sick he is of bowing to authority, how he thought to use Volga's tech to make himself better, and now intends to use Yellow Eye resources to track down his other selves AND any other super-tech he could potentially bond with to become stronger. He shoots Marrow in the head and is ready to do the same to Psylocke when he himself gets shot by Domino, previously said 'elite henchman', freed from Yellow Eye control-tech by a panicking MeMe.

X-Position: Simon Spurrier

CBR: In this week's X-Position, Spurrier answered many questions about "X-Force," including the untimely death of ForgetMeNot, the working relationship between Cable and Dr. Nemesis, the current status of Hope Summers and much, much more.

Your X-Force is currently my favorite x-book right now and I have to say thanks for some awesomely fun storytelling. Sadly I don't really have any good questions so I'll just ask who's voice do you hear when you write Psylocke? Actually do you hear anyone's voice when you write your characters?

Spurrier: Tricky one. I tend to say all my characters' dialogue out loud while I'm writing it (one among many reasons I'm utterly insufferable to be around while working) so I suppose the most accurate answer is that I hear my own bloody voice when writing Psylocke and the rest. But that's a pretty cruel aural impression to inflict upon (I assume?) a Psylocke fan, so I suppose the more appropriate answer would be that I base her voice, and more importantly her choice of words, on two or three of my friends who fit the mould. That is: born into money, well educated, well spoken -- "queen's English," daahling -- but with all the elegant corners filed off by years of experience, perspective, camouflage and damage. You probably don't need me to tell you the class system is alive and well in the UK, and the most telling metric of which side you're on in the secret war is often the plumminess of your voice. It follows that a lot of very well-to-do people, who recognize and despise the unfairness of the system despite being born to privilege, develop a fascinating hybrid syntax mixing "posh" enunciation and articulacy with slang, inventive neologisms and the ability to swear like a fucking trooper. Many of my snobbiest pals have the most delightfully dirty mouths.

Anyway, that's kind of how I hear Psylocke. Two parts frosty well-spoken aristocracy to one part affable gutter.

I'm actually a bit hesitant to go suggesting Known Names -- actors, etc -- to give you a sense of whose voices I hear when I write these characters, because it smacks of being a little restrictive, if not outright problematic. What if that voice feels totally wrong compared to the one you -- as a reader -- have already subconsciously assigned? You're going to be constantly tripping yourself up wondering if you're Hearing It Right, when in truth yours is really the only "right" which matters.

I think part of the joy of these things is the personal touch that comes from each reader experiencing a character in a subtly different way, y'know? The Betsy Braddock in your head won't ever sound quite like the Betsy Braddock in someone else's, and that's magical and mystical and marvelous. In fact the only thing I'll commit to text right here, as a sliver of I-stand-by-it personal wisdom, it's this: you'll enjoy these comics better if you move your lips while you read.

Seriously. Accents live in mouths, not brains.

X-Solicits for January 2015

	X-Force #14 Writer: Simon Spurrier Art & Cover by: Rock-He Kim • Fantomex is on a murderous rampage, taking out each and every one of the world's secret intelligence agencies, working his way closer to getting revenge on X-Force! • Knowing the confrontation is inevitable, Cable and his team ready themselves for the fight of their lives...
	X-Men #23 Writer: G. Willow Wilson Art by: TBA Cover by: Terry Dodson "THE BURNING WORLD" PART 1! • The start of a brand new story penned by MS. MARVEL creator G. WILLOW WILSON! • When a sinkhole appears under mysterious circumstances in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, the X-Men go to investigate... • But little do they suspect that the phenomenon has connections to old allies...and enemies!