Inglorious X-Force #9
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #9
“A Force to be Conflicted”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith
COVER: The two X-Force teams fight.
X-FORCE:
Cable. The entity that’s been possessing him throughout this series is named Catharsix. Cable remains oblivious to the fact that he’s possessed; his own dictaphone recordings actually show him talking to himself, but he apparently can’t register the other voice.
The previous issue ended with another time slip, in which Cable’s mind appeared to be transported to the Askani timeline, somewhere amongst the flashbacks in Cable vol 1 #1-2. There’s no direct follow-up on that – Cable’s mind appears to have returned to the present day, and he either doesn’t remember or doesn’t mention what happened.
In trying to explain himself to Ms Marvel, Cable recounts the death of his wife Aliya, which took place in a flashback in Cable #1. He then explains that he tried to change the past and save her, but “the threads of time were too tangled”. I don’t think that’s referring to any previous story. The 2025 Cable: Love and Chrome miniseries involves him making repeated efforts to avert a lover’s death by changing time, but it’s not Aliya. At any rate, Cable says that having ruled out alternating history, he “tried everything else”. This is accompanied by a flashback which seems to show the same Clan Chosen mission that we saw at the end of the previous issue. There was a “Project Catharsis 6.0” box lying on the floor in that scene, and in this flashback Cable has a vial with the same label, apparently containing a fungi modified by Apocalypse. This is evidently Catharsix.
Cable still claims to be preoccupied with finding the person who killed Kamala Khan in the future timeline shown at the start of issue #1. He claims that after X-Force defeated Kali last issue, she’s used her AI to identify Domino as the killer. Presumably this is nonsense driven by Catharsix. Nobody else initially believes it either, though that’s mainly because they trust Domino so much, rather than because they can’t see how Kali’s AI could possibly work out such a thing.
However, Cable backs up his claim by producing footage of Domino shooting him at the end of issue #3, and being interrupted by Boom-Boom. As Shatterstar explains later in the issue (and as we already knew from issues #4-5), Cable asked Domino to keep an eye on him because of his memory gaps, and she was trying to get through to him about his parasite. In issue #4, neither Cable nor Boom-Boom could remember this encounter. Cable suggests here that Boom-Boom’s own explosion gave them both short-term memory loss, as a fluke effect brought about by Domino’s powers. That seems as plausible as anything else. Cable also explains that he had to salvage the footage, which again explains why they didn’t just check it in issue #4.
The brief sequence seen here includes two lines of dialogue. One is Domino saying “I’m sorry, Nathan. I didn’t want to shoot you. But you only listen to violence.” This seems to be new, and would slot into the flashback in issue #4, where Domino actually says something vaguely similar immediately before firing. The second line – “Don’t do it, Tabby, please” – comes from the end of issue #3.
Archangel. He claims that having “the power over both life and death itself” – in issue #5 – gave him perspective, and made him stop defining himself by his anger over what other people had done to him.
Boom-Boom. She’s still sleeping with Akihiro, but she’s increasingly leaving during the night; he attributes this to her conflicted feelings for Archangel.
As she has been throughout the series, she’s blindly loyal to Cable. She’s persuaded of the truth on listening to the recordings that Cable was making with her Walkman last issue, and hearing him speak in two voices. When she does accept the truth, she gets angry and yells that she gave up her whole life for him – in issue #1, she’s the one recruit who doesn’t even need a sales pitch because she’s so keen to be on the team.
Shatterstar regards her as one of the most reasonable members of Cable’s team, presumably on the view that she doesn’t have murderous alternative personalities like Warren and Akihiro.
Hellverine. In narration, he refers to waking up alone, but then says that his hellfire is “a reminder that I’m not really alone”. The suggestion is that he doesn’t experience Bagra-Ghul as a voice in his head, at least continuously – though he also says that they have an “understanding” and that Bagra-Ghul is now helping him to atone for his past. He seems to regard X-Force as an important part of his redemption arc and has a lot emotionally invested in the team’s mission being real.
He believes that bonding to Bagra-Ghul has given him a better perspective on humanity, and fears reverting to type if they ever get separated. This is dubious in continuity terms, because his face turn came years before he bonded to Bagra-Ghul.
He says that “Cable recruited me with a simple implication. Sooner or later, my attempt at redemption may end in failure, and the demon will extract a heavier price from my soul”, though he now wonders whether Cable meant Bagra-Ghul or himself. The relevant scene is in issue #1, and what Cable actually said was “I’ve been fighting for half a century across a million years, and sooner or later, your demons always catch up to you.”
He’s prepared to accept Boom-Boom’s judgment that Cable can be trusted. Whether that’s because he really trusts her on the point, or because he thinks it’s what she wants to hear him say, is open to interpretation.
Oddly, when his hellfire flares, his costume appears even though he’s otherwise not wearing clothes.
Ms Marvel. She alludes to knowing about X-Force’s history from “fanfic”, which is the sort of thing that used to come up a lot in the early days of the character. It doesn’t really make sense when applied to the internal affairs of early X-Force, but shhh.
She dithers about whether to trust Cable over Domino, but seems to be won round by the mention of Resonant’s death last issue, with a veiled implication that if she abandons Cable now then his death will have been in vain.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Domino. Ms Marvel suggests that she might have been replaced by a shape-changer, as she once was in the past. She’s referring to the fact that X-Force’s first Domino turned out to be an impostor, Copycat, in X-Force #11.
It doesn’t seem accidental that Domino’s group has, if anything, a stronger claim on the X-Force name than the stars of the book. It’s a large chunk of the classic line-up.
Warpath and Rictor are both there, but don’t get a whole lot of solo time, since it’s a very busy issue.
Shatterstar. In the early days of X-Force, when he was basically socially non-functional, Warpath and Rictor used to leave him behind when they went into town. He says that he no longer enjoys battle for the sake of theatrics; when he first debuted, he saw everything in terms of Mojoverse entertainment, even while ostensibly rebelling against it. He claims that his experience in the Mojoverse makes him good at recognising when someone is just going through the motions of their part, and hence able to tell that Cable is faking it.
Pug-Smasher. He identifies his homeworld as Earth-8311; this is the established number for the homeworld of Spider-Ham. As in the 2018-9 Shatterstar miniseries where he previously appeared, he describes himself as an enemy of capitalism and nationalism. As such, he despises Archangel. The mainstream Flag-Smasher shares his anti-nationalist views but isn’t really an anti-capitalist. Pug-Smasher was a member of Ultimuttum, who are new, but they’re the counterparts of Flag-Smasher’s ULTIMATUM group. He mentions having fought Captain Americat, who is indeed the established Captain America counterpart on that world.
VILLAINS:
Catharsix. The creature possessing Cable is apparently a fungal entity designed by En Sabah Nur. As a creation of a classic version of Apocalypse, it seems to believe that a global conflict between man and mutant is highly desirable, and will in some way allow it to conquer the world. If Cable really did get infected with Catharsix way back circa the flashbacks in Cable #2, then it’s been lying dormant for a very long time.
It seems to believe that Kamala will indeed avert this conflict if allowed to do so, and therefore wants to get close to her and kill her at the most opportune moment. At the end of the story, it seems to take X-Force to the site of Kamala’s own future murder in issue #1, but only Cable is actually seen emerging at the other side.
Last issue, it was very keen to get its hands on Kali’s AI after she was defeated. It’s not clear yet what the purpose of that was – it surely can’t have been just to use it to try and frame Domino, which is what Cable claims to have used it for, since the video footage would have done that anyway.
“then it’s been lying dormant for a very long time.”
He sometimes seems to be more linear than Kang, but not always.
“but shhh”
As usual, your writing is a delight to read, even if I am now wearing my coffee.
” Cable suggests here that Boom-Boom’s own explosion gave them both short-term memory loss, as a fluke effect brought about by Domino’s powers. That seems as plausible as anything else.”
I think the idea is that what really happened is Catharsix took control of Cable, used his telepathy to wipe Boom-Boom’s memory and then wiped Cable’s memory. Catharsix is just using Domino’s powers as an excuse because no one really knows their limits.
“She alludes to knowing about X-Force’s history from “fanfic”, which is the sort of thing that used to come up a lot in the early days of the character. It doesn’t really make sense when applied to the internal affairs of early X-Force, but shhh.”
I think the joke is that Kamala is referring to ACTUAL files about super-villains and super-heroes as “fanfic” before correcting herself.
Warpath claims that he and Rictor used to sneak out of X-Force’s Adirondack Base through a secret tunnel but Rictor wasn’t a member of X-Force when they were based in the Adirondacks.
“If Cable really did get infected with Catharsix way back circa the flashbacks in Cable #2, then it’s been lying dormant for a very long time.”
if Cartharsix DID infect Cable before he was killed and resurrected on Krakoa, then shouldn’t the Resurrection Process have eliminated Catharsix? It’s the same problem with Warren and the Life Seed.
Cable claims that he’s had the technovirus under his control for 50 years. Are we supposed to believe that Cable is in his early 50s? How is that possible if he raised Tyler to adulthood, Tyler died and then he raised Hope to adulthood?
I’m completely confused by the time traveling to Kamala’s assassination. Is Cable taking over the body of his younger self? Are there one or two Cables at the scene of the assassination? Hopefully next issue will clarify things.
Any attempt to make sense or hash out of Cable’s chronology or timeline will inevitably end in tears. I’m just surprised we don’t run into him out of order more often at this point.
I love how this series embraces the absurd along with the serious. On one hand, you have two different X-Force squads battling it out over time travel shenanigans… and then there’s the anthropomorphic dog with a mace from a parallel world.
Cable travels through time very often. Are we to expect him to keep a fairly syncronous stance most of the time?
For all we know this version of Cable may remember the first X-Force as something that he took part of just a few months ago. Several different times in diverging timelines, even.
Since part of the premise of this run is that Kamala has a grand destiny, it would not surprise me very much if she understands more of the real situation than she lets us know so far. Frankly, it is a bit unflattering for the others that they too this long.
I don’t like the string of miniseries publishing strategy, but if it’s the only way Marvel will let some runs to continue (limp along), then fine. I’m glad Ashley Allen gets to write another bunch of issues of Magik (under an awful new name, though), and I hope Seeley gets more X-Force after the upcoming Fugitive arc. Sorry, miniseries.
Cable learned to control his infection in adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, so lets say 50 years makes him late 50’s almost 60. He met Jeanskott when you so if Tyler was born before he was 20 he stay with him until he is 35, spend 5 years running x-force, go in to the future with Hope return at 50, and then the time after adds up to his name, so he can have 2 full grown 15/16 year old kids and time to fit most else in if you start the clock from from that mini, and not his brith.
The “continued in multiple mini-series” approach that Marvel uses baffles me. The market can’t be THAT unhealthy, DC has books like Poison Ivy and Catwoman that have been running for years. Marvel, owned by DISNEY, can’t keep a title afloat more than 10 issues? I understand if it’s an utter bomb like Weapon X-Men, but Magik and Storm both did decent numbers. Again, it baffles me.
@Chris M- As I understand it, Catwoman is selling at levels that would be cancelled if it’s a Marvel book. Poison ivy also sometimes experiences sales problems, hence the whole “mayor of Gotham” thing.
That being said, it’s ridiculous that Marvel can’t seem to keep most titles afloat for more than 10 issues.
Marvel can’t keep Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, or the Guardians of the Galaxy afloat for more than a dozen issues. Those are huge characters in blockbuster movies yet they can’t sustain an ongoing comic series. I think that’s kinda sad and evidence at how poor Marvel’s business model has become.
I think it’s the fact that DC has so many titles selling well (Absolute, many of the “All In” and “Next Level” initiative) that it can subsidize some of their lower selling books that DC editors want to continue. Meanwhile, even Marvel’s X-line has been a failure, so the Marvel executives have decided they’ll only continue their top-selling comics. It’s almost switching places with where DC was five years ago, when it seemed that they had no idea how to get any characters other than Batman to sell, and the DC slate was about 90% Bat-titles. The big problem is that Marvel’s strategy for a while has been to flood the market to keep up market share dominance (which Marvel lost), but it’s extremely hard to flood the market when 65% of their line is being cancelled within ten issues. How do you find the quantity to replace all the failed books? Especially when Marvel has grown so risk averse than they’d rather try to publish 18 X-books in a month than risk anything more experimental.
Marvel and DC each publish dozens of floppies every month for at least five dollars apiece.
They dispute monetary real state (and reader attention) with each other, with their rival’s, with their own publisher’s TPBs and other reprints, as well as with often better written and more effectively advertised product from Boom!, Mad House, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, DSTLRY, Dynamite!, Viz, Kondansha, Oni Press, Titan Comics and others.
And with their own digital plataforms as well. As well as the whole non-comics world out there.
I can totally believe that Marvel has been having trouble keeping traditional books viable for runs longer than 10 issues at a time in such a market.
I fear that the comics division may simply lack the autonomy to take the bold steps that would be necessary to attract and retain the quality talent that could improve this situation. Paying creators better, giving them more assurance and creative freedom, some measure of publicity, and the ability to avoid unhelpful crossovers and events. It is far more likely to go the opposite direction instead, with irregular releases (possibly fully digital) to keep the IP in evidence and properly attached to Marvel.
Once upon a time I would hope for something like Epic Comics (or Vertigo) to rise anew, but that is just not likely to happen when the role is effectively already fulfilled by the competition (and with much less interference from corporate higher-ups, I assume). There just isn’t enough expectation of profit from the comics proper for a true renewal to be in the cards any time soon.
Yes, that’s what I was saying about Vertigo Comics (the original one) towards the end of its existence. It serves no purpose any longer. Image and, eventually, Boom, and to an extent modern-day Dark Horse have been doing a better job at putting out the type of content once put out by Vertigo (or, earlier, Epic at Marvel). There was no longer any reason for Vertigo Comics which had begun to lag far behind on quality and diversity of creators compared to (especially) Image and then Boom (and now a plethora of different indy alternatives even). So, it was unusual to see this watered-down retread of Vertigo get brought back by DC under current market conditions.
I think it used to be a lot easier to give even low-selling titles a chance to run for a while. But Marvel’s accountants or editorial or -someone- are allergic to risk and failure these days so we get 5-issue minis and 10-issue ongoings in place of actual long-lasting titles. Heck, even the eternal stalwarts like Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Avengers get relaunched at the drop of a hat or the change of a writer, rather than just… keep going.
DC isn’t much better, mind you, but they show a little confidence in some of their titles.
[…] X-FORCE #9. (Annotations here.) This is rather more like it. Okay, I’m not really sure I understand what was meant to be […]
@Chris M- it’s not really accurate to lump Black Panther, Captain Marvel. and Guardians of the Galaxy in with Iron Man. Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy are traditionally titles that have trouble selling books. Marvel’s problem when it started the MCU was that many of its core titles were licensed to other film studios- Fantastic Four., X-Men, and initially Daredevil and Spider-Man. So it had to rely on some of its lesser titles to create the MCU. The problem is that synergy usually doesn’t attract extra readers, so they wound up drawing attention to titles that continued to be low-selling.
Similarly. Carol Danvers was made into Captain Marvel and given a big push because Marvel felt it needed its own equivalent to Wonder Woman and many of its more popular female heroes- Sue Richards, Jean Grey, Storm and Rogue- were off limits. And originally that seemed to work. But after the Marvels flopped. Marvel abandoned the idea of turning Carol into their Wonder Woman and her solo series faded into obscurity again. Marvel then tried to turn Storm into their Wonder Woman but when that failed miserably, they seem to have abandoned searching for their Wonder Woman-equivalents.
Iron Man on the other hand, is not a book that should be cancelled in 10 issues. There’s always been an Iron Man book since 1968. Spencer Ackerman’s run was horrible- he made his reputation writing NON-FICTION articles and arguably his fiction skills have never been great. The idea of Tony working with anti-Romani activists against Doom was just an idea that never should have seen print.Howver, Joshua Williamson’s run seems like a big improvement. He’s bringing back characters that should not have been killed off like the original Whiplash and Happy Hogan and his run has been extended at least unrtil issue 20/700.