The main story in this annual was very nicely done. The art was great, as both X-Force and the New Warriors were depicted favorably. The writing was also consistent, which is nice in an annual crossover because there is minimal repetition. (But since Fabian was writing both books regularly anyway I guess there isn't too much lauding to be done. Regardless, it was still nice.)

Being an annual, however, there is a lot of space to fill. I recognize that the other stories aren't supposed to be as cool as the main one, but there was so much more they could have done here. Having the origins of the New Warriors was almost nice. It was a relatively new team at the time and some of the members weren't very well known and nice background could have been stellar. Sadly, it wasn't. Sure, we got a synopsis of these guys, but nothing really jumped out and said, "And that's why you should care about me." Because, in the end, I didn't care about any of them. Had they focused on one or two of the really interesting ones (Night Thrasher and Speedball, maybe) then I could see getting sucked in and wanting to know more. As it is, I don't have any particular desire to check out the regular series.

On the whole, it's not half bad; I wish they would have done more for the characters, though. I'll just read it for the Kings of Pain arc.