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X-Force

Team » X-Force appears in 1142 issues.

When Cable reformed the New Mutants, he made them his soldiers. They became a mutant "black ops" team, assigned to kill not just the enemies of the X-Men, but of all mutantkind. Although this team eventually dispersed, the X-Force moniker has persisted in successive iterations of more forceful X-teams.

Rick Remender on Year of the X-men's Uncanny X-Force

#1 Posted by danhimself (18752 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio

an interview with Rick Remender on Uncanny X-Force and the recent Year of the X-men promo.   There's some spoilers ahead so be warned!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

3:01
Call about to start!
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:01 
3:04
Rick Remender is on the line. Editor Nick Lowe should be here shortly.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:04 

3:07
Nick Lowe is here! Getting started now.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:07 

3:08
Editor Jody LeHeup is on the line as well.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:08 

3:08
Marvel's James Viscardi starts by asking about the obvious - the Age of Apocalypse characters appearing in the teasers.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:08 

3:09
"It's a tricky situation, because we've announced that they're coming up, but to give away too many details would be spoiling some fun things," Remender says.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:09 

3:09
Remender says that the X-Force characters will be traveling to the Age of Apocalypse timeline, and it "doesn't take a genius" to figure out that this may be connected to what's already happened in the comic.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:09 

3:10
Remender says that Dark Beast, who resides in the mainstream Marvel Universe, will play a big role in Uncanny X-Force for about a year.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:10 

3:11
Lowe stresses that this is an AoA story that's firmly in continuity, and says that "this will be the first time a regular Marvel U character goes to the Age of Apocalypse. This is not just a fun Age of Apocalypse story that doesn't have bearing."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:11 

3:11
Remender says one of the things they set out to do was to "make this matter in such a huge way that it was worthy of taking 616 characters into this universe."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:11 

3:12
Lowe said this story makes him, as senior editor, uncomfortable for "all the best reasons."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:12 

3:12
Viscardi asks what makes this team feel "so different" from previous X-Force teams.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:12 

3:13
Remender says, "More than anything, I just wanted it to feel like an X-Men book."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:13 

3:13
Remender continues that the secretive nature of the team helps to establish the five members as a "family unit."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:13 

3:14
Remender said he wanted the story to be "responsible" and deal with the "ramifications" of taking lives.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:14 

3:14
Any chance we'll see Apocalypse again?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:14 

3:14
"Apocalypse is dead, he's never coming back, that's just ridiculous," Lowe said, sarcastically.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:14 

3:15
Remender said that the "version of Apocalypse we know" is dead as a result of the first arc.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:15 

3:16
Remender continues that the book will explore who Apocalypse is, and "it all started building into this giant story," that will run for 17 issues.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:16 

3:17
"Apocalypse is not the big bad in this story," Lowe said. "We can say that pretty unequivocally. Death does need to have some meaning in this X-Force book, or else the fact that they're killing people loses meaning. That's something we're paying a lot of attention to. We're not going to say Apocalypse is never, ever coming back, but they killed Apocalypse."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:17 

3:17
Lowe said Uncanny X-Force "dances on the skinny branches," and takes a lot of risks.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:17 

3:18
"It's a kill. That has to be given the weight that it deserves," Remender says.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:18 

3:18
"We have momentum on the book. That first arc was initially six issues, and we went through and cut every bit of fat — every moment was whittled down to its essential core," Remender continues. "I don't want to say it's condensed or decompressed. I think it's in the middle."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:18 

3:19
First press question - are things "locked in place," or is Remender playing with things based on feedback at all?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:19 

3:19
Remender said they've been working on the outline for "five, six months" and "playing Ping-Pong with it."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:19 

3:20
"Working this far in advance means that in issue #5 there are things seeded that you didn't even know you saw," Remender said, that will become huge in issue #10.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:20 

3:21
"I think we're almost to the place where it's locked in place, which doesn't mean that we didn't have plenty of room to get explosive with the imagination," Remender says.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:21 

3:21
Remender says there are "three high concepts" in the final three chapters of the original 17-issue arc.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:21 

3:22
"The responsibility is to treat these things as if the reader has never been exposed to them before," Remender says in a response to a question about accessibility of the arc to people not familiar with the original Age of Apocalypse comics.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:22 

3:22
Remender says he never writes X-Force based on an expectation of institutional knowledge from the reader.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:22 

3:23
Next question (from me) - new members coming up, and we can interpret anything from the fact that Archangel isn't on the teaser from last week?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:23 

3:24
"Archangel isn't there for a reason," Remender answered, saying that he can't say why but it'll be something people won't expect.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:24 

3:24
As far as new members, Remender says that things are being negotiated right now, and it all depends on if it's natural. "If it doesn't fit, you can't do it," Remender added, saying that logic has broken his heart before.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:24 

3:24
"While there are some new members coming up, they're natural fits, but I don't think people will see them coming," Remender says.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:24 

3:25
In the answer to the previous question, Remender said that him and the editors are genuinely "excited and enthusiastic about playing with these toys," rather than just using the popular Age of Apocalypse characters for purely commercial reasons.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:25 

3:26
Next press question - why have Deadpool be the voice of reason in #5?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:26 

3:27
Remender said that "people who are constantly joking are doing it as something of a defense mechanism, and I think based on insecurity."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:27 

3:27
Remender says he sees "something of an innocent" in Wade, and that the more he writes him the more he sees him as a three-dimensional character.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:27 

3:28
Next press question - with the AoA Nightcrawler in the teasers, will we see the team reacting to seeing a dead friend again?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:28 

3:28
Remender said the story has "a lot of drama," and that "with this, there was just more and more to be mined out of it."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:28 

3:29
Readers will see how "our Wolverine" will deal with seeing AoA versions of Jean Grey and Nightcrawler, both who are dead in the mainstream Marvel timeline.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:29 

3:29
Next press question concerns the relationship between Archangel and Psylocke, and how Fantomex plays into that.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:29 

3:30
"That would be telling, wouldn't it?" Remender answers.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:30 

3:30
"The meat of that relationship comes from the sort of parasitic nature of it," Remender says of Psylocke and Archangel.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:30 

3:30
Remender refers to an NPR story he heard about a man who was financially dependent on his girlfriend for years, and "didn't know if he loved her or he needed her."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:30 

3:31
"I like picturing Rick sitting by his radio and listening to NPR, and then just writing about his feelings," Lowe joked.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:31 

3:32
Next press question - how do they get to the Age of Apocalypse, anyway?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:32 

3:32
Remender says that would be telling, and the mechanism of getting them there is a huge part of the story.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:32 

3:33
Remender says that traveling to a different timeline "can easily feel like something that doesn't matter" it it doesn't play a bigger role moving forward.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:33 

3:33
Next press question - does this story take place before or after the original Age of Apocalypse story?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:33 

3:34
"if you read the 2005 series, which has some of the best Chris Bachalo art that you'll ever see, Mr. Sinister was the big antagonist, and the world of Age of Apocalypse had changed a little bit," Remender answered. "Jean Grey was back in that, and she had the Phoenix force."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:34 

3:35
Remender said it's 10 years after the 2005 series. "We get there and it's been a while. The world has changed, and not for the better. It's Hell on Earth, and the person in control of it is gonna be a big reveal."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:35 

3:37
Next press question (from me) - why does Remender think he's been gravitating towards so many '90s concepts lately? "I didn't know that I wanted to do these things, and I'm sort of snotty about the '90s because by '93 or '94 I had moved on to mainly indie comics," Remender answered, though he was definitely a fan during the introduction of Venom and X-Force. "Those things are so incredibly iconic, and the concept behind X-Force, and the idea of the symbiote and Venom, that when I was presented with the job and started thinking about them, I immediately had a year's worth of stories, Punisher as well.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:37 

3:38
Remender adds that the tone of that era is very different than what contemporary readers expect.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:38 

3:39
Next question concerns the art - upcoming, the title has three issues of Billy Tan and three issues of Mark Brooks (the first part of the Age of Apocalypse story), and then Jerome Opena comes back for four issues, and then Greg Tocchini boards the series.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:39 

3:39
"it's a good looking book," Remender concludes.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:39 

3:40
Next press question - what characters are a natural fit for X-Force?
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:40 

3:41
"It has to be someone who can pull the trigger. if anybody wasn't going to kill a child it's Betsy," Remender said, "If you know anything about the character. That doesn't mean that Betsy wouldn't pull out her sword and kill a regular old Apocalypse."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:41 

3:41
Remender said that each character has their own barometer as to what they are or are not willing to do.
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:41 

3:42
Of adding new members, Remender said, "If you discover Wolverine, an Avenger, is running an assassin squad, you'd have a big, big problem. It's important that they keep it covert."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:42 

3:43
Of the use of Captain Britain in issue #7, Remender said he wanted to explore how Psylocke's two brothers reflect on her — one a shining superhero, the other a psychopath. "Betsy falls in the middle."
Tuesday March 1, 2011  3:43 

3:44
That's it! Thanks for reading!
#2 Posted by danhimself (18752 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio

man...I thought there was some pretty awesome stuff talked about in here but I guess not

#3 Edited by Edamame (26201 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio

I am just confused as to where all of these storylines are going. I have no idea what is going on. LOL
Looks interesting though.

#4 Posted by xerox_kitty (15758 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio
@danhimself: Kudos for sifting out all the spam in that live chat!  I gave up trying to read it about half way though, but this is much better :)
Moderator
#5 Posted by danhimself (18752 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio
@xerox-kitty:  I wish I could take credit for this but it's actually a copy and paste
#6 Posted by drphilter (98 posts) - 2 years, 2 months ago - Show Bio

OMG I don't think I have been so stoked for a storyline ever! AoA is a seriously important storyline to me and I know people are definitely criticizing the X-force's visit to Earth 295 but this just seems so epic and even though its growing on old concepts I think it's pretty creative. Takes balls to do it for the right reasons and it definitely seems that they are doing them for that.

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