“The Devil’s Lesson”
Creative Staff:
Story: Geoffrey Thorne
Art: Marcus To
Colors: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
COLOSSAL REPERCUSSIONS! Can X-FORCE survive a fight with…COLOSSUS?! The mysterious LA DIABLA has X-FORCE on the ropes, and she’s brought some unexpected allies! PLUS – what does FORGE’s ANALOG device have to do with the FRACTURES threatening the planet…and La Diabla’s designs?! The season’s most surprising X-book packs a few more turns…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Last year, the launch of a new X-Force book drew me back to the property along with several other books. It started off with an interesting if familiar concept with a select group trying to solve all the big critical issues of the world within a single issue or so. This run comes from writer Geoffrey Thorne and they manage fairly well here while not going into the weeds or even the edge of the forest to explain any recent events for new readers. Marcus To is back for this issue on the art side with Eric Arciniega on the color design and it’s a pretty straightforward book that works well with the dynamic aspect of the characters and how they fight. It lays out the scenes well, flows well, and the designs are generally pretty good without being too stylized. It’s more a journeyman approach than the last time I read an X-Force book which was all style over substance, so I can appreciate it.
The fight against La Diabla is interesting in terms of what kinds of actions are being thrown around here but there’s such uncertainty about what she’s trying to accomplish and what her abilities are that it’s kind of nebulous. And that’s a decent chunk of this issue as well as through her powers she calls in an array of forces to go against Forge and his team, both separately and together. The initial one was the arrival of Colossus in the previous issue as he starts tearing up the jet but it’s mostly one on one here as Tank goes right at him and just makes things worse. But we know quickly that this Colossus is “empty” as nothing comes up on the psychic scans and that makes it easier for the team to just go all out on him and others as they appear. But that, in turn, just reduces the impact of it because they’re essentially props. Not that we thought it was actually Colossus being brought in or anything. But when there’s no sense of threat or connection, even as they take a beating, it just brings the tension down.
While La Diable torments Forge separately, speaking of Nietzsche of all things, the bulk of the book focuses on the rest of the team as they come together after the jet and deal with the other things La Diabla is creating, which are some creative if somewhat standard soulless opponents. The lets Rachel cut loose a bit and we get some solid action out of it but it doesn’t mean much because we still don’t know La Diabla’s goals or what all of this fighting is accomplishing. And if anything, it seems to just be leading to another particular fight as she has someone named Dr. Avery in her possession that she makes allusions to Bruce Banner in how they can transform. While she says it’s not the same and she’s not too well-known about the Hulk beyond news reports, we do see the transformation but it’s a lot of… why? Who is this? Why is it a threat? Just too many unknowns and not enough investment.
In Summary:
While I’m enjoying X-Force overall, the earlier issues are the stronger ones so far even when things were less clear about what’s going on. La Diabla hasn’t won me over in the slightest and having her throw an array of empty threats at the team here doesn’t do much. Sage has a couple of pages as bookends here as she’s trying to track down Forge and get back to what’s going on there but even that just feels extra disconnected since it ends teasing that someone important has shown up without a clue, which doesn’t exactly demand a reader come back, at last for someone like me. Hopefully, we start to get a bit more about what La Diabla is all about sooner rather than later because it’s the artwork and some of the character dynamics that are keeping me on this more than anything else.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: February 19th, 2025
MSRP: $3.99
