Cable and X-Force

This is a book I want to talk about briefly because it is the one book from Marvel NOW that I'm looking forward to the most (other than the mystery Joe Mad! project that has been teased for a while, and which will apparently be just the beginning of his return to comics). For one, check out what Nick Lowe had to say about Sal Larroca on the book:

"Larroca's work on the series was described as a reinvention of his work – a mix of his early style from the '90s and the more photo realistic art he did on "Invincible Iron Man" of which Lowe said, 'He's quick and amazing. People complain about how we can switch up artists on books. That's not going to happen here.'"

I love this; I'm a big fan of his old school work, stuff like X-Treme X-Men, which has a bit of an anime look to it. He used this kind of style on his AVX Versus issue, which was a very nice surprise from what I was expecting based on his last few years on Iron Man. The guy really is talented when he's not trying to be a poor man's Greg Land (fuck that guy). Also, the promise that we will actually get a run where the artist will do as many issues as the writer is something I'm looking forward to, since it's something we don't get enough of these days. So far, the only comic I'm reading that is doing that is Snyder's Batman. A book with a good main artist that can hit deadlines is always a huge plus in my book.

There's not much I can say about Dennis' writing, but I've heard good things and I like to see young writers on the rise, so I'm rooting for him. Plus, take a look at this other tidbit:

"There are some inspirations from '90s X-Force here for sure," Lowe said. "But there's also influence from 'Uncanny X-Force' and so on...both this and the new 'Uncanny X-Force' came about at the same time." Lowe said both X-Force series would pick up on the broader ideas from the last run written by Rick Remender as Remender did from Craig Kyle and Chris Yost. But they'd still be differentiated...especially when it comes to the eventual reveal of the mystery big bad of "Cable And X-Force." "We've got some really good dingers we want to try and surprise you guys with.'"

This is another good sign to me. I loved Remender's run, but it seemed to go over the same ground quite a bit, so while I like that this book will try to keep it grounded in that atmosphere, I like that marvel recognized old-school X-Force not only has fans, but good qualities in general; the book really doesn't get its due because of the stigmata from Liefeld, but as soon as Nicieza and Capullo took over, it became the best X-Book at a time when i would say there were a lot of other solid X-Books, and it kept its quality all the way through Milligan's run. Plus, there was the one thing Remender's team lacked - Cable.

Which brings me to the last thing I like about this book - the line-up. As I mentioned, having Cable on the book is great. I think he's a highly underrated character, he's got a good visual, and it gives me hope for Marvel that they have enough confidence in this creative team that they let Cable be the leader instead of trying to keep Wolverine shoe-horned into this team (which is especially good since the ending of AVX Consequences #5, where Scott acknowledges the positive shift in Logan's personality since starting the JG School, and having him stay on X-Force when he's supposed to believe in this school was starting to stretch credibility). You add in Domino (another underused character up until recently), another X-Force standard, along with Forge and Colossus (two favorites of mine), and you've got a solid team. I'm not too keen on Dr. Nemesis, but I said the same thing about Fantomex (a character I really came to love), so I'm keeping an open mind.

I honestly think this book has the potential to be the sleeper hit of the NOW! relaunch, so good luck to everybody involved. I can't wait for it to hit stands. You can find the rest of the article here:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42217