In this first issue of the X-Force series (Cable, Domino-aka Copycat, Cannonball- aka Sam, Warpath, Feral, Boom Boom, and Shatterstar), the team is in antarctica where they attack the terrorist group, the Mutant Liberation Front. When the enter the building, Forearm, Kamikaze, Wildside and the Reaper attack. Then Stryfe (their king) begins to teleport his members to a safe place while also activating the self destruct sequence. Before the team can take him down, Stryfe gets away and then they are forced to leave before the place blows. Unfortunately, when SHEILD shows up at the crumbled site, they think the X-Force need to be taken down... In another base, Cable tells Cannonball that just one reason why he wants to take down Stryfe is because he killed a boy named Tyler that was like a son to Cable.

Meanwhile, Gideon is training Roberto. Then they go to a meeting at the World Trade Center where Black Tom shows up as a woman's bodyguard to prevent the board from forcing her to sell her share of the company.

Favorite lines:
When Feral has wildside's jaw: "What's the matter...cat got your tongue? Oh yeah, she does..."-Feral

In this issue, Siryn comes to take The Juggernaut and her cousin, Black Tom, down. Things aren't going well, but luckily for Siryn, Cable and the X-Force show up to help. While that crew is clearing the rood and making their way down the building floor by floor, Gideon and Sunspot are making their move to attack Black Tom. While The Juggernaut and Warpath fight on the ground, Spider man swings in.

In this issue, Cable and Black Tom are facing off. When Black Tom falls into a elevator shaft, Cable thinks he has killed him. However, Deadpool grabs Black Tom and tells him that Mr. Tolliver wants him. When Cable goes to face the Juggernaut, Deadpool sneakily grabs the Juggernaut's ankle and they teleport away. Then Shield shows up but before they can take Cable in, Boom Boom swoops in with the ship and rescues them.

In this issue, now that Tolliver is dead (supposedly killed by Cable), anyone who worked for his has a hit out for them because of his will, which left his estate up for grabs. Deadpool goes to visit Weasel and has to get through a bunch of people first because his teleporter is on the fritz. While they are talking, Deadpool tells Weasel that he wants to know what happened to Vanessa, because she disappeared after her friend Tina was killed, "Not like I care for that shapeshifter or anything! I'm worried is all."-Deadpool Then Weapon X walks in and tells Deadpool to start talking or he'll take him down because he also wants to know where Vanessa is. They fight until Weasel interrupts them to point out that they're fighting to get info that neither of them has. Before Weapon X leaves, he lets it slip that Slayback is still alive and kicking, and he's after Deadpool

Meanwhile, The Juggernaut is at a lab demanding to see Black Tom. When the head of the lab shows him, Juggernaut seems shocked....because he has started turning into a tree.

In this issue, Deadpool goes to Egypt where he saves a man from being killed. When it it just Deadpool and the man, he demands that the guy tells him what he has in the briefcase that the others were trying to get. The man says its a disc with information about Tollivers will. The man also tells Deadpool that the winner of Tollivers scavenger hunt will get the most powerful weapon on earth. Before Deadpool can leave, the Juggernaut and Black Tom interrupt. Later, Vanessa makes an appearance at her mom's house and tells her mom she's in this scavenger hunt to win.

In India, Courier goes to meet with Mr Bashur to ask him to take out Deadpool, Vanessa and Cable for killing Pico Halfghanaghan.

Later, Kane (Weapon X) goes back "home" which is Boothbay Harbor, Maine. But he is surprised by Slayback, who was there waiting for him. Slayback says he has been coming back from the dead for 10 years and now he wants to know where Deadpool is so he can kill him.

In this issue, Deadpool is attacked by Makeshift and Rive. When they attach a collar to him, someone the girls radio shocks him with electricity. Then Commcast comes in on a flying ship to transport Deadpool. When Deadpool wakes up again, the Executive Elite introduce themselves- Makeshift, Rive, and Commcast. Of course, they also want to know everything Deadpool knows about Tolliver's will. They hook him up to a machine where we see a short clip of Wade turning Vanessa down long before his run-in with Project X. Soon, Weasel busts in and frees Deadpool so Deadpool can take the Executive Elite team out. Weasel takes out Commcast and Deadpool takes out Makeshift and Rive. Then they find the second disk that they can now combine with the first to figure out where Tolliver's "treasure" is. They soon discover that they need to go to Nepal. Vanessa is already there, but she has run into Slayback...and he wants to wait for Deadpool so he can kill them both.

In the first issue of the collection, Iron Man and the Human Torch are doing a drill with the government when Rogue interrupts. Suddenly, the three are zapped and they are transported to a space craft. On the ship, they find out that they have been summoned by Coteire, because they want to have a contest to see which superhero is the best of the best. Iron Man, however, is not buying the simplicity of the situation as being projected by a hologram in his room, because he can detect the nanites that are crawling all over his suit and registering as a biohazard. Then we discover that the ship has captured a number of superheroes and the nanites are infecting them to make them believe they are living their dreams. The hosts detect that Iron Man hasn't been infected with the nanites and make him fight in the arena first against Psylocke, who attacks as soon as she see's him. Things aren't looking good for Iron Man, but when he realizes that most of the battle is just an illusion, he defeats Psylocke. Soon, Iron Man has to battle the X-Force- Cannonball, Moonstar, Sunspot, Meltdown, Proudstar, and Siryn, and he deals with them with ease. However, then Jesse Bedlam (who can disrupt any kind of electrical or mechanical system) get a hold of him and Domino appears to knock him out. The Coteire say they are transporting Iron Man back to where he came from, but behind the scenes they say that they are disposing him. The X-Force move on to the next round.

In the second issue, Iron Man and Psylocke appear in an area that they think is another part of the ship. Iron Man ties Psylocke up because she still wants to battle because of the nanites. Iron Man uses his tech to modify the nanites so they help them fight against the bad nanites. Meanwhile, a number of battles go on in the arena- The Human Torch beats Spider Woman, the Hulk beats Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch beats She Hulk, and Storm beats the Human Torch (because H.T. decides he doesn't want a contest to ruin his streak of not using his powers to do harm). During this time, the Coteire leaders approach Katherine "Kitty" Pryde and discover that the nanites are making hers sick because she is resisting them.

In the third issue, The Scarlet Witch beats Cable (or does he give up?). In his last words he tells her that the contest is a trick. In the other area where Iron Man is, Spider Woman is next to appear and she is immediately chased by the predators in the area. Rosetta Stone and Lockdown appear and kill the predator and pick up Spider Woman. Then they meet Iron Man and Psylocke and team up. They also discover that they are battling The Brood. In the arena, the next battle is between the New Warriors and the Slingers...but this time they don't fight, they play basketball and the New Warriors win. Meanwhile, Pryde and Shadowcat are being experimented on by The Brood. The Brood is trying to transfigure the supers and get them to join The Brood. In the arena, battling continues- Spider Man beats Beast, Domino beats Power Man, Hawkeye beats The Wasp, Iron Fist beats Colossus, Daredevil beats Firestar, Phoenix beats Justice, Gambit beats Quicksilver, Black Panther beats the New Warriors, Black Widow beats Wonder Woman, Deadpool beats Generation-X, the Invisible Woman beats Iron Fist, and Thor beats Storm.

In the fourth issue, Deadpool takes on Daredevil and wins. Meanwhile, others are being transported to the jungle and learning that not old did the Coterie lied to them, but their powers have also been zapped. The all team up and are told that The Brood are weeding them out so they can take the best of the best and put an embryo in them so when their creature is born, it will absorb the power from it's host. In the arena, the Black Widow beats the X-Force, but is then beaten by Thor. Next, Phoenix beats the Thing, Spiderman beats Domino, Captain America beats Black Panther, and Gambit beats Wolverine. The Brood thinks they have the heroes finally narrowed down, Hawkeye takes his aim from the rafters.

In the final issue, we pick up with Hawkeye taking aim at the Brood who has taken the shape of Rogue. While Hawkeye and Gambit are fighting, the "mother" of the Brood, who has taken the form of Rogue, has sucked up all the power from the remaining heroes to make herself extremely powerful. But then Hawkeye and a group of the "defeated" heroes come back to fight the mother while others go free who they can in other parts of the ship. The team is about to take down the queen but then they are teleported to safety. However, the queen breaks the transmission system which leaves her and Warbird to battle while the other two women try to figure out how to get themselves and Warbrid out of there safely. Right before the ship blows, the mother leaves Rogues body and the four of them transport to the military training area where the storyline began. Of course, though, the mother lives on.

Unlike the way I felt about the last book in this series, I thought this book was incredibly slow. Not much really happened at all. However, the Baudelaire's find themselves in their most ridiculous situation yet! Side note: I loved the connection between the optometrist (Dr. Orwell) and the cover of George Orwell's novel, 1984.

I loved (finally) rereading this book just as much as I loved reading it for the first time years ago!

In the first issue in this book, we begin with a flashback where a mother is driving away with a young girl while the father gets arrested. Then, much later, the father is looking at a photo saying he knows its his little girl. This man is The Sandman (William Baker), and he is with The Vulture (Adrian To0mes). There is also a woman in the room that appears to be in charge because she has two things to hold over The Sandman. She tells them to meet her at a warehouse later. Then she approaches the Juggernaut, Sabretooth, Bullseye, and Deadpool, and does the same thing- she's got blackmail and she will use it if they don't meet her at the warehouse. Once they are all there, the woman introduces herself as Valeria Merrick who works for Tristram Silver (who the team thinks is a fictional crime-lord, but Vulture knows better because he is older than the rest of them). The job that Mr. Silver has brought them all together to do? Find the Identity Disc- a database that contains civilian identities, home addresses, medical histories, know relatives and other such information of every costumed operative in America. This disc is currently in the hands of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), the terrorist cartel. When the Sandman tries to attack Valeria, she shoots him with a bullet that messes with the silicon dioxide in his body, which turns him into just a pile of sand.


In the second issue, Valeria hands out assignments:

Sabertooth and Vulture will get a layout of the AIM base without alerting AIM- Sabertooth ends up being less than discrete, but causes people to evacuate which gives the Vulture an open shot at the computer.

Deadpool and Bullseye will get a computer chip from a lab that acts as a digital skeleton key- these two wait for sunset to act. In the meantime, Deadpool says the blackmail Valeria has on him is about his first wife, Gretchen. Bullseye says he double dipped on an assignment, thinking the two sides wouldn't compare notes, but they did. After sunset, they go in and steal the chip, only taking out one security guard. But Deadpool thought this was too boring, so he opened fire on the room before leaving.

The Juggernaut will check out the external security of the AIM base- on assignment he's bored, but he accomplishes it without any trouble.

Later, Bullseye goes off to try to get information on Mr. Silver to make sure this job is legit and that they aren't getting played. When he tries to bail on the mission, Valeria shows up and says they need to begin now.


In the third issue, the team discovers that the AIM headquarters looks like a building with lots of floors on the outside, but it's actually a shell that holds a missile site and launchpad. The team heads off to begin the mission. First, they take out the men in hazmat suits and change into their suits to get passed the guard at the front gate. It takes them awhile to get inside, and once they do, they are singled out by the over-seeer.


In the fourth issue, the AIM people start attacking, and there are a LOT of them. First, the Vulture gets taken down by the AIM people. Then Deadpool offers himself up as a diversion but appears to overpowered. Then Bullseye fights the herd, but also gets overpowered. Sabretooth jumps down an elevator shaft but gets crushed by the Juggernaut when he falls down the shoot. So the Juggernaut moves forward and finds the disc. Rather than grabbing it and leaving, he puts it in a computer and checks out the files. While he's looking, someone comes in and the Juggernaut says "You're the one behind this! How could you?" and then he is shot by something. When the building blows, the Vulture is the one that walks away, but there are plenty of emergency personnel waiting to stop him.


In the fifth issue, we pick up with The Vulture being questioned by Fury....but Fury tells the Vulture that Sabretooth was the mastermind behind the whole thing. However, it turns out that it was the Vulture that was behind it all and Valeria is his daughter. He did all of this to protect her, because she works for SHEILD and she had to tamper with a bunch of documents to hid her relation from him to get her job. The info that the team was after wasn't the Identity Disc (that's with SHIELD) but they did get the info that AIM had on Valeria. Later, we learn that the Sandman was also in on the plan, but that he is really working for Mr. Silver (who is real but had nothing to do with this whole bit).


Favorite lines:
(1st issue) "Well, well...if it ain't Puss in Boots."-Deadpool to Sabertooth

(2nd issue) "That's it? We just go now?"-Juggernaut
"This isn't the movies, Mr. Marko. You boys can synchronize your watches if that's the kind of thing you like to do."-Valeria

(3rd issue) "Please, Sir, may I have some more?"-Deadpool
"I agree. That was disappointingly easy."-Bullseye, after they took out 8 AIM people in hazmat suits.