X-Force Omnibus, Vol. 1 Hardcover – February 19, 2013

* * * PERSONAL OVERVIEW * * * * * * * * * *You should only buy this book for one (or more) of the following reasons:- Nostalgia.- Completism.- Pop Culture study.This is NOT a well-written book. This is NOT a well-illustrated book either. It's a trainwreck, it's a son of its tumultuous times. Times full of gigantic guns, ridiculously complex uniform designs, gritting teeth, badly exaggerated anatomy and awkard positions. It's Rob Liefeld in all of his infamous power and glory.If all you want is to read a good bunch of comics I urge you to stay the hell AWAY of this Omnibus: go buy other titles of the line like New X-Men, X-Statix or even The Age Of Apocalypse. Or get Vertigo books like Y: The Last Man, Fables or Preacher. Believe me, X-Force is not what you are looking for.However, if you've read this comics when you were a kid or a teen and you treasure them as nostalgia artifacts, by all means buy this book, this is probably the best presentation this comics will ever be available in. Let this be a homage to your childhood or adolescence, embrace it!Or if you are an X-Men completist, also get this book. This Omnibus fills the gap between the X-Tinction Agenda and the X-Cutioner's Song hardcovers. This book includes the first appearances of Deadpool, as well as Shatterstar. It heavily deals with the Cable/Stryfe storyline, serving as prelude to X-Cutioner's Song. The contents of this Omnibus read in parallel with the X-Men by Claremont & Lee Omnibus Vol. 2 and the X-Men: Bishop's Crossing hardcovers. If you want to go even further, you can get the X-Force: Cable & The New Mutants HC, it collects the previous New Mutants issues by Liefeld that introduced Cable for the very first time.And finally, if you are a comics-books and pop-culture aficionado you should get this, as it is an undeniable testimony of the times in which these comics were produced: post punk heavy metal and glam, non stop action summer blockbusters, radical political changes of global scale. All of it clumsily condensed by a newcomer artist named Rob Liefeld (with some guiding hand from writer Fabian Nicieza) that didn't know what he was doing half of the time but would forever change the landscape of the American comic-book industry along with a group of his artist peers at Marvel. These pages are the seed of the Image Comics generation, the nineties scarred in ink by a man that was able to accidentally channel all the ugliness of the zeitgeist of his time on paper. Sure, it's a goddamn trainwreck, a plane crash, a multiple car accident, it's as awful as it gets, but you can't help staring at it.* * * CONTENTS * * * * * * * * * *This book includes:- New Mutants #98 to 100- X-Force #1 to 15- Cable: Blood & Metal #1 and 2- New Mutans Annual #7, New Warriors Annual #1, X-Men Annual #15 and X-Factor Annual #7 (the 4-part "Kings Of Pain" storyline)- Spider-Man #16 (crosses-over with X-Force #4)- X-Force Annual #1 (only a short story)The extras include 40 pages worth of material:- "Cable Guide" from X-Force #1, profile pages of the main characters.- Selected articles from Marvel Age magazine.- Traiding cards reproductions from X-Force #1 and other card series.- Rob Liefeld illustrations and pin-ups (including Marvel Swimsuit).- Variant covers and TPB/HCs re-colored covers.- Promotional material and ads.* * * ABOUT THE EDITION * * * * * * * * * *Like all Marvels Omnibuses, this is a very high quality book. It features sewn-binding, nice glossy paper stock and excellent quality printing with sharp art reproduction. The sewn-binding allows to read the book confortably with no gutter-loss at all, so you can fully appreciate the art (there are a lot of spread-pages, so you'll be glad of it).There are a couple of changes worth noticing from previous Omnibus editions: Marvel is using a lighter-weight paper stock, but it's still a high quality stock. And more noticeable, unlike previous Omnibuses this book does NOT include metal engravings printed on the front and spine of the book that you can see when you remove the dustjacket. Instead, it features a nice matte black printing with the X-Force logo in the center of the front cover and the Marvel Omnibus logo (plus title and artists) on the spine. I miss the previous style but this new looks suits fine the line, so I'm okay with it in the end.I've uploaded some photos depicting this "new look" of the Omnibus line so you can check it out.* * * CONCLUSION * * * * * * * * * *So why a 4 star review for such an dreadful bunch of collected comics? Because I loved this book the moment I opened it, no matter how bad it is, the same way you can't help loving your problem child, your deceiving girlfriend (or boyfriend) or your annoying pet. But no matter how much I love this book, I just couldn't bring myself to give it a 5 star rating, there's at least a bit of common sense left in me. Yet I couldn't bring myself to give it 3 stars or less either... At some point X-Force falls under the category of "SO BAD IT'S GOOD".And as I said, it's a really beautiful edition, for such an awful, yet relevant and (for some) nostalgic piece of work.

Collecting: New Mutants #98-100---New Mutants Annual #7---New Warriors Annual #1---X-Men Annual #15---X-Factor Annual #6---X-Force Annual #1---X-Force #1-15---Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2--Spider-Man #16Bonus: "Cable Guide" (from X-Force #1)---"Mutant Report" X-Force Preview (Marvel Age #102)---Article from Marvel Age #107---"Kings of Pain" promotional art (Comics Scene #20)---Polybag cover and collectible card artwork---Marvel Universe Series 2 & 3 trading card artwork---Marvel Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (1991) pin-up artwork---X-Force Keepsake Collection 1991 & 1992 artwork---Cover Art GalleryThe X-Force Omnibus (vol 1) gives readers another massive high-quality collection of some of Marvel's historic comic book runs. The issues collected here were originally published in 1991 & 1992. At 800 pages of comics plus loads of extras, this book offers hours of reading in a format that looks beautiful on a shelf. The sewn binding will also hold up to regular reading much better than the comics ever did.The New Mutants become a militant strike force under Cable's guidance in these issues, but very few of the original New Mutants were still around by the time X-Force kicked off. In addition to Cable, the other main characters include Sunspot, Boom Boom, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, Warpath, Siryn, and Rictor. Many of these characters play key roles in current X-titles, and readers looking for more back story about their favorite characters will find much enjoyment here.Some highlights include, the first appearances of Deadpool & Shatterstar, both of whom have developed in many ways since these early issues. This reader had goosebumps after reading the protracted battle in the World Trade Center against Juggernaut and being stunned by the panel that shows the smoldering buildings against the New York skyline that with eery prescience looks so much like 9/11!I can see that this collection will be unevenly popular with readers because of Rob Liefeld's hand in the project. While these comics were wildly popular in their day (X-Force #1 was the 2nd best selling issue in Marvel history), the plot, writing, and artwork has not necessarily aged perfectly. X-Force is bursting at the seams with guns and abs and shoulder pads. If you already don't like Liefeld (or Marvel's early 1990s comic books) there probably isn't anything in this omnibus that will change your mind. But if, like me, you remember collecting trading cards and saving polybagged collector's issues, then this omnibus is a wonderful 5 lbs. of nostalgia. New readers who are enjoying the mysterious and deadly Domino in the X-Men or Deadpool in the current X-Force will probably enjoy the backstory developed in these issues.

This was such a breath of fresh air when it first came out in early 90s. Liefeld aping 70s Kirby splash pages, in your face action, copycat but interesting new characters....and Cable, Domino and Deadpool...pure nostalgia, guilty pleasure

This book is total comic "cool." It's all guns, and dudes fighting. But there's also a lot of character depth here. The original X-Force was a great action packed read in the '90s. It translates well into today, especially if you've followed the new X-Force books. It tones down a lot of the X-Men melodrama, which was refreshing for an X-Book at the time. Instead we got the renegade team; a grown up New Mutants.The book itself is high quality. Perhaps a bit expensive. It's in the same price range as other omnibus volumes from marvel, but is smaller. The bonuses are all there, the requisite cover galleries, some pages with trading cards.One bonus for fans from the time is the inclusion of the annuals crossover "Kings of Pain" which is a great, often overlooked, story. If you can get this at a deal then it's a great read.

Für Fans und Kinder der 90er.Liefelds fast schon grotesker Zeichenstil (leider nur bis X-Force Vol.9) in seiner jugendlichen Blüte, Perspektiven, Proportionen, und - jawohl - die legendären Liefeld'schen Füße! Man sollte vorher Cable & The New Mutans gelesen haben, zumindest die Liefeld/Simonson-Zeit. Und für Sammler und X-Freax spielt der X-Force Omnibus parallel zu Claremont/Lee-Omnibus Vol. 2 bzw. Bishop's Crossing.

L'article est en mauvais état, la couverture est pliée a 3 endroits différents alors que l'article était vendu comme "neuf"...

Achete car il s'agit d'un omnibus, j'ai presque regrette mon achat en commençant à le lire. Rob Liefeld sans le talent d'un Mc Farlane ou la d'un Jim Lee a impose un style à Marvel au debut des annees qui a conduit à la faillite de la compagnie vers 1996. Il s agit plus d une collection de posters que de la BD, plus de decors. Seuls les episodes dessines par MC Farlane et surtout John Romita Jr(30%)sauvent cet omnibus. Pour les fans des annees 90.