Being a kid back then, damn, comics like this one were so striking, you didn't care for the story as long as each page brought badass drawings like you had never seem before. Liefeld and McFarlane got me back into comics at the time. Looking back it was kinda gimmicky, but I didn't move on, I didn't read any comics after that, even the Image stuff, so for me X-Force and Spider-Man from that era remain the quintessential comicbooks to this day.
I gotta tell you, I was all smiles watching this episode. I literally just picked this up at my LCS (missed it as a kid somehow.) Read through it for the first time last night, had a blast! First thought I had, "Holy shit! Cable is HUGE on this cover!!" It's a bombastic, beautiful, all over the place gem. Colorful as hell, and just screams 90s fun. It's funny this video popped up on my feed the day after I bought and read the issue. Apparently, TH-cam is paying attention. Loved the review. You guys obviously have fond memories of this issue, and your run down of it was really entertaining. (Especially having it so fresh in my mind.) What I found really funny though, was that last bit about how you guys said there were so many of these things printed that there are plenty to go around. What a coincidence, this just happens to be the book that my LCS has an abundance of, ha ha!! Out of all the X-Force issues ever printed, they literally have a full longbox packed to the brim of X-Force #1. You guys just nailed it on every level in this video. Great work, fellas. Looking forward to the next!
I grew up with this comic. I remember going to the comic store in 2008 at 11 years old and they had at least ten copies of X-force issue 1 in the 15 cent bins.
If you look at the double Page spread cabels feet are backwards😂. Rob did the same thing on an X-Men page inked by Scott Williams..Rob drew jubilee running and her foot was drawn backwards. Her left leg her foot was drawn as a right foot😅..smh..I don't understand how the editor missed that or how Rob didn't know that. It's sick how he even got hired or continued to draw.
It was the scene where Sunspot's father was delivered a steaming hot cup of coffe and he just tilts his head back and POURS the shit down his throat! I couldn't even read the guy's name in print after that without giggling.
I still dont get how Thunderbird died and then later on Warpath shows up and looks identical to Thunderbird even wearing the same shirt with a red "T" on it!
I still have this in a sealed bag with the Cable card from when I bought it as a kid, from a video rental store that also sold comics. Captain Video in Mill Creek WA
The thing I remember about this as I was a senior in high school when it came out was the marketing ploy used to get you to buy multiple issues. They put a trading card in each issue and there were I believe five or six different cards to get the whole set you had to buy as many issues. Add to it all his popularity it made for a hurricane of sales.
This is an interesting ride with you guys, exploring what was going on behind the scenes while I was buying all these books in the 90s. The best part is when you guys point out the weird holes in these stories from this era. "Cable can't show the team he has telekinesis....for reasons" LOL, I remember reading that panel as a kid and thinking the same thing, "Why the hell can't Cable let them know?!" This era was the precursor for me leaving comics for a while but I bought way too many of these stories before I realized there was no substance to any of them and I was being duped by the hype and artwork.
I remember buying this (2 copies of course) at Geppis in Baltimore Harbor and reading it right there in the Gallery. It was like a handheld action cartoon, the 90’s really missed out on giving Liefeld his own “GI Joe” style series to explore.
Was way into the X-books at the time. Loved this book and the art. Instantly forgive the blemishes of the artists of the time as I bask in the nostalgia. To this day my sketch book will have a Rob and Whilce hand on my pages to practice hand design... not as examples of what not to do but just to entertain myself. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. You guys rock.
Interesting point brought up no mention of Rob Liefeld in the bulletin column but only in the fans letter page. Selling 5 million copies is outstanding! I guess the editors were trying to pretend not being aware! Lol! I am still baffled that they let him go back in the 90s! I get that he had some strange artistic approach but this guy had yet to grow and improve as an artist! Yep, I am forever baffled!!!
I remember reading this issue as a kid and having the realization that Cable was Nathan Summers, but now I wonder if the Cable-has-telekineses bit was passed down by Editors to lay that groundwork or if Rob Liefeld kitchen sink approach inspired the idea to make Cable be Nathan Summers.
There's something so hilarious to me about Jim's almost desperation in how he said "Gideon, I need that ponytail bound, and I need a full 360 turn. Let me get a good look at what's happening."
Liefeld's art, though not particularly sound, was always so kinetic and very punk rock to me. I'd always rather listen to The Ramones because they were chaotic and fun rather than a boring ass group like Emerson Lake and Palmer even though they were great musicians. And like The Ramones, Liefeld inspired so many people to pick up a pencil and make fun comics.
I have that Comic Book somewhere…!!! It was fun in the late 80’s and early 90’s when I collected those X-Men, Hulk, Batman, Wolverine & All The Other Childhood Favorites…i liked The X-Force Comic Books….i Got Like 3 To 4 Books per week with a 1 Pack Of Ginseng Bubble Gum…I had Golgo13, Spider-Man
I remember predicting this one to be the beginning of the end. After a Boston show one night a bunch of dealers all went out to dinner [Harley Yee, Dolgoff, lowley me and Jerome and a couple of artists [cant remember who]. We talked about this coming out and what it meant. There was a concensus that this was signalling the end of good comics. While not totally true it certainly didn't help the industry.
It should've just been an era. Comics used to refresh themselves to catch up to the culture and this was a response to "Extreme" style and the sports/entertainment collectables cultures of the 90's. The problem is that superhero books didn't really ever find the next thing and just kept doing variations of this theme for nearly 30 years.
Although I ate this stuff up at the time, calling out Kayfabian Nicieza always makes me laugh. The first time Ed paired it with Scott Job-dell in the Wizard reviews, I woke my wife up laughing.
Rob Liefeld is one of the best comic book artists in America. He did what a professional work for hire artist is supposed to do: get readers interested enough to buy the next issues and make money for his publisher. Liefeld was not the "best" artist aesthetically but his work excited the readers because in art emotional reaction always trumps intellectual appeals. Its possible that many people liked his work because its pretty much how we all drew superhero comics in high school. Rob Liefeld is the Hulk Hogan of comic books: a "bad" technician that connected with the fans and made a lot of people much money.
I was hooked on Liefeld’s comics starting with that 5 issue mini he did for DC with Karl and Barbara Kessell, the Hawk & Dove vs Kestrel series. He was less rushed i think overall then
I was hyped about Liefeld and Lee of it all at first, but this era is what chased me out of hero comics. Age of Apocalypse was the nail in the coffin. That being said, I can't fault them for trying to refresh and bring more young kids (I was 18 and probably on my way out of hero stuff anyway) back into comics. The problem is that they seem to be stuck in that 30 year old model. $4 comics with 16 pages of oddly-drawn musclemen and little dialog isn't going to grow the biz.
Reading these issues at that time hinted at Liefelds potential art wise that slowly burned out when he went rogue to do his own thing and his work just suffered and lost the "energy" that made it a hit.
Even as a kid enchanted with the mere concept of comic books Liefeld never did anything for me. Something about his work was just fundamentally offputting. Not so for the video, though! Good stuff, fellers.
Check that Entertainment This Month ad, pre X-Men #1. Do you think that was meant to be Cyclops' new color scheme at one point? Gray belt? Red wrists? Black uh speedo? The visor is correct so they had yellow for the ad. It's... ugly.
Maybe those 4 weird panels where he shows the inside of the base are supposed to be security cam footage, but the colorist didn't get the memo so he just colored it like the rest of the comic.
Say what you want about Rob Liefeld... he can't draw feet... he can't draw fingers.. yada yada... i was never turned off by these things... the energy he put on the page out weighed those technical issues and made them seem... dare we say 'unimportant'. and to be truthful... they were unimportant to his style of the time. A lot of people give him flack for it... but i was of the opinion comics has no rules except what it determines as a rule.... meaning, each project determines what rules it is going to be governed by. Now, one could argue that those kinds of choices are predetermined and integrated purposely with experience and skill through-out the project for this idea to apply. However, I disagree. If comics can be made of a cartoon duck character with three fingers and be totally legit... then comics of giant figures with tiny heads can be legit too... after all, they are just comics and they all performed at the comics retailer. And that's really the bottom line when it comes to entertainment. I personally believe Rob's violent ink line at the time had a lot to do with his success.. I've always liked Rob's art for what it is... an explosion of energy that comic fans were dying for... and his ink line pushed the energy to a new level the fans had not seen in quite sometime. The seasoned pros at the time couldn't wrap their minds around it... it was quite obvious they wanted one thing (wether they admit it or not) and the fans wanted another... it's a good thing the fans won. I really like this issue as it truly displays the energy Rob had in his art at the time. Nice job pointing out the colorist Jim. Super hero comics were meant for bold colors!
All these amazing visuals and then you had the absolute WORST writers on these books. They missed out when these egotistical star writers and egotistical star artists were too busy butting heads to work together
Kudos to Liefeld. He spent zero time aping Moore or Miller and created books that reflected what he thought was cool. Liefeld is to comics what KISS were to popular music.
People today are so worried about technical details. Liefeld proved it's not about the details, it's about the attitude and presentation. Yes, my comment is to crap on manga copycatters. I love manga and anime...I hate 'hey look, you can't tell my art from any one of these 20,000 others!' folks....Liefeld's art may technically suck, but you know a Liefeld when you see it. That's identity. Learn it.
Not a good comic, but that didn't stop sales. I remember the confusion this caused @ the LCS I worked at. Which card to order? How many? Are people buying one copy, 5 copies, 10? Marvel and Liefeld were the only winners with this stunt.
Folk knock Rob so much but he was a killer artist. There are so many acclaimed artists that have so many holes in their craft, and get no flack. Yet Rob, man, gets lots of hate. But I think he's getting a huge wave of respect, in retrospect.
Worst artist ever. Never understood why he was popular. His panels were generic in their layout and his style oversimplistic and lazy. As to his understanding of anatomy and perspective, a child can do better.
Being a kid back then, damn, comics like this one were so striking, you didn't care for the story as long as each page brought badass drawings like you had never seem before. Liefeld and McFarlane got me back into comics at the time. Looking back it was kinda gimmicky, but I didn't move on, I didn't read any comics after that, even the Image stuff, so for me X-Force and Spider-Man from that era remain the quintessential comicbooks to this day.
Bob Harras: Rob, you cant just leave that background empty!
Rob: how about a series of long bubbles?
Bob: what?
Rob: long COLORFUL bubbles?
I gotta tell you, I was all smiles watching this episode. I literally just picked this up at my LCS (missed it as a kid somehow.) Read through it for the first time last night, had a blast! First thought I had, "Holy shit! Cable is HUGE on this cover!!"
It's a bombastic, beautiful, all over the place gem. Colorful as hell, and just screams 90s fun.
It's funny this video popped up on my feed the day after I bought and read the issue. Apparently, TH-cam is paying attention.
Loved the review. You guys obviously have fond memories of this issue, and your run down of it was really entertaining. (Especially having it so fresh in my mind.)
What I found really funny though, was that last bit about how you guys said there were so many of these things printed that there are plenty to go around. What a coincidence, this just happens to be the book that my LCS has an abundance of, ha ha!! Out of all the X-Force issues ever printed, they literally have a full longbox packed to the brim of X-Force #1.
You guys just nailed it on every level in this video.
Great work, fellas. Looking forward to the next!
I grew up with this comic. I remember going to the comic store in 2008 at 11 years old and they had at least ten copies of X-force issue 1 in the 15 cent bins.
If you look at the double Page spread cabels feet are backwards😂. Rob did the same thing on an X-Men page inked by Scott Williams..Rob drew jubilee running and her foot was drawn backwards. Her left leg her foot was drawn as a right foot😅..smh..I don't understand how the editor missed that or how Rob didn't know that. It's sick how he even got hired or continued to draw.
I use to laugh at how Rob Liefield drew Cable's hands so small on the cover, and decades later, I'm still laughing🤣😂
It was the scene where Sunspot's father was delivered a steaming hot cup of coffe and he just tilts his head back and POURS the shit down his throat! I couldn't even read the guy's name in print after that without giggling.
I'll give him this: Liefeld had fantastic panel composition.
2:17 And that was the moment I realized how the cover was designed to obscure all the feet.
It may be overkill but I'd love to see Rob's entire X-Force run covered, one issue every week or two. Just asking?
X-Force #1 is one of my favourite comics, I even have my copy signed by Liefeld. Fun video guys. Happy New Year..
In italy Marvel Italia sold it with a poly bag and a pair of VERY CHEAP X-Force sunglasses. 😂
I still dont get how Thunderbird died and then later on Warpath shows up and looks identical to Thunderbird even wearing the same shirt with a red "T" on it!
Jim Lee 's artwork was the BEST.
I still have this in a sealed bag with the Cable card from when I bought it as a kid, from a video rental store that also sold comics. Captain Video in Mill Creek WA
I bet it still has that original smell when you open it ha ha
Say what you will but Rob did wind up setting the x-men up with a lot of future story lines thanks to creating Deadpool and Cable.
The thing I remember about this as I was a senior in high school when it came out was the marketing ploy used to get you to buy multiple issues. They put a trading card in each issue and there were I believe five or six different cards to get the whole set you had to buy as many issues. Add to it all his popularity it made for a hurricane of sales.
This is an interesting ride with you guys, exploring what was going on behind the scenes while I was buying all these books in the 90s. The best part is when you guys point out the weird holes in these stories from this era. "Cable can't show the team he has telekinesis....for reasons" LOL, I remember reading that panel as a kid and thinking the same thing, "Why the hell can't Cable let them know?!" This era was the precursor for me leaving comics for a while but I bought way too many of these stories before I realized there was no substance to any of them and I was being duped by the hype and artwork.
let's. go. i think i have around 10 or 15 of these stocked away. i dont care what theyre worth to the community but these are bullion to me
God I love the 90’s style
Its trash. So is Liefeld
I remember buying this (2 copies of course) at Geppis in Baltimore Harbor and reading it right there in the Gallery.
It was like a handheld action cartoon, the 90’s really missed out on giving Liefeld his own “GI Joe” style series to explore.
Never understood the “too tight in the crotch” pants thing. It’s a pretty peculiar element of his style. Castration anxiety?
Was way into the X-books at the time. Loved this book and the art. Instantly forgive the blemishes of the artists of the time as I bask in the nostalgia. To this day my sketch book will have a Rob and Whilce hand on my pages to practice hand design... not as examples of what not to do but just to entertain myself. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. You guys rock.
Im not a comic reader or reader period but i do like comic book covers n idk why so many people hate on this guy
I LOVE X-FORCE...
YES! I have this book kept safely in a box, sealed. Ive never actually looked into this book, so thank you for this video
One of the few complete run in my collection - X-Force!
Picked mine up from Atomic Comics in Mesa Az with my Dad! Great days.
X-force 1 Was My Shiznit back in the day, I read that to pages. Fortunately was able to get more copies in the dollar bin.
Interesting point brought up no mention of Rob Liefeld in the bulletin column but only in the fans letter page. Selling 5 million copies is outstanding! I guess the editors were trying to pretend not being aware! Lol! I am still baffled that they let him go back in the 90s! I get that he had some strange artistic approach but this guy had yet to grow and improve as an artist! Yep, I am forever baffled!!!
Good Mornin'!!! What a treat to wake up to, Thanks Boys!!🙏🏻🙏🏼🙏🏽🙏🏾🙏🏿✨👏🏿👏🏾👏🏽👏🏼👏🏻
I picked up a bunch of x-force comics last year, I guess I'll start giving them a read once I've watch this video
this ish was historical. love it or hate it, you cant deny its bombastic
I remember reading this issue as a kid and having the realization that Cable was Nathan Summers, but now I wonder if the Cable-has-telekineses bit was passed down by Editors to lay that groundwork or if Rob Liefeld kitchen sink approach inspired the idea to make Cable be Nathan Summers.
My favorite comic series of all time. Was my first subscription.
I couldn't figure out the thumb from the pinky when i was a kid either! Still can't
There's something so hilarious to me about Jim's almost desperation in how he said "Gideon, I need that ponytail bound, and I need a full 360 turn. Let me get a good look at what's happening."
Liefeld's art, though not particularly sound, was always so kinetic and very punk rock to me. I'd always rather listen to The Ramones because they were chaotic and fun rather than a boring ass group like Emerson Lake and Palmer even though they were great musicians. And like The Ramones, Liefeld inspired so many people to pick up a pencil and make fun comics.
precisely
I have that Comic Book somewhere…!!! It was fun in the late 80’s and early 90’s when I collected those X-Men, Hulk, Batman, Wolverine & All The Other Childhood Favorites…i liked The X-Force Comic Books….i Got Like 3 To 4 Books per week with a 1 Pack Of Ginseng Bubble Gum…I had Golgo13, Spider-Man
Starting the new year to the EXTREME! \m/
I remember predicting this one to be the beginning of the end. After a Boston show one night a bunch of dealers all went out to dinner [Harley Yee, Dolgoff, lowley me and Jerome and a couple of artists [cant remember who]. We talked about this coming out and what it meant. There was a concensus that this was signalling the end of good comics. While not totally true it certainly didn't help the industry.
@@rockon8174 If you say so.
It should've just been an era. Comics used to refresh themselves to catch up to the culture and this was a response to "Extreme" style and the sports/entertainment collectables cultures of the 90's. The problem is that superhero books didn't really ever find the next thing and just kept doing variations of this theme for nearly 30 years.
George Washington Bridge?
I bought this, but honestly, I was just hoping for more New Mutants.
Don't Fake the Funk on a Nasty Dunk.
th-cam.com/video/01-vPBqLplg/w-d-xo.html
I'm sad you guys rode right past the Bullpen Bulletins page. Some fantastic JR SR and other greats too
Shame lefield left after 7/8 issues. Same as mc farlane on spider-man.
Although I ate this stuff up at the time, calling out Kayfabian Nicieza always makes me laugh. The first time Ed paired it with Scott Job-dell in the Wizard reviews, I woke my wife up laughing.
Liefeld is his own biggest mark.
When you slab that raw key, CGC gonna take a tenth off for that spine rub.
I like to think that Rob did a manga-like exaggeration before Joe Madureira made it "cool"
What’s weird is I remember having this issue, never knew the significance of it.
Rob Liefeld is one of the best comic book artists in America. He did what a professional work for hire artist is supposed to do: get readers interested enough to buy the next issues and make money for his publisher. Liefeld was not the "best" artist aesthetically but his work excited the readers because in art emotional reaction always trumps intellectual appeals. Its possible that many people liked his work because its pretty much how we all drew superhero comics in high school. Rob Liefeld is the Hulk Hogan of comic books: a "bad" technician that connected with the fans and made a lot of people much money.
True.
I was hooked on Liefeld’s comics starting with that 5 issue mini he did for DC with Karl and Barbara Kessell, the Hawk & Dove vs Kestrel series. He was less rushed i think overall then
Rob is easily one of the all-time best comic book artists, ever. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane & Rob Liefeld changed the game.
Really, the best thing about Liefeld is, that he showed you don't have to be good at something to be successful at it.
RIFTS!
This is Rob Liefield's best artwork! Nobody draws like that anymore! The best artwork was back in the 90s. Not today's comic book artwork!
What?? Have you seen the quality of artists nowadays? Liefeld sucks lol
I was hyped about Liefeld and Lee of it all at first, but this era is what chased me out of hero comics. Age of Apocalypse was the nail in the coffin. That being said, I can't fault them for trying to refresh and bring more young kids (I was 18 and probably on my way out of hero stuff anyway) back into comics. The problem is that they seem to be stuck in that 30 year old model. $4 comics with 16 pages of oddly-drawn musclemen and little dialog isn't going to grow the biz.
Great era in comics back then .. I think right aids were called thrifty back then but I got my comics at Vons & 7-11
Side note, please show off, for once, some pages of that black light comic, under actual black light :)
Reading these issues at that time hinted at Liefelds potential art wise that slowly burned out when he went rogue to do his own thing and his work just suffered and lost the "energy" that made it a hit.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Even as a kid enchanted with the mere concept of comic books Liefeld never did anything for me. Something about his work was just fundamentally offputting. Not so for the video, though! Good stuff, fellers.
He kinda did Marvel-manga before Madureira made it cool.
@@somebodysomeone8213 Madureira 🤮
Check that Entertainment This Month ad, pre X-Men #1. Do you think that was meant to be Cyclops' new color scheme at one point? Gray belt? Red wrists? Black uh speedo? The visor is correct so they had yellow for the ad. It's... ugly.
Maybe those 4 weird panels where he shows the inside of the base are supposed to be security cam footage, but the colorist didn't get the memo so he just colored it like the rest of the comic.
Rob said he had a good relationship with Bob Harras back then and now.
I have this, AND several Youngblood early issues. Classic 'No-Feet-Everyone-Has-Same-Nose' Liefeld😂
I watched this a couple months ago
Say what you want about Rob Liefeld... he can't draw feet... he can't draw fingers.. yada yada... i was never turned off by these things... the energy he put on the page out weighed those technical issues and made them seem... dare we say 'unimportant'. and to be truthful... they were unimportant to his style of the time. A lot of people give him flack for it... but i was of the opinion comics has no rules except what it determines as a rule.... meaning, each project determines what rules it is going to be governed by.
Now, one could argue that those kinds of choices are predetermined and integrated purposely with experience and skill through-out the project for this idea to apply. However, I disagree. If comics can be made of a cartoon duck character with three fingers and be totally legit... then comics of giant figures with tiny heads can be legit too... after all, they are just comics and they all performed at the comics retailer. And that's really the bottom line when it comes to entertainment. I personally believe Rob's violent ink line at the time had a lot to do with his success..
I've always liked Rob's art for what it is... an explosion of energy that comic fans were dying for... and his ink line pushed the energy to a new level the fans had not seen in quite sometime. The seasoned pros at the time couldn't wrap their minds around it... it was quite obvious they wanted one thing (wether they admit it or not) and the fans wanted another... it's a good thing the fans won.
I really like this issue as it truly displays the energy Rob had in his art at the time. Nice job pointing out the colorist Jim. Super hero comics were meant for bold colors!
Perfectly said
GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE
When comics were fun...
....and now, it's worthless. Even the trading cards, just a pile of paper. Oh well comics. PEACE gentlemen, and God bless.
Next issue to review is Uncanny X-men issue 267.
All these amazing visuals and then you had the absolute WORST writers on these books. They missed out when these egotistical star writers and egotistical star artists were too busy butting heads to work together
Hey, his books were full of action. And engrossing.
Kudos to Liefeld. He spent zero time aping Moore or Miller and created books that reflected what he thought was cool. Liefeld is to comics what KISS were to popular music.
People today are so worried about technical details. Liefeld proved it's not about the details, it's about the attitude and presentation.
Yes, my comment is to crap on manga copycatters. I love manga and anime...I hate 'hey look, you can't tell my art from any one of these 20,000 others!' folks....Liefeld's art may technically suck, but you know a Liefeld when you see it. That's identity. Learn it.
Not a good comic, but that didn't stop sales. I remember the confusion this caused @ the LCS I worked at. Which card to order? How many? Are people buying one copy, 5 copies, 10? Marvel and Liefeld were the only winners with this stunt.
Folk knock Rob so much but he was a killer artist. There are so many acclaimed artists that have so many holes in their craft, and get no flack. Yet Rob, man, gets lots of hate. But I think he's getting a huge wave of respect, in retrospect.
I love that you guys wax nostalgic over Rob, Jim and Todd so much. Love this channel!
Worst artist ever. Never understood why he was popular. His panels were generic in their layout and his style oversimplistic and lazy. As to his understanding of anatomy and perspective, a child can do better.