X-FORCE #5 – December 1991

Under The Magnifying Glass

Credits: Rob Liefeld (plot & art), Fabian Nicieza (script), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Brian Murray and Renee Witterstaetter (colors)

Summary

Toad and Blob kidnap Dr. Karl Lykos and force him to transform into Sauron. Gideon tells the media that X-Force was involved with the World Trade Center bombing. G. W. Bridge meets with Val Cooper, Nick Fury, and Henry Gyrich to discuss Cable and X-Force. Cannonball begins to question Cable, Feral flirts with Shatterstar, Siryn officially joins the team, and Warpath runs around with his shirt off.

Miscellaneous Note

The letters page is starting to print a few negative comments. One letter writer complains about Cable’s various mysteries, and wants to know why Feral wears gloves over her claws. One letter writer brings up the idea of a character called “Douglock”, combining Doug Ramsey with Warlock. The editor’s response is “Douglock, Dan? Douglock!? Don’t you think we have enough characters with enough mysteries with enough complications without adding a resurrected terran/alien symbiote to the cast? Gee whiz!”

Douglock would first appear two years later in Uncanny X-Men #313 and soon join the cast of Excalibur.

Review

It’s been over a week since I reviewed an issue of X-Force. I knew something had been missing in my life. In this issue, Cable doesn’t shoot any unarmed men, so it’s at least better than the last installment. In fact, Cable doesn’t shoot anyone in this issue. This is actually the first issue of X-Force that doesn’t really contain any action. Practically nothing happens so it’s hard to write anything about it. There is a pretty embarrassing scene with Warpath running shirtless through the woods, angsting about the various indignities committed against Native Americans throughout history.

Some of the art in this issue just doesn’t look like Rob Liefeld. It’s Liefeld-ian, but I wouldn’t say that it’s Liefeld. I’ve heard over the years that Marat Michaels did ghost work for Liefeld on this series, but now I can’t find any information about this online. Does anyone have a source on this? Michaels says that he was Liefeld's "assistant" during this time on this official site, but that's all I've found.
I’ve posted some of the not-quite-Liefeld panels below. Liefeld or just Liefeld-ian?