i was a decent fan of peter milligan back when he did shade the changing man, and i've always been a huge fan of mike allred (most notably madman, but also the atomics). so a few years ago (after i'd been out of comics for some years) when i happened across an article stating milligan (writer) and allred (artist) were going to be taking over a marvel x- title (x-force)...i was like "wha?!" milligan and allred are *not* your typical x- folk. i don't like x- titles, but i had to pick it up. and they rocked it. hard. x- and x-force fans cried, screamed, and gnashed their teeth. it was awesome. they wrote a story where the x-folk (all new characters) are entitled jerks who are all about using fame to get money, sex, power, etc. it's about marketing and ratings. and if a few die on a mission...hey, that's just more news time. (and die they did. often.) allred's artwork is a throwback style to 50's-ish stuff like kirby -- minimal but effective. milligan's writing is sharp and sarcastic. and they deal with racism, homosexuality, relationships, death, etc. all in the context of basically parodying the super hero comic world. anyway, eventually they changed their name (they were x-force 116-129), and became...x-statix. (haha.) this is a comp of the first issues of the newly titled series, but it's a continuation of the x-force line. dead girl rocks. as does orphan/mister sensitive. it's a fun read, and i really like allred's art.

When I first saw this comic in the shops, I couldn't get past the art. I understood it in the Madman series, but I didn't get it in an X-Book. I wasn't aware of the story line and passed on it. Now I finally get it. It was X to the eXtreme. It was cool that Marvel could make fun of itself. The overwhelming X Factor has shown how far the X series has dominated the market, down to the X tennis shoes on our heroes. It was a cool read.