X-Statix Omnibus

X-Statix (Collected Editions) #1-7

by Peter Milligan (Writer), Laura Allred (Illustrator), Nick Dragotta (Illustrator)

Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's subversive, media-loving mutants - the world-famous X-Statix - star in a series of bizarre, hilarious and deadly adventures with the most shocking ending ever! See all your favorites - including the Orphan, the Anarchist, Dead Girl, Doop, Venus Dee Milo and U-Go Girl - in action against and alongside Wolverine, the Avengers, Dr. Strange and others! Plus: the awful threats of Bad Guy, Pink Mink, Surrender Monkey and more! Collecting X-FORCE (1991) #116-129; BROTHERHOOD #9; X-STATIX #1-26; WOLVERINE/DOOP #1-2; X-STATIX PRESENTS DEAD GIRL #1-5; and material from X-MEN UNLIMITED (1993) #41, I [HEART] MARVEL: MY MUTANT HEART and NATION X #4.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book

1200 pages, Hardcover

First published May 24, 2006

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter.

He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd.

His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix.

Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo).

Series:
* Human Target
* Greek Street
* X-Force / X-Statix

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Milligan's and Allred's satirical, post-modern tongue-in-cheek look at the super hero / mutant genre finally got its own series after emerging in the X-Force title. This works even better for constant Marvel readers, but even someone new to the super hero genre will like this. Although the opening volumes are really good, and the art is unique and great throughout, the stories get old pretty quick and they lost that innovative feel they had at the start. 5 out of 12. Two Stars.

2011 and 2015 read

[The Lion's Share · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing book. It's such a strange Marvel story completely unique. I just don't get the whole killing thing. Since when has it become the norm for good guys to kill the bad guys in marvel comics?

Edit: The artwork is terrible.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, X-Statix is a beautiful, innovative, funny comic. It was ahead of its time and it looked at superheroes from weirdly slanted views. The 40-issue run had its ups and down, and it definitely overstayed its welcome by the end, but it's still a terrific run, and I'm happy it's finally been collected as a whole.This run was also when I fell in love with Allred's work. It's very clean and iconic and is a strong element of the comic as a whole.

New Beginnings (116-120). The idea of turning superheroes into spoiled celebrities and then seeing what happens was awesomely innovative back when these issues were originally published. The idea has been used a bit more since, but Milligan still offers a strong, fun take on the topic. Character-wise, three stand out: The Orphan, U-Go-Girl, and Doop. In many ways, this X-Force was the story of the first two and how they changed and adapted to the weird world they found themselves in. It's great to see them again. [10/10]

Lacuna (121-122). Huh. Two issues spent one recruiting that's not even successful There's some fun discussion of race and genre tropes here, but this doesn't have the strength of the early issues [7+/10].

'Nuff Said (123). I've never been impressed by Marvel's no-words month. This came off better than most because of Allred's artwork, but beyond that it's totally skippable [6/10].

I have no idea what to make of The Brotherhood crossover, but after reading #9, reprinted here, I wasn't particularly enthused to go read more. Still, I guess it's nice to have every X-Statix story in this one omnibus.

Edie & Guy (124). Some nice background on Edie, but after this I was happy to get back to "bigger" stories [7/10].

Space (125-129). This was the story that reminded us that no one was safe, and it was a great reminder that this X-Force wasn't a typical superhero comic. Beyond that, we get great media manipulations and a fun storyline [7+/10]

Good Omens (1-5). A strong revival of the series. It's great to see the followup to Edie's death, and also terrific to see the media focus on the O-Squad, which helps to reiterate many of X-Force's themes. I thought it was slowing down in the last issue (which unfortunately has horribly ugly non-Allred art), but then the ending hit me right between the eyes [8/10].

The Moons of Venus (6-8). A nice focus on Venus that really develops here as a character, and other than that some silly fighting [7/10].

The Movie (9). An OK issue without a lot of depth to it [6+/10].

The Diaries of Edie (10). A very nice character piece, both for U-Go Girl and for Venus [7+/10].

Wolverine / Doop. Milligan's pure weirdness style didn't intersect much with X-Force ... but it does here and the result is delightful. This very strange adventure is the perfect blend of the weird and the heroic ... and you can still see this foundation for Wolverine and Doop's relationship in Wolverine & The X-Men, many years later [7+/10].

Short Character Stories (11-12). These are quite good. El Guapo's story is a funny one [7+/10] while the focus on Dead Girl is a weirder and crazier one of the sort you'd expect from Milligan [8/10].

Back from the Dead (13-18). This story runs a little longer than it should and has its highs and lows. Some of the events are quite shocking, and the horror at the end of is good, but it also feels like Milligan is increasingly using shock for pure shock value, not for innovation. Still, this is an enjoyable read [7+/10].

The Cure (19-20). A very nice character piece on Myles, at times touching and funny and revealing more about him than we've seen in the whole series [7+/10].

Avengers vs. X-Statix (21-25). I've never been thrilled with this penultimate X-Statix tale. It tries to be clever by playing with an old trope of super-team teamups, but for the most part it's a dull fight. The Iron Man vs. Mr. Sensitive issue is very clever, but the rest generally aren't [5+/10].

Are You Ready? (26). Simultaneously, an expected but daring ending to the series, reminding us of what made it strong in the first place [8/10].

Dead Girl. And this is a much more apt ending for the comic than the final arc of the original series. It's a funny, wacky tale that also does a great job of letting some of the X-Forcers be heroes one last time [7+/10].

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pop Art For Now People" reads the backcover blurb for this tome-of-all-tomes, this freakishly long epic of mutant epicness, and seriously kids -- this is, I mean, holy crap? The longest comic that exists. That will ever exist. Forever. FOR-FUCKING-EVER.

It's also, with the groovy go-go aesthetic of Michael Allred's pencils and the loopy cynicism of Peter Milligan's scripts, quite serviceable as highbrow coffeetable book of sequential art -- a book that can be flipped through for random doses of awesomeness, or pored through page by page for a story of Lord-of-the-Rings-esque grandeur -- transposing orcs for genetic freaks with weird powers, and brotherly love for alienated ennui.

There's not many series that I think could work in a collection this ridiculously huge, but I actually feel like X-Statix is made better for it. For all the its over-the-top violence and pointed wit, there are subtler threads running through the collection as a whole. I mean, let's get this straight -- on top of being a big dumb book about a spinoff X-Men team, this is a spinoff X-mean team who are focused on cashing in on their own mutant celebrity; it's a rip on all the weird frustrations of life in the early aughts. It's all meta-reality-TV-culture this and death-row-prisoners-turned-into-zombie-soliders-by-the-Bush-adminstration that. There's jokes about boy bands, and Wolverine cameos in which he addresses the audience directly about trying to raise sales. And so on.

There's a LOT of fanfare about the novelty of homosexual mutants in these stories, to the point that it just feels like awkward overcompensation (X-Statix, to its credit, has more gay characters than the rest of the Marvel Universe combined; it's just that at no point does their inclusion demonstrate that Milligan knows the first thing about how to write them.) There are also African-American mutants who refuse to work together because they know that as soon as there's more than one non-white main character, one of them will be killed off. (Considering the fate of Darwin in 2011's X-Men: First Class,I'd say that even assuming one of them would live is too generous.)

There's a character named The Anarchist who stops to tell us what "tmesis" means (FOR-FUCKING-EVER) right after blowing a hole in the ceiling with his mutant sweat, after he's finished having sex with a hottub full of women while being interviewed by a celebrity reporter.

There's a section where The Orphan and Iron Man strip naked and throw grass at each other in order to see which of them gets to steal an exploded mutant brain from the cult that's currently worshiping it.

There's an entire issue where the team gets lost inside a zit.

There's a six-part story starring Lady Diana as a mutant zombie, only it's not Lady Diana because Marvel almost got sued for publishing it, so they went back through the book and gave her character a brown wig in every panel.

There's like a level of genuine existential quandary, in which a team of superpowered outcasts, making gobs of money to fight terrorists on TV until their inevitable grisly deaths, wonder what it's all for. And it's kind of fucking beautiful.

ONE OF THE TEAM MEMBERS IS BASED ON EMINEM, FOR CHRISSAKES.

There's SO MUCH DEATH. SO MUCH ANGST. SO MUCH MUTANT SEX IN WEIRD RUBBER SUITS.

This book, when it was released, was priced at $125. Now you can find it online for $40. I bought it on clearance at a brick-and-mortar store for even less than that.

There's you, wondering if you could really make it through a 1200-page post-modern superhero comic.

There's me, pitying your lily-white ass.

[Nicholas Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of these comics back when they were originally published in the early 2000's, and lost interest around the time of the ill-fated "Princess Diana comes back from the dead" storyline (where the powers-that-be at the time got nervous and made Milligan change his story at the last minute). That being said, when this gigantic book collecting the entire series (plus all of the associated specials/short stories) was solicited, I knew I would have to get it. It had been years since I even really thought about the series, and as I was going through the book, I was reminded about how weird it was, and how Marvel really did take a lot of chances back then. I must admit that I once again started to get bored around the time of the "Henrietta/Princess Diana" story, and the X-Statix/Avengers storyline was pretty unbearable. I sped through the last story, the "X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl" mini-series, mostly just to say I finished the book (for the most part, I enjoyed the books irreverent take on Marvel heroes, but I could really do without Dr. Strange talking about hemorrhoids). Having said all of that, why does this book get 4 stars from me? Because the first 2/3 of the book is fantastic! The characters are bizarre and interesting, Allred's art is great, and the story is a lot of fun - completely unlike any X-book that came before or since!

[Emily Matview · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel briefly embraced their inner indie comics kid on “X-Statix” and the result in one of the best series to ever come from the House of Ideas.

X-Statix began life in the pages of X-Force 116, though outside of the name and the fact that it stars a team of mutants, it has nothing to do with the guns and pouches team that preceded it.

This team, made up of new characters like Orphan, the Anarchist, Dead Girl and Doop, are reality TV stars as well as superheroes, and their success means they aren’t quite as hated or feared as their mutant brethren over in the main X-Men titles. They live lavish, celebrity lifestyles and have actual fans!


The X-Statix team are narcissistic. They’re petty. They’re fame-hungry. They date each other, cheat on each other, maybe love each other and definitely hate each other at times. Sound familiar?


Amazingly, X-Statix predates The Hills and popular reality shows like The Anna Nicole Show, The Osbournes and Keeping Up With The Kardashians, though fans reading the series for the first time now would likely see the series as the perfect send up of those programs.

Milligan is using this set up to examine celebrity culture, with a strong focus on what kind of person would one have to be to allow and even encourage their lifestyle to be so public, and what ultimately are the pitfalls that come with the territory.

The creators are also not afraid to kill off their creations, so there’s real tension during the battles. Will we be seeing one of our favorite characters for the last time?



Allred’s art is retro-cool and looks so great that I’d recommend this series on his line work alone. It’s inspired by Marvel legends Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, which gives the series a deceptively old school vibe. It makes the turns Milligan presents all the more surprising and, since it subverts our expectations, unsettling. And when Allred was unavailable the fill ins were a who’s who of talent, including Darwyn Cooke, Paul Pope, Philip Bond, so the quality never suffered in that department.



Ultimately, X-Statix was undone by the same media the series so perfectly satirized. A planned arc that would see venerable and unwitting tabloid star Princess Diana back from the dead, a death caused by the tabloids themselves, received large amounts of negative media attention. The story was changed last minute but the creators seemed disillusioned and the book ended shortly after.


Thankfully, the follow-up Dead Girl miniseries is included. After the book’s ending, Allred and Milligan went their separate ways but briefly reunited, along with artist Nick Dragotta, to give the characters a proper send off.

kit: Twitter | Tumblr

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the beginning, this is an incredibly interesting, beguiling tale: Milligan and Allred manage to set a modern American satire firmly in the X-Men universe in a way that leaves you thinking: this can't possibly be canonical. It's constantly surprising and inventive, well-written and dangerous, and Allred's art is gorgeous.

BUT, over >40 issues, a lot of the magic certainly wanes. By the halfway point, the whole series gets a lot more standard--the trappings of satire are still there, but there's an awfully lot of just punching bad guys. Storylines (even main characters) are introduced but never developed, plot threads are left dangling. The "danger" of the series has left. Early on, characters--even beloved characters--died with alarming frequency. That sense of peril is certainly missing in the last half of the book, partly because the characters have become much less compelling. Entirely from reading, I suspect that Milligan got too busy to give the series the time it deserved. It's particularly disappointing because the first half is SO good...

And the ending of the series is a huge letdown. It's sudden, unannounced, and meaningless--not in a philosophical, nihilistic way, but more like a "oh, the series is cancelled so I'll just kill most of the characters" sort of way. Really disappointing, after 40 issues of coming to care about the characters.

This omnibus edition also suffers from some other problems, like the inclusion of Brotherhood #9, the last issue of a series no one has ever read. I know the X-Statix were in it, but it's so unrelated (and boring, and it's the FINALE of something else) that it would be better omitted. Also, the Wolverine/Doop miniseries is pretty bad.

Overall, I would recommend picking up the trades, maybe, of the first three or four volumes, then stopping, rather than slogging through the last half of the omnibus.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

X-Statix is still the best modern X comic this side of Whedon's Astonishing run and Morrison's New X-Men run.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Statix

The weirdest X-Men related series I have ever read, but hard to find a omnibus with more amazing talent attached to it. Michael Allred, Nick Dragotta, and the Late great Darwyn Cooke. With Allred doing the most of the drawing, a fantastic artist and together with his wife, who does the painting a colorfull meta mix of beauty.  Peter Milligan does the writing and its nothing like i read before,  Mutant related, these guys are not feared, the have camera teams filming every thing, endorsements, its something different ! They are celebrities basically. I had a hard time liking these guys, but I do admire the originality. It has some issues I hated,  but some who blew my socks of really. Hard to rate this one, as it also contains many mini series, but if you like a original spin on X-Factor look no further.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a few days to chisel through this behemoth. Very interesting premise of super heroes that act for fame instead of some altruistic act. The art was fantastic with lots of awesome guest artist, but it seemed a bit scattered as far as the direction to the story. I feel Mr. Milligan can produce these really interesting set-ups but the follow-ups just seem to be lacking.

[zxvasdf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the X-force run by Milligan and Allred, which I thought had ended, continued under the name of X-Statix. I was ecstatic that my interlibrary loan request actually sent in a copy of this omnibus. So I go to the library to pick it up.

Did you realize it carries more weight, in actual actual kilograms and the more abstract wisdom of the shallow variety, than the world's favorite holy book? Hell, it gives the dictionary a run for its money. By the time I carried it into my house, my arms were stiff. This is a massive book.

X-Force, currently known as X-Statix, is a parody superhero groups, turning them into money hungry and attention starved celebrity whores. Forget any battles you might’ve read in the X-canon, the ones staged by X-Statix trumps any of them in terms of blood loss, appendage loss, and body count. As a result, there is almost always room for one more in the X-Statix roster, and the risk is well worth it if you desire shallow fame.

There are some guest stars from the Marvel Canon from Wolverine to the Avengers, who the artistic duo manage to turn into caricatures. It’s a testament to Milligan’s skill that he manages to turn as American as apple pie Captain America into an avatar of American hypocrisy (maybe it takes someone British to do this). Except for Wolverine, I guess because there's nothing for you to distort about him; what you see is what you get.

Allred’s artwork is perfect for this kind of thing because he has an uncanny skill for capturing emotion in such a deadpan art style. It's as if his illustrations are statements in themselves, simultaneously propagating and unveiling the narcissism and vanity of his characters. And Milligan has a history of subversive writing (one of my favorites are Marshal Law in collaboration with Kevin O'Neill) and turning his heroes into funhouse reflections of expected interpretations of heroes, anti-anti-heroes, if you would.

X-statix is a commentary on our self-obsessed culture which uses superheroes, a vehicle to monstrously exaggerate the self-loathing narcissism masquerading as infantile cries for attention we see every time we turn to a reality show.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended for the art. Now that I have read the whole thing, I'm not sure if I really admire Milligan's writing style. His characters had too much of a tendency to flip-flop personalities to accommodate for the plot. The stories are fun, for the most part. But what really makes this stand out is Allred's art. You can actually watch it evolve through the course of this collection, he just keeps getting better. The art isn't for everyone though. I was talking about this series with a friend and he just can't get over how much he hates this pop art style. I guess this isn't for everyone...

[Stu Rase · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was honest. It sounds ridiculous in a world of mutation and limitless power, but it's true. These characters felt real. It was genuine diversity in true X-Men style. The art was beautiful and the characters complex.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think my favorite aspect of this was the way it would create real flesh and blood characters, with pain and insight and humanity. For all of its pop art, satire, tongue in cheek jokes, and slightly above it all aloofness and for all of the standard Peter Milligan weird shit (which I love so so much), it mostly never forgets that we are supposed to care about these people. It addresses a lot of very interesting things and motivations.

There were times, though, were the quppiness and satire overwhelms the book. For a time, in those moments, everyone seems to become a mouth piece or act in ways that don't make sense, delivering bad goofy jokes throughout. Luckily this is quite rare.

The ending, though rushed (they found out they were being cancelled very last minute) is heartbreaking despite being a superhero action parody. I was very glad that the 5 issue miniseries starring Dead Girl and Dr. Strange (written and drawn by the same team as X-Statix) was included in the omnibus as well because it lets us spend a little more time with these characters and gives us some emotional closure there. Though I do wish we'd gotten to see Venus Dee Milo in that mini, she deserved better.

The art throughout is amazing. Mostly Allred, with some Dragotta and Cooke and others.

[Colin Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, this book — as a volume — is an achievement just in what I brings together. This is an absolute tome, gathering absolutely everything related to X-Statix.

Second, this is just a classic comic; perhaps not in the traditional canon, but this series is an all-timer for me. It’s weird and zany, doing stuff only comics can, but is also engrossing and has a real emotional weight. I know it’s part of the gag that X-Statix members die all the time, but I got attached to team, following their ups and downs with great care.

Maybe that’s the point - I’m another pair of eyeballs, sucked in to the drama of the team. As artificial and manufactured as it is, the characters still emote and suffer and rejoice.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving The Allreds, art and color- bright, eye-popping. I was moving away from comics again when it came out, and I didn't care for its amoral protagonists.

This time, I read the first 2 X-Force issues, after starting with X-Statix #1. It presents manipulation of media and a cold-heart to Fame with some very interesting character-driven stories. The satire holds up, two decades later, as do the moral quandaries that dominate those first two years of the title.

The issues leading out to space, with the CIA cover-up, were really terrific, as was that first X-Statix arc. I've just finished the two issue 'The Cure' and was impressed by the turn taken with Myles' story. But I don't have a great feeling about the five-issue wrap-up with the Avengers; haven't read it yet.

It's wild, pairing the Allreds' style, and Darwyn Cooke, to depict morally ambiguous 'heroes.' I tried to read 'Back From the Dead' with its original intent, but I did find it less engaging. It's a precursor to, but not as blackly-cynical as, The Boys by Garth Ennis.

X-Statix #1-12 really blew me away, especially U Go Girl's diary as read by Venus. I was reminded how brutal the road to fame was, even before the Telecommunications Act of 1996 led to even more corporate domination. This was the point where I went back to read U-Go Girl's appearances. She was not trying to be likeable, by her own account, but 'adored from afar...maybe envied.' The back-and-forth between The Anarchist (the book begins with his induction) and his new 'blacker, younger, meaner' teammate, The Spike, is uncomfortable and really terrific!

If you're on a budget and want to read a sophisticated, often-hilarious, perpetually-awkward X-Tale, the X-Force part of the run is most recommended, and I frankly loved and couldn't predict what characters would do- not even the most-well-intentioned member, Guy Smith, aka Mr. Sensitive/ The Orphan- over the first year of X-Statix.

If you would like to try a book like this but don't know X-Men continuity up to that point, all the better. It contains some of the tough decisions that mark that storied franchise, but X-Statix reverses the role from the persecuted to the celebrities- who are hated and feared in their own ways.
I went back, after reading X-Statix #1-12, to find the issues I'd missed with Paco; satisfying action story, with a good central paradox, about a little boy with a secret which could save the world, at the cost of his own life.

[Daniel Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma abordagem diferente para uma equipe de super herois mutantes, a primeira coisa que Peter Miligan faz é mostrar que não são heróis e sim super caras dispostos a tudo para garantir seus 15 minutos de fama
a HQ é estruturada como se fosse um reality show grotesco com mortes de personagens e intrgas entre os membros da equipe dando o tom de uma trama que apresenta um elenco de seres bizarros como a Vai Nessa e o Sr. Sensivel que num primeiro momento parecem que vão engatar um romance mas depois se tornam rivais ou algo do tipo
Doop e Wolverine é um crossover que diverte mas não justifica esse encadernado de 1200 páginas lançado pela panini, na real depois de passar dias lendo acho que é uma proposta que não funcionou na franquia X

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good lord, I knew I'd been passively reading this for a while, but over a year?

Anyway's, it's great stuff. I'm not an X-Men guy, I'm an Allred guy, so I can't tell you how this fits into the larger cannon. All I can tell you is the writer/artist on this is a perfect match. It's an incredibly cynical look at celebrity culture with superheroing taking a distant second place to fame management. It's brutally violent in parts, and just a blast. When Allred needs a break, the fill in artists are a murderers row of indie talent from the era. I think I've heard that they are relaunching this one in 2019, I'll check it out.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite thing Peter Milligan has written. With Allred's art, it has a psychedelic flair and seems to be just within the realm of reality. But with the powers the characters have, it's not insane. It's the most straight forward, non-weird thing he's done and it is just great writing!

A group of super powered characters fight bad guys but also have to figure out how badly they want to be popular and rich. Really nice characters and a blast to read. Recommend!

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this series for almost twenty years. It's a fascinating artifact of it's time, and has flashes of insight and themes that still feel relevant to the modern media landscape.

But it's also kind of a mess of shallow characterizations and abrupt wild plot swings. Diminishing returns as it goes, but I'm still onboard the for revival series next year out of sheer curiosity.

[Spencer Gilliland · Rating 3 out of 5]

There isn’t really any other Marvel book quite like X-Statix— for better and for worse. Milligan and Allred bring a reality TV angle that feels innovative and fresh, but it also wears out its welcome faster than you’d like. The opening volume— back when the team was still called X-Force— feels quirky and fresh. The characters feel diverse and defined. But after the tragic end of that volume, the following run as “X-Statix” loses all that made the original book fresh. The characters blend into a sort of quippy mush, and the storyline becomes unfocused and meandering. I wanted to love X-Statix. But it far too quickly abandoned what made it great, and ended up betraying the potential it once had. Still a fun read, but it could have been an all-time classic.

[Casey Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to give the three star rating. The stories are mostly ironic and humorous. I'm really just here for the brilliant artistic team of Michael and Laura Allred. This ain't Madman but their work still pops.

[Josh Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea there was an X book this weird at Marvel. 20 years on the satire is still razor sharp, and the combination of that with the pop art is incredible. And we of course have to recognize the legend that is Doop.

[Datagu · Rating 5 out of 5]

this comicis absolutely fantastic.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doop

[Simon Belfast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine metanarrative comedy with rare but emotional chapters. - 6/10

[Ekenedilichukwu Ikegwuani · Rating 3 out of 5]

weird, but oddly enjoyable. it takes a lot to get in to, and i was a little sad at the ending, but this is definitely a very niche comic

[Fazun · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

"So if you're up for a bit of post-modern deconstruction of our celebrity-mad world shot through the skewed lens of a comic masquerading as a mainstream X-book, you might just be glad that you bought and read this book."

That's the writer's, Peter Milligan, closing statement in his introduction to the first collection contained in this omnibus. I'm not sure I can do it much better as a summary of this mammoth book containing the entire run of X-Force and X-Statix by Milligan and Michael Allred.

I enjoyed the series for the most part but it started to drag about halfway through. The satire and post-modernism is fantastic and refreshing in a superhero comic. But all the satirical zing and the novelty of the new characters and high death rate wear thin after they are repeated enough times. I never fully attached to any character either, despite spending so much time with the core members. The topics tackled, from race identity to sexual orientation, are heavy for a mainstream superhero book. The examination of the issues isn't as hard hitting as an indie comic or graphic novel could be but it's still entertaining and enlightening enough.

The additional issues included outside of the X-Statix title itself aren't up to the same quality. "Brotherhood #9" is part of some larger story so this slice feels a little out of context. "Wolverine/Doop" is worth it for the Darwyn Cooke artwork but otherwise is pure fluff. "A Hard Day's Fight" is a short little oddity. "How Love Works" and "Dooptopia" were kind of pointless Doop fanservice. And the Dead Girl mini-series just tried too hard to be funny and didn't succeed.

The characters are inherently interesting from a superhero perspective. Their powers are dubious at best and seem to develop to suit the plot. Their obsession with fame and money is likely a more realistic depiction of how superheroes would act in our world. However, their vapid personalities also leave the detached and never able to fully invest in them, especially when you know they will die.

"The way to the nation's heart is through its televisions."

The artwork from Allred is stupendous and one of the main attractions. There's just something about it that catches the eye in just the right way. It's realistic but cartoonish at the same time, while invoking a classic Marvel style.

I'm not at all disappointed I read through the entirety of this 1200 page omnibus. I was expecting more, though, given all the good things I recall hearing about the series.

[Matthew Sargent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really know what I was getting into with this book. I just knew it was a giant book filled with Mike Allred artwork and a bunch of weird mutant characters I had heard of but knew nothing about. Fortunately, the story ended up being pretty good, and although it kind of lost its purpose partway through (and it became obvious how it would have to end), I remained interested enough to see it through.

Allred's art was what brought me to the book, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There are some odd instances where its hard to tell what a character is doing or how he or she is moving, times where Allred made a mess of drawing hands, and some weird implementations of early 2000s digital effects and photo backgrounds that just don't fit, but for the most part, the style fits the story very well. The other artists featured in the book tend to be not nearly as good, which always pulls me out of the story.

Like Allred's art, Peter Milligan's writing is often good, but with weird parts where it seems like he just gave up. He left storylines unresolved and had panels with dialog that has nothing to do with the scene, but my biggest issue is with how the original premise gets lost later on the series, turning it into a more standard superhero comic than a satire of one. It was still alright, but not nearly as interesting. I did appreciate how it ended, though, even though I saw it coming from very early on.

I had originally tried to find these books as trade paperbacks, but I only ever saw it collected as this giant tome, which I avoided at first because of how unwieldy it seemed. It's certainly a little awkward to read, but it worked out fine (just don't try to bring it on the train) and it's pretty cool to have all that content in a single book. Some of the non-X-Force or -X-Statix issues were unnecessary, but it doesn't really hurt to have them there. There are some odd things about the non-comic content of the book, though. For example, the issues listed on the dust jacket are all dated a whole decade too early; it seems like a rather careless oversight for such a fancy book. Also, the introduction contains a huge spoiler. It's foolish to assume only existing fans would pick up the book. Address those issues in an afterward, Milligan.

I would have preferred to give this 3.5 stars, but half stars don't fly here. The early issues are definitely worth a read, but it suffers from later storylines, so I can't quite justify a 4.