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Counter-X #1
Counter X Volume 1
Like all mutants, X-Force must face a callous and deadly world - but now they've been trained for it by Peter Wisdom, one of the most callous and deadly mutants of all The proactive paranormal platoon faces a city transformed by Cold War mad science and a mutant druglord terrorist, but will their deadliest enemies be Wisdom's long-lost allies? Featuring killer zombies, exploding buildings, and the dynamic Domino Collects X-Force #102-109.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 16, 2008
67 people want to read
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,908 books5,764 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 19, 2021
Just like the other 'Revolution' / Counter X books, Warren Ellis takes the set template and rips it apart and builds something better and stronger! I think the only reason these books aren't classics is because of the weak art! 8 out of 12.
April 10, 2025
Update for 2025 Readthrough:
I dropped my rating by a star. It must have been so frustrating to read this if you were a fan of X-Force at the time. Ellis swoops in, changes the tone of the book, removes any sense of personality from the characters you enjoy and essentially writes a dull espionage prose story and has talented people ilustrate it. It doesn't even feel like a bad comic, it feels like someone took a dull story and drew a comic around it. Whilce Portacio, Ariel Olivetti, and Lan Medina's work is totally wasted here.
It's also worth noting that Ellis did the plotting but Ian Edginton wrote the plodding, personality-deprived script. I don't know their working relationship but if you told me that they'd never met and both hated the idea of working on this comic, I'd believe you.
This book is for no one who likes comics.
*******************************
Original 2018 review:
Warren Ellis is one of my favorite writers in comics. His Stormwatch and Planetary comics were some of the best turn-of-the-millenium superhero comics. His more recent work with Image is often incredible. But he's never been able to write an interesting X-book.
This brief run of X-Force is initially intriguing. He completely resets the tone of the book by introducing a character from his also dreadful Excalibur run, Pete Wisdom. I was curious to see what he was going to do with the book. Unfortunately, he didn't do much with it. It was darker. Both color pallete-wise, and theme wise. But it wasn't interesting. I found no reason to like or dislike a single character in the book. They all spoke the same, which was completely inconsistent with any previous iteration of the team, and I had trouble figuring out what Ellis was even trying to accomplish in the story.
It's not too long after this that Milligan takes over and re-re-re-reimagines X-Force, and manages to make it weirdly great. So I was disappointed in this whiff by Ellis. It is, at least, slightly better than the absolutely dreadful Edginton run that follows it.
I dropped my rating by a star. It must have been so frustrating to read this if you were a fan of X-Force at the time. Ellis swoops in, changes the tone of the book, removes any sense of personality from the characters you enjoy and essentially writes a dull espionage prose story and has talented people ilustrate it. It doesn't even feel like a bad comic, it feels like someone took a dull story and drew a comic around it. Whilce Portacio, Ariel Olivetti, and Lan Medina's work is totally wasted here.
It's also worth noting that Ellis did the plotting but Ian Edginton wrote the plodding, personality-deprived script. I don't know their working relationship but if you told me that they'd never met and both hated the idea of working on this comic, I'd believe you.
This book is for no one who likes comics.
*******************************
Original 2018 review:
Warren Ellis is one of my favorite writers in comics. His Stormwatch and Planetary comics were some of the best turn-of-the-millenium superhero comics. His more recent work with Image is often incredible. But he's never been able to write an interesting X-book.
This brief run of X-Force is initially intriguing. He completely resets the tone of the book by introducing a character from his also dreadful Excalibur run, Pete Wisdom. I was curious to see what he was going to do with the book. Unfortunately, he didn't do much with it. It was darker. Both color pallete-wise, and theme wise. But it wasn't interesting. I found no reason to like or dislike a single character in the book. They all spoke the same, which was completely inconsistent with any previous iteration of the team, and I had trouble figuring out what Ellis was even trying to accomplish in the story.
It's not too long after this that Milligan takes over and re-re-re-reimagines X-Force, and manages to make it weirdly great. So I was disappointed in this whiff by Ellis. It is, at least, slightly better than the absolutely dreadful Edginton run that follows it.
September 23, 2012
Generally, strong stories that take a very different tactic from the classic X-Force comics. They’re wacky and weird and really original. The last issue breaks down a bit as things are suddenly all wrapped up too quickly, but that’s the only major blemish in the volume. Well, that and the fact that plot points like Tabby’s hot knives, James’ flight, and Wisdom’s death seem to have been ignored in more recnet comics.
June 20, 2020
The Revolution reboot brings a new creative team to X-Force. Warren Ellis and Ian Edgington shift the title from a para-military strikeforce to a shadowy covert-ops team. X-Force continues their mantra of taking the fight to the enemy, but their attention is more focused on international, rogue, behind-the-scenes intelligence agencies.
Revolution introduces a few other changes. As with the X-Men titles, the stories start six months after the events of Powerless (Era #9, Part 15). The lineup is down to four: Cannonball, Bedlam, Proudstar, and Meltdown. Mutant super-spy Pete Wisdom becomes their new coach and leader. They also swap out their spandex for a new look.
There are two distinct arcs in this collection. In Games Without Frontiers, X-Force returns to San Fransico to stop a horrific experiment long-ago abandoned by the CIA. The original director, Dr. Niles Roman, orchestrates his new world vision as every resident of the city is turned into a monstrous mutant. Domino returns in Shockwaves, and she needs X-Force's help. She was has a mysterious, intelligent growth on her back and a mutant assassin, Marcus Tsung, hunting her for it.
I really like the new look and the new direction, but it isn't without some issues for me. The foremost is the heavy reliance on exaggerated spy cliches. It takes itself too seriously to be a caricature but remains too small in scope to be intriguing for the genre. The villains, Dr. Roman and Tsung, are only plot devices. What little character exposition we get is over-the-top cardboard cutout version of super-spy villainy.
One big bonus: Whilce Portacio! Another one of my favorite artists back on the X-Books.
Revolution introduces a few other changes. As with the X-Men titles, the stories start six months after the events of Powerless (Era #9, Part 15). The lineup is down to four: Cannonball, Bedlam, Proudstar, and Meltdown. Mutant super-spy Pete Wisdom becomes their new coach and leader. They also swap out their spandex for a new look.
There are two distinct arcs in this collection. In Games Without Frontiers, X-Force returns to San Fransico to stop a horrific experiment long-ago abandoned by the CIA. The original director, Dr. Niles Roman, orchestrates his new world vision as every resident of the city is turned into a monstrous mutant. Domino returns in Shockwaves, and she needs X-Force's help. She was has a mysterious, intelligent growth on her back and a mutant assassin, Marcus Tsung, hunting her for it.
I really like the new look and the new direction, but it isn't without some issues for me. The foremost is the heavy reliance on exaggerated spy cliches. It takes itself too seriously to be a caricature but remains too small in scope to be intriguing for the genre. The villains, Dr. Roman and Tsung, are only plot devices. What little character exposition we get is over-the-top cardboard cutout version of super-spy villainy.
One big bonus: Whilce Portacio! Another one of my favorite artists back on the X-Books.
July 9, 2018
What is happening and why? It's only partly clear.
Pete Wisdom is Constantine in the Cable/Professor X role. Tough love, cynicism, cigarettes, British accent = unstoppable force apparently.
The book turns on his death. He is clearly not dead and somehow orchestrating everything. Shopworn twist coming up.
Pete Wisdom is Constantine in the Cable/Professor X role. Tough love, cynicism, cigarettes, British accent = unstoppable force apparently.
The book turns on his death. He is clearly not dead and somehow orchestrating everything. Shopworn twist coming up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2021
Warren Ellis brings the book in a brand new direction right in orbit around his favorite self-insert character, Pete Wisdom. Expect all the unreadable art, terrible fashion sense, and one-dimensional side characters you can shake a stick at. It's like Nextwave, but not funny.
January 11, 2024
Warren Ellis became a sort of "showrunner" for the X-Men universe with his Revolution/Counter X--it essentially became a "One Year Later" kind of event.
It's failure led to Marvel doing a massive revamp with which included Morrison's New X-Men, Joe Casey on Uncanny X-Men, and Claremont on "X-Treme X-Men". When they left, another reboot was needed with "X-Men: ReLoad" which was a failure--other than the notable X-ception of Joss Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing. Ellis had a much more successful second attempt with his Astonishing X-Men run which followed Whedon's two year run.
This is a sort of covert ops version of the concept. It's a streamlined concept--the only major book, is that it allows Ellis to kind of reposition Peter Wisdom.
It's failure led to Marvel doing a massive revamp with which included Morrison's New X-Men, Joe Casey on Uncanny X-Men, and Claremont on "X-Treme X-Men". When they left, another reboot was needed with "X-Men: ReLoad" which was a failure--other than the notable X-ception of Joss Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing. Ellis had a much more successful second attempt with his Astonishing X-Men run which followed Whedon's two year run.
This is a sort of covert ops version of the concept. It's a streamlined concept--the only major book, is that it allows Ellis to kind of reposition Peter Wisdom.
August 7, 2009
i jumped into this a bit blind, s i really haven't read anything ellis wrote prior to transmet. despite knowing nothing about the characters and little of the premise, i was immediately caught by the writing, art, and pace. the technology themes are fascinating, but will be familiar in feel to anyone who's read a bit of his work. despite a few clunky one liners (it is marvel, after all), this is a great read, and i am even more excited at the vast amount of warren ellis writing i have yet to unearth.
November 29, 2009
Warren Ellis and Ian Eddington revamp 'X-Force', the teen mutant heroes, into a taskforce dealing with all the leftover spy mistakes, weapons and conspiracies left lying around since the end of the cold war.
Not bad, the heroes come across as knowing what they are doing and being friends. Plus, Pete Wisdom is a charming rogue and there's lots of funky science.
I just got tired of all the conspiracy and never the biggest 'X-fan' didn't get many of the past references or have enough attachment to stick around past this story.
Not bad, the heroes come across as knowing what they are doing and being friends. Plus, Pete Wisdom is a charming rogue and there's lots of funky science.
I just got tired of all the conspiracy and never the biggest 'X-fan' didn't get many of the past references or have enough attachment to stick around past this story.
March 30, 2014
Horrible.
April 21, 2017
Continuing my X-men catchup project - a slightly ridiculous (and ridiculously expensive) project wherein I collect and read the X-books from roughly the point at which I quit reading in my younger days. I have been slowly amassing these books over the last few years and am now at a point where I can begin reading without major gaps...
I really have no idea how to rate this one. I hate (I don't think that's too strong of a word here) the art. It's an art style that others may love but it just grated on me terribly and I didn't feel like any of the main characters looked like themselves. The plot was good (for the most part - the big mutant zombie release story was pretty bad...) and the characterization of some characters (Wisdom, Domino, Moonstar) seemed spot on but others (Cannonball, in particular) seemed really off. Also, these new powers they are gaining seem more than a bit forced.
Basically, it is a very uneven book in my opinion. This one also suffers from the gap between where I quit reading and where the trade paperbacks begin as I have no idea who some of the characters (like Jesse Bedlam) even are and there isn't a lot here to allow you to get to know them.
I really have no idea how to rate this one. I hate (I don't think that's too strong of a word here) the art. It's an art style that others may love but it just grated on me terribly and I didn't feel like any of the main characters looked like themselves. The plot was good (for the most part - the big mutant zombie release story was pretty bad...) and the characterization of some characters (Wisdom, Domino, Moonstar) seemed spot on but others (Cannonball, in particular) seemed really off. Also, these new powers they are gaining seem more than a bit forced.
Basically, it is a very uneven book in my opinion. This one also suffers from the gap between where I quit reading and where the trade paperbacks begin as I have no idea who some of the characters (like Jesse Bedlam) even are and there isn't a lot here to allow you to get to know them.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews