X-Force (2022) Annual # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

This one came as part of one of Third Eye Comics' random grab bags. Since annuals are usually one-shots, I can get the complete story and don't have to worry about being caught in the middle of some 20 part story. Plus a story about Wolverine and Domino teaming up to fight Sentinels sounds fun.

 

"Jump Start" opens in Beast's lab in The Pionte, Krakoa, as he talks to Sage asking if 'they' and en route. Sage says there's 15 minutes left for their arrival and they have to wait until they signal them from Erta Ale. Beast tells her to call him as soon as they do. She asks if he's sure about this since this plans sounds very convoluted for Orchis. Beast says he trusts her to do her job so she should trust him to do is. After their video call ends, Sage calls someone else, as she was told to do if Beast ever started acting strange. Sage says it might be time for 'her' to step in. In this case she is referring to Emma Frost.

Emma heads over and pays Beast a visit. Emma says she's just there to talk and doesn't intend to read her mind, though Beast says he wouldn't be able to tell the difference if she did. As a sign of good faith, Emma turns into her diamond form, which blocks her telepathic abilities. Emma says she heard he sent a team to retrieve a stolen shipment of Krakoan flowers. Beast says it's not of her concern. Emma says this is still her former project and wants to know where he sent X-Force.

 

We see a plane flying over the Danakii Depression in Ethopia, as Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega discuss their mission. Wolverine says a shipment was stolen off of Hellfire Trading and they're in a lab in one of Erta Ale's 'lava lakes'. 

Domino says they're going through a lot of trouble for stolen flowers that Orchis wouldn't be able to grow themselves. Wolverine says they're planning on reverse engineering them. Wolverine says they have to check out that lab using stealth since it won't look good that mutants are jumping into other countries' protected territory. They have to make sure all the plant data is erased and then blow the place up. Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega leap from the plane.

 

As the trio land with parachutes, Wolverine states that Sage said there isn't a signal for comms to work. When they're out on the mission there won't be any comms that will help Forge find them. As the team sneak around the edge of a mountain, Kid Omega says he doesn't need Sage since he can feel a hollow structure within the walls. He detects a hallway connected to a tunnel and uses his powers to blow a hole through the mountainside.

As the team enter the building, a steel door shuts down on the hole behind them. Kid Omega use his telepathy and doesn't detect any sign of organic life. Domino says they should make sure that there isn't anything hiding since the Orchis can't be underestimated. Kid Omega says he doubts it, and says either the bad guys were tipped off and ran ahead of time, or Beast sent them on a dud mission. Just then Kid Omega is grabbed by Sentinels from around the corner.

Another metal door slams down in front of them and the team hear the sound of something being activated. All of Domino's weaponry starts to fly up towards the walls. They realize the ceiling is like a magnet and Wolverine himself is pulled towards to the ceiling due to his adamantium skeleton (for the two people out there that still don't know).

Wolverine is stuck on the ceiling and the Sentinels fly towards him. They start to cut into him with blades and record their 'testing'. Domino runs off to see if she can find a way to help. She realizes that the place isn't a lab, it's a trap designed for each of them specifically. Someone is watching them through a monitor and  starts recording 'Orchis Erta Ale log # 459' to see what the team is made of.

Domino sees four red buttons designed to look like dice. She decides to step on one and see if her luck-based powers work. A trap door opens, sending Domino through a tube, trapping her in a huge sphere. We see that there were other spheres containing acid and such, so she happened to have chosen the safest one. 

 

The man watching them narrates that he doesn't want to kill the mutants just yet, he wants to understand them first. He wants to see Wolverine's healing ability, Domino's luck ability and Kid Omega's psychic ability in real time. He wants to especially tests Kid Omega's limits, saying that 'he is the key'.

Beast wonders how Emma heard about the X-Force mission, since if things were done correctly she shouldn't have heard anything about it. Emma says that Beast told her at the gala that he was doing everything for Krakoa, including getting his hands dirty for their defense, She says in this case, it isn't his hands and this isn't defense. She admits she was called in because something seemed off. She checked with the Marauders and they told her there was never a stolen shipment of flowers in the first place.

We see a page of encrypted notes 'from the desk of Albert Cary' which details the tests being committed. Kid Omega, Quentin Quire, is being tested by a type of sound frequency that only people with psychic abilities can hear. They hope this will be a way to disable psychics. The findings for this will be part of a project that is censored on the form.

With Wolverine, James 'Logan' Howlett, the test regards repeatedly slicing him up in the same area to test the speed of his regeneration and if it degrades over time.

With Domino, Neena Thurman, she's determined to be too dangerous to keep alive due to the unpredictable nature of 'luck' ability. The other orbs were full of acid, poison gas, or sharp objects. Even if she landed in the safest option, the heat sensitive glass would melt into the lava lake below Erta Ale. Either way, she would be dead within 30 minutes.

Kid Omega wakes up and is in a room surrounded by speakers. The test begins the sound frequency brings him to his knees. As he suffers he sees images from his childhood and people he knew.

Wolverine is still being stabbed by the scalpel-fingered Sentinels and is angry that the one thing that does him in is a giant magnet. Through all the pain what hurts Wolverine more is knowing his team needs him and he's powerless to help them.

Albert watches Domino, stating she will be the most difficult to study. She landed in the safest orb but it will begin to melt shortly. Domino narrates that one can't really cheat luck. For many people an exploding volcano can be bad news, but volcanic eruptions create electromagnetic signals. The magnetic molten rock reaches the planet's surface and sometimes the magnetic field can flip if one is lucky. Just then the magnetic ceiling collapses and Wolverine is free. Albert is shocked as he sees this unfold.

Wolverine gets up and sees a computer monitor with the testing being performed on Kid Omega. He runs off to save him. Albert activates Code Orange and sends med-bots after him. Wolverine unleashes his claws and makes short work of them.

 

Beast asks Emma when was the last time she felt safe walking around before Krakoa. He says he will do anything to defend it. Emma says that Orchis set up a trap and Beast sent X-Force there anyway. Beast wants to know the test results as much as they do. Sage had suspicions but Emma now knows that Beast sent X-Force on a literal suicide mission.

Emma says that the team should have returned by now. She says that X-Force isn't about Krakoa's people, but about Beast maintaining his power. Beast says if the world wants them dead, they need the best team. He says if the tip about the lab is even remotely true the responsible thing would be to send a team to check it out. Emma says that no one is believing his defender act and asks if he's even listening to himself.

Wolverine hacks his way through the robots and breaks into the room holding Kid Omega. Wolverine helps him up and says that Domino needs them. Domino calls out to them and they find the trap door. Quentin asks how they will get her out of there and Wolverine drops a busted Sentinel into the trap door. Domino patches into it and activates its jet thrusters. Domino hangs on and the broken robot flies her out of the trap door where she can rejoin the others. Albert isn't happy to see this at all.

Quentin asks if anyone found the flowers. Wolverine says there weren't any flowers, just the trap. He explains the whole set up was to test that device on Quentin, and they will need to bring it back with them. The place starts to erupt and Quentin says they have to go. Wolverine says they will need to grab that motherboard or everyone will be in danger. Quentin offers to lead the way.

Quentin tears the motherboard out of the computer but more robots show up. Wolverine and Domino take out the robots, but the place is coming down. Quentin tells them to get close to him. He forms an orb made out of psychic energy around the three of them and they fly out of the building as it collapses.

Albert wraps up his Orchis Log #459. He says their testing was cut short. The psychic sonic cannon device was irreparably destroyed, however... science is built on repetitive testing. Their results have clarified some things and opened new questions. They will have to repair and try again. The trio land safely and Domino radios for Forge to come pick them up.

Beast gets alerted by Sage that there are no casualties. Beasts say he will talk with her later, after he sees his guest out. Beast tells Emma that everyone survived this time. Emma leaves and says he's not as clever as he thinks.

Domino tells Beast that there weren't any flowers there, and the whole thing was a trap to test their limits and their weaknesses. Beast says he will have to be more careful with the next missions. Kid Omega tells him that got the motherboard of a machine they were working on. This machine would send personalized frequencies that would cause permanent damage to physics. He says they're working on something larger and this was just the prototype. Beast says it sounds like their mission was a success after all. Kid Omega is about to ask if Beast knew about the trap but stops himself. Instead he says they got their core and it's mission accomplished. X-Force flies back towards their base.

My Thoughts-

So pretty much.... Beast is pretty shady. It seems Beast had some idea the Orchis were up to something on the volcanic island, but he needed people to go out there and get captured for the plan to be revealed. So he lied and tricked X-Force into going there.

He's literally doing whatever it takes to ensure Krakoa's safety, no matter what the cost, even if it's the life of his own teammates. Maybe. We still have to remember that this was during the Krakoa era and mutants can be cloned faster than a runaway xerox machine. Wolverine even comments that if they die, they won't remember it. That means they'll just be revived as clones with memories of their last mission, or however far the Cerebro back ups go. It makes you wonder why Emma is so angry if life and death means nothing to mutants anymore.

 

Granted over the years Beast has been portrayed as taking things way too far for the sake of science or other things. We've also had Dark Beast (a version of him from the Age of Apocalypse) take his place a few times, which says something about him that it's so easy for him to pose as the original. I guess it's the principal of the matter, but Emma shouldn't be angry considering that have Resurrection on-hand on Krakoa. That might be why Beast jokingly said 'hey, everybody survived this time' as if it were no big deal.

It is awfully convenient that the Orchis had traps specifically set for Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega. What if someone else came along? What if the X-Men went instead? What if Kid Omega had a stomach ache and decided to sit this one out? Forge pretty much stayed on the plane. What if he landed the plane and decided to join them? Would they have had a trap specially prepared for him too? For a moment there I was wondering if the reveal was that Albert was working with Beast, if not for the team having completely wrecked their plans.

Good story overall. I didn't read too many X-comics during the Krakoa era, so I'm not sure if a more powerful version of the Psychic Sonic Cannon ever came into play or if they got to Albert Cary. The only thing left to say is I'm surprised more super villains haven't tried to use electro-magnets whenever they assume Wolverine is coming after them, and I don't mean Magneto. I mean evil mad scientists with hideouts full of traps types. I bet Kevin McCallister would have had a giant elctro-magnet waiting for Wolverine.....