turning against the team or being such a sociopath in the first place. I think Spurrier has great ideas, is a good storyteller, has a lot of insightful thoughts about culture and the role fiction serves in it, and just all around seems like a cool dude -- but I can't get behind this story no matter how much I try. Which really disappoints me because I like the whole cast, and have been loving most of them for years (some for decades).
Fanto is possibly the one I'm least attached to, but I'm still really annoyed with his portrayal here. I would be less so, though, if it wasn't such a massive contradiction of another, better portrayal of Fantomex that was being published
concurrently with this one last year over in the second volume of "Wolverine and the X-Men."
Seeing as both series started at approximately the same time ("X-Force" in February, WatX in "March"), the blame for this falls primarily to editorial, but it's really fucking wacky that Jason Latour had his positive, penitent, increasingly noble, increasingly well-adjusted portrayal of Fanto presented at a stage of "completion" in July's issue of WatX (issue #6) -- the same month Spurrier's Fanto in "X-Force" shot a Cable clone and fed it to sharks as a way of giving in to sociopathy without ruffling any feathers (issue #7).
Though I will point out that even with the first issue of Spurrier's series coming out before Latour's, Fanto hadn't yet given cause for alarm in "X-Force" by the time his drastically different portrayal was beginning to take flight as what it is in the first issue of WatX.
Anyway, back to the issues Fanto began exhibiting in "X-Force" #7, I obviously mention those without even yet looking at all the other fucked up shit Spurrier's Fanto would go on to do -- attempting to murder his teammates and all the other shit he does.
This is supposed to be the same guy
who had sentenced himself to a shitty life of penance for past misdeeds, whom Logan insisted come to the Jean Grey School and teach ("Wolverine and the X-Men," vol. 2 #1)?
This is supposed to be the same guy who gave Evan, another child clone of Apocalypse (like the one he murdered), a chance to grow up and prove he didn't have to be evil?
To whom he expressed regret for his actions -- as well as for whom he openly took on the role of parent, referring to himself as Evan's father (WatX, vol. 2 #4)?
This is supposed to be the same guy
who stood his ground against Faithful John after Storm and Wolverine had already fallen to him,
ready to give his all to protect Evan, still believing that the boy could defy his "destiny" to become Apocalypse despite Faithful John being there to kill him, having come from a future in which Evan had already given in to his dark side and wrecked the world (WatX, vol. 2 #5)?
This is the same guy who, at the end of this arc, having successfully saved Evan,
told him, "You see -- I was wrong, Evan. We don't have to give in to being the monsters they say we are. We can beat them without raising a hand. All we have to do is
believe" (WatX, vol. 2 #6)?
Incidentally, the lack of Fantomex is yet another reason "AXIS" sucked so much. It featured the culmination of Evan's thematic arc -- he was the only inverted hero (i.e. a villain during that story) to actually defy his villainy and help save the day -- yet Fantomex was nowhere to be seen, nor has been his response to Evan finally proving he can be good despite his nature.
Anyway, again, this atrocious mix-up can't really be blamed on the authors of these two series, who were writing them at the same time; once more, that's the editor's sin to seek atonement for.
It does, however, stand as an egregious contradiction between these two titles that in "X-Force," the Fanto clone still going by "Fantomex" hasn't merged with at least Cluster, if not both her and Weapon XIII. Fantomex and Cluster did, in fact, decide they wanted to be one person again at the end of "Uncanny X-Force," vol. 2 #9. Furthermore, not only does the demeanor and morality of Fantomex in the second volume of "Wolverine and the X-Men" indicate that they went through with that merger, but even if they didn't, for the single clone going by "Fantomex" to arrive at the level of morality and humility displayed in WatX without Cluster's positive traits instantly invalidates the entirety of his portrayal in Spurrier's "X-Force."
Now, I suppose one could argue that the reverse is equally true, but I read the WatX portrayal first, and I'm talking about why this series doesn't work for me. =P
In all honesty, I doubt that Spurrier would even care about these discrepancies. He's gone on record as saying
he doesn't feel that maintaining continuity is a big deal (
he's said it more than one time, truthfully) -- and while I can get behind his sentiments in general,
not with titles published in the same month.
