Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

This is like MAX, or Vertigo, except it wasn't set up as part of the hardcore Marvel Universe: it was X-Force, written by Milligan, with a mature content warning on the cover, and that's all.   Except this isn't the X-Force, any X-Force, Marvel fans are used to.   Those X-Forcers are heroes who are willing to do the dirty work no one else will, and while they were meant to be hardcore, this is more an indictment of the modern world.  

This is X-Force as a superhero team that is selling itself out for its fifteen minutes of fame.   The team members are willing to betray each other, and have an assorted array of problems.   They're gluttonous for fame and power, drug addicts, alcoholics, have suicidal tendencies, and the list goes on and on. It is an indictment of what the need for power and wealth does to a person. 

It's surprisingly subversive, and shocking in how realistically it portrays this as it would apply to a superhero team.   I remember reading this way back when, being shocked at how starkly this stripped down how money and power and the craving for such things can corrupt you.   And then I put it down, because it was so truthful it was uncomfortable.  I was younger, I was more anxious, and I didn't want to deal with these things. 

I thought if I read this again, I wouldn't get more from it.  I was wrong, because I've matured since this.   I found myself even more shocked, and panicking at how I could fit all this into a review: Milligan says so much, so plainly, and how could anything I wrote about it give anyone the sense of how much there is to this?   I'm still a little stunned by this, because there is so much more than I remember.   If anything, it makes me more uncomfortable, but this time, I'm willing to face it.  I'm willing to talk about it, and I won't walk away from the other issues, or X-Statix.   

I'm not sure if Milligan is as well known as Ennis or Ellis, and I'm pretty sure he isn't.   He's known, but in my mind he should be as well known as Neil Gaiman.   This run is, so far, a powerhouse of a run.   It's bleakness is lifted up by the small moments of human kindness, even when the real world interferes and tramples those who are good and kind.  Through the greed and the power plays, humanity shines through and it's not enough for so many of the characters, but it's enough for the readers. 

This has moved me to tears.   It's powerful stuff, it's heady, it's a little gross, and it shines just enough light to let you know that working your way through all that is hateful and vile is worthwhile for those small moments.  

I've been having a hard time this week.   As awkward as I felt reading so much of this, I think I'm at peace for the first time in a while because even in this, in some of the most repugnant things I've read, I found a little light.   So thank you to everyone who brought this to life.