 X-Statix #26 (October 2004)
The universe is playing hardball with me as far as continuing to read comics, as every single title I've followed for the past couple of years is being canceled over the next few months. This is not entirely happenstance, as I tend not to follow the long-running major titles, being drawn more toward the stuff that isn't afraid to buck trends or take real risks. Few comics in recent years have done this as well as X-Statix, and while I'm glad it's going out long before it could get lame, I'm a bit sad to be left with almost no reason to venture into a comic shop more than once every few months. X-Statix became its own book after writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred made a right good mockery of X-Force, taking a lame but stalwart X-Men book and turning it into an outright parody of itself (which it was anyway, but not intentionally). Their run on X-Force was a carjacked joyride of pure chaos and satire that actually made you laugh out loud. Of course, it was the opposite of what Marvel Comics does, so it was killed and spun off into X-Statix. The renamed superheroes of X-Statix continued Milligan and Allred's wacky vision, presenting a superpowered team more concerned with their fame and fortune than with saving lives. The plotlines always took a back seat to the commentary, and the characters were killed off left and right, counter to major-title comic wisdom (in which you drag out popular characters and storylines as long as possible, if not longer). The unpredictability of the series is in full effect with X-Statix #26, which brings things to a bittersweet and murky end by killing off the entire team! This kind of nihilism is unheard of in mainstream comics, and is a perfectly audacious way to close out what was always one of the freshest things around. Going out in a hail of bullets, on a mission that didn't even need to happen … that's the way to do it. In fact, I'm going to go do that right now, since I don't have any comics to look forward to anymore. Thanks a lot, Marvel!
Review by La Fée |