A Look At DEADPOOL 2’s X-Force
Deadpool 2 is almost here. Get your tickets now!
Don’t call it a comeback. Everyone’s favorite Merc with a Mouth is ready to teabag theatergoers in Deadpool 2 and he’s bringing a few New Mutants with him, recruiting a team that’s “tough, morally flexible, and young enough to carry their own franchise for 10 to 12 years.” Enter X-Force, a super-powered paramilitary with the goods and gab to keep up with Weapon XI.
X-Force was originally the brainchild of illustrator Rob Liefeld, who started working on Issue #86 of Marvel’s New Mutants, the next generation of Professor Charles Xavier’s X-Men. The roster of Cannonball, Sunspot, Mirage, Magik, Cypher, Warlock, and Wolfsbane was constantly bewildered and frustrated by their inabilities to color inside the lines that teachers Professor X and Magneto set. It was only a matter of time before they broke away, and the new blood and ideas brought the team’s transformation to fruition in New Mutants #100. The issue served as the newly formed outfit’s intro to the Marvel Universe.
Whereas Professor X encouraged a gentle strategy, X-Force took a new-school approach. Their initial leader, Cable (more on him in a bit), channeled his inner-Cobra Kai, encouraging the team to strike hard, strike fast, and show no mercy. Some possible Deadpool 2 plot points can be gleaned from the mutant from the future’s comic connections to X-Force.
X-Force brings the Deadpool, X-Men, and Marvel universes closer, and with the potential Disney buyout of 21st Century Fox, we dare to dream what Wade Wilson would look like fighting alongside Spider-Man, Wolverine, AND Iron Man. Could we see a convergence of Josh Brolin alter-egos where Cable battles Thanos? Anything is possible, especially after Ryan Reynolds announced that an X-Force movie is likely to come before Deadpool 3. Not all of X-Force’s original squad made it to the big screen (Apologies to Boom Boom, fan favorite Cannonball, Feral, and Warpath) but you can expect to see many of the original cast of cut-ups from the August 1991 issue of X-Force #1. With that in mind, allow me to reintroduce the movie mutants you’re sure to fall in love with.
Bedlam
If you don’t love Terry Crews you’re a monster. It’s a proven fact, and we’re through the roof to see him play Bedlam, aka Jesse Aaronson, the mutant with abilities to create bio-electric fields that disrupt mechanical and electrical systems. He can also affect the electro-chemical responses in living brains to induce pain or slumber, and track individuals based on their unique bio-electromagnetic pulse signatures. He’s also a black belt in karate, if that does it for you.
Bedlam and team member Domino share a lengthy alliance in the comics, so here’s hoping they share a lot of screen time.
Cable
Nathan Summers was sent to the future as an infant and is the child of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, and Madelyne Pryor, the clone of Jean Grey. Love is complicated, okay? His mutant abilities include telepathy, telekinesis, technopathy, and he also is a cybernetically enhanced sure-shot. He’s not one to be fucked with and is hell-bent on finding child Russell Collins, aka Firefist (blessed with the ability to generate and manipulate fire). Cable first showed up as a newborn in Uncanny X-Men #201 and returned as a total badass in 1990’s New Mutants #87. He’ll hopefully be in the Deadpool and X-Force franchises for years to come, unless some other apocalyptic event requires him to go back to the future.
Domino
Luck has always been on the side of Neema Thurman, the woman originally bred to become the perfect weapon in super-soldier program Project Armageddon. The only test subject to survive, Domino’s ability to psionically initiate random kinetic phenomena to manipulate probability was, oddly enough, considered a failure. She is also an expert markswoman, assassin, and martial artist, but has a crippling fear of chickens (Read all about it in Deadpool Volume 3, Issue #17). If this doesn’t make it into the film then writers Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Ryan Reynolds have not done their jobs. Look for Zazie Beetz to steal the show as Domino.
Shatterstar
Gaveedra Seven, played by Lewis Tan, first appeared in New Mutants #99 and is the biological son of Longshot and Dazzler, former X-Men. He also happens to be responsible for the creation of Longshot. Eat your heart out, John Connor. A future mutant, he was transported back in time right before Cable created X-Force and became a founding member of the team. His known comic superpowers are plentiful and include a regenerative healing factor, vibratory shockwave generation, and empathetically-driven teleportation. “What the Hell does that mean,” you ask? He can teleport but must have a living anchor that he uses to visualize a destination before making his jump.
Zeitgeist
You may remember Bill Skarsgard in his recent performance as nightmare fuel Pennywise in the 2017 smash horror It. Here he plays Zeitgeist, the acid-spitting mutant who is haunted by the origins of his powers, when he burned a girl’s face during a make-out session. Been there. Zeitgeist both appeared and died in X-Force #116, so he may not be long for the Deadpool or X-Force franchises.
