Event 8 - X-Force

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Last Updated: 
30th November 2012

It was almost a full year before its release that we started brainstorming a small event which eventually became the X-Force Event Month. None of the features released during the event had technically been on hold but, once the theme was suggested, the ideas snowballed until a varied type of articles were suggested: 3 Spotlights, 4 Profiles, a team entry, a Bring on the Bad Guys entry, 2 X-Marks the Spot articles and updates to 4 older articles (a Dangler article & 3 Villain Team entries).

Once put together in principle, it only took about 9 months of work to put the whole thing together in actuality. Below is a list of the articles released during September 2012.

Sept. 3 - SHATTERSTAR Spotlight
Sept. 4 - ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN BASE
Sept. 6 - GIDEON Character Profile
Sept. 7 - X-FORCE Team Entry - Part 1

Sept. 10 - DAMOCLES FOUNDATION Villain Team
Sept. 11 - BEDLAM Character Profile
Sept. 13 - X-FORCE Danglers List Update
Sept. 14 - COPYCAT Spotlight

Sept. 17 - CAMP VERDE X Marks the Spot
Sept. 18 - REIGNFIRE Character Profile
Sept. 19 ---- Re-Set COPYCAT Spotlight naming
Sept. 20 - SIX PACK FOF Team Update
Sept. 21 - STRYFE Bring on the Bad Guys

Sept. 24 - X-FORCE Team Entry - Part 2
Sept. 25 - THUMBELINA Character Profile
Sept. 27 - Weapon Prime & MLF Team Updates
Sept. 28 - DOMINO Spotlight


As the day approached, it was suggested that we tease our visitors with a hint of what was to come. UXN Contributor and image manipulator extraordinaire Tanwer created five impressive teaser images, which we released on the site’s front page during the week before the event. The images were subtle enough not to give the secret away at once and the site staff truly enjoyed the resulting theories which were discussed in the site’s forum.

Tease #1:


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Tease #2:


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Tease #3:


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Tease #4:


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Tease #5:


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Right before we let the cat out of the bag, we released the most telling hint when we released the summaries for X-Force #101 to #115, all written by contributor Daytripper. These fifteen summaries were the last unwritten summaries for the series, finally completing another major title for the site.

Then, on Saturday, September 1, the following was released:

Event Month announcement: Za's vid! It would appear an X-Force Event Month is upon us! As I always say, "a good soldier is always prepared", so you would be wise to continue reading to see what we have in store for you...


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Prepare yourself for a litany of all things X-Force -- not Wolverine's wannabe hit squad, but my original team of mutants who were ready to take their destiny into their own hands instead of adhering to that idealist Xavier's naive dream.

Over the course of September on each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, we will delve into my personal files to provide you with a full brief of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Look sharp, people! It's crucial that you keep calm and stay alert -- it would be most unfortunate if someone were to stab your eyes and prevent you from reading what we have in store.


The use of a character narrative for the release announcement was suggested at the last minute by contributor Sixhoursoflucy. The whole staff liked it so much that it led to the logical decision to use it for every article’s release. Most of the staff contributed in one way or another to either suggesting or writing the announcements which followed.

X-Force Event - Day 3: Shatterstar!!!

Mojo V here! Hey! What are you people doing reading stuff on the internet? You're wasting perfectly good TV-watching time! In the Mojoverse, where both our next subject and I hail from, this transgression is punishable by DEATH! However, I'll allow you to continue reading about one of my most disloyal subjects, SHATTERSTAR, if you promise to counteract this destructive foray into learning by watching Honey Boo Boo when you finish. Otherwise, you have to answer to me, the greatest of the Mojos! Mwa ha ha!

X-Force Event - Day 4

WARNING!! --- This line is not secure!  Mojo V has infiltrated this transmission and is twisting your minds with his sadistic programming! Regrettably, this is not the first time X-Force's equipment has been hijacked by an enemy.   My nemesis Tolliver once hacked into our HQ and compromised some of our hardware. Just as a good soldier always learns from the mistakes of his superiors, you should now learn from the mistakes X-Force made while living in its ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN BASE!  Perhaps it was poetic justice that we turned a former Sentinel factory into a home fit for a force dedicated to ensuring the survival of mutantkind.  A pity it did not serve us for long...

X-Force Event - Day 6: Gideon!

"Hey guys! Sunspot here. It is my great displeasure to introduce you to my former mentor, GIDEON of the Externals. Don't let the name fool you, though.  The only Bible this Gideon ever left behind was the one on how to be a green-haired jerk!
Let this serve as a reminder, kids ... if a strange man ever appears out of nowhere, tells you your dad is sick and that you need to come with him, proceed swiftly in the OPPOSITE direction!"

X-Force Event - Day 7: Team Entry - Pt. 1

"Hey losers, it's Boom-Boom! What would an X-Force Event Month be without me, X-Force's longest-serving member? Betcha didn't know that, didja?
Wait! You mean you really didn't know that? Were you even alive in the 90's? Because unless you weren't, there's no way you couldn't have known that I was the only FOUNDING MEMBER of the team to stick with it ALL the way through until the end!

Ugh, I'm embarrassed to even be talking to you!  Tell you what: why don't you do your homework and read this X-FORCE HERO TEAM ENTRY so we don't have any more mishaps like this, m'kay?
...ummm, wow. This thing is, like, a lot of words. Cable? Can we maybe break this sucker up into two parts? We can? Rad! On that note... get to reading Part One, slackers!  Enjoy -- I'm outie 5000."

X-Force Event - Day 10: Damocles Foundation.

Hey y'all, Cannonball here. This next entry is a what ah like to call a sticky wicket! Ah remember being mighty confused when X-Force got tangled up with them Eternals and Deviants, and, to be honest, I ain't sure I ever made wholly sense of it. Even my daddy was somehow wrapped up in this mess, back before the black lung got him. We had a guy named Odysseus, another guy named Ulysses, something to do with Reignfire... and Dani? Would you believe this mess even gave Dani her third power-up? Her third! Why can't I get any power-ups?

Shucks, ah couldn't make heads or tails of this. Thankfully, one of the kind folks here at UXN made sense of this whole debacle. Continue reading if y'all finally want to understand the story behind the villainous DAMOCLES FOUNDATION.

X-Force Event - Day 11: Bedlam!

"Nae long after X-Force settled in San Francisco (and long before the X-Men did), this boyo, Jesse Bedlam, rocked up an' intruded on our lives, 'e did.  'e knew information about all of us, but was secretive about 'imself. We dinnae trust 'im at first, and with good reason - 'e was popping pills and 'is brother was a creep who 'ad a team named the New 'ellions, who were responsible for m' losing m' powers fer a time.  I left X-Force soon after, but apparently Bedlam became an asset to the team when Pete Wisdom took over, that English prat.  I understand Jesse later got crucified and I wish I'd 'ad the chance to get to know 'im better.

Och, th' poor lad. Listen t'me! M' accent gets so much stronger (and possibly Scottish, I dinnae c'n tell) when I'm depressed!  Now ye lads an' lassies can get ta know 'im by reading this article from UXN." 

X-Force Event - Day 13: Danglers Update

"Caliban was not the first member of Cable-Nathan's X-Force, but knows they had many many adventures before Caliban.  When Caliban started to feel sick,  Cable-Nathan told Caliban bedtime stories about the X-Force team. Only...only Caliban doesn't know much of what it means. Patch-Eye used to be a catlady?  Ooooo...Caliban likes kitties, Leech had a nice kitty once.... Oh!  But Caliban remembers that Sunspot is actually a bad man called Rain Fire as well.  Caliban heard that not many people survived a massacre at Camp Verde Reservation...but wait (*head scratch*) ...Caliban was buried at Reservation!  Caliban's head hurts...will play prettypretty piano song for you now while you read the Uncanny Dangler List for X-Force team adventures..."

X-Force Event - Day 14: Domino!

"Hey fans! Deadpool here, at your service, providing all your fourth-wall-breaking needs! Wait, what's that? X-Force has been addressing you directly this week too? Well, we know where they got that little trick, don't we? Those copycats. They never did know how to write their own material!
Speaking of new material, guess who gets to announce this week's Spotlight? Meeeee! Deadpool! Unfortunately, I'm not too fond of this particular lady. On our very first meeting, she beat the crap out of me! She must have cheated somehow. I tell ya, this one gets lucky more often than I did with Bea Arthur! Worry not: I got her back a few issues later.
STILL not sure who I'm talking about? Then allow me to introduce her with a joke:
Q: What do you say to a female mercenary with one black eye?
A: Nothing you already said it to her once!
Hey, watch it, not the face, not the face! Okay okay okay, domestic violence is never funny, nowleavemealonepresenting DOMINO II!"

The above announcement was a humorous misdirect, as the Spotlight was actually of Copycat and not of Domino. We thought this appropriate, as Copycat once did the same thing early in the X-Force series.

X-Force Event Day 17: Camp Verde

"Hello, I'm Warpath. I'm here to tell you about the time a militant X-team absconded from the United States and claimed territorial sovereignty. I don't mean Cyclops's Utopia—although with the way people reacted, you'd be forgiven for believing he was the first.
No, I'm actually talking about the time X-Force lived on the Apache Rez in Arizona, after its original inhabitants — my people — were slaughtered by that White Devil, Stryfe. That tragedy aside, this was the perfect headquarters for X-Force: living off the grid, we could finally play by our own rules. Learn how this happened in this X Marks the Spot entry on the CAMP VERDE APACHE RESERVATION."

X-Force Event Day 18: Reignfire!

"Listen up, X-Fans... unless you want to get punched in the jaw! I'm Dani Moonstar and I need your attention for just a minute. I once went undercover as a S.H.I.EL.D. agent without being able to tell anyone and then had to fight against my friends while doing undercover work with the Mutant Liberation Front.  So the least you lazy bums can do is take the time to read about the jerk I had to work for.
Not only was this guy a holy terror but he was basically a clone of my good friend Sunspot, which only made working for him worse. The whole time, I kept thinking, "What would Thomas Magnum think he if he saw how Roberto was behaving?" not realizing that it wasn't 'Berto at all!  If you're confused, don't worry—so was I. And we're not alone. If you're keen to get a grip on this whole ordeal, start by reading this profile on REIGNFIRE."

X-Force Event Day 20: Six Pack (update)

"This is the LMD of former SHIELD agent G.W. Bridge here, with an important message for those reading this dossier on Bridge's former life. Prior to becoming an agent of the world's most powerful law enforcement agency, citizen Bridge was a mercenary for the enigmatic man known only as Cable. Along with others, they formed the Wild Pack, which eventually had to change its name to the Six-Pack, due to (I kid you not) being sued by another mercenary team by the same name.
Unfortunately, things went downhill from there for most of the team's members, though eventually Mama Bridge's little boy George Washington eventually landed on his feet with a good government job. Which later got him killed. Read now the entry for the team known as the SIX PACK!

Wait. George Washington Bridge... I just got that."

X-Force Event Day 21: Bring on the Bad Guys... STRYFE!

"Rictor here. Look, I've always been a guy who will admit when he's wrong - and I was wrong. Cable was not the guy who killed my dad, it was this guy Stryfe. But how was I to know that the guy who looked like Cable was a clone, raised in the future by a despotic mutant-supremacist and who traveled back in time partially to alter history but also to plot an elaborate scheme of revenge?
I'm asking you, would you have seen that coming? Anyway, there's more to his crazy story, and it's all here in our article... Courting Chaos: a Life of Stryfe!"

X-Force Event - Day 24: Team Entry - Pt. 2

"Hey weirdos, it's Boom-Boom, back by popular demand! Ugh, I can't believe they made you sit through announcements by Moonstar and Siryn. Boooo-ring! I know you all just wanted to hear from me, so I say, just give the people what they want!

Anyway, I see you're still right where I left you, sitting safely in front of your computers. Do you hermits ever go outside at all? That's not how we roll in X-Force. Me and X-Force knew how to live, take risks, and have adventures! We took road trips, stayed in seedy motels, danced our butts off at music festivals, saved Genosha (and not to mention THE WHOLE WORLD), and even worked as black-ops spies!

Oi! I see I'm getting those familiar blank stares again. Okay, since you're glued to your computer anyway, why not read Part Two of the humongous X-FORCE HERO TEAM ENTRY so you can understand what the hell I'm talking about. Page me when you're done!

Luv ya,

Tabby"

X-Force Event - Day 25: THUMBELINA

"Listen up flatscans, this is Dragoness and I'm here to clarify those rumors going around about me being a MILF.  For the record, I am the same age as Cannonball and I don't have any kids.  So I'm not a MILF.  I know, I know, I'm still freakin' hot.  I was in the MLF, though.   Maybe you confused fanboys need to get your minds out of the gutter.
Oh, speaking of the MLF (that's the Mutant Liberation Front, for those livin' under a rock),  I want to clarify another stupid rumor that some chick called Thumbelina started.  According to her, I was her only friend.  Uh, WTF?  I never even knew we had a member of the MLF called Thumbelina.  What? You didn't, either?  Well, read this article about the poor thing.   What a laugh!
Anyway, I've got to get my rabies injection.  I know, I know... you still think I'm hot."

X-Force Event - Day 27: MLF & WEAPON P.R.I.M.E.

"Za's Vid! When I --- Shatterstar! --- first came to this dimension from Mojoworld, I only knew the X-Men as great warriors from our legendary programs. Fighting alongside Cable and X-Force, I hoped to find worthy opponents to test my mettle and my metal against, just as a true warrior born would do!

 

Instead, I found myself opposing weak Mojo-kissers like the Mutant Liberation Front and Weapon: PRIME. Fekt!  I desired true combat... not a growing collection of missing limbs from unworthy opponents like Reaper. Still, they weren't all bad: some of the missing limbs continued to fight on even after being removed! Za smiled upon me the day I fought Garrison Kane. And so, in the words of the great poets: May your series never be cancelled, and may all your timeslots be after Friends!"

X-Force Event - Day 28: DOMINO!

"If I've learned anything in my travels through time and space and back again, it's that nothing is certain and nothing lasts forever.  This little trip down memory lane has been fun but the future waits just around the corner.  Who knows that better than me? 

When I started X-Force, I knew I couldn't go it alone and that I'd need someone watching my back.  Someone I could trust completely.  I can count the people I trust that much on one hand.  One of 'em is Domino and I knew once I'd gathered the X-Force kids that she was exactly who I needed.  Granted, I didn't realize that I'd actually brought in Copycat at first... regardless, the real Dom was a perfect fit for X-Force and you couldn't ask for a better soldier... or friend.  She's quick, reliable, damn good in a pinch, and one of the few people I know will keep me in line when I need it.  When it comes time to kickstart X-Force once again, she'll be the first person I recruit."

 


Huge events such as this do not happen on their own, so at this point a tip of the hat goes to the contributors who participated. Articles were written by Dean Clayton, Daytripper, Peter Luzifer, Douglas Mangum, Monolith, Sixhoursoflucy, while images were provided by Binaryan, Peter Luzifer, Sixhoursoflucy & Tanwer.