Marvel’s mutant-based X-titles were a massively tangled web of characters and long term plot points in the 80s and 90s, which got to the point where each series was pretty impenetrable for all but the most dedicated fans.

So jumping into X-Force at a point where the alien warrior, Shatterstar, has his origin tweaked should be a safe point if I haven’t been keeping up with the rest of the run, and haven’t read any of the early X-Force comics for years, right?

Well, partially. It’s clear that seeds have been planted that are starting to pay off in this issue, with Shatterstar being held prisoner by his teammates in X-Force, because his identity is coming into question, and he doesn’t know if he’s really Shatterstar, or a human runaway named Benjamin Russell. An old friend arrives to try and help get to the bottom of the situation, but Cable finds out some worrying news from a detective, and soon the team, Shatterstar included, find themselves in real trouble.

There’s a lot going on, and so many characters popping in and out who clearly, I should know more about. It’s not particularly friendly on the casual or lapsed reader, or on the geek who has suddenly decided to start reading 30 year old comics, but it is at least gorgeous to look at.

It has a very 90s style; big, bold and very stylised characters, with absolutely gorgeous colouring; in the wake of Marvel’s acquisition of Malibu Comics and their cutting edge (at the time) colouring technology, they turned out some stunning work in that regard, and X-Force #59 is a really good example of that.

So, is it a worthwhile read? It’s a bit difficult to recommend unless you’re already intimately familiar with the X-Force run as it was at the time, but if you can just accept that some plot points aren’t going to make a lot of sense without the proper context, it’s a fun enough read and sets up the next issue nicely too.