Marvel has revived an interesting mix of former titles from its past this year, including successful revamps of X-Men books Fallen Angels and Excalibur. However, Marvel revealed during its February 2020 solicitations a new Force Works team is surprisingly making a comeback.
The original Force Works series created by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Tom Tenney, first debuted back in July, 1994. The team featured some heavy hitters of Marvel Comics, including Iron Man, Spider-Woman, U.S. Agent, War Machine and Scarlet Witch. The team focused on preventing natural and man-made biological disasters. After less than two years as a team, the group disbanded and have only been briefly mentioned in Marvel continuity since.
Matthew Rosenberg (The Punisher) and Juanan Ramirez (Annihilation: Scourge) will bring the Force Works team back to the forefront with a roster starring War Machine, Quake, Mockingbird and U.S. Agent. Like the previous incarnation of the team, the group will focus on the biological - with a small twist. In Force Works #1, War Machine will lead his team against a violent robot revolution threatening biological life.
Honestly, there isn't a much better time to bring back the Force Works teams. Firstly, with the environment and climate change one of the most important and hot-button issues in everyday life, it's important to see it explored in the series. While the Force Works team is facing off against a heightened, robot-led revolution, it certainly parallels humanity's own battle against the changing climate and how we adapt to it. It's unknown how heavy the series might lean into the topic, but there's a big opportunity for it to do so. Especially with Hulk starting a new world war over global warming.
Secondly, it's great to see the title come back featuring characters who could use a further spotlight. Much like the West Coast Avengers, Force Works is bringing in a group who probably don't have the name-value to carry their own book, but work in a team setting. Mockingbird hasn't had her own series since 2016's self-titled book. Outside appearances in other books, the U.S. Agent has just seven issues of two different self-titled miniseries to his name. Meanwhile, Quake has never had her own featured title. War Machine is certainly the character with the most name value, but even still, he works better in a group setting as opposed to carrying his own title. Mixing them together will hopefully bring out the best in each character.
Force Works might be one of the last Marvel teams you might think of when considering which former titles should be relaunched. However, that's what could make it great. Force Works can really go in any direction and tone it wants to. Its intriguing mix of characters and potential social commentary could make for a sleeper hit.
- Force Works #1 (February 2020)
- Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
- Artist: Juanan Ramirez
- Cover by: Carlos Gomez
- The eruption of a violent robot revolution threatens all manner of biological life! Teetering on the precipice of extinction, there’s only one man with enough tactical skill, killer instinct and ruthless leadership to lead the rebellion: War Machine! Join War Machine and his elite paramilitary squad (U.S.Agent, Mockingbird, and Quake) in the final crusade for humanity’s fate!