[Greenskar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceman

While I do appreciate the messages on killing in these books I think realistically there would still be a role for a kill squad and they could actually do a lot of good. For the purpose to the books villains need to keep coming back but one thing that made X-Force feel more weighty is that they didn't hold back and that saves lives in the long run. I don't think Betsy or any of them should have walked away with the feeling that they never should have started.

Interesting take you got from this series, which I'm sure differs amongst just about every reader to some extent. What I took from these stories wasn't that the team was unnecessary, I mean it was formed behind Scott's back to give him plausible deniability at the time because they all agreed it was necessary with their race facing extinction. Extinction. That word right there is really what escalated the situation and eventual formation of a hit squad for the X-Men, a team much like the Avengers which has always tried to prove they can save the day without having to take lives. If you recall that was always what made Logan a controversial member of the X-Men and Avengers with his known history of being a murderer. This hit squad just made him devolve back into that same behavior he had been struggling to grow out of.

What this book was about to me was less that killing is bad although seemingly necessary depending on the situation, but more about the toll that killing actually takes on the human psyche. If you know or have ever met someone in the military or law enforcement who has ever taken a life they'll tell you that it's one of the worst feelings ever and that it will always weigh heavily on their conscience. This book took that notion and made these characters deal with the extreme cases of it. How would someone feel after killing a kid, their brother, their lover or their own son simply out of their potential for death and destruction rather than the crime they actually committed?

With the above being taken into consideration, how could Betsy not feel like if she never joined X-Force that Warren never would have ascended as apocalypse and her brother would still be alive, or at the very least she wouldn't have to live with knowing that she killed him? Wolverine having to deal with killing his own son has got to be the biggest failure of his life and one of the biggest character developments for him since remembering his past during house of m. I strongly believe their regrets about X-Force were written accurately and were justifiable given the above reasons.

Factor in that Extinction of Mutants is no longer an issue post AvX and they really didn't need to continue this team given their reasons for starting in the first place. Just my thoughts. Although it seems Daniel Way agrees with you and that Rulk's new Thunderbolts team will be Marvel's new hit squad. Which also means that Deadpool will be written stupid again.