Issue(s): New Mutants annual #7, Uncanny X-Men annual #15, X-Factor annual #6 (Freedom Force story only)
Cover Date: 1991
Title: The Killing Stroke: "The first cut" / "The razor's edge" / "Sacrificial lambs"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Kirk Jarvinen / Jerry DeCaire / Steven Butler - Penciler
Josef Rubinstein - Inker
Suzanne Gaffney - Assistant Editor
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
This is a back-up story that ran in three of the four annuals that had Kings of Pain as the main story. The story does not appear in the New Warriors annual, which ran part #2 of Kings of Pain, i guess because this is an X-character story.

In fact, this story is the end of Freedom Force, the government sponsored mutant team. Freedom Force was a good concept, but it is being done away, i assume, to make room for the new X-Factor, which will be occupying that niche. This story does wind up heaping abuse on a team that has already seen the loss of two of its members in Uncanny X-Men #254-255.

Freedom Force has been sent into Kuwait to locate a German nuclear physicist and get him out of the country before the Iraqis get him or, failing that, kill him.

But the mission goes badly quickly, starting with Super Sabre getting beheaded.

And then Crimson Commando losing a hand.

Their opponents are a group of Middle Eastern villains called Desert Sword.

Most of them (Aminedi, Sirocco, and Veil) are new. The Arabian Knight is there under duress; his family is held hostage (as Michael notes in the Comments, the last time we saw Arabian Knight in Marvel Comics Presents #47, it seemed like his family was all killed. We'll later learn that Arabian Knight is under deep cover here, and the "family" that is supposedly held hostage here are actually Pantheon agents.). Black Raazer, is interesting, though. This character seems to be the demon that used to be in Puck's head. There is nothing that confirms it, but he looks the same and is definitely a demonic force. And Fabian Nicieza is also currently the Alpha Flight writer, so it doesn't seem likely he would have missed the similarities.

Like all right thinking people, i hate Bill Mantlo's revelations about Puck. But i guess if the character must exist i'm interested in seeing what people do with him. In practice, though, all of Desert Sword except Arabian Knight are depicted without nuance. They're clearly bad guys, and Raazer is pure evil. And since this takes place during the Iraqi invasion, this story would feel like a World War II era propaganda comic if it weren't for the fact that Freedom Force are also more or less bad guys. The story is trying to be more about a mission gone wrong, and Freedom Force continue to get knocked around, with Crimson Commando getting half his face blown off.

With things going so poorly, Pyro enacts the "or terminate" clause of their mission.

Veil is also killed, and the Arabian Knight is critically wounded. Avalanche makes it to the extraction point with Crimson Commando, but when the Russian soldiers that pick them up hear that the German scientist is dead, they decide to leave without Pyro and Blob, stranding them in Kuwait City. These soldiers must not have read the opening text in the first part of this story, because they say that Freedom Force had "no such orders" to kill the scientist.

So Blob and Pyro surrender to the Iraqis, vowing to get vengeance.

So that is the break-up of Freedom Force, the death of Super Sabre, and the maiming of Crimson Commando that causes him to come back as a cyborg. I do give credit to Fabian Nicieza for not making this feel like a pure clean-up exercise. A more obvious thing to do would be to kill off the two remaining Golden Age members of Freedom Force (after Stonewall was already killed in Uncanny X-Men #254-255, and then keep the three "classic" members together. Instead, Nicieza splits the group up and leaves Blob and Pyro in an unstable status quo. This may have been in anticipation of Blob and Pyro's membership in the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that will appear in X-Force #4-5, but the hand-off there actually isn't all that graceful despite the fact that Nicieza scripts those.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - end of Freedom Force, the death of Super Sabre, and the maiming of Crimson Commando

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is meant to take place during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I always find it amusing when Muslim super-women are drawn with a veil... and a standard, sexy skin-tight outfit.

Still, it's not as ridiculous here as when Dust was being drawn with a form-fitting burqa...

I enjoyed this story when reading it in real time. It actually felt tense and I thought Avalanche came across as a soldier who was trying to follow his orders (by evacuating the critically wounded Crimson Commando). I think it's the only story I've ever read with him in it where he came across with any kind of personality.

I think it was an interesting break-up of Freedom Force; very not paint by the numbers, which it could have been, being a back-up feature in a few annuals.

The one thing I think that is a real strike against the story is that three artists drew all three parts. The stories were short (page count wise)...one artist wasn't able to draw the full story??

The reason why Nicieza split up the team this way was because Nicieza and Larsen had a proposal for X-Factor that involved Pyro and a cyborg Commando as members:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/06/11/comic-book-legends-revealed-211/3/
Commando's injuries were a setup for him becoming a cyborg.
Note that Arabian's Knights wives and children are supposedly being held hostage despite that they seemingly died in Marvel Comics Presents 47.
Aminedi is later reported to have died of the Legacy Virus in X-Men Annual 2- I don't know if you want to count that as a second appearance and list him as a character appearing or not.

Freedom Force became much more interesting after Claremont's characterization work with them during Fall of the Mutants and the Muir island mission in Uncanny #255. Even little bits like Pyro being an author or Super Sabre being a WWII vet having trouble relating to his son's experiences in Vietnam go a surprisingly long way to making the characters more endearing.

There's also some added interest in that their members were more expendable than the X-men. I imagine you talk to a lot fewer editors when you want to kill off Super Sabre than when you want to kill off, say, Rogue.

Presumably Pyro and Blob got released back to American custody after the end of Desert Storm because I believe the next time they show up is as part of Toad's Brotherhood in X-Force. Interestingly, they kind of acknowledged Avalanche's rift with them from this story as he wasn't part of that group.

Commando, rebuilt as a cyborg, and Avalanche continued as government agents with a couple of appearances in X-Factor before going into character limbo. Avalanche would eventually be folded back into being a mutant super-villain, but I don't think Commando has appeared since X-Factor.

As a final bit of interesting trivia: Hardee's (Carl Jr's for all of you on the Left Coast) gave out X-men toys at one point in the 90s and the villains included Blob and Avalanche as well as the much more obscure Commando (cyborg version) and Phantasia.

Here's what they looked like.

Red Comet, it was explained that Toad bartered with an Iraqi general for Blob's and Toad's freedom in X-Men Annual 2. That same story addressed the rift between Avalanche and Blob and Toad.

Regarding listing Aminedi, if he's just mentioned as having died in a future issue i wouldn't tag him in that issue, so it wouldn't be worth tagging him here either. But thanks for noting what eventually happens to him.

"The maiming of Crimson Dynamo that causes him to come back as a cyborg."

Just like Crimson Commando in this story! :D

Thanks Max_Spider.

Crimson Commando has appeared after that, Red Comet. He was one of the people hit by the decimation wave back in the 2000's and he reappeared in Uncanny #539 back when they were still trying to make Jean Grey prototype #356..,i mean Hope Summers a "thing" (this was during her "Messiah Creator's pet" phase when it was thought she could restore mutant powers. The Commando began to grow into his natural age, and with the cyberneyic implants it was NOT a pretty picture. He wanted Hope to restore him...by force if need be. Anyway Wolverine and Hope kill him, the end.)

Avalanche actually stopped being a villain during the "Utopia" era of the X-books. Unfortunely he was (relatively) killed of recently in Uncanny Avengers after a brief mind-controlled return to villany.

Michael, if Pyro and Crimson Commando were suppose to be on the same team, how does it make sense splitting them up like this at the end of this story?

And Fnord12, no reference to New Mutants 89?

Give me a hint, Jon. What's the reference to NM #89?

I think Jon means Silver Sabre was almost beheaded in New Mutants 89 and he really was beheaded in this story.

Ah, thanks. Well, he was almost beheaded in his first appearance, too, so i don't think it was a reference to NM #89 specifically. I guess if he had said "not again!" or if someone said "it finally happened!" or something, i would have counted it.

It's Sabre's own fault really. If you've already been nearly beheaded at least twice, surely you start putting some Kevlar round your neck or something. Was he there going "well I'm sure the exact same thing won't happen a third time."

Glad to know these stories existed. I remember reading in Muir Island Saga that Freedom Force was defunct and Mystique was there on the island. But when I saw Blob and Pyro in the X-Force with no explanation it was a little strange.

The first chapter is penciled by Kirk Jarvinen...couldn't place the style, at first.

I wish Guang Yap was that good.

Thanks Vin. I got the credits for that part mixed up with the main story. Fixed it.