X-Force: New Beginnings (2001) - Probably in the wake of The Authority we'll be seeing lots of books like this where superheroes get caught in realpolitik. And plenty of gnarly violence. Writer Peter Milligan positions the X-Force team in a modern media environment of PR and marketing (this collects #116-120, the first issues of his and Allred's run) and does have a few surprises though it's unfortunate that he resorts to the hackneyed trick of deliberately withholding information (such as Wolverine's refusal to say at whose request he's helping--I mean we know it's Marvel's stockholders but whose request in the diegesis; Chris Carter used this so often in The X-Files that it should be a proud badge of incompetence). The greater hurdle, though, is Mike Allred's art. It's a broad, cartoony style that is so linked to comedy that it's hard to reconcile with the mostly non-comic story. In theory I like this kind of tension but here it didn't seem either subversive or raw enough. I'll certainly re-read this at some point so maybe will have different opinions then.