X-Force #10 - Marvel

This issue wraps up a couple of story-lines, but . . begins a few new ones. The main story is about the group that has gone to Japan, with the Vanisher, to retrieve the vial of the Legacy Virus that he dropped in one of Sinister's old labs. Of course the job is never easy. When they get there they first have to fight their way through a mob of Marauder clones, and then, to add insult to injury . . . Cameron Hodge shows up with some more of his anti-mutant enforcers. The gist of the story is that during the fight one of the enforcers eviscerates Laura, X-23, while holding the vial and it breaks while it's inside of her. Yes her body will heal from the wound, but . . is her healing ability up to the task of fighting the virus? She doesn't want to know so she's ready to jump into a vat of molten steel. She has to think about the future of mutant-kind after all. However, Elixir stops her and heals her. She still falls, but . . not into the vat. She hits the side and gets a little burnt, but . . survives. The other story is with Warpath and his confrontation with the Demon Bear. Ghost Rider happens to be in the area and helps James get in touch with his Apache / Shaman heritage. He's been a fighter for so long, he's kind of forgotten about that part of his lineage. But with Johnny's help, he's able to access the spirit world and fight this mad bear. However, during the fight he finds out that bear isn't attacking him out of anger but rather out of pain. Somebody seems to have put a soul-dagger, entrenched with black magic, into it and it's lashing out in pain. When James withdraws it he finds out that it's not actually the spirit bear, but . . . the spirit gods of his ancestors. So I would imagine that this would put him in their favor because of his quick thinking. But we'll have to wait and see on that. The new story-lines include Rahne finding out that Hrimhari has come looking for her. Hodge reports back to Bastion that they didn't get the vial, but . . . he still has the other 3 from Ecuador, New York and Perth. And James has found out who was trying to make his gods suffer. I'm not sure who he is, but he goes by Eli Bard. I think Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost are doing a great job with this series. This chapter was illustrated by Mike Choi and Sonia Oback. It was stunning. We didn't get to see a lot of the Ghost Rider, but . . it was still neat to have him involved in this chapter. I can't wait to see where we go from here.