A wise man, I believe that it was Joe Elliot of Def Leppard, once said, ?It?s better to burn out ? than fade away.? And you know what? I think sometimes that?s very true. The team that became X-Statix unceremoniously replaced X-Force (Cable, Shatterstar, Domino et al) in X-Force #116 and from the beginning it was clear that this was a whole different team.

The new direction almost immediately polarized readers (the early X-Force letter columns before the book re-launched as X-Statix made you wonder if anyone liked the book) and you could always sort of sense that it wasn?t a comic that was destined for a long run. It was too topical, too ironic, and too downright weird to last forever.

But that finite nature is one of the things that made X-Statix really stand out. They started with a team of unknowns so there were no sacred cows, no previous conventions to follow and anyone could die. And die they did ? by the dozen ? and they stayed dead to boot. When Spider-Man is replaced with a clone or someone else takes on the role of Captain America, comic readers of any seniority are far too jaded to believe that these types of changes will be permanent.

With X-Statix, that wasn?t the case. You never knew who would last and who wouldn?t. Fan favorites like U-Go Girl and throwaway characters like skateboarding Latino super-hunk El Guapo were equally vulnerable. Original team leader Zeitgeist bit it at the end of the first issue, setting a precedent for many team members to follow, but even with the character of that name passing on so early, the book always literally had zeitgeist as a prominent theme.

Never before has superhero as celebrity been done so well, nor at a more appropriate time. In a world where normal people will jump off buildings and eat worms to get on the TeeVee and make a few bucks, what would a mutant super team do for the same? X-Statix showed us, and it wasn?t always pretty, but it was certainly intriguing.

Sales on the book were falling, but in spite of that I?d also like to think Milligan and Allred knew when it was time to get while the gettin? was good. They explored pretty much everything that they could within the bounds they had set for themselves and left a body of work I think they can be proud of. The ?Back From the Dead? arc, which was admittedly hamstrung somewhat prior to publication by having to be rredrawn to erase original protagonist Princess Di, drew out for a bit too long, but the team really redeemed themselves with the X-Statix Vs. Avengers crossover which followed and was, in my opinion, a ton of fun. Guy ?Mr. Sensitive? Pearce Vs. Tony ?Iron Man? Stark fighting one another in the buff will be an image that, for better or worse, I probably won?t get out of my head any time soon.

The final issue of X-Statix, #26, shipped this week and provided a perfect bookend for the series. I won?t spoil it for you, but it brought everything more or less full circle and tied things up in a way that could probably never happen in any other X-Men comic, no matter how tangentially related it might be to the ?big? X books. It is, as the cover promises, a ?Downbeat but Strangely Moving Final Issue!?

For fans of the previous X-Force series, you have now been returned to your regularly scheduled programming. The classic X-Force team of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza has a new X-Force mini on the stands starring all of the old favorites. If it sells well, I?m sure a new X-Force ongoing will follow shortly, but don?t write off X-Statix completely. They weren?t the old X-Force and weren?t ever really meant to be.

I personally think they knew they?d ruffle some feathers replacing an old team rather than simply launching a new one. And it worked, but it?s a bit of a double edged sword. Edge #1: Many ?old? X-Force fans weren?t thrilled with the ?new? X-Force. Edge #2: Many readers with more of an independent bent to their comic buying taste, who might have enjoyed the book, couldn?t see themselves becoming ?X-Force? buyers.

Now, with everything said and done, if you enjoy existential, self-referential, cheeky, violent, social satire smattered in bright colors and sharp-edged words across your comic book pages, I would recommend that you give these comics a look. The entire run, X-Force and X-Statix issues is either now available, or soon will be, in trade paperback form, but if you want to see the naked fight between Iron Man and Mr. Sensitive you?re going to have to either hit the back issue bin or wait until January for the X-Statix Vs. Avengers trade.

General