WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for X-Force #2, by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, Dean White, VC’s Joe Caramagna, and Tom Muller, on sale now.

For a little while, the Dawn of X era seemed to be going pretty well for the X-Men. Under Charles Xavier’s leadership and quiet guidance from Moira MacTaggert, mutants successfully established an independent nation on the island Krakoa that was officially recognized by the rest of the world. They even developed a process to revive their fallen mutant comrades to replenish the depleted ranks of mutantkind.

However, the X-Men’s plans went severely off course in X-Force #1, when Xavier was assassinated and dozens of other mutants were killed by a squad of commandos. While that team still hasn’t even been officially named, the X-Men began to untangle the secrets of the strike force in X-Force #2.

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X-Force Xavier Assassins

With their hi-tech tactical gear, the commandos bear a striking resemblance to the Reavers, a group of cybernetically-enhanced villains with a serious grudge against the X-Men. As the X-Men’s genius Sage studies one of the assassins, she notes the resemblance, and the script of the digital X-Force #1 Director's Cut even identifies one member of the group as “Reaver.”

However, these assassins aren’t like any kind of Reavers the X-Men have ever faced. Where those villains had relatively simple mechanical augmentations, these superhuman assassins were designed to be the perfect covert killing machines. On top of their beyond-Olympian level physiques, these augmented humans had explosive putty in their teeth, cartilage that could be turned into razor-sharp wire and a claw-like bone hidden in their forearms.

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Most importantly, they all also had skin grafts from the X-Men’s Domino. Although her mutant powers usually give her unusually good luck, she was captured while investigating the group. With her skin grafts, the assassins were able to bypass Krakoa’s automated sensors and parachute onto the island undetected in X-Force #1. The skin grafts may have even granted those assassins a portion of Domino’s probability-manipulating abilities.

While looking for Domino and some answers of their own, Wolverine and Quentin Quire discovered that these assassins were being genetically engineered in an old printing press.

X-Force Wolverine Assassin Factory

After an exceptionally bloody battle with several half-finished bodies, the two X-Men discover Domino, who’s had half of her skin flayed off to be grafted onto the assassins.

While the Reavers and plenty of other X-villains have twisted themselves into superhumans with horrific results, these assassins were built with visceral augmentations that blur the line between living beings and biotech machines. In a sense, that makes them the perfect antagonists for this moment in the X-Men’s world. Mutants like X-Force’s Black Tom or New Mutants’ Mondo have used their powers to interact with Krakoa in ways that blur the line between the individual and the sentient natural world.

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In the same way that Moira has been guiding mutantkind from the shadows, these assassins also have a benefactor who’s successfully stayed in the shadows.

According to a data page in the issue, the assassins’ benefactor may have used the alias Phineas Hook to lure Domino into an investigation. With shell companies that funneled money to anti-mutant causes and coded messages through innocuous actions in his daily life, Hook was a perfect target for Domino to covertly investigate.

Domino’s investigation ultimately brought her face-to-face with an unidentified peacock-themed villain. When Jean Grey tried to read one of the assassin’s minds in this issue, she merely found static that mimicked his peacock designs.

While it’s not clear who these assassins are or who their leader truly is, they’ve already proven themselves to be serious threats by successfully dealing a crippling blow to Krakoa. Even if X-Force is starting to gain ground against the villains, the X-Men’s newest enemies have already outsmarted the team once, and they could be ready to strike again.

X-Force #3 releases Dec. 11.

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