The X-Men are used to dealing with enemies capable of destroying the world, but the newest threat is looking to be the first success story. One of the titles to launch in X-Men: From the Ashes was X-Force, as writer Geoffrey Thorne gave Forge a power upgrade which allows him to seek out world-ending problems. Forge and X-Force have been stopping these Fractures, with a larger threat looming in the background. We now know the cause of the Fractures, and her name is La Diabla. Some of her motivations are revealed in today’s issue of X-Force, but Thorne has a lot more planned for the newest addition to the X-Men’s rogues gallery.
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ComicBook spoke to Geoffrey Thorne about today’s X-Force #6 and the debut of La Diabla. Her debut comes at a crucial time for X-Force, with Surge sacrificing herself to save the planet in the previous issue. Surge’s death led to Sage quitting the team, but as we see in Issue #6, she comes back with some pivotal information on La Diabla. Forge and Sage then have to work together to stop an attack from La Diabla, but her expertise in quantum physics and hermeticism almost proves too much for them to handle.
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Thorne talks about adding a new villain to the X-Men mythos, someone else pulling La Diabla’s strings, how La Diabla has been watching X-Force since the very first issue, and his future plans for Tank. ComicBook can also exclusively reveal interior pages for X-Force #7, which feature La Diabla taking an interest in Betsy Braddock and Rachel Summers.
ComicBook: La Diabla seems like the perfect foil for Forge since she deals in alchemy and Forge is all about science. Walk us through her creation and what La Diabla is hoping to achieve with these fractures?
Geoffrey Thorne: La Diabla is formidable and very much designed to give both Forge and Sage fits. I wanted to put some new villains with new agendas and new powersets into the mix and La Diabla is just the first. As X-Force learns more about her, so will the audience but she is absolutely not to be trifled with or underestimated.
As for the rest, “spoilers,” is all I can say.
La Diabla says she “met a boy” who is later teased when she makes her exit after attacking Forge and Sage. What can you tell us about this mystery person and their connection to Forge?
I can’t tell you anything except La Diabla is not her own boss. She’s the Darth Vader to an Emperor we haven’t yet met. Or… have we?
Issue #6 ends with Betsy and Rachel suffering an attack from La Diabla while they’re in the middle of one of their psychic sessions. Why has La Diabla switched her focus to these two? And how will she test their relationship going forward?
La Diabla’s beef is with all of X-Force (with Forge getting special focus for some reason). She’s been monitoring them AT LEAST since Issue #1 and she’s had it up to here with their shenanigans.
Tank has been the wild card of X-Force so far. What do you have planned for the bruiser in upcoming issues?
Oh, quite a lot, I suspect.
