Schooled in guerilla warfare, equipped with the latest lethal hardware, Phoenix Force battles the powers of darkness in an endless crusade for freedom, justice, and the rights of the individual," is how the ad copy reads in some of the in-book advertising. Forget the maketing hype, and let me describe it to you as I know it: Phoenix Force is one of the two tactical neutralization teams based out of Stony Man Farm; the other is Able Team. The Force's specialty is combating international terrorism." Originally, it was meant to be America's answer to the Foreign Legion, specializing inhostage rescue, and every member was handpicked by Mack Bolan. Its role and composition has since evolved to a more broader scope, though it generally doesn't operate within the U.S.; those missions go to Able Team. Over the course of time, the team's collective talents have gone from your basic strike team to one that can perform some investigative work to locate their targets. The original team members (depicted at left, in clockwise order) are: Colonel Yakov "Katz" Katzenelenbogen, David McCarter, Gary Manning, Rafael Encizo, and Keio Ohara.