X-Force

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. Tagged since September 2008. Its tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Tagged since September 2008. It seems to contain embedded lists that may require cleanup. Tagged since September 2008.

X-Force
Cover art for X-Force (vol. 3) #1 Art by Clayton Crain
Group publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New Mutants (vol. 1) #100 (April 1991)
Created by	Fabian Nicieza Rob Liefeld
In-story information
Type of organization	Team
Agent(s)	Archangel Elixir Domino Wolverine Warpath Wolfsbane X-23 Vanisher
Roster
See: List of X-Force members
X-Force
	Cover to X-Force (vol. 1) #1 (August 1991). Still polybagged and featuring Cable, Boom Boom, and Feral.
Series publication information
Schedule	Monthly
Format	(vol. 1) Ongoing series (vol. 2) Limited series (vol. 3) Ongoing series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	(vol. 1) August 1991 – August 2002 (vol. 2) January 2004 — March 2005 (vol. 3) April 2008 — Present
Number of issues	(vol. 1) 129 (vol. 2) 6 (vol. 3) 13 (as of May 2009)
Creative team
Creator(s)	Fabian Nicieza Rob Liefeld
Collected editions
Counter-X	ISBN 0-7851-3304-6
Famous, Mutant & Mortal	ISBN 0-7851-1023-2
X-Force and Cable: Legend Returns	ISBN 0-7851-1429-7
Angels And Demons	ISBN 0-7851-3552-9
Old Ghosts	ISBN 0-7851-3821-8
Not Forgotten	ISBN 0-7851-4019-0
X-Force/Cable: Messiah War	ISBN 0-7851-3157-4

X-Force is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero team, one of several spin-offs of the popular X-Men franchise. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team was formed in The New Mutants #100 (April 1991) and soon afterwards was featured in its own series.

The group was a new incarnation of the 1980s team, the New Mutants. Led by the gun-toting mutant Cable, X-Force was more militant and aggressive than the X-Men. X-Force was successful in the early 1990s. The series' popularity waned after Liefeld left, causing Marvel to implement several reforms in the title from 1995 until 2001 with varying degrees of success.

Low sales on the series prompted Marvel to revamp the title in 2001 with a new cast in the form of a group of self-interested young mutants who were gathered together by a corporation to become media stars and used the name X-Force. X-Force (vol. 1) was cancelled with #129 and relaunched as X-Statix, which featured the later incarnation of the team. After X-Statix was cancelled with #26, Marvel reunited the original X-Force team for a six-issue 2004 miniseries plotted and drawn by Liefeld.

In 2007-2008, during the Messiah Complex crossover, a new version of X-Force was formed that had Wolverine leading a more militaristic black ops branch of the X-Men, forming the basis for a new X-Force series starting February 2008 by writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, plus Clayton Crain as the artist. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine the video game X-Force Wolverine appears as an alternate costume in the game.

Publication history

Liefeld period

X-Force was created by illustrator Rob Liefeld after he started penciling The New Mutants (vol. 1) comic book in 1989 with #86. The popularity of Liefeld’s art lead to him taking over the writing and drawing duties on the book, which allowed him to introduce Cable and several other new hard-edged characters in 1990 and 1991. With help from writer Fabian Nicieza, who provided the dialogue for Liefeld’s plots, Liefeld transformed the New Mutants into X-Force in The New Mutants (vol. 1) #100, the book's final issue. Liefeld and Nicieza launched X-Force (vol. 1) in August 1991. The book sold a record 5 million copies, and remains the second highest selling comic book of all time, surpassed only by Jim Lee's X-Men book that same summer with 8 million copies. The original line-up of the team included:

• Boom Boom, previous member of the New Mutants and a rebellious teenager who could produce “Time bombs”.
• Cable, originally a mysterious gun-toting anti-hero mutant, later revealed to possess telepathy and telekinesis, although he continued to rely on firearms.
• Cannonball, a Kentuckian and prior member of the New Mutants who flew at jet speeds and projected a force field around himself when flying. Cannonball was the team's second-in-command under Cable.
• Domino, a world-class mercenary who possessed “luck powers,” allowing probability to turn in her favor and who was Cable’s lover. Later, it turned out that this woman was in fact the shapeshifter Copycat who had taken the place of Domino. The real Domino was still just a friend of Cable and had been imprisoned by Copycat's employers. The real Domino joined X-Force some time after her impostor was exposed.
• Feral, a cat-like mutant with claws, fur, and enhanced senses.
• Shatterstar, a sword wielding warrior from Mojo World who possessed superb fighting skills and limited energy-projection abilities.
• Warpath, an Apache who, like his brother, the short-lived X-Man Thunderbird, possessed super strength and speed.

In issue #3, X-Force would be joined by:

• Siryn, the daughter of the Irish X-Man Banshee who inherited her father’s “sonic scream” and ability to fly.

Later, in issue #15, two former New Mutants who had left before the team's evolution into X-Force joined:

• Rictor, a Mexican who produced powerful shockwaves.
• Sunspot, former New Mutant and citizen of Brazil who absorbed and rechanneled solar energy.

The main opponents of X-Force during its first year were the terrorist Mutant Liberation Front, led by Stryfe, a masked mutant with a mysterious link to Cable. Early issues also featured the wise-cracking mercenary Deadpool, the immortal Externals, and a new version of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the X-Men’s oldest enemy group.

Propelled by Liefeld's art, X-Force became one of Marvel’s best-selling comic books immediately after its debut. The series rivaled The Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men in popularity, particularly with the adolescent demographic.^{[citation needed]} Toy Biz responded to X-Force's popularity by introducing an X-Force action figure line alongside its X-Men action figure line.

Writer Mark Waid and painter Alex Ross parodied X-Force and other anti-hero groups from the early 1990s in the 1996 DC Comics miniseries Kingdom Come, which portrayed a future where a generation of violent anti-heroes had replaced the familiar DC characters. Their leader Magog bore an intentional resemblance to Shatterstar and Cable.^{[citation needed]}

Liefeld illustrated the series up to #9 and stopped plotting it after #12 as Liefeld had become increasingly frustrated that he did not own the characters he created and that his art was being used on a variety of merchandise while he received little royalties. Along with six other popular Marvel artists, Liefeld left Marvel Comics in 1992 to form Image Comics.

Mid-1990s: Nicieza and Loeb

X-Force continued with Nicieza writing and Greg Capullo illustrating. Nicieza, who also wrote X-Men (vol. 2), helped plot the X-Cutioner's Song storyline that overlapped into most X-Men related books in the fall of 1992. In that story, Stryfe frames Cable for an assassination attempt on the X-Men’s founder Professor X, leading to a clash between the X-Men and X-Force. The crossover boosted Cable's popularity, despite the character's apparent death in X-Force #18, leading to his own solo series being launched in 1993.

After X-Cutioner’s Song, X-Force continued under Nicieza and Capullo, and later pencilled Tony Daniel. Having temporarily lost their leader, X-Force attempted to develop an identity of their own. The team gradually developed into a dysfunctional family after Cable's return in #25, and the title regularly combined soap opera plot threads, such as romance and Siryn's alcoholism, with violent action. Nicieza fleshed out previously unknown elements of each character's history, including Siryn's family in Ireland ^[1], Rictor's in Mexico^[2], and Cannonball's in Kentucky^[3], as well as the mysterious origins of Shatterstar.^[4] This period also saw the reintroduction of characters from the group's New Mutants days, such as Rusty and Skids^[5], Danielle Moonstar^[6], and Cypher and Wolfsbane.^[7] A long-simmering sub-plot about Reignfire and the disappearance of Sunspot came to a climax just as the book went on hiatus for the Age of Apocalypse crossover event in 1995.

Cover to X-Force #46 by Adam Pollina, the title's longest-running artist. Depicted: Sunspot, Mimic, Caliban, Cable, and Warpath (partially visible).

Due to falling sales,^{[citation needed]} X-Force emerged from the Age of Apocalypse event with a new creative team of writer Jeph Loeb and illustrator Adam Pollina, who significantly revised the team with issue #44. Loeb introduced new team uniforms, had the team move in with the X-Men at the X-Mansion, and placed emphasis on character-driven stories with fewer fight scenes. Rictor quit the team and Cannonball joined the X-Men. Caliban, a super-strong albino mutant who possessed the mind of a child, joined the team. Loeb's stories included revelations about Shatterstar’s origin and the transformation of Boomer (formerly Boom Boom) into the more aggressive Meltdown. Fan response was generally positive.^{[citation needed]}

Post-Cable period

In 1997, writer John Francis Moore, portrayed the team as carefree walkers exploring the open road and had X-Force break away from Cable and the X-Men. The roster of that incarnation was Meltdown, Siryn, Sunspot, Warpath, and Danielle Moonstar. This was one of most acclaimed eras of the series, with warm reaction from fans and critics alike.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, Moore and new artist Jim Cheung had X-Force move to a new headquarters in San Francisco, returned Cannonball and later Domino to the team, and added Bedlam, a mutant who could disrupt electronic equipment. However, towards the end of this run, sales on the title began to fall drastically.^{[citation needed]}

Writer Warren Ellis, who was known for his dark, cynical style, revamped three books, (X-Force, Generation X, and X-Man), as part of the Revolution revamp of the X-Men series of titles in 2000. Ellis' stint on X-Force, co-written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by Whilce Portacio, saw Bedlam, Cannonball, Meltdown, and Warpath become a covert ops superhero team under the leadership of Pete Wisdom, a British mutant and former intelligence agent who could shoot burning blades of energy from his fingers. Sales remained about the same despite the changes in creators.^[8]

Cancellation and replacement

In early 2001, X-Force was completely reimagined by writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred, who replaced the existing incarnation of the team with an entirely different group of mutants using the X-Force name. In X-Force (vol. 1) #115, Bedlam, Cannonball, Meltdown, and Warpath all appeared to die in an explosion, though all later subsequently returned. The next issue, #116, saw the introduction of a new, sardonically-toned X-Force consisting of colorfully dressed and emotionally immature young mutants put together and marketed to be media superstars. X-Force was canceled with #129 in late 2002 and replaced with retitled X-Statix in late 2002.

For more details on this version of X-Force, see X-Statix.

Although all members of the final version of the first X-Force were apparently killed in an explosion, it was later revealed that they survived but had disbanded.^{[volume & issue needed]}

In 2001, New X-Men writer Grant Morrison introduced X-Corporation, a global mutant rescue mission. Since then, many former members of X-Force have been seen in various X-Men related books as X-Corp operatives: Sunspot in Los Angeles, Domino and Risque in Hong Kong, Cannonball, Rictor and Siryn in Paris, and Feral and Warpath in Mumbai. More recently, Cannonball has been an X-Men member and Domino joined the new Six Pack in Cable & Deadpool.

In 2004, Marvel released a new six-issue X-Force mini-series, once again plotted and illustrated by Liefeld, with dialogue by Nicieza, that gathered many of the characters featured in the first X-Force, to critical panning yet decent sales.^{[citation needed]} Some controversy arose from Liefeld's insertion of over ten pages from previous unpublished comic books (Wolverine and Cable: First Contact) with word balloons edited to make them fit the X-Force storyline.^{[citation needed]} It was subsequently followed with a 4-issue prequel X-Force: Shatterstar miniseries.

As of late 2007, Cannonball, Caliban and Warpath are members of separate teams of X-Men; Caliban recently sacrificed himself to save Warpath. Rictor and Siryn have joined X-Factor Investigations, and Boom-Boom/Meltdown is in the superhero comedy series Nextwave. Not all members have moved on to other teams; Feral and Moonstar are no longer mutants, having lost their powers due to the events of "M-Day". Feral was later seen repowered in Wolverine (vol. 2) #54 and killed by a Weapon X-influenced Sabretooth. Moonstar is now an instructor for The Initiative at Camp Hammond. Shatterstar and Domino recently appeared in Civil War: X-Men when they attempted to free The 198, operating as X-Force.

In the Messiah Complex storyline, specifically Uncanny X-Men #493, Cyclops orders Wolverine to form a new version of X-Force and hunt down Cable. Wolverine selects the X-Men's best trackers, Warpath, Caliban, Hepzibah, Wolfsbane, and X-23.

The new X-Force eventually locate Cable and defend him from an attack from Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers, a battle in which X-23 all but kills Lady Deathstrike and Caliban is shot dead by a Reaver.

2008 ongoing series

This article may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now.  (October 2008)

A new X-Force ongoing series was launched in February 2008, written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost and drawn by Clayton Crain.

During the events of Messiah Complex, Cyclops put together the new team of X-Force consisting of Caliban, Hepzibah, Warpath, Wolfsbane, Wolverine and X-23. Caliban was shot and killed by a Purifier on their first mission protecting Warpath. Hepzibah decided to leave the team after the Messiah Complex to join the X-Men.

At this point, Cyclops decided to form a black ops incarnation of X-Force that would be able to use lethal force to preemptively deal with the threats that would be too dangerous or unsavory for the X-Men to handle. The team's new lineup consisted of Warpath, Wolfsbane, Wolverine, and X-23.

Angels and Demons

The team's first mission has them investigating the theft of Bastion's cyborg head from a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. The trail leads back to the Purifiers, lead by Matthew Risman and the mysterious Eli Bard. They have reactivated Bastion to help in their "holy war" against mutantkind. Bastion revives several X-Men villains. Some were still alive (Donald Pierce and Leper Queen), while some he brought back from the dead (Cameron Hodge, Bolivar Trask, and Graydon Creed) by infecting them with the Technarch transmode virus. The virus allows Bastion a degree of mental control over the subjects.

During X-Force's raid on a Purifer base, Purifer leader Matthew Risman holds Wolfsbane hostage. While Wolverine calls for the team to stand down, X-23 decides Risman is bluffing and threatens him. After Wolverine commands her to yield once again, X-23 appears to surrender, but activates a concealed detonator that sets off a series of powerful explosives she planted earlier without informing her teammates. The explosion brings most of the base down around them, but Risman is able to escape with Wolfsbane during the chaos. X-23 leaves Wolverine and Warpath under the rubble to pursue Risman. When X-Force regroups later, Wolverine admonishes Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for allowing Rahne to be kidnapped. Laura coldly replies to both accusations by coldly remarking "they survived" and "saving Wolfsbane was not my mission." Cyclops agrees with her.

X-Force retrieves Elixir, a prominent healer in the mutant community, so that he can heal Wolfsbane. X-23 then catches the scent of Elixir's and Angel's blood respectively, and runs off to help them. She reaches the room just in time to see Wolfsbane in her transitional wolf-form standing above Warren with his wings in her jaws. While in the Purifiers' custody, Rahne had been brainwashed by her adusive and deranged father, Reverend Craig, causing her to go berserk at the sight of an angelic figure. Wolfsbane escapes into the woods, where she encounters Hrimhari, the Norse wolf god who she fell in love with when the New Mutants had been in Asgard.

Later, Elixir heals both his and Angel's wounds, then discovers that Angel's wings aren't organic and can't be regrown. Angel transforms into Archangel, complete with metallic wings. Wolverine and Warpath attack Archangel and Archangel wounds Wolverine and X-23.

Meanwhile, the Purifiers had used samples of Angel's wings to develop techno-organic grafts for their soldiers, giving them similar (if weaker) abilities to Archangel, dubbing them "The Choir" (a play on "angelic choir"). X-Force pursues Archangel to the Purifiers' base and violence ensues. The team manages to defeat the remaining Purifiers, but Bastion escapes. Afterward, Archangel reverts back to his 'normal appearance' (a.k.a. Warren Worthington).

X-Force returns to Angel's home where they attempt to understand what has happened to Wolfsbane and Angel. A decision has to be made about what to do with Elixir, who unfortunately knows too much about X-Force (the other X-Men can't know about X-Force). X-23 believes the easiest thing to do would be to kill Josh, but she knows that would not be allowed. Instead, she goes behind everyone's back and contacts the Stepford Cuckoos. They would keep X-Force's existence a secret. X-23 and Josh request that the Three-in-One erase Josh's memories of X-Force, thus allowing him to return home without being a risk to the team. Elixir finds out, but realizes, however unsavory the methods, X-Force is doing the right thing, and he wants to help. He remains on the team.

Old Ghosts

Later, Graydon Creed appears on TV proclaiming he had staged a phony assassination attempt to protect himself. X-Force wants to go after Creed, but Cyclops tells them Creed will have to wait because X-Force will have to go after Vanisher first. Vanisher stole a specimen of the Legacy Virus. While in pursuit of the Vanisher, the team runs into Domino, who joins forces with them to recover the Legacy Virus sample. After finally managing to capture Vanisher and inducing an inoperable brain tumor in his head (courtesy of Elixir), Vanisher reveals he no longer has the virus. He lost it while escaping from a contingent of Marauder clones that had recently awakened after the death of Mister Sinister. Meanwhile, Warpath returns to his tribe's reservation at Camp Verde to visit his brother's grave, but is violently attacked by the Demon Bear. Warpath battles the bear, but is no match for it. Just as he is about to be killed, Warpath is saved by Ghost Rider, who offers his help in slaying the creature. After defeating the bear, Ghost Rider and Warpath are able to discern the origin of Eli Bard.

The team returns to the facility where Vanisher lost the virus and battle the cloned assassins. Domino manages to find and retrieve the virus sample, only to be confronted by The Right's shocktroopers who have come to take the virus for themselves.^[9]

Meltdown, Hellion, and Surge are kidnapped by the Leper Queen, so Cyclops calls the X-Force to deal with the situation. Cyclops also tells them that he needs them to track down Cable in the future, and gives each of the team a time-travel device. The devices will be remotely activated when Beast determines Cable's exact position in the timestream. He orders them to deal with the Leper Queen for now, but to be ready to move when he activates the time-travel devices. Hellion and Surge are injected with the Legacy Virus and sent off to the UN building while Tabitha is keep in waiting for another strike. We also see that an Agent Morales, an agent of the newly formed H.A.M.M.E.R., has been tracking X-23, and has dispatched two squads to NYC on the hunt for Laura.

X-Force storms the Leper Queen's base in NYC, but just miss Surge and Hellion getting teleported out. They're about to find out where the Sapien League has taken them and rescue Meltdown in the process when Cyclops calls it in: they've found Cable. Despite Wolverine's protests and Beast's refusal to aid him in this, Cyclops pushes the button, sending them forward in time.

Messiah War

X-Force is involuntarily sent to the future to retrieve Cable and Hope. The landscape is a barren, ravaged area, and the team quickly encounters danger. Apocalypse has been defeated, and Stryfe controls this future, aided by Bishop. X-Force and Cable struggle to save Hope and defeat Stryfe.

Cast

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Creators

Writers

• Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza - X-Force (vol. 1) #1-12 & (vol. 2) #1-6 (August 1991 - July 1992 & October 2004 - March 2005)
• Fabian Nicieza - X-Force (vol. 1) #1-43, Annuals #1-3 & (vol. 2) #1-6 (August 1991 - February 1995 & October 2004 - March 2005)
• Jeph Loeb - X-Force (vol. 1) #44-61 (July 1995 - December 1996)
• John Dokes - X-Force (vol. 1) #62 (January 1997)
• John Francis Moore - X-Force (vol. 1) #63 - 76, #78-100 (February 1997 - April 1998, June 1998 - March 2000)
• Joseph Harris - X-Force (vol. 1) #77 101 (May 1998, April 2000)
• Warren Ellis & Ian Edginton - X-Force (vol. 1) #102-105 (May 2000 - August 2000)
• Ian Edginton - X-Force (vol. 1) #102-115 (May 2000 - June 2001)
• Peter Milligan - X-Force (vol. 1) #116-129 (July 2001 - August 2002)
• Christopher Yost & Craig Kyle - X-Force (vol.3) #1 onwards (February 2008-present)

Art

• Rob Liefeld - X-Force (vol. 1) #1-7, 9 & (vol. 2) #1-6 (August 1991 - June 1992 & October 2004 - March 2005)
• Mike Mignola - X-Force (vol. 1) #8 (March 1992)
• Mark Pacella - X-Force (vol. 1) #10-13 (May 1992 - August 1992)
• Terry Shoemaker - X-Force (vol. 1) #14 (September 1992)
• Greg Capullo - X-Force (vol. 1) #15-25 (October 1992 - August 1993)
• Matt Broome - X-Force (vol. 1) #26-27, 29
• Tony Daniel - X-Force (vol. 1) #28, 30-36, 38-41, 43
• Paul Pelletier - X-Force (vol. 1) #37
• Adam Pollina - X-Force (vol. 1) #44-81
• Jim Cheung - X-Force (vol. 1) #82-4, 86-8, 90, 94-95, 98-100
• Whilce Portacio - X-Force (vol. 1) #102-106 (May 2000 - September 2000)
• Mike Allred - X-Force (vol. 1) #116-123 & 125-128 (July 2001 - August 2002)
• Darwyn Cooke - X-Force (vol. 1) #124
• Duncan Fegredo - X-Force (vol. 1) #129
• Clayton Crain - X-Force, (vol. 3) #1-6, #11-13 (February 2008 - August 2008)
• Mike Choi - X-Force (vol. 3) #7-10, #14-16 (September 2008 - December 2008)

Cover art

• Rob Liefeld - X-Force (vol. 1) #1-9, #11, #50 & #100 variants (August 1991 - January 1996)
• Greg Capullo - X-Force (vol. 1) #15-27 (October 1992 - October 1993)
• Whilce Portacio - X-Force (vol. 1) #102-109 (May 2000 - December 2000)
• Mike Allred - X-Force (vol. 1) #116-128 (July 2001 - August 2002)
• Clayton Crain - X-Force (vol. 3) #1-6, #11- (February 2008 - August 2008, January 2009 - )
• Mike Choi - X-Force (vol. 3) #7-10 (September 2008 - December 2008)

This section requires expansion.

Bibliography

• X-Force (vol. 1) #1-129 (August 1991 - August 2002, Marvel Comics)
• X-Force Annual #1-3, 1995-1999 (March 1992 - 1999, Marvel Comics)
• X-Force (vol. 2) #1-6 (October 2004 - March 2005, Marvel Comics)
• X-Force: Shatterstar #1-4 (April - July 2005, Marvel Comics)
• X-Force (vol. 3) #1- onwards (February 2008 - present, Marvel Comics)

Collected editions

Various stories and series have been collected into trade paperbacks:

• X-Force (vol. 1):
  • Counter-X Volume 1: X-Force (collects X-Force #102-109, 192 pages, July 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3304-6)
  • X-Force: Famous, Mutant & Mortal (hardcover, 288 pages, July 2003, ISBN 0-7851-1023-2) collects:
    • Volume 1: New Beginning (collects X-Force #116-120, 128 pages, November 2001, ISBN 0-7851-0819-X)
    • Volume 2: Final Chapter (collects X-Force #121-129, 224 pages, November 2002, ISBN 0-7851-1088-7)

• X-Force (vol. 2) (6-issue limited series, collected as X-Force and Cable: Legend Returns, 144 pages, April 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1429-7)
• X-Force: Shatterstar (collects X-Force: Shatterstar #1-4 and New Mutants #99-100, 160 pages, August 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1633-8)

• X-Force (vol. 3):
  • Volume 1: Angels And Demons (collects X-Force #1-6, 144 pages, hardcover, November 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3552-9, softcover, February 2009, ISBN 0-7851-2976-6)
  • Volume 2: Old Ghosts (collects X-Force #7-11, 120 pages, hardcover, June 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3821-8, softcover, September 2009, ISBN 0-7851-2977-4)
  • Volume 3: Not Forgotten (collects X-Force #12-13 and 17-19, 120 pages, hardcover, September 2009, ISBN 0-7851-4019-0)
  • X-Force/Cable: Messiah War (collects X-Force #14-16, Cable #13-15 and Messiah War one-shot, 192 pages, hardcover, September 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3157-4)

Awards

Issues #57 and #58 of the first series were part of the Onslaught storyline which was a top vote-getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Comic-Book Story for 1997.

The original X-Force

Before the team best known as X-Force debuted, Marvel introduced an unrelated, little-known group also called X-Force. It was a short-lived group that was designed to replace Freedom Force. The members were not mutants, but received their powers artificially and were named after the X-Men. This group was organized by a government agency known as M Branch and only appeared in the pages of Cloak and Dagger #9-10 (1990).

Notes

References

External links

• X-Men comics on Marvel.com
• X-Force (vol. 2) #1
• Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards
• Rob Liefeld.net Official website of Rob Liefeld, creator of the title in the 90s