X-Men: X-Force

X-Force was a Marvel Comics superhero team, one of many spin-offs of the popular X-Men franchise. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, it formed in The New Mutants #100 (April 1991) and was shortly after featured in its own eponymous series. more...

The group was a more adult and platoon-like incarnation of the X-Men's 1980s junior team, the New Mutants. Disassociated with their parent group and led by the gun-toting cyborg Cable, X-Force was generally more militant and aggressive than the X-Men.

Although sometimes accused of emphasizing flashy art and big muscles and guns over character development, X-Force was tremendously successful in the early 1990s. Its popularity cooled after Liefeld left. Marvel implemented several reforms from 1995 until 2001, with varying success. Eventually low sales prompted Marvel to dump the original team for a group of snotty, young mutants gathered together to become media stars by a corporation. That team shared only a name with the original and was renamed X-Statix in 2002. It's better known by that name.

After X-Statix was cancelled, Marvel reunited X-Force for a six-issue 2004 miniseries plotted and drawn by Liefeld.

History

The Liefeld period

X-Force was concocted by illustrator Rob Liefeld, who started penciling The New Mutants in 1989. The immense popularity of Liefeld’s art allowed him to take over creative control of the book, introducing Cable and several other 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 1991. The line-up of the early team included:

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