X-Force (1992) Marvel

X-Force is a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team first appeared in New Mutants #100 (April 1991) and soon afterwards was featured in its own series called X-Force. The group was originally a revamped version of the 1980s team, the New Mutants. X-Force's first leader was the mutant Cable. An offshoot of the X-Men, X-Force takes a more militant and aggressive approach towards its enemies compared to the X-Men. X-Force was created by illustrator Rob Liefeld after he started penciling The New Mutants comic book in 1989 with #86. The popularity of Liefeld’s art led to him taking over the plotting duties on the book. With help from writer Fabian Nicieza, who provided the dialogue for Liefeld’s plots, Liefeld transformed the New Mutants into X-Force in New Mutants #100, the book's final issue. Liefeld and Nicieza launched X-Force in August 1991. Rob Liefeld obtained the name for the series from an unknown artist at a convention a few months prior to its release. With the aid of a multiple-variant poly-bagged card, the book sold a record 5 million copies, and remains the second highest selling American 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, Cable, Cannonball, Domino, Feral, Shatterstar and Warpath. In later issues, X-Force's roster would include Siryn, Rictor and Sunspot. 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 Mutants. Propelled by Liefeld's art, X-Force became one of Marvel’s bestselling comic books immediately after its debut. The series rivaled The Amazing Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men in popularity, particularly with the adolescent demographic. Toy Biz responded to X-Force's popularity by introducing an X-Force action figure line alongside its X-Men action figure line. 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.