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Monday, June 02, 2014

All-New Marvel Now: X-Force (2014 - Present)


X-Force is an ongoing title launched in February 2014, written by Simon Spurrier and pencilled by Rock-He Kim. It features an X-Force team led by Cable out to assert the mutant cause on a clandestine level.
A terrorist attack known as the Alexandria Incident used a weaponized mutant to claim 3,000 lives. In response, Cable re-formed the mutant black ops team X-Force to ensure that mutantkind not only has a continued place in the world but also a stake in it.

X-Force is currently on the trail of Russian billionaire Volga-who they believe to be behind the Alexandria Incident, as well as the man who has been abducting and exploiting mutants, including new teammate MeMe.

Team

Cable (Nathan Summers)

Psylocke (Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock)

Fantomex (Charlie Cluster 7)

Marrow (Sarah)

MeMe

Dr. Nemesis (Dr. James Nichola Bradley)

Past Series

X-Force is the name adopted by various different groups of mutant superheroes featuring in a series of the same name. The first series was created by Rob Liefeld in 1991 to replace New Mutants. It featured Cable leading a proactive militaristic team. In #116 (2001), the team was replaced by a team of mutant media celebrities. The title was cancelled with #129 (2002) and replaced with a new series X-Statix. In 2004, a six-issue X-Force miniseries was released, with Liefeld as plotter and illustrator and Fabian Nicieza providing dialogue. The series reunited many members of the original team. The series was followed by a four-issue prequel X-Force: Shatterstar mini-series.

In 2008, the third series was launched, written by the team of Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost. Cyclops formed the team as a black ops unit to deal with threats using lethal force. The team was disbanded by Cyclops with #28 (2010) following the Second Coming crossover. A three issue mini-series X-Force: Sex and Violence was released shortly after.

A new title Uncanny X-Force was launched in 2011, written by Rick Remender. Wolverine and Archangel reformed a new secret X-Force team to continue the fight. The title ended with #35 in 2012.

The second volume of Uncanny X-Force and a new title Cable and X-Force were released in 2013. The former features a strike team operating in Los Angeles while the later features a Cable-led proactive team.

Both titles were cancelled in 2014 and replaced by a new X-Force title. In this new title, Cable leads a team to assert the mutant cause on a clandestine level.


First Series
Cable-Founded X-Force
(1991-2001)

Shortly after taking over as mentor of the student team New Mutants, Cable re-organised it into the paramilitary X-Force a mutant strike team that would take a more proactive stance against threats to mutantkind. The original team consisted of Cannonball, Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith), Warpath, Shatterstar, Feral and Domino. The terrorist Mutant Liberation Front, led by Stryfe, the evil clone of Cable became the main nemesis of X-Force. X-Force teamed up with Spider Man and Siryn to prevent a terrorist bombing by Black Tom and the Juggernaut after which Siryn joined the team. Later, it was revealed that Domino had been replaced by the shapeshifting mutant Copycat, who had infiltrated the team at the behest of arms dealer Tolliver who was keeping Domino prisoner. X-Force was soon attacked by Weapon: PRIME, which was created by the Canadian government's Department K to take down X-Force. Cable and X-Force were separated as a result. Cable took the fight to Tolliver to rescue Domino, defeating the mercenary Deadpool. Rictor, who was in Weapon: PRIME, joined X-Force to rescue former New Mutant, Sunspot from the External Gideon.

After a seeming assassination attempt on Professor X by Cable, X-Force was targeted for capture by the combined forces of X-Men and X-Factor. It was later revealed that Stryfe was responsible for framing Cable and X-Force was released. Cable was believed dead after a battle with Stryfe but returned and resumed the team's training, recruiting the mutant-tracking Caliban to replace Cannonball, who had joined the X-Men.

Cable attempted to force the team underground with new identities but X-Force walked out on him. Shatterstar and Rictor journeyed to Mexico while Siryn, Warpath, Sunspot, Meltdown (Tabitha Smith) and Domino were joined by former New Mutant, Moonstar. The team traveled around the US before being captured by Reignfire and Locus. Taken to Las Vegas, the team learnt the truth about the connection between Reignfire and Sunspot. X-Force then moved into a new warehouse in San Francisco before vacationing in Hawaii. The team soon gained a new teammate in Bedlam and Cannonball returned. Sunspot was later convinced by Selene to join the Hellfire Club.

X-Force came under former British spy Pete Wisdom, who introduced the team to the shadowy world of espionage. The team was believed killed in an explosion but all its members subsequently reappeared.

Domino, Rictor, Siryn, Sunspot and Warpath joined Xavier's X-Corporation mutant response group; Cannonball joined Storm's XSE mutant police force; Moonstar was recruited as a teacher at the Xavier Institute while Cable became a messiah-like figure in his efforts to save the world's population from themselves.




Former Bases of Operation
Adirondack Mountains, Camp Verde Reservation, Arcade World NY, X-Mansion, On the Road

Original Team

Cable (Nathan Summers)

Cannonball (Samuel "Sam" Guthrie)

Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith)

Shatterstar (Gaveedra-Seven)

Warpath (James Proudstar)

Feral (Maria Callasanto)

Domino (Neena Thurman), impersonated by Copycat (Vanessa Calysee)

Recruits

Siryn (Theresa Cassidy)

Rictor (Julio Richter)

Sunspot (Roberto DaCosta)

Domino (Neena Thurman)

Caliban

Moonstar (Danielle "Dani" Moonstar)

Bedlam (Jesse Aaronson)

Pete Wisdom, took over as mentor


Second Series
Cable-Founded X-Force
(2004)


Cable reformed the team to fight Skornn in the six-issue X-Force miniseries (second series).

Roster

Cable (Nathan Summers)

Cannonball (Samuel "Sam" Guthrie)

Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith)

Shatterstar (Gaveedra-Seven)

Warpath (James Proudstar)

Domino (Neena Thurman)


Third Series
X-Men Strike Team
(2007 - 2010)


There exists a covert team of mutants, assigned to jobs too dirty, too dangerous for the regular X-Men. Their existence known only to a select few, they are... X-Force!

Cyclops' covert wetworks team doesn't protect the dream, they erase the threats.

X-Force was formed during Messiah Complex by Cyclops to chase after Cable, who was holding onto the Messiah child, and whom was believed to be a traitor. During a confrontation with the cyborg Reavers on route to finding Cable, Caliban was killed. After the events of Messiah CompleX, Cyclops reformed the team to kill off threats to mutants. 

X-Force witnessed the revival of the mega-sentinel Bastion, who proceeded to find the former Technarchy ruler Magus to obtain his techno-organic virus. Using the T-O virus, Bastion resurrected several mutant haters to form his cabal, including Bolivar Trask, Steven Lang, Reverend William Stryker, Donald Pierce, Cameron Hodge, Graydon Creed and Leper Queen. The team next traveled to the future to retrieve Cable and Hope where they fought Stryfe and Bishop. They returned to the past only to have X-23 captured by her former handlers in the Facility. X-23 managed to escape in time for Selene to launch an attack on the mutant island of Utopia. After fending off the attack, X-Force traveled to Genosha to confront and defeat Selene. X-Force's secret existence was revealed following the return of Hope and Bastion's attack on Utopia. With the defeat of Bastion, Cyclops disbanded X-Force. However, unknown to Cyclops, Wolverine forms a team of X-Force on his own.



Roster

Wolverine (James 'Logan' Howlett) Leader

Warpath (James Proudstar)

X-23 (Laura Kinney)

Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)

Domino (Neena Thurman)

Archangel (Warren Worthington III)

Elixir (Joshua Forley)

Vanisher (Telford Porter)

Members during Messiah CompleX

Hepzibah

Caliban


Uncanny X-Force
(2010 - 2012)





Base of Operations
Cavern X

When the Akkaba Society resurrected En Sabah Nur, also known as Apocalypse, Wolverine and Archangel brought together Fantomex, Deadpool and Psylocke to form the Uncanny X-Force. The team fought their way to Apocalypse, only to discover that this reincarnation is a child. X-Force's resolve wavered, save for Fantomex who put a bullet in the child's head, arguing that the child's upbringing by the cult had already tainted him beyond repair. The team struggled with the idea of having killed a child. 

They next fought and destroyed the cyborg Reavers led by Lady Deathstrike.

Fantomex discovered that there is something wrong with the World, as a presence calling itself Weapon Infinity started manipulating the timestream within. He was attacked by a group of Deathlok cyborgs based on the Avengers who want to kill him and take possession of the World. The team was aided by a rogue Deathlok unit and they travel into the World where Deadpool killed the architect of Weapon Infinity, the enigmatic Father, erasing the attacking Deathlok strain. The rogue Deathlok joins X-Force.

Since the team was formed, Angel has been fighting the bloodthirsty influence of the razor-winged entity known as Archangel. The entity was implanted in his psyche years ago by Apocalypse. Warren has been allowing the Archangel to take over from time to time because the entity is useful in wetworks activities. But Archangel had been exerting control to a greater degree than Warren imagined. To combat this, Psylocke had been psionically helping Warren keep Archangel in check, eventually imprisoning him deep in Warren's mind. During the battle with the Shadow King, Archangel was released from the mental prison. Archangel took control over Warren and the team brought in the Dark Beast to help Warren. The team traveled to the Age of Apocalypse reality to retrieve the Life Seed Dark Beast mentioned would cure Warren. X-Force met the reality's X-Men while the Dark Beast escaped. The two teams fought Weapon X, the reality's heir to Apocalypse. The AoA X-Men helped X-Force return to their reality where they faced and were defeated by Archangel, his four Horsemen and the Dark Beast, who wanted Archangel to fulfill his grand scheme of using the power of the Life Seed to fuel the super-advanced weapons lab known as the World to extinguish all life on earth and reset evolution. X-Force, along with some support from the X-Men of the AoA, assault Archangel's stronghold. In the climatic final battle, Fantomex revealed that he had cloned the child Apocalypse and been secretly raising him in a virtual reality realm. He was forced to release the child, Genesis, early to aid the team in the fight against Archangel. In the end, Psylocke rammed the Life Seed into Archangel's chest, killing him. But shortly after, an amnesiac Warren Worthington emerged from the rubble. AoA Nightcrawler joined X-Force while the rest of his team returned to their own reality.

X-Force's existence was discovered by Kitty Pryde and Beast, staff members of Wolverine's Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Unhappy, they chose to tolerate the actions of X-Force. Fantomex was taken in by the Captain Britain Corps and put on trial in the mystical Otherworld for his role in killing the kid Apocalypse. Wolverine led X-Force into Otherworld, where Psylocke rescued Fantomex while the rest of the team aid the Captain Britain Corps in fending off attacks from the forces of the Goat Monk. When Psylocke realized that his brother Jamie would become responsible for the Goat Monk's attack in the future, she snapped his neck, ending the attack.

As X-Force started to break apart with Psylocke and Fantomex leaving, they came under attack by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Daken and consisting of Sabretooth, Mystique, Skinless Man, Age of Apocalypse Blob, the Shadow King and the three members of the Omega Gang. Fantomex succeeded in evading Mystique to attempt to rescue Psylocke from the Shadow King's clutches. However, he was killed in the rescue. E.V.A. managed to take Psylocke away after which she evolved into a humanoid form. Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Deadpool managed to escape from their attackers, Omega Gang, and returned to their base to find Psylocke and E.V.A. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants reveal themselves with Wolverine's son Daken as leader and Genesis captured. Ultimaton appeared with the aborigine mutant Gateway, killing him before triggering an explosion.

Psylocke managed to telepathically get Gateway to use his powers of teleportation on X-Force. They appeared in an alternate future where they encounter Deathlok. In this alternate future, Wolverine had successfully led an army of X-Force to kill Genesis, who had became Apocalypse. Hailed as heroes, X-Force turned to preemptive killings to eliminate crime. Deathlok was opposed to the preemptive killings and attempted to prevent X-Force from facing their future counterparts. Psylocke learnt that the leader of the world is a future version of her and attempted suicide. However, she was rescued by X-Force. Their future counterparts eventually sent them back to the present just as the future Psylocke and Wolverine engage in a passionate kiss.

Upon their return, they managed to capture Mystique. Deadpool infiltrates the Brotherhood's base to rescue Evan but is captured and tortured in front of him. Evan eventually donned the Apocalypse armor provided by the Brotherhood to rescue Deadpool, as intended. Mystique managed to influence Nightcrawler to free her in exchange for bringing him to exact his revenge on Blob. Nightcrawler betrayed the team, incapacitating EVA and Wolverine. Nightcrawler completed his revenge against Blob but was confronted by EVA. Wolverine and Psylocke infiltrated the Brotherhood's base but were captured. Psylocke's mind was shattered by the Shadow King but she managed to trap him in Omega White. Wolverine was made to drown by Daken but was rescued by Deadpool. Evan nearly killed Mystique and the Skinless Man but the former is rescued by Nightcrawler and the latter is killed by Deadpool for his role in killing Fantomex. Wolverine confronted Daken as Sabretooth escaped and killed Daken by drowning him. Following the battle, Fantomex was resurrected, albeit as three different beings due to his 3 brains - the evil Jean Philippe, mischievous but good Fantomex, and the noble female Cluster. Fantomex seemingly formed a relationship with Psylocke.


Roster

Wolverine (James Howlett)

Archangel (Warren Worthington)
[Apparently killed and resurrected as an amnesiac in Uncanny X-Force #18 (2011)]

Psylocke (Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock)

Fantomex (Charlie Cluster-7)

E.V.A.

Deadpool (Wade Wilson)

Deathlok
[Joined in Uncanny X-Force #8 (2011)]

Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), from Age of Apocalypse reality
[Joined in Uncanny X-Force #19 (2011)]


Uncanny X-Force Second Series
(2013 - 2014)


Uncanny X-Force is relaunched with a new #1 by Sam Humphries and Ron Garney in January 2013. The title features Storm, Psylocke, Puck, Spiral, Bishop and the Fantomexes. The title ended with #17 in February 2014.

Storm and Psylocke responded to Puck's email invitation to investigate a drug dealer selling a drug that makes people susceptible to a hive mind mentality. They discovered the dealer to be Spiral and found a new mutant Ginny. They later realized that Ginny's psychic powers were responsible for the hive mind mentality and Spiral was merely selling generic drugs to earn a living.

The team was attacked by Bishop, returned from the future and possessed by a Demon Bear. Bishop was liberated. However, the team was unable to prevent the capture of Ginny by the Revenant Queen who also arrived from the future. Spiral escaped from X-Force's custody set out to search for Ginny. Psylocke was kidnapped by Cluster (the female Fantomex) to help her rescue Fantomex from Dark Fantomex. Psylocke rejected Cluster's offer to stay with her and Fantomex, her bad memories in their company still raw. The Revenant Queen was revealed to be Cassandra Nova, the evil mummudrai twin sister of Professor X. She prepared to open the veil to allow the revenants in the underworld to invade Earth. However, X-Force stopped her ploy.


Roster

Storm (Ororo Munroe)

Psylocke (Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock)

Puck (Eugene Judd)

Spiral (Rita Rayword)

Bishop (Lucas Bishop)


Cable and the X-Force
(2012 - 2014)


Cable and the X-Force is written by Dennis Hopeless and pencilled mainly by Salvador Larroca. It features a team of team led by Cable. It was launched in December 2012 and ended with #19 in February 2014.

Cable formed a X-Force team to proactively prevent disasters that he had precognitive visions of. However, the team's first mission ended in disaster and the team became wanted terrorists. After a series of missions, the X-Force was attacked by Havok's Uncanny Avengers who seek to capture them. While the team escaped, Cable was captured. However, his powers started to fluctuate. His surrogate daughter Hope Summers seek the help of Cable's former mentor Blaquesmith. They traveled to the future where Hope discovered that Cable's precognitive visions were the result of tampering by Blaquesmith and Lady Stryfe, a future version of Hope. They wanted Cable to remain active and Lady Stryfe wanted her young self to have quality time with her dad. Cable's missions also helped undo the horrors faced in the future. Realizing that the tampering was causing Cable harm, they sent young Hope back into the past with a psimitar to stabilize Cable's powers just as X-Force was attacking the Avengers Mansion in an attempt to rescue him. After Cable's powers stabilized, Havok allowed him and X-Force to depart so that they can deal with the threats that the Uncanny Avengers cannot.

The team engaged in two missions. Hope and Cable attacked a Reaver camp while Colossus and Domino halted an attempt to burgle an old Trask compound with Forge coordinating both missions from the X-Force's base. When Forge's mind was overtaken by his old enemy, the Adversary, both teams were left high and dry. Cable and Hope defeated an entire group of Reavers while Colossus and Domino destroyed a Sentinel guarding the Trask compound. Back in X-Force's base, Dr Nemesis and Boom Boom helped Forge defeat the Adversary by transferring him to Dr Nemesis's mind and trapping him.




Roster

Cable (Nathan Christopher Summers)

Domino (Neena Thurman)

Colossus (Piotr Rasputin)

Forge 

Dr. Nemesis (Dr James Nicola Bradley)

Boom Boom (Tabitha Smith)

Hope Summers



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