X-Force, they are like the X-Men, but with attitude. If they X-Men were just all Wolverine but also guns right? While this is both reductive and incorrect, this is what society expects of X-Force. There have, however, been many iterations of this squad, and today, we’re going to rank all of them, from worst to best.
Honorable Mention: X-Statix
X-Statix started as a bold new direction from Peter Milligan and Mike Allred in the pages of X-Force. It was the first on-going Marvel comic to be released without the Comics Code Authority sticker. It brutally murdered the entire cast in the first issue.
But as great as that series is, it really isn’t X-Force, honestly, it’s hardly an X-Men book. It almost feels like it takes place in a different reality, a world removed from the 616. All that is to its’ great credit, but it’s nearly impossible to compare to the rest of these teams by any reasonable measure.
Also, they killed so many characters, like so many, that it’s very tough to pin down who this team even was.
16. Deadpool 2
People get mad when I say Deadpool 2 was a bad movie, and they can die mad. Deadpool 2 thinks the idea of X-Force is dumb and stupid and every character involved is dumb and stupid. It also thinks the best thing to do is pull an X-Statix move and brutally murder Bedlam, Zeitgeist, Shatterstar, Vanisher (in name only), and a guy named Peter W. Its use of Domino is great, and Deadpool himself gets some fun action beats, but this film wants to pretend it isn’t a superhero movie and that superhero movies are dumb when it has Cable and Juggernaut in it. Sucks that what most people think of when they hear X-Force is this now.
15. Revolution: Counter-X: X-Force #102-115
With the dawn of the 21st century, Marvel wanted a fresh voice to guide the X-Books. So they got Chris Claremont to do the “Revolution” relaunch and it wasn’t good. Inside that relaunch, Marvel had a sub relaunch spearheaded by Warren Ellis called “Counter-X” and it wasn’t good. This had Warren Ellis self-insert fanfiction character Peter Wisdom leading an X-Force team of Cannonball, Meltdown, Bedlam, and James Proudstar as a generic Warren Ellis superhero team. They fought against shadow corporations and seedy government offshoots and against a bunch of ideas that were generally done much better in other Warren Ellis books. Was there potential there? Sure! But this team was pretty much dead on arrival.
14. X-Force Vol 2
You ever wonder why we let Rob Liefeld get such a big head? He’s the industry punching bag, sure, but he also was responsible for the laughably bad X-Force Vol 2. Cable is here, Domino is here, Shatterstar is here, and all the other classic X-Force characters make an appearance. Mostly though, this is an exercise in excess as Fabian Nicezia does his damndest to make Rob’s plot about Skornn and the Five Fingers of Annihilation something close to comprehensible. He fails, as does this mess of a series that is better left forgotten.
13. X-Force #1-12 (Rob Liefeld)
Y’all know who it is! The original, the classic, the one people won’t stop going back to even though they really should. This Is Rob Leifeld at the height of his Big 2 power, completely demolishing the New Mutants and only leaving a harder, stronger team in his wake. The actual roster isn’t the worst, except for the wet turd of a character that is Feral, but golly is this team insufferable to read about under Rob’s pen. They get points for being the first, but I’m not going to pretend they are actually great. Then again it sold 6 million copies so what do I know. Insert jokes about guns, feet, and pouches here.
12. Weapon X-Force
I’ll give credit where credit is due, Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, and Yıldıray Çınar at least tried something different here. They failed spectacularly, but they tried. Revamping the aimless Weapon X into an X-Force title wasn’t the worst idea in the world, neither was having a team of baddies and also Domino. The garish orange outfits and the plot involving Reverand William Stryker becoming a satanist just fell right on its face. Quickly adding in major supporting cast members like Monet St. Croix and Deadpool to an already underdeveloped roser did it no favors either. There’s a cool story to be told here, but they didn’t tell it.
11. X-Force Vol 5
On the other hand, Ed Brisson and Dylan Burnett tried to do a back to basics team and that was also not great. X-Force Vol 5 told a tale about the young teen Cable, his friend Deathlok, and the classic members of X-Force going up against Stryfe. Some beats, especially the work with Boom-Boom and Warpath, were great. Not to mention stylistic, dynamic art by Burnett. But as a whole, it’s a mostly forgettable story that makes people ask why Cable is a dang teen right now anyway.
10. Uncanny X-Force Vol 2
Let’s chalk this one up under the weird column. Sam Humphries and Ron Garney delivered an X-Force team, led by Storm, with Psylocke as the only real member. Puck from Alpha Flight comes along. They eventually team-up with Spiral and, a now penitent, Bishop, with a weird diversion into Psylocke’s relationship with multiple Fantomex’s (Fantomi?). It isn’t great and it feels nothing like X-Force, but it also doesn’t feel much like anything else. Sometimes it’s better to be memorable than good.
9. X-Force Vol 3
Any credit, or blame, for thinking of X-Force as the dark and gritty murder squad X-Team and squarely be placed at the feet of Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, and Clayton Crain. Avenger in good standing Wolverine leads a team filled with manipulated, coerced, and abused youngster to preemptively murder, maim, and otherwise mutilate the foes of mutant kind, as ordered by Cyclops. Domino, Warpath, Archangel, and a blackmailed Vanisher make up the older half of the squad while X-23, Elixir, and Wolfsbane do as their elders tell them. The opening arc of this book has Rhane Sinclair drugged with heroin, mutilate a fellow X-Man, and eat her father. The book does what it sets out to do well, the question is should it have?
8. X-Force #44-61 (Jeph Loeb)
Affectionately known as the purple era, this was the first real change from the original X-Force. Jeph Loeb and Adam Polina give the team a fresh coat of paint and set them up for new adventures. This is an X-Force that lives with, and works with, the X-Men proper. Less paramilitary squad and more traditional superheroics. Boomer, who switches to Meltdown in this run, Warpath, Shatterstar, Domino, Sunspot, and Siryn, join up with new member Caliban to follow Cable when he wasn’t busy in his solo book. The era is a mixed bag, equal parts great 90s action book and horrible 90s action book. Polina’s art is a constant delight and Loeb continues to humanize these characters and remember that they are mostly disaster teens. For better or worse, you’re going to have a smile on your face when you read this.
7. Cable & X-Force
After the one-two punch of X-Force Vol 3 & Uncanny X-Force Vol 1, Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum had a wild idea. He remembered when X-Force used to be fun and goofy and just did that again. With Salvador Larroca on art, Hallum mixed some old favorites like Cable, Domino, and Boom-Boom, with some inspired new choices like Hope Summers, Forge, Colossus, and Doctor Nemesis. This team worked by pairing up characters to create exciting dynamics. Domino and Colossus were the power couple of 2013. Forge and Nemesis bickered back and forth, both too smart for their own good. But the core of this book was the relationship between Hope and her father, two former Messiahs that the world didn’t have a need for anymore. An exciting, invigorating run that was just what X-Force needed.
6. X-Force Vol 6
There were a lot of questions when Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara dropped X-Force #1 back in November of 2019. They had been described as the Mutant CIA, a term that seemed, frankly, distasteful. Voices felt a bit off, it seemed grim for the sake of darkness, and ended with a cliffhanger death, something Hickman had aggressively rallied against over the last few months.
Interestingly enough, Percy pulled a trick on us all, having the character field the same concerns as readers. Domino, Colossus, and Wolverine made up the entirety of the returning cast, while Marvel Girl, Sage, Quentin Quire, Beast, and Black Tom Cassidy were inspired additions. That dynamic cast, mixed with next level linework from Cassara, and lush colors from Dean White, have made X-Force one of the biggest surprises in Dawn Of X.
5. X-Men ‘92
It’s weird to even include this team, they appeared in less than 5 issues ever in an alternate universe tie-in that was legally unrelated to X-Men: The Animated Series despite being deeply influenced by it. What it represents, however, is the idea of X-Force that has embedded itself in the cultural consciousness. Chad Bowers and Chris Sims assembled a team that feels like X-Force, even if this line up never existed. Cable, Deadpool, Domino, Bishop, Archangel, Psylocke; it’s the major characters from the 90s. It’s the popular ones with the big guns and cool swords. It’s the go-tos you could drop in any iteration of the team and it would feel right. It just wouldn’t be X-Force without them.
4. X-Force #63-101 (John Francis Moore)
It’s the second longest run on the book, and easily the most under-appreciated as John Francis Moore decides to hyperfocus on the characters in X-Force. Adam Polina continues from the Loeb run, and Jim Cheung jumps on the close it all out, so needless to say the run is beautiful. Moonstar, Warpath, Siryn, Sunspot, and Meltdown set off to rediscover themselves. It’s a roadtrip with no destination. An adventure for the sake of it. Moore lets the team tie-up lingering plot lines and deepen their relationships to each other. It’s disaster teens hanging out and more people should enjoy it.
3. X-Force Vol 4
No one will ever accuse Si Spurrier of being dumb. The man loves to show off all the big words he knows and all the high-falutin concepts he can come up with. Luckily, he writes very entertaining comics when doing so. Spurrier and artist Rock-He Kim combine pieces from Uncanny X-Force Vol 2 and Cable & X-Force to create an ideal modern squad. Cable leads the way with Domino always by his side. Doctor Nemesis gets a new new partner to verbally spare with in Fantomex, who’s lingering feelings for Psylocke get explored as she is forced to confront her violent side while working with Marrow. None of this is mentioning Hope Summers (who is a drone named MeMe for most of this) or the delightful ForgetMeNot. Si understands the destructive toll being on X-Force causes these characters, and tells a haunting tale about it.
2. Uncanny X-Force Vol 1
Unquestionably a modern classic. Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña take a look at one death, the assassination of a child, and extrapolated it decades into the future, forcing the killers in X-Force to understand the cost of what they have done. It makes them question themselves and never gives a clear answer on if it was worth it. Wolverine and Deadpool bring the star power but Psylocke, Fantomex, and Archangel are the real standouts here. It’s a moving story that sticks with you long after you put it down and one of the best teams ever assembled.
1. X-Force #13-43 (Fabian Nicieza)
It’s him, it’s the all-star, it’s the secret best book of the early 90s, it’s Fabian Nicieza’s X-Force. Anchored by artists Greg Capullo and Tony Daniel, Nicieza makes X-Force the team you remember from Rob’s run, but good actually. Cable and Domino are here, Feral, Boomer, and Warpath are rocking around, Siryn, Sunspot, Cannonball, Rictor, and, of course, Shatterstar always feel like they have a place on this massive roster. It’s X-Force with big guns, and an even bigger heart. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Zachary Jenkins runs the Xavier Files Media Empire and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of X-Men.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
