In 2000, Warren Ellis was brought in as part of the X-Men's line-wide 'Revolution' revamp, and reformed X-Force as a covert strike team under the leadership of his character Pete Wisdom. During this period, sales of the book fell from being one of Marvel's best sellers to being solidly mid-tier. There, the team took on new member Bedlam and reunited with former members Cannonball and Domino. The cast was narrowed down to five Meltdown, Warpath, Siryn, Sunspot and a returning Dani Moonstar who set off on a roadtrip across America and ultimately established their new base in San Francisco. Under Moore's long tenure, the team disbanded in the wake of the Operation: Zero Tolerance storyline. Boom-Boom also changed her codename to Meltdown.Īfter Loeb's abrupt departure in 1997, John Francis Moore took over writing duties and once again began drawing on the characters' long histories as New Mutants and X-Force.

Cannonball was shifted to the X-Men and Caliban joined X-Force Rictor was also written out, but returned the following year. Loeb moved the team back to the Xavier Mansion and had them cooperating much more closely with the X-Men and Charles Xavier, as part of a line-wide initiative to bring all the various X-books closer together. Nicieza continued to write up through the Age of Apocalypse storyline of 1995, after which he was replaced by Jeph Loeb. Cable soon returned in the Fatal Attractions (Marvel Comics) crossover, but with a new and less authoritarian leadership style, and Feral left the team for good Dani Moonstar, the former New Mutant, was also reintroduced as a recurring character. Cable was temporarily written out and X-Force struck out on their own as independent young adults, setting up their new base in the ruins of the Camp Verde reservation in Arizona and at last bonding as True Companions. Nicieza took over creative control upon Liefeld's departure and immediately began turning the series into a more natural continuation of New Mutants, including bringing back the characters Sunspot and Rictor. Liefeld however quickly became frustrated by working with characters he didn't own, and soon left Marvel to form Image Comics in 1992. The series was at first extremely popular, with the #1 issue becoming the second-best-selling comic of all time.

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