The Mutant Nation's Dirty Tricks Team
With the 2012 Marvel NOW! relaunch the X-Force brand was used for two different titles. The first is Cable and X-Force, set in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men which sees a recently revived Cable leading a team consisting of Forge, Domino, Colossus, and Doctor Nemesis on mysterious world threatening missions of great importance, driven by visions that are also slowly killing him while being hunted as fugitives. The series lasted for 19 issues (February, 2013-March, 2014).The second Uncanny X-Force series sees Psylocke leading a new group of operatives consisting of Storm, Puck, Spiral, and a new character, Cluster/Lady Fantomex. Continuing some of the story points from the previous volume while crafting its own new stories and using other aspects of X-Men Lore. The series lasted for 17 issues (March, 2013-March, 2014).
Both of these stories came to an end with the crossover "Vendetta" and spun out into a new X-Force series in 2014, featuring Cable, Psylocke, Fantomex, and Marrow. The team has assembled in order to keep the Mutant Nation ahead of the curve in the Shadow Game of the world, despite having no borders or government. The series lasted for 15 issues (April, 2014-April, 2015).
Following Secret Wars (2015), the series has something of a Spiritual Successor in the form of Uncanny X-Men (2016).
Tropes
- The Atoner: Psylocke is trying not to kill anymore, since it has become like an addiction to her.
- Blood Knight: Both Fantomex and Marrow really love the action of combat.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Fantomex and Cluster, in a strange situation combined with Screw Yourself; Fantomex originally had three brains, and a medical incident resulted in each brain being given its own clone body, one of which (Cluster) was female.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Happens a lot with Marrow.
- Convenient Coma: Hope somehow ended up being only "theoretically alive" between the end of Vendetta and the beginning of the new series. She's piggybacking on Meme's power and acting in her places since she's been Brain Dead ever since.
- Covert Group: According to Cable most nations on Earth have their own super powered covert operation units, his intention for X-force is to keep mutantkind in the game against those.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Volga and his super powered goons deliver one on X-force in issue 5. First Volga completely mentaly destroys Marrow by taking away her will for revenge, then the rest of his goons quickly make short process with the rest of the team.
- X-force later returns the favor.
- Demonic Possession: A target tried this on Cable. It failed because the body is that of a clone and would explode in a few hours anyway.
- Dirty Business: Cable assembles them for this reason, calling them the Mutant Nation's Dirty Tricks Team.
- Gratuitous French: Fantomex is throwing a lot of it around, however he admits that he can't actually speak french, he just loves the accent.
- Heroic BSoD: When Marrow is reminded that she lost her child while pregnant because of the process that gave her powers again, she slumps into this.
- Klingon Promotion: Fiqh becomes the head of his department after having Cable kill his boss.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Marrow's memories are suppressed by her Power Limiter to prevent her from going berzerk.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The team's plan to steal a special cargo from a plane in issue 1, ends up with the total destruction of said plane. This also had the effect of leaving said cargo brain dead, so Hope uses her powers in place of her.
- Send in the Clones: Cable has survived because his original body is in stasis while he makes a clone everyday with the current memories that die in a day.
- Shout-Out: Polaris refers to Cable and his team as "Metal Gear types".
- Volga got his most important technology from the dimension Earth 1287. The official designation of Marvel for the universe of Strikeforce: Morituri.
- Power Limiter: Marrow's headband seems to be one. It's actually a memory supressor.
- Verbal Tic: Almost every instance of Marrow's narration in the first issue has her say "baby". Turns out this was because she lost her baby as a result of regaining her powers.
- Your Days Are Numbered: As a result of regaining her powers, Marrow has less than a year left to live. Cable was given a similar treatment for some reason and should have less than a day. He cheats with clones.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Marrow, as it turns out, was released by Volga once he had been finished with her and sent to die in Alexandria.
