The fifth X-Force series, spinning out of the events of Extermination (2018) and launched as part of the Marvel: A Fresh Start initiative. Written by Ed Brisson (Old Man Logan, Extermination (2018)) with art by Dylan Burnett (Cosmic Ghost Rider).
During the events of Extermination, time-travelling X-Force founder Cable was gunned down in cold blood... by a younger looking Cable, who professed that Cable had failed in protecting the timeline. Now, the original X-Force will reassemble to hunt down their former leader's killer, this so-called "Kid Cable", with some wanting to talk while others want his head. Thrown into the fray is the time-travelling cyborg Deathlok, who becomes entangled in the affairs of the team.
The series came to a close after 10 issues, as part of Marvel's relaunch of the X-books into The Krakoan Age.
The fifth X-Force series provides examples of:
- Badass in Distress: Rachel Summers, first as a Hound of Ahab, then when caught off-guard and subdued by a young Stryfe and his pet telepaths. Neither, however, ends up holding her for all that long, as Stryfe finds out to his cost.
- Big Damn Heroes: Boom-Boom (finally) shows up in issue 3 on a flying van and explodes some sentinels to assist the team.
- Clear My Name: The team is framed for the murder of a president and has to clear their name... at least of that particular murder.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Andrei the Transian military officer that framed X-Force refuses to believe that mutants are a naturally occurring phenomenon that his horribly mutated son inherited from him or his wife. He believes mutation is an affliction being spread by mutants and the fact that it is both inherited and presents itself at puberty is propaganda spread to cover their tracks. He's providing Ahab with mutants to experiment on in hope for a cure.
- Hero of Another Story: Boom-Boom isn't in the main X-Force line-up because she... slept in. Instead, she was tracking down leads in the backup story for issue 1.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Cannonball says that he calls Kid Cable that because he's not the real Cable and needs to differentiate them. While Brisson himself came up with the Kid Cable nickname, this is pretty much how Cable fans treat Kid Cable.
- Mysterious Benefactor: The weak military of Transia is being bolstered by futuristic weaponry from Cable's time period by a mysterious figure in exchange for them becoming a sanctuary for refugee mutants, who are killed after confronting Andrei over violating his end of the bargain and rounding up mutants for slaughter. The benefactor turns out to be Stryfe, who is rallying the mutants Transia gives him into a fighting force.
- Mythology Gag: The outfit Tabitha wears in the first issue is her outfit from Nextwave.
- Revenge Before Reason: At least one member is out to kill Kid Cable, despite Cable having a history of lying to his team, dying and weird timeline hijinks that the team is fully aware of.
- Revisiting the Roots: The cast is meant to invoke this, as it consists of all the surviving members of the original X-Force.
- Series Continuity Error: Cannonball is the X-Force member — aside from Boom-Boom who wasn't present at the time — to call the alternate Cable "Kid Cable". Domino is shocked by this and questions why he does so, and he explains that he wants to differentiate Kid Cable from Cable... later that issue, he calls the kid Cable, after just explaining why he calls him Kid Cable.
- Wild Card: Deathlok, who gets involved in X-Force's hunt for Kid Cable.
- Younger and Hipper: Kid Cable, who appears to be in his late teens.
