Twenty-five years ago this month, Marvel Comics debuted a new mutant title called "X-Force." The first issue, by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, sold a remarkable five million copies, making it (briefly) the highest-selling individual comic book of all-time -- until Chris Claremont, Jim Lee and Scott Williams' "X-Men" #1 arrived a few months later.

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In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of "X-Force" #1, we look back at the history of how the X-Men's former New Mutants transformed into a mutant militia group, including the fact that Liefeld had a relaunch in mind before he even took over as the artist on "New Mutants" in late 1989!

Before he was old enough to legally buy alcohol, Rob Liefeld burst on to the comic book scene in the Summer of 1988 with his work on DC Comics' "Hawk and Dove" miniseries, along with writers Barbara Kesel and Karl Kesel, with Karl also inking Liefeld's pencils for the series.

It was quickly evident that Liefeld was a "hot" artist, and before he even finished this five-issue series, he was contacted by Bob Harras, who had been elevated from assistant editor to editor of Marvel's "X-Men" line of titles less than a year earlier. Harras quickly gave Liefeld his first Marvel assignment -- a fill-in issue of "X-Factor" #40, written by Louise Simonson and inked by Al Milgrom.

Liefeld's next Marvel gig was a fill-in on "Uncanny X-Men" #245, a charming parody of DC's then-current crossover, "Invasion!" by writer Chris Claremont (Liefeld was inked by Dan Green on the issue). Liefeld then drew two Annuals as part of Marvel's "Atlantis Attacks" crossover, including "New Mutants Annual" #5. Liefeld was clearly being groomed for an ongoing series.

As it turned out, while slowly working his way into the X-Office, Liefeld nearly left for a different Marvel title, "Alpha Flight," but Marvel's unwillingness to let Liefeld restart the comic book at #1 led to the artist remaining with the X-Office. Liefeld explained to Rich Johnston a number of years ago, "Cable was, in fact, first introduced as a character in an "Alpha Flight" proposal that I gave to Danny Fingeroth that was green lit and moving forward until an Alpha Flight re-launch was ultimately ruled out, a condition necessary for me to jump over from the X-office." Liefeld elaborated about how the man soon to be known as Cable would have come with him:

Well, before I was committed to "New Mutants," I was looking for a vehicle that I could have more plot input on and it turns out that they were looking for a new team on "Alpha Flight". I was a huge fan and sent in a two year proposal that pre-dates my start on 'New Mutants' by about seven months. Cable was introduced as a soldier from Wolverine's past, who would have worked with the existing Alpha Flight roster. Danny Fingeroth was eager to get me on the series, but when it wasn't going to be re-launched I opted for "New Mutants"

The start of Liefeld's stint on "New Mutants" was delayed a bit (he was initially announced as drawing "New Mutants" #80!), but he finally took over with "New Mutants" #86 in December 1989, with longtime writer Louise Simonson remaining on the book as the writer.

The fascinating thing about Rob Liefeld at this point is that he was brimming with ideas for "New Mutants," including a bunch of new characters. Liefeld had a sketchbook filled with all sorts of possible new heroes and villains, plus re-designs for existing "New Mutants" characters. "Marvel Age" printed two pages of these sketches a month before Liefeld's run began.

Liefeld's second issue on "New Mutants" ultimately became one of the more controversial comics of all-time. Not for the content of the comic itself, but due to the debate over who was responsible for the creation of Cable, the new leader of the New Mutants.

Everyone agrees that Cable's origin began with a directive from Harras to introduce a new adult leader for the team, as Professor X was gone and Magneto had recently broken from the group, as well. The debate comes from what communication there was between Simonson and Liefeld. Liefeld says that he took Harras' idea and looked into his sketchbook to find a character that fit what his editor was looking for, eventually settling on an older fellow with a cybernetic eye. This character appeared in Liefeld's sketchbook that appeared in December's "Marvel Age" (an issue after his earlier sketchbook pages). It seems clear that Liefeld and Harras agreed on the design for this new character, likely without input from Simonson.

However, Simonson insisted that she came up with the background for the character, telling Tom DeFalco in "Comic Creators on the X-Men":

I had thought that the New Mutants would be perfectly fine without an adult around, but Bob wanted one. I came up with the character and what his motivation was. Rob came up with the character design. Actually, his original character design was supposed to be for Stryfe, but Bob and I thought it would be better for Cable. I thought about calling him Commander X at one point, but Rob wanted to call the guy Cable and I said, "You know what? Sure, Cable is a fine name." Anything to get Rob interested in the stories.

In response to someone repeating a similar claim years ago, Liefeld replied:

That's just plain untrue. God bless her, she's a fantastic talent but she had nothing to do with Cable's creation or conception. Were it not for Marvel's peculiar business practice of crediting the writer or scripter of the issue where the character first appears as the co-creator, this wouldn't be an issue. Had Bill Mantlo scripted Cable's... first appearance, they would be credited with his co-creation. I'm happy she has benefited financially as she is a talented and lovely lady. He was born on my sketchpad, in response to a request from my editor to create a new tough leader for the New Mutants. After I submitted him with copious notes and named Cable, he was integrated into the story immediately beginning with issue #87. There was no script or plot that preceded the creation and design of Cable.

There is unlikely to ever be an answer to the question that will appease everyone, as both sides seem to be pretty entrenched in their positions, so we'll just leave it to you readers to determine who you believe.

In any event, Liefeld's characters began to pour into the book (the same issue that introduced Cable also featured the first appearance of the evil Mutant Liberation Front and their mysterious leader, the masked villain known as Stryfe) and the characters were soon given their re-designed Liefeld costumes in "New Mutants" #90.

The title was beginning to skyrocket in sales; of course, it didn't hurt that the comic book industry was in the midst of a major sales boom at the time, driven by a speculator market. Still, "New Mutants" was clearly a very popular title, even by the standards of the era. As time went by, Liefeld wanted even more input in the direction of the series. Harras, for his part, tended to believe that Liefeld was more important to the series' sales growth, so he began what Simonson would later describe as her slow shove off the book. Simonson recounted her departure from the book to "Wizard's X-Men 30th Anniversary Celebration":

Although I wasn't fired, I think I was being shoved out the door with both hands by Bob Harras. Bob was only doing what he had to do, I expect, which was make Rob Liefeld happy... My problems were not so much with Liefeld, because all freelancers are greedy and like to grab what they can, and that's fine. I was an editor for a long time, and I know how that works. My problems were really with the editor, who was not handling things well at all. It's up to an editor to choose the people who will work on any given project, and to let them know when their services are no longer needed. I think that Bob was not willing to make those decisions. What he did to me, to Chris Claremont, to Peter David, and to Jo Duffy, was to nickel-and-dime us to death. He would change plots and blame it on the artists. He would change dialogue, and then say, 'I'm sorry, but I tried to call you and you weren't home' or 'I'll be sure and tell you the next time.' He would change some of the dialogue, but not other parts, so the things people said wouldn't make sense. It was his way of letting you know he was wishing you'd go away. Maybe it was time to say good-bye to mutants anyway.

With "New Mutants" #98, Fabian Nicieza came on the series as the new scripter, with Liefeld now plotting the series. This issue was the beginning of the end for "New Mutants," as Liefeld was clearly beginning the lead-up to the book being relaunched. In Issue #98, he introduced a mysterious former flame of Cable's, Domino. Oh, and the comic also featured a wise-cracking mercenary named Deadpool. The reader response to Deadpool was massive and immediate.

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In the next issue, Liefeld wrote out longtime New Mutant Sunspot, who joined exiting New Mutants Wolfsbane, Warlock and Rictor, who all left the series one way or the other during the X-Titles crossover "The X-Tinction Agenda," which marked Simonson's final issues of "New Mutants" and pretty much final issues of "X-Factor." He also introduced new team members Warpath (a former Hellion and younger brother of ill-fated X-Man Thunderbird), Feral and Shatterstar.

The final issue set up the new series with a plot twist Liefeld more or less thought of on his own. By this point in time, Liefeld had already been informed that Harras, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio had determined that Cable would be Cyclops' young son, who Cyclops would be forced to send into the future in an upcoming issue of "X-Factor" (a book where Portacio was taking on a similar plotting credit as Liefeld, with Simonson being slowly pushed off that title, as well). This spoiled a major twist Liefeld wanted to introduce, which was that the evil Stryfe was actually Cable himself, just from a later point in time after he was turned evil. This led to Liefeld and Nicieza deciding to reveal that "Cable and Stryfe are clones of each other!," giving "New Mutants" #100 one heck of a cliffhanger when Stryfe unmasked and looked just like Cable! Liefeld originally wanted Cable to be the clone and Stryfe be the "real" Nathan Summers, but that was eventually overruled.

"X-Force" #1 was released in a plastic polybag, with each bagged edition containing one random trading card, a gimmick designed to appeal to speculator who felt they "needed" to buy five copies to get one of each cards. The trading cards were Cable, Sunspot, Shatterstar, the full team and Deadpool, and the cover itself was an oversized gatefold.

Deadpool's inclusion in the issue is a funny story in its own right. As noted earlier, the reaction to Deadpool was massive -- so much so that Bob Harras told Liefeld and Nicieza they had to include Deadpool in "X-Force" #1. The creators explained there was simply no room in the story, so they developed a series of "Cable Files" one-pagers in the back of the issue. Deadpool was, of course, the first one listed, and also featured on the cover of "X-Force" #2.

Liefeld, of course, soon left Marvel to become a co-founder of Image Comics, where he launched his creator-owned title, "Youngblood." His last issue as the regular penciler on "X-Force" was #9, and his final book as the series' co-plotter was #12. Nicieza took over as the main writer, with Greg Capullo being the first regular replacement artist on the title, fully closing out the first Rob Liefeld era at Marvel Comics.