Rob Liefeld returns to X-Force for their 30th anniversary

cover of X-Force: Killshot — (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

X-Force co-creator Rob Liefeld will return to the paramilitary mutant team this November to write and draw a one-shot titled X-Force: Killshot to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the team's 1991 debut.

The original X-Force spun out of the previous title New Mutants which focused on a new class of students at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. When the mysterious time-traveling warrior Cable (secretly the time-displaced son of Cyclops) arrived, he transitioned the team away from being students into a more action-oriented team of soldiers dedicated to opposing the circumstances of Cable's dark future.

Those threads will come into play directly in X-Force: Killshot, which focuses on Cable traveling through time to assemble five different teams to take on his clone/nemesis Stryfe as he enacts a scheme that reaches across multiple eras. A few characters who will join Cable have been revealed on Liefeld's two covers for Killshot, including recent Liefeld creation Major X, classic X-Force character Shatterstar, and Venom/Deadpool mash-up Venompool. Domino will also be part of the story.

"On this day thirty years ago, X-Force #1 debuted and took the comic book industry by storm! Created by Rob Liefeld, X-Force #1 was a blockbuster success, selling over 5 million copies to become one of the best-selling single issues in Marvel Comics history," reads Marvel June 25 announcement of X-Force: Killshot. "Commemorating the anniversary of this groundbreaking issue, Rob Liefeld will return to the X-Force saga this November with a new chapter in X-Force: Killshot!"

The special one-shot will feature an "explosive" adventure starring Cable and his militant mutant squad, taking readers back to "the beloved '90s heyday of the X-Men franchise," the announcement continues. "Cable and his counterparts will assemble five separate X-Force squadrons, from various points in time, to converge on Asteroid S for an all-out assault to defeat Stryfe once and for all."

Liefeld himself chimed in on returning to X-Force, saying Killshot will be X-Force's "biggest, wildest, most consequential" story ever.

"The fans have always carried X-Force and I'm elated to be writing and drawing Cable, Deadpool, Domino, Shatterstar for them again, just as I was 30 years back at the launch of all this," Liefeld tells Comicbook.com. "I promise you, this will be their biggest, wildest, most consequential adventure to date."

X-Force has a current ongoing title as part of the 'Reign of X' X-Men line, focusing on a version of the team as the mutant nation of Krakoa's black-ops agents.

"X-Force was a huge gamble that paid off big for Marvel, paid off big for retailers and it changed my life forever," Liefeld continues in the announcement. "I'm thrilled and honored to share Killshot with everyone. Thirty years in the making, I intend to make every page a huge kick for fans new and old."

X-Force: Killshot is due out in November.

The original X-Force is one of the best X-Men teams of all time.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)