X-Force #2
X-Force #2 marks the second appearance of Deadpool — rapidly becoming one of Marvel's most popular characters — at a moment when his full solo trajectory was still being mapped out, making each early appearance a narrative building block. The issue simultaneously debuts Garrison Kane (Weapon X), a cybernetically enhanced former member of Cable's mercenary team Six Pack, and introduces Department K, the Canadian covert intelligence unit that would underpin a web of Weapon X storylines stretching across the decade. Together those introductions wove a tight connective tissue between Cable's murky past, Deadpool's mercenary present, and the government-program mythology that would fuel X-titles for years. The issue also plants the seed of the Kane-versus-Deadpool rivalry, a recurring dynamic that carried into Deadpool: The Circle Chase and beyond.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
X-Force grew directly out of Rob Liefeld's transformation of New Mutants, a title he began penciling with issue #86 in 1989; his popularity led to him taking over plotting duties, and with writer Fabian Nicieza supplying dialogue over his plots, the pair graduated the cast into X-Force by New Mutants #100. The series launched in August 1991 — the first issue's record-shattering sales driven partly by a poly-bagged trading card promotion — and issue #2 followed in September 1991 under the same creative pairing of Liefeld (plot and art) and Nicieza (script), with Bob Harras editing and Brad Vancata on colors and Chris Eliopoulos lettering. The title's editorial DNA was deliberately more militaristic than classic X-Men fare: Liefeld has stated he wanted to move away from what he considered a 'mopey' X-Men status quo and build something action-first, a philosophy evident in issue #2's dual-front structure of Kane hunting Deadpool while X-Force runs a brutal field exercise.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Second full appearance of Deadpool (Wade Wilson), continuing directly from his debut in New Mutants #98 and his first X-Force appearance in issue #1.
- First appearance of Garrison Kane (Weapon X) — co-created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza — a former Six Pack mercenary who lost his limbs in a mission gone wrong and was rebuilt as a cyborg by the Weapon X program under Department K.
- First appearance of Department K, the Canadian covert government agency that authorizes and deploys Kane, adding an institutional layer to the Weapon X mythology.
- Story titled 'The Blood Hunters'; plot by Rob Liefeld, script by Fabian Nicieza, interior art by Rob Liefeld, colors by Brad Vancata, letters by Chris Eliopoulos, edited by Bob Harras.
- The issue runs two parallel storylines: Kane intercepts Deadpool on a Tolliver-contracted software theft mission on Anticosti Island, while Cable oversees a grueling woodland training exercise at the X-Force Adirondack base in which Feral badly injures Cannonball.
- Black Tom Cassidy and Juggernaut (Cain Marko) appear as antagonists, with Juggernaut being revived at the World Trade Center — a subplot building toward a major confrontation with X-Force.
- Garrison Kane was originally considered for inclusion in the 2018 Deadpool film but was cut due to the CGI cost of depicting his cybernetic arms; Dwayne Johnson was reportedly considered for the role.
- The issue has been reprinted in the X-Force Omnibus Vol. 1 (2013), Deadpool: Beginnings Omnibus (2017), X-Force Epic Collection: Under the Gun (2017), the Hachette All Killer No Filler Deadpool Collection (2018), and Deadpool Epic Collection Vol. 1: The Circle Chase (2021).
Cast · 14 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in X-Force #2 (1992), X-Force: A Force to Be Reckoned With #[nn] (2011), X-Force Omnibus #1 (2013), Deadpool: Beginnings Omnibus #[nn] (2017), X-Force Epic Collection #1 (2017), Deadpool : Bad Blood #[nn] (2017), The All Killer No Filler Deadpool Collection #1 (2018), Deadpool Epic Collection #1 (2021), New Mutants 98 #[nn] (2024)
Key issues in X-Force
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