X-Force Epic Collection: Toy Soldiers

The true history of Cable is revealed as the chronicling of the early days of X-Force continues!

The maniacal Reignfire rebuilds the Mutant Liberation Front! When the MLF kidnaps Henry Peter Gyrich, X-Force must deal with the situation — but the battle will cost the team two of their own! Then, Arcade tests Shatterstar and X-Treme to their limits! When Stryfe returns in Cable’s body, the true history of Nathan Summers and his “evil twin” will finally be revealed! And the nineties’ most popular teen teams collide when X-Force and the New Warriors are caught up in the Upstarts’ final game — with the fate of a generation of mutants on the line! Plus: The future is now when the Nimrod Sentinel comes online, and a Phalanx attack leads to a shocking change for Cable. And what has former teammate Dani Moonstar become caught up in?

COLLECTING: X-Force (1991) 27-39, X-Force Annual (1992) 3, Cable (1993) 6-8, New Warriors (1990) 45-46

Since his start on the New Universe’s Psi-Force and backup stories in Classic X-Men, Fabian Nicieza has written most of Marvel’s major super-teams — including Alpha Flight, the Avengers, the New Warriors, the Thunderbolts and the X-Men. Together with artist Rob Liefeld, Nicieza transformed New Mutants into the blockbuster X-Force. The writer also tackled solo heroes ranging from Cable and Deadpool (later combined in Cable & Deadpool) to Gambit and Nomad. He edited Marvel’s Star imprint, contributed to multititle X-events like “X-Cutioner’s Song” and “Phalanx Covenant,” and wrote various “pre-modern” limited series such as Adventures of Captain America and Citizen V and the V-Battalion. Elsewhere, he has written both JLA and Justice League Adventures, The 99, Turok, X-Files, and others.

Jim Krueger cemented his place in Marvel Comics history when he and Alex Ross launched the Earth X trilogy, a comprehensive super-hero saga bringing elements from across Marvel’s decades-long history into a single future. His other Marvel work includes contributions to Avengers and X-Men titles. He again teamed with Alex Ross on the Avengers/Invaders miniseries and Dynamite Entertainment’s Project: Superpowers, assembling the Golden Age heroes of multiple defunct publishers. Elsewhere, he created Foot Soldiers for Dark Horse and Clock Maker for Image Comics. Krueger is also an accomplished videogame designer, copywriter and filmmaker. His short film They Might Be Dragons won Best Short Film from the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

After making his debut on Marvel’s X-Force, artist Mat Broome moved to Image. He penciled a lengthy run on Stormwatch, the Defcon 4 miniseries and several issues of WildC.A.Ts, including the finale of writer Alan Moore’s memorable run. After contributing to Acclaim’s Shadowman revival, Broome penciled short arcs on Gambit and Batman, and then co-wrote and illustrated Image’s Skinners and Saffire — the latter through his own studio imprint, Digital Broome. Broome penciled Chaos’ Mummy: Valley of the Gods and the Dabel Brothers’ Wood Boy one-shots, followed by Dark Horse’s End League and Marvel’s Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel miniseries.

Prolific creator Tony Daniel penciled a memorable X-Force run. At Image, he illustrated Alan Moore’s Spawn: Blood Feud miniseries and the entire run of The Tenth. Daniel wrote and drew Image’s F5 and Dark Horse’s Silke miniseries, establishing himself as a double threat. After a short stint at Top Cow penciling Tomb Raider, and writing and drawing HumanKind, Daniel moved to DC. He illustrated Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans and Bart Allen’s death in Flash, and teamed with Grant Morrison on Batman. Daniel wrote and drew the Batman: Battle for the Cowl miniseries, and then became the regular Batman writer and artist. He went on to write Savage Hawkman, and write and draw Detective Comics, for DC’s New 52.

Veteran artist Paul Pelletier has worked on a range of projects including Marvel collaborations with writer Dan Slott on She-Hulk and Great Lakes Avengers; Tony Bedard and Chris Claremont on Exiles; Dwayne McDuffie on Fantastic Four; Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning on Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and War of Kings; Greg Pak on Incredible Hulks; and Cullen Bunn on Wolverine.