Often referred to as “the road trip era” of X-Force, X-Force: Zero Tolerance recollects the team’s relatively minor role in the Zero Tolerance conflict. Perhaps more importantly, it also rounds up the period during which its members quit the team and rode off on a doomed road trip where they made questionable romantic decisions, hitchhiked with the literal Scooby Gang, and got attacked by Selene at Burning Man. All very regular things that many of us do in our twenties when we’re trying to figure stuff out.
For better or worse, X-Force was one of the X-Books that defined the ’90s, and not just within Marvel. Characters like Cable were at the forefront of mainstream comics, but as the decade wore on, interest (and sales) waned. Writer John Francis Moore spent over thirty issues working on X-Force, and characters that generally didn’t get a lot of attention underwent a great deal of growth during his run. The changes they experienced were many, not the least of which was saying goodbye to Cable and figuring out how to be heroes on their own terms. Market fatigue was certainly a major factor for late ’90s X-Books, but though sales nearly halved during this run, it holds up surprisingly well today.
Collects: X-Force #67-84 and #-1 [Read more…] about X-Force: Zero Tolerance Collects X-Force’s Road Trip Years
, or the Giant-Size X-Men Artist Special, the five issue 
by Fabian Nicieza and Ron Garney is the lone X-Office comic series that doesn’t *totally* fit into the Hickman era of X-Men, in the Dawn of X and now the Reign of X. It’s a series outside the core Krakoan X-Men era. Nonetheless, the focus on the non-mutant Cain Marko, Juggernaut does address the longtime X-Men antagonist, and sometime member’s status in the Krakoa era, including some interesting observations about the mutant nation.