In 1988, Simonson spun off these characters into their own miniseries X-Terminators before transferring most of them, including Rictor, to the cast of her other ongoing X-Men title The New Mutants during the "Inferno" crossover event.

As part of the main cast of The New Mutants, Rictor also appeared in the crossover events "Days of Future Present" and "X-Tinction Agenda".

Rictor was written out of The New Mutants in issue #98 (February 1991), when artist Rob Liefeld took over plotting for the series after Simonson's departure.

Under Liefeld's creative direction, the series was ended with issue #100 and relaunched as X-Force, with substantial changes in team lineup and a new high-octane and gritty tone.

During his time on X-Force, Rictor also appeared in the crossover stories "X-Cutioner's Song", "Fatal Attractions", "Child's Play" and "Phalanx Covenant", and guest-starred in the Cable series.

Rictor remained a main character on X-Force for the duration of Nicieza's run on the series, up to the "Age of Apocalypse" event.

However, Loeb's intention to write the characters into a relationship was not followed-up by his successors upon departing the series, and the romantic connection between them was not made explicit.

3 began with Rictor extremely depressed and suicidal over the loss of his powers, joining as a civilian member of Multiple Man's team of superhero detectives, X-Factor Investigations.

Marvel continued to depict Rictor as powerless until Avengers: The Children's Crusade #6 (2011), in which the Scarlet Witch restored his abilities.

[2] In his introductory story in X-Factor #17, Rictor is a captive of the anti-mutant organization called the Right, who connect him to a machine that amplifies his already uncontrollable power of earthquake generation to wreak havoc in San Francisco.

Rictor and friends travel to Asgard and battle Hela, where he assumes a protective role over her, even helping her pass by Garm.

The characters' close relationship is also shown in another story where Rictor takes Shatterstar to a nightclub to try and help him better understand humanity.

[21] Rictor leaves X-Force when the team relocates to the Xavier Mansion and begins using more intrusive telepathic communication,[22] choosing to return to his family.

After having made significant progress against the Ricter family, the pair briefly reunite with X-Force when they are caught up in an incident involving genetic experiments on mutants.

After some convincing from Monet and a gentle nudge from Layla Miller, he joins X-Factor Investigations under the employ of Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man.

When the Superhuman Registration Act is introduced, Rictor and Monet sign up willingly but side with the rest of X-Factor against the pro-registration heroes.

He also catches the New X-Men sneaking around in the Purifier base and when they are ambushed by the Reavers, he helps Pixie to focus while using a teleportation spell.

While traveling, Rictor brushes off Guido's questions of his mental state, but acknowledges his reaction to Madrox's absorption of his baby may not have been the greatest.

The two question Father Maddox on Jamie's disappearance, but in the middle of this, a masked man crashes through the window, swords pointed toward Rictor.

[volume & issue needed] Rictor's powers appear to affect organic objects in much the same way as inorganic ones; he is depicted using them to explode a cactus plant in X-Force #25.

[citation needed] He has expressed reluctance to use his powers in tectonically unstable areas, for fear that he could not control the effects, as when he visited the island of Madripoor, which is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, in New Mutants #93 (September 1990).

[47][48][49][50][51] Although Shatterstar was introduced by creator Rob Liefeld as an asexual killing machine, writer Peter David reflects that the character's "prolonged exposure to humanity" changed this.

[46] X-Force writer Jeph Loeb hinted that Shatterstar had romantic feelings for Rictor and was planning on making the two a couple, but he left the title before this could happen.

[46] Over the course of the characters' appearances, Rictor and Shatterstar's relationship would evolve from a subtext in 1990s X-Force comics to Marvel naming them one of the company's top ten supercouples in 2010.

With regards to this scene, as the writer continued to develop Rictor's personal relationships, David expressed the idea that: [It is] more fun tweaking the fans than actually spelling anything out ...

I think it's much more interesting to have Rictor's comments be a litmus test for the agenda of the readers than if you just show him involved in some sort of bisexual relationship.

[55]Although creator Louise Simonson did not conceive of the character as being gay or indeed non-heterosexual, canonically, Rictor has had romances with men and women.

[57] Although in X-Factor #21 in 2007, Rictor had begun a sexual relationship with Rahne,[58] she later left the team "under abrupt circumstances" because editorial had decided to move the character to another book.

[56] David writes Rictor's embrace of his love for Shatterstar as a maturation for the character, whom he sees "fully committed to the gay lifestyle... honest about it both with others and himself.

[60] Explaining Rictor's prior straight relationships, David compares him to real-life "women who eventually decided they were lesbians had involvements with men that they ultimately considered unfulfilling.