Liefeld illustrated the series up to #9 and stopped plotting it after #11, as he had become increasingly frustrated with not owning characters he created and that his art was being used on a variety of merchandise while he allegedly received little royalties.

The team grew into a dysfunctional family, and the title regularly combined soap opera plot threads, such as romance and Siryn's alcoholism, with violent action.

Nicieza fleshed out previously unknown elements of each character's history, including Siryn's family in Ireland,[1] Rictor's in Mexico,[2] Cannonball's in Kentucky,[3] and Shatterstar's in Mojoworld.

A long-simmering sub-plot about Reignfire and the disappearance of Sunspot came to a climax just as the book went on hiatus for the Age of Apocalypse crossover event in 1995, ending on a cliffhanger.

X-Force was radically overhauled in the wake of Age of Apocalypse from issue #44, with a new creative team of writer Jeph Loeb and illustrator Adam Pollina.

The in-progress Reignfire story was apparently resolved off-panel between issues, and the team's Manhattan base was abruptly blown up in the X-Men Prime one-shot special.

In 1997, writer John Francis Moore took over the series and began revisiting plot developments that had been left ignored throughout Loeb's run, including Dani Moonstar infiltrating the MLF and the true perpetrator of the Camp Verde massacre.

Following the Operation Zero Tolerance storyline, the team effectively disbanded in issue #70, and Cable, Caliban, Domino, Rictor and Shatterstar were written out of the series.

The next year's worth of issues followed the remaining cast members Meltdown, Siryn, Sunspot, Warpath and Danielle Moonstar on a road trip across America.

In 1998, Moore and new artist Jim Cheung had X-Force move into new headquarters in San Francisco, returned Domino and Cannonball to the team, and added Bedlam, a mutant who could disrupt electronic equipment; they also gained a new ally in sorceress Jennifer Kale.

Ellis' stint on X-Force over issues #102–115, co-written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by Whilce Portacio, saw Bedlam, Cannonball, Meltdown, and Warpath become a covert ops superhero team under the leadership of Pete Wisdom, a British mutant and former intelligence agent who could shoot burning blades of energy from his fingers.

Issue #116 saw the introduction of a new, sardonically toned X-Force consisting of colorfully dressed and emotionally immature young mutants put together and marketed to be media superstars.

Some controversy arose from Liefeld's insertion of over ten pages from previous unpublished comic books (Weapon X and Cable: First Contact) with word balloons edited to make them fit the X-Force storyline.

Yost had at one point stated that Deadpool would join the cast to bring more diversity to the team, but this did not happen until after his run and the launch of Uncanny X-Force.

X-Force was relaunched in November 2019 as a part of Dawn of X, written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Joshua Cassara (pencils) and Dean White (colors).

[14] The initial team comprised Beast, Black Tom Cassidy, Domino, Jean Grey, Sage and Wolverine, with Kid Omega and Colossus joining in issues #2 and #7 respectively.