Axel Alonso: Bill Jemas, who was Marvel President at the time, told me to take one of the X-Men satellite titles—any title—and do whatever I wanted. No rules or restrictions; which is pertinent in hindsight because the first issue [X-FORCE #116] was rejected by the Comics Code.
I thought X-FORCE was a funny name so I picked that title. Peter Milligan happened to be in town so the two of us met up, and I invited him to get on board the train. I had no idea where we were headed, but hey.
We started with the mutant metaphor [of] hated and feared and decided to flip that. We agreed that if you were to sprout wings in Times Square, not everyone would hate you. Some people would want to be you; some would want to—how can I say this politely?—kiss you, and some would want to put your photo on their product. And X-FORCE was born.
Peter and I talked deep into the night, and the first issue—which decimated the entire team—was pretty much written before he flew home. I knew this was shaping up to be a very idiosyncratic series, and I wanted it to be anchored in a pure, non-cynical joyous art style, and that’s why I called Mike. He was in at word one. A day later, I got character sketches that included a lot of the core cast, including this one doodle that really stood out: a potato-shaped blob with the word “Doop” scrawled under it.
and shouldn't Starlord be more into hot alien ladies? I guess it's hard to find those in Earth orbit :/
