X-Factor 27 - Inferno Prologue

We kick off with a sedate character issue that allows us to catch up with the new status quo for the team and series along with some of the key threads going forward.

X-Factor #27

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walter Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

X-Factor was a title that by rights should have been a disaster. An editorial mandate to launch a new team reuniting the original X-Men resulted in a lot of heavy lifting to get all five back together. In the process retcons were deployed to resurrect Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) and exonerate her from Phoenix's guilt of committing genocide whilst Cyclops (Scott Summers) had to be hurriedly yanked away from his marriage and newly born child. Along with the apocalyptic end of the New Defenders the result was a mess made worse by the very poor state the series was in at the start. That the title turned around so well was down to Louise Simonson taking over the writing early on and slowly setting about clearing through the various messes of set-up and character actions. To her credit she didn't bring in sweeping changes quickly but instead developed them over lengthy storylines. By the time of this issue the premise of the team has been transformed, ditching the "rescuers posing as Mutantbusters" and instead our heroes have just won popular acclaim and backing. But there's still a lot of work to be done relating to Cyclops and the women in his life, his original girlfriend Jean and his wife Madelyne who astonishingly looks just like Jean.

Looking back on the early years of X-Factor it's easy to see some similarities to the later Spider-Man Clone Saga and indeed the Spider-writers may well have had the fate of Scott, Jean and Madelyne in mind as they struggled to find ways to get Peter Parker back into the webs with his child and possibly also his marriage removed in such a way that didn't denigrate the character. (Indeed some of the office ideas that floated around during the Clone Saga that have made it to public do have a whiff of repeating things done on X-Factor.) Because unfortunately Scott was severely damaged as a character by the way he walked out on his marriage to go and play with his school girlfriend and other mates. Early on Madelyne and their son (who wasn't actually named on page for a good while) vanished with no records existing of them and there was a possibility that Madelyne had indeed been Jean all along. Or there was a corpse found. But Madelyne turned up alive over in the pages of Uncanny X-Men and eventually this would have to be resolved. This issue sees Scott watching the footage of Madelyne and the X-Men seemingly dying but as we'll see that only kicked the can further down the road whilst Scott has renewed reason to find his son.

Otherwise the issue itself is full of character moments as X-Factor and the young mutants they've rescued enjoy public adulation at Christmas and bring joy to others particularly children in hospital. Jean opts to reveal herself to her parents and discovers her sister is missing following a firebombing. Meanwhile the Beast continues to struggle with his intellect failing as he uses his strength. And Apocalypse has repaired Ship and gifted it to X-Factor.

A slow paced character piece is actually a very good place to start all this, bringing readers up to scratch with the current characters and events whilst also seeding of the threads for the issues to come. There are some nice moments such as the kids arguing about Leech's idea to donate the gifts they've received to a children's hospital or Apocalypse giving a rather sinister Christmas toast. The Simonsons have a strong grasp of the characters and the series is now free of the chaotic set-up it began with. This is a title definitely moving forwards.