X-Factor Annual 3 - Inferno Prologue/The Evolutionary War

The High Evolutionary's grand scheme begins with the forced sterilisation of the Subterraneans.

X-Factor Annual #3

1st story: Unnatural Selection
Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Terry Shoemaker
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

It's not immediately clear what the rationale behind the order of The Evolutionary War annuals is. As we'll see the mutant and Spider-Man books are not evenly spread throughout the whole affair. Nor is there any pattern to the power levels of the lead characters in individual annuals. Instead the order seems to be somewhat at random. Sometimes the High Evolutionary's schemes will specifically draw him into the world of some characters. But on other occasions it's random as to which heroes will turn up to deal with any particular problem as happens here.

The High Evolutionary has put together a squad known as the Purifiers who are here charged with sterilising the Subterranean races as they have been deemed an evolutionary dead end who need to be cleared before accelerating the evolution of Earth as a whole. But one Moloid, who calls himself Val-Or, has developed a form of telepathy and cries out with most psychic beings around the world hearing the cry. X-Factor go to the rescue of the Subterraneans and rescue Val-Or then fight back. Meanwhile the High Evolutionary's activities have attracted the attention of Apocalypse. Both seek to use evolution to push humanity forwards but Apocalypse prefers caution and natural selection, initially seeing the High Evolutionary as impatient and forcing evolution. The two engage in a conflict both physical and verbal as they trade their differing philosophies until they teleport underground where Val-Or's survival and fighting back persuades Apocalypse that the Evolutionary's methods are indeed encouraging natural selection after all.

As the opening chapter of a grand event there's a lot riding on this issue but unfortunately it doesn't impress well. The confrontation with Apocalypse is clearly intended to help introduce the High Evolutionary by exploring his goals but it also demonstrates that X-Factor has its own evolutionary focused villain who comes across as more impressive. Also the Subterraneans are not natural X-Factor/X-Men characters so it's a little odd to find the team being the ones to come to the rescue when the cry is also shown being heard by members of other teams such as the Avengers who are not shown either coming to the rescue or failing to locate the incident.

This leaves a rather unimpressive issue that is an okay X-Factor story as they rescue a mutant from another species but a very poor opening to the whole saga. The lead villain is poorly introduced and undermined at the same time whilst there's limited encouragement to go out and get the rest of the saga. Back in 1988 an annual cost almost twice as much as a regular issue and so for a regular reader of only a few of the titles getting the whole saga would involve paying a lot more than their regular expenditure. On the basis of this chapter alone there's little encouragement for anyone but a completist to do so.


2nd story: Changes!
Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Tom Artis
Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

X-Factor's young charges are fooling around on Ship when they come across the Beast and his photo album. Through the photos the kids see how each of the team members has changed over the years and how X-Factor itself has evolved. They then look ahead to being sent away to school.

This is a straightforward infodump story. There's no real substance to this and there isn't meant to be. Instead it's a handy little refresher on the history of the main characters that also serves to introduce them better for anyone picking up this annual because of the wider crossover. There's also a hint dropped for the X-Terminators limited series coming up soon. This year saw annuals increased to 64 pages overall (including ads) and rather than extending the stories even further it's good to see a return of such features that spotlight history and/or supporting characters not normally given the limelight.


3rd story: The High Evolutionary: The Gift
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Paris Cullins
Inks: Tony DeZuniga
Letters: Ken Lopez
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Herbert Edgar Wyndham, an amateur British scientist in 1928, is experimenting with using radiation to mutate rats. Having exhausted his inheritance he seeks academic recognition and sponsorship to advance to the next stage. At an international conference on genetics he meets an American student called Jonathan Drew but also receives a setback when a leading geneticist of the day argues against experiments until the genetic code is mapped, fearing financial and political masters will have their own ends (one of the other attendees is a young Arnim Zola who would go on to be a leading Captain America foe). But Wyndham doesn't want to wait. That evening in the bar a mysterious stranger with a glowing face hands him instructions on how to break the genetic code.

This is the opening chapter of a recounting of the history of the High Evolutionary that is sometimes left out when this annual is reprinted outside of The Evolutionary War. It is unsurprising to find this was written by Mark Gruenwald, so often the keeper of Marvel continuity in this period. By this point the High Evolutionary had been around for more than twenty years with stories by many different writers and the result was a convoluted mess that Gruenwald here sets out to untangle.

It's a straightforward opener that establishes Wyndham as a young man in a hurry who rashly overspends his inheritance and then finds his research dead ended until the sudden breakthrough comes. The themes of the High Evolutionary's character are there to see from the outset. The mysterious stranger is glimpsed in the background throughout the conference and creates an intriguing mystery as to who he is and why he has chosen to given Wyndham the secret. This saga is off to a good start and does far more than the main story to encourage people to keep buying and reading.

Other material includes pin-ups of Jean Grey by Walter Simonson, the original X-Men by John Byrne and the original covers to X-Factor #8 by Jerry Ordway and #16 by David Mazzuchelli. Overall this annual is only so-so. The problem is the lead story isn't the best example of X-Factor going and does a poor job of opening the overall saga The other features are more interesting and show a good use of the expanded format but it's the lead feature on which things hang.