X-Factor 35 - Inferno

An orphanage is visited by three different groups searching for babies.

X-Factor #35

Writer: Louise Simonson
Guest Penciler: Terry Shoemaker
Guest Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Whilst Iceman and Beast tackle a living road tanker in New York Cyclops and Marvel Girl have come to the mansion containing the orphanage where Scott grew up. Inside the staff and children are under some strange hypnosis and don't detect them. Scott recalls various moments from his childhood but struggles to reconcile them as they don't match the chronology of his life and also a boy who bossed everyone around even the staff who was nicknamed "Lefty" but really called Nathan. The orphanage is also visited by Nanny, the strange being in a anthropomorphic metal egg suit, together with her orphan maker and a group of children she calls lost Boys (and Girls). Exploring the building Cyclops and Marvel Girl discover a hi tech operation on the lower levels and many babies in suspended animation including Scott's son Christopher. However the area is invaded by Nanny but whilst they are distracted fighting N'astirh's demons also invade and make off with the baby mutant children.

Several long running subplots converge on this issue with mixed effects. After all the build-up Nanny seems rather a disappointment. The idea of a villain who kidnaps children and turns them into her minions has long been seen in fiction and here the addition of fantastical elements such as her mind control powers and drugs as well as her ship and the Orphan Maker's armour helps to get away from some of the more awkward stereotypes that have attached to some such characters over the year. She's also portrayed as genuinely caring for children - so much so that Jean feels that her niece and nephew will be safe with Nanny for now whilst Christopher needs rescuing first. But it's hard to take the egg with a voice seriously. At times she is almost comical, at others highly violent in the way she casually orders the killing of parents. It's a tricky mix and this doesn't really succeed in pulling it off. The demons flying in to take the babies means that Nanny's storyline will not be returned to for a while which feels like it could go on for way too long. But it will need resolving as two of the children Nanny has kidnapped are Jean's sister's.

The exploration of Scott's childhood home is more interesting though why he and Jean don't express more concern about everyone being in a state of hypnosis or the hi tech base on site is surprising. But instead we get a walk through Memory Lane - or in his case Memory Maze as he recalls moments of his powers going off or having to contain them that he can't reconcile with them not developing until later or only being able to watch as Alex was adopted and taken away from the orphanage when Scott was still in a separate hospital. Although there aren't any footnotes it's not hard to see this sounds like an exercise in reconciling continuity problems caused by multiple flashbacks over the years. But there are also hints at something more sinister afoot both from the childhood bully Nathan and in the present.

Although much of the issue is taken up with the battle with Nanny and the demons taking advantage of it there's also a strong story seed here as the mystery of Cyclops's childhood is built on with clear signs this is not merely an exercise in continuity tidying but a major part of the present day story as things heat up.

New Mutants 70 - Inferno Prologue

The New Mutants try to escape Spyder and rescue Gosamyr's parents.

New Mutants #70

Writer: Louise Simonson

Penciler: Terry Shoemaker
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

Magneto fights two battles in New York, one against a fire escape that has come to light and another as the leaders of the Hellfire Club start manoeuvring against each other. Meanwhile the New Mutants have been captured and imprisoned by Spyder, only escaping when Gosamyr sacrifices her power to influence those around her. Rushing to rescue Lila and Gosamyr's parents they find the latter have been used by Spyder as silk worms at the cost of a shortened hibernation that brings them to life as solar system destroying monsters. Only a sacrifice can save the day.

This story arc is finally over and it says a lot that the subplots about the takeover of Limbo, strange happenings in New York City and machinations in the Hellfire Club are far more interesting than the main material in this issue. There's an attempt to redeem Gosamyr by having her seemingly lose her powers when she undergoes a change known as "minor death" to flee her bonds and release the New Mutants from an electric cage but though she's explicitly acknowledged as acting in a less selfish way and developing it does little to endear the character. Nor does the horrific fate of her parents who have been forced out of their cocoons thousands of years early and so emerge as ferocious giant monsters instead of peaceful beings. However it's hard to believe that two creatures their size can eat their way through to the core of a planet and destroy it so when Lila Cheney uses her powers to teleport them and herself into the planet's sun her sacrifice doesn't seem particularly spectacular.

Instead it's just a relief to be at the end of this wretched story. It could easily have been cut to two issues or even better ignored completely. Gosamyr looks set to stick around for now which is a pain but excitement looms as the New Mutants teleport into Limbo to discover S'ym has conquered it.

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.

X-Factor 50 - Acts of Vengeance

A simple glance at the cover shows the struggling demands, with banners for both "Acts of Vengeance" and the conclusion of "Judgement War" trying to fit into the top right-hand corner. Being a double-sized anniversary issue the prospect of having to give it over to a line-wide crossover must have irked even more than most. And so this issue is divided into two stories covering the two demands.

X-Factor #50

Writer: Louise Simonson (all)
Penciler: Rich Buckler (main)
Penciler: Terry Shoemaker (back-up)
Inker: Allen Milgom (main)
Inker: Hilary Barta (back-up)
Letterer: Joe Rosen (main)
Letterer: Michael Heisler (back-up)
Colourist: Tom Vincent (all)
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The lead story sees the conclusion of X-Factor's adventures on an alien world full of mutants as they seek to free themselves before the Celestials destroy the planet, eventually coming to unite the planet's different factions. The story is very much a metaphor for the team's aims on Earth as they inspire others to rise up and work together. It's also the conclusion of some long running threads in the series, in particular Marvel Girl struggling from having absorbed the personality and memories of Madelyne Pryor and in turn Phoenix. This is one of the least explained elements so for new readers dipping in it becomes a confusing struggle. It seems clear that this story was written under the assumption that issue #49 would also carry an "Acts of Vengeance" banner and thus that issue would serve as the introduction for readers arriving via the crossover, whereas here everything gets on with the action. Read in isolation this tale offers classic new reader confusion.

The back-up story is a six-page piece "Meanwhile on Earth" as Apocalypse confronts the mysterious strange who soon reveals himself as Loki. This issue officially came out the same day as Thor #413 and so in theory this would not have broken the secret. However big crossovers have a frustrating habit of shipping out of order, made worse by the higher demand sometimes making it harder to find regular issues. And there's nothing in either of the two issues explicitly stating which way round they should be read. (It's a problem repeated by some of the attempts to create a general Marvel chronology that have found the off-Earth epics in both X-Factor and New Mutants to be significant problems for the chronologies of both "Acts of Vengeance" and "Atlantis Attacks" in the 1989 annuals and wind up having to put this issue right near the start.) It's also a surprise that Loki so willingly reveals his identity, shocked that Apocalypse hasn't worked it out. Notably Loki is depicted here in the costume introduced by Simonson's husband Walter during his run on Thor, whereas the main chapters of the crossover opt for his classic Silver Age look, again emphasising the disjointed nature of the story. Both this and the revelation feel like more failures of co-ordination and communication. The rest of the story is predominantly a fight in both physical and verbal form as Loki and Apocalypse trade blows and arguments about why the "Acts of Vengeance" are failing, the nature of humans and of being worshipped, until Caliban intervenes and then Apocalypse demonstrates the Celestial technology under his control. Loki some storms off in a huff.

Overall this issue is trying its best with demands that are clearly irritating the writer. It may not do a good job at explaining the ongoing storyline to new readers drawn in by the crossover banner, but given how well the previous issue did that one must assume that it was meant to have the banner as well. And although the "Acts of Vengeance" demands clearly irritate Simonson to the point of having the book's lead villain drive Loki out of the issue, it's done in a reasonably solid way. But given when this issue was published it was a very dubious idea to use Loki's real identity as it could have wound up as a spoiler. Overall this back-up is an okay little sideshow, but the lead story isn't really of interest on its own.

X-Factor #50 has been reprinted in:

• Essential X-Factor volume 3 (2009)
• Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus (2011 - second story only)

New Mutants 84 - Acts of Vengeance

In one way or another, every single one of the four mutant titles has a somewhat awkward relationship with the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover. None has a conventional style story in which the heroes are targeted by foes they haven't fought before. Sometimes the story could just as easily have been told without the wider event. And in most cases the titles were telling multi-part stories that had moved the heroes away from their normal spheres, with the event becoming an irritating intrusion.

New Mutants #84

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Terry Shoemaker
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colourist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Thus this is really the penultimate chapter of one of the series's own storylines, with "Acts of Vengeance" now announced via a banner on the cover but confined to two pages set on Earth; the intention presumably being that the two stories can be separated for reprints if necessary. The "Acts of Vengeance" sequence is extremely straightforward, continuing events in the prison that Rusty Collins has been sent to for reasons not given here. Another inmate is the Vulture, taunted for being past it and having been ignored by the organisers of all the attacks on the superheroes. But then he discovers a new set of wings with modifications made to his designs and determines to prove everyone wrong by breaking out with a supplied explosive then reasserting his name. Rusty tries to stop him but gets carried out as the Vulture flies off. It's a straightforward sequence setting things up for a later issue but feels like it was shovelled in to meet an editorial dictat to maximise the additional sales that would come from the crossover. It also implies that the organised nature of the attacks is either rather more obvious than other series imply, or recruiters have visited the jail (which seems more likely, given the presence of the wings).

As for the rest of the issue... Oh dear. To cut to the chase this is the penultimate part of a storyline set in Asgard which Hela, the Norse goddess of death, is about to attack. This issue is focused on getting the New Mutants, the Warriors Three and various other characters plus allies altogether to help the defence. As a result it's a fast-paced piece that moves a lot of people around. In the process it completely fails to explain just what the New Mutants are doing in Asgard or who the various groups are. It seems the story was written before it was realised that the crossover was coming and nobody tried to modify it.

This is a strong contender to be the single worst issue of all the books with "Acts of Vengeance" on the cover as it makes next to no concession for readers brought in by the crossover and doesn't even try to at least wield the theme of fighting other heroes' foes into the existing narrative. As we'll see elsewhere, Louise Simonson was one of several writers who openly expressed their dislike of the crossover, but most still did what they could to accommodate it and the new audience. This issue would have been better off not putting the banner on the corner of the cover and not bringing in extra readers just to confuse them.

New Mutants #84 has been reprinted in:

• Acts of Vengeance Crossover Omnibus (2011)
• New Mutants Epic Collection: Curse of the Valkyries (2018)

Essential X-Men volume 11 - creator labels

Once more there's a volume with a lot of creators so here's the separate labels post.

Essential X-Men volume 10 - creator labels

Once again there's a volume with a lot of creators so here's the separate labels post.

Essential X-Factor volume 5 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators so here's a separate post for some of the labels.

Essential X-Factor volume 4

Essential X-Factor volume 4 contains issues #51 to #59 & Annuals #4 to #5 plus the one-shot X-Factor: Prisoner of Love, Marvel Fanfare #50 which printed an issue prepared as a standby fill-in and the lead stories from Fantastic Four annual #23, New Mutants annual #6 and Uncanny X-Men annual #14 which, together with X-Factor annual #5, make up the "Days of Future Present" crossover. Bonus material includes Cyclops's entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The regular X-Factor issues are written by Louise Simonson, bar one by Peter David, and drawn by Terry Shoemaker, Steven Carr, Andy Kubert and Jon Bogdanove. The X-Factor annuals both contain multiple stories written variously by Louise Simonson, John Byrne, Ralph Macchio, Mark Gruenwald, Peter Sanderson and Peter David, and drawn by John Byrne, Jim Fern, Mark Bagley, John Bogdanove and Dave Ross. X-Factor: Prisoner of Love is written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Jackson Guice. The Marvel Fanfare issue is written by (Mary) Jo Duffy and drawn by Joe Staton with an "Editori-Al" introduction written and drawn by Al Milgrom. The Fantastic Four annual is written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Jackson Guice, the New Mutants annual is written by Louise Simonson and drawn by Terry Shoemaker & Chris Wozniak, and the Uncanny X-Men annual is written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Arthur Adams. Inevitably, there is a separate labels post.

The list above gives some indication of how this volume doesn't actually advance the main series very much - with just nine issues from the regular title this has almost the shortest stretch of any single Essential volume. The main culprits for this state of affairs are the annuals, with each forming part of a wider crossover but the two take very different approaches. Annual #4 is from the "Atlantis Attacks" crossover which filled up no less than fourteen annuals in 1989 and tells the tale of an incredibly complicated plot involving Serpent Crowns, multiple undersea kingdoms attacking each other, a great serpent deity being resurrected, superpowered women being offered as incubators and turning the human race into serpent men. It's all rather convoluted and the X-Factor annual is rather blessed to be at the periphery of much of this, focusing upon the kidnapping of Marvel Girl whilst the Beast is reunited with his old Defenders comrade Andromeda in conflict with her father Attuma, current ruler of Atlantis but, as he discovers here, not actually the main villain in the storyline despite the title. The forgettable nature of the chapter is such that despite promises we never get to see Jean being dragged away into the sky in the regular series with Hank grabbing onto her leg. The Atlantis Attacks annuals also contained a multi-part back-up story entitled "The Saga of the Serpent Crown" which retold the whole history of the central object. Normally these chapters are excluded from Essential reprints but it's included here, briefly retelling an old Namor the Sub-Mariner adventure as he battled with an emperor of Lemuria possessed by the crown. On its own it just adds to the general confusion that these annuals create when the whole storyline isn't present. Of more interest are two other back-up strips though one seems to have landed in the annual by accident as Magneto and Doctor Doom encounter one another and recount their pasts, seemingly for the purpose of setting out just how different the two are. The other is a somewhat comedic piece entitled "Inferno Aftermath" as two FBI agents drawn to resemble the Blues Brothers and even named Jake and Elwood explore the aftermath of the events and try to find out what happened, with X-Factor winding up supplying the cover story. It's a nice little piece that addresses how the general public seems to shrug off such events but it's also a reminder of how stretched out things have been thanks to annuals, crossovers and off-world storylines all affecting the pacing as the build-up to "Inferno" began back in volume 2.

The following year saw a shift in policy to running multiple shorter crossovers in related annuals, with the three mutant titles and Fantastic Four all tied together for the "Days of Future Present" storyline, a sequel to the well-known X-Men storyline "Days of Future Past". This storyline proved a mess at the time with the X-Factor annual numbered "Part Two" and the New Mutants annual "Part Three", and they were released in that order, but the contents were inverted such that the New Mutants annual comes first. This volume places the annuals in narrative order but the cover numbering continues to confuse. The story itself involves another time traveller from the dark future of the Sentinels, an adult Franklin Richards. Franklin wanders through the locations of his childhood memories from the alternate timeline, at times reshaping them to match his childhood happiness. Meanwhile the present is attacked by new villain Ahab, the master of the mutant hunting "Hounds" from that dark future. Elsewhere Rachel Summers is drawn into the action, encountering Franklin whom she thought had died in her own time and also having her first meeting with Jean Grey, the woman she recognises as her mother. With four different team books involved there are a heck of a lot of characters running around without the greatest of introductions and the story is primarily focused on Franklin and Rachel, with their parents getting only a partial connection. A major point left completely unaddressed is just who Rachel's mother actually is - when she was introduced her mother was unambiguously the Jean Grey with the powers of Phoenix in the alternate timeline but since then Jean and Phoenix in the regular timeline have been retconned into separate entities and it's thus unclear which is actually Rachel's mother. Jean now having both Phoenix and Madelyne's memories inside her does not help with the confusion. Overall this isn't the greatest crossover for X-Factor with such a key first meeting bungled and swamped by everything going on around it. The only back-up feature in the annual is a character piece focusing upon Jean as she visits Phoenix's grave and tries to reconcile her multiple identities, with the help of an elderly survivor of the Holocaust. It's a good little character moment that serves to cut through much of the quagmire on this.

Also focusing on characterisation is the prestige one-shot X-Factor: Prisoner of Love, since there's frankly not much else going on in it. This over-expensive special sees the Beast go to rescue a pretty young woman called Synthia Naip and end up in her apartment where he has weird dreams and finds out she is an alien and needs protecting from the mysterious "Dark One" who has killed the rest of her race. It's slow, dull, over expensive and the art suffers from both an obsession with drawing pretty women and such bizarre renditions of Hank that at times I had to check just who he was meant to be. The whole thing is rather random and dull, feeling like it was just churned out to get Starlin and Guice's name on the cover. It's definitely something that could have been left aside.

More worthy of inclusion is Marvel Fanfare #50 which contains, according to Al Milgrom's special intro, an issue prepared as a fill-in for the regular series but used here instead. It's been structure to be easy to adjust for use at any point with the main section taking place in flashback when the Angel was assumed dead and a former female acquaintance hires Arcade to kill Iceman and the Beast as punishment for X-Factor's anti-mutant campaign. Her motivations are more personal when it turns out she has a son with angel wings - and claims Warren is the father. In the present day Warren tells the truth about the woman and the boy. As a fill-in that could potentially be called up at any point in the title's run it has to be flexible but it turns into Hank and Bobby asking Warren about something that's been on their minds for quite a while since his return. Still it holds its own and deserves to at last have been included with the regular series.

Warren is also the main focus of the regular series issues which see X-Factor return to Earth and deal with a succession of external and internal problems, starting with Warren finding himself getting ever more out of control and lashing out at all around him at random and making for especially vicious fights with first Sabretooth and then Caliban as the former X-Factor member turned Apocalypse's horseman finally comes into conflict with his former teammates. Then Warren and the others face the vampiric Ravens, including Crimson, Coral and Azure, who infect him with a poison that drives him mad and into different personas at night and day, with his night self becoming an especially vicious vigilante, before the Ravens seek to transform him permanently into one of them. It's not all darkness as he steadily befriends police officer Charlotte Jones and by the end of the volume things are steadily growing between them.

Meanwhile Scott and Jean have their dinner interrupted by an attack by giant roaches led by the old X-Men foe the Locust, but it's not enough to prevent Scott going on to propose to Jean, a proposal she declines as she is still struggling with the multiple memories inside her from Phoenix and Madelyne. Bobby also finds a degree of happiness as he befriends a young woman called Opal Tanaka, but first has to deal with the misunderstanding Mole who seeks to protect her. Hank's relationship with Trish Tilby is on the rocks due to her reporting of a number of incidents that show mutants in an unfortunate life and the tensions just keep on growing. Old flame Vera Trantor turns up when she's manipulated by Mesmero on the commission of Infectia as part of a bigger plan.

These nine regular issues cover a curious period in the title's history when the team are publicly known popular heroes but instead of showing the overall effects of this we get instead a concentration on the individual characters and little indication as to how their status is helping the cause of mutants in general. The story of Archangel's steady rehumanisation is the main focus but at times it feels as if that's the only thing of significance going on with the ongoing Scott and Jean plotlines rather fizzling out whilst the other stories all feel a bit inconsequential.

Overall this volume feels a mess because there's relatively little meat to the regular issues and so much additional material that doesn't really add much to the ongoing series. Annuals and crossovers can both slow things down and here we have both at the same time, taking up such a significant chunk of the series. This is a volume very much treading water.

Essential X-Men volume 6 - creator labels

Yes this volume has a lot of creators so this is the standard extra post.

Essential X-Factor volume 3

Essential X-Factor volume 3 contains issues #36 to #50 & Annual #3 plus Uncanny X-Men #242 & #243 which form part of the "Inferno" crossover. Bonus material includes Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Mister Sinister and Madelyne Prior. All the X-Factor issues are written by Louise Simonson bar one that is both written and drawn by Kieron Dwyer whilst Chris Claremont writes the Uncanny X-Men issues. The art is by a mixture of Walter Simonson, Arthur Adams, and Paul Smith with individual issues by Dwyer, Rob Liefeld, Rich Buckler and Terry Shoemaker, who also does the main story in the annual. A back up in the annual is drawn by Tom Artis. The Uncanny X-Men issues are drawn by Marc Silvestri.

The first item in this collection is the annual and its inclusion here is a bit of a mess. It features the Beast before his furry form returned, and was originally released between issues #30 & #31. It probably should have been included in the previous volume but it's not immediately obvious where it should have been placed; a sign of the problems annuals often bring even when, as here, they're scripted by the series's regular writer. The lead story is the first part of "The Evolutionary War", a story that ran in just about all the Marvel annuals in 1988. However it's fairly easy to read this part in isolation from the rest with the separate strands of X-Factor battling agents of the High Evolutionary called the Purifiers who seek to exterminate the Subterranean race as part of cleansing the Earth before accelerated evolution whilst the Evolutionary himself is attacked by Apocalypse with a battle over their different approaches of intelligent design against natural selection as the way forward for the human race. To be frank this is a so-so X-Factor story but a very uninteresting start to a large and expensive crossover. The back up chapter detailing the history of the High Evolutionary has not been included but it's no real loss. What is included though is a short piece in which the various kids on Ship learn about the history of the X-Factor team from their earliest days in the X-Men through to their recent surge of popularity. With the exception of the Beast's form this little story comes at a very handy moment as it recaps some key points including Jean's replacement by the Phoenix and Scott's marriage to Jean's lookalike Madelyne Pryor. This is perfect timing for what comes next.

"Inferno" was the big Marvel crossover of late 1988 and X-Factor has a strong claim to be the primary title, having been building up the storylines over several issues and containing some of the key conflicts. But oddly the storyline can feel a little confused upon entering issue #36, partially because the build-up in the preceding three issues was included in volume 2, originally released almost three years earlier, but also because some of the storyline was set up in the X-Terminators limited series which isn't included here despite starring the youngsters X-Factor have rescued. Perhaps this is because X-Terminators leads more directly into New Mutants, with the former team soon merging into the latter. The two Uncanny X-Men issues plus four X-Factor issues had been previously reprinted in Essential X-Men volume 8 but some duplication with crossovers is unavoidable and here the Uncanny X-Men issues have been kept to the minimum of only those once the two teams actually meet up.

Once it gets past the general scenes of Manhattan being transformed by demons, the story reaches some of its main focuses. This is not some casual event crossover where some enemy comes from out of the blue only to get defeated and everything goes back to normal. Instead, there are several big developments and some long awaited moments. The biggest one is the first meeting between X-Factor and the X-Men, which now seems amazing considering X-Factor had by this stage been around for three years and this is no less than the third crossover between the mutant titles that both have taken part in. But the meeting isn't smooth as there's a lot of distrust between the two, in part because of X-Factor's historic role of posing as mutant hunters but also because of the presence of Scott's estranged wife Madelyne Prior, who has become the Goblin Queen.

This is very much the story of Scott and Jean and Madelyne as several years' worth of mysteries are finally addressed and further steps are taken to retroactively clean up some of the mess created when the series was launched. We now learn just what Madelyne is and how she has been just a gene substitute for Mr Sinister and a Jean substitute for Scott. The confrontation between husband and wife is ugly, with it becoming all too clear which woman Scott prefers. But this is not a popular choice with his brother Alex turning on him in fury. In real life many a divorce and/or custody case has seen the relatives of one partner/parent support the other and Alex's fury is believable as he hammers home how Scott has gone against his vows and abandoned his wife. For Jean there's a horror of once again having a replacement going mad with great power, and worse still the Phoenix force has made Madelyne even more a part of her than before. At the heart of all this is a child, called "Christopher" by his father and "Nathan" by his mother, who is to be sacrificed both for revenge on his father but also to create a bridge between Earth and the realm of Limbo.

The demon side of "Inferno" isn't as interesting, with the lead demon N'Astirh a fairly confused character though it's possible that much of his story is in parts of the crossover not included here. Nor is it too clear just what the realm of Limbo actually is, since the name has been used several times by Marvel and also has the connotations of the religious realm. All of this provides a backdrop and some nice visuals, as well as the return to the team of Warren, who adopts the name of Archangel in the epilogue issue.

But the real showdown is less about demons than about Scott's past as we discover just how much he has been manipulated over the years by Mr Sinister, right from his days in the orphanage. We get an explanation for just where Scott got his first ruby quartz spectacles that could contain his force beams but more pertinently how Madelyne was created and manipulated. Wisely the story doesn't directly retcon Scott leaving Madelyne as merely the manipulation of Mr Sinister, but he was responsible for her and Nathan Christopher's subsequent disappearance that prevented reconciliation. Instead Scott's redemption comes variously in saving his son from Madelyne and then in facing down Sinister in an act of catharsis. It's a dramatic conclusion that does its best to resolve some of the chaos and baggage caused by both Jean's death and return. The abandonment at the start of the series is simply too big a problem to resolve but otherwise there's a strong sense of resolution and closure.

Issue #40 is a minor milestone as the first ever Marvel work by Rob Liefeld. It may lack some of what would become his regular themes but it's got several features that have recurred in his work including awkward poses such as Cyclops appearing to have two left arms, the Beast walking at an angle where he's almost falling over, many characters doing strange things with their feet as though they're dancing instructors giving a frozen demonstration and numerous marks and lines on faces. Fortunately the main villain is one that it's hard to draw badly, as Nanny is just an egg with a voice and limbs. It's not the wildest piece of work but it's a style that's quite different from before and it's amazing that Liefeld went on to enjoy the sales and success that he did. He's far from the only reason the comics industry developed the way it did over the next several years (and I often feel that some of the criticisms of him are really proxies for dislike of industry developments and corporate decisions for which he was the easiest target) but it's an unfortunate development nonetheless.

"Inferno" may have forced itself into numerous other titles but the reverse is resisted here when it comes to "Acts of Vengeance" with issues #49 & #50 making it clear their primary purpose is to finish off the title's own "Judgement War" storyline and confining the crossover to two standalone pages in the former issue and a six page back up in the latter. This may be one of the earliest signs of "writing for the trade", and indeed I'm informed that the Acts of Vengeance Crossovers Omnibus edition only reprints these eight pages rather than the full issues, though here it's the crossover rather than the book's own plots that are confined to the easy to remove pages. It almost feels as though Apocalypse is expressing not only his own thoughts but those of an irritated Louise Simonson (though one could reasonably point out that she wrote all the core "Inferno" issues bar the Uncanny X-Men ones and that crossover had also intruded on an awful lot of titles). Apocalypse observes the events and comments on how some of the villains are bafflingly "out of character" and actually calls the whole thing an "absurdity" and "already a failure" as he rather bluntly declines an invitation to join the leadership of the villains' alliance. Looking at the basic premise of the crossover is probably best left to a review of a more central part of the event, but it's hard to deny that it requires some basic leaps in goals by villains. For a genocidal tyrant who seeks to advance the strongest in the human race to team up with a group including, amongst others, a New York crimelord would be a very strange move even though having its main villain in the alliance's leadership would have raised the profile of X-Factor as a series and couldn't have been more illogical than having a Holocaust survivor and a Nazi war criminal working together. Still the encounter means the Essential volume is bookended by Apocalypse engaged in both a physical and philosophical battle with the lead villain in a major crossover.

Nestled between "Inferno" and "Judgement War" is a curious two-parter which introduces Alchemy, a mutant created by the winner of a contest. As the name implies Alchemy has a Midas Touch and a curious group called Troll Associates who plan to use him to destroy the British economy by creating so much gold as to make it worthless and then return the country to the days of magic. It's odd to encounter traditional monsters engaged in economic warfare and the story is also bizarre for the way Jean insists on taking Christopher, a mere baby, on the mission with them despite the all too clear danger.

Midway through "Judgement War" the series confesses to missing its deadlines and runs a fill-in from file, complete with an extra page at the start to allow for a random flashback to completely unrelated events. We get a solo tale of Archangel as he reflects on how life is now so much more complicated and it's no longer so easy to tell good from evil, whilst a priest is running a home for young mutants but uses the "Children of Heaven" for street crime. It's a so-so piece, as most fill-ins are, but during the original publication it must have been frustrating to readers for such a long take to be stretched out even further by interruptions. (The cover dates can confuse as steps were taken to reduce them from four months ahead of publication to two, with a couple of issues cover dated "Mid" month to absorb the difference.)

As for "Judgement War" itself, there are some good ideas but the emphasis is all wrong and the storyline way too long. In the course of the story we learn the true origin of Ship and discover that the events of "Inferno" have left the personalities of both Madelyne and the Phoenix in Jean's mind. But these elements are very much side-shows in a tale of an unnamed planet full of mutants where a technologically advanced but culturally medieval society has settled into a rigid structure of castes including the Chosen, the Rejects and the Dualers, and those who reject it all, the Beginagains. X-Factor, Christopher and Ship are scattered across the various factions and find themselves caught in power struggles and burdening revolutions, whilst the Celestials are coming to judge whether or not the civilisation and world is worthy of continued existence. Frankly the planet's internal politics are boring and attempts to draw an analogy with the situation on Earth is limited. Of much more interest is the struggle within Jean as the Madelyne and Phoenix personalities struggle to assert themselves, whilst Jean gets a chance to atone for the Phoenix's greatest crime, yet this is underplayed. Overall this storyline feels stretched out of all proportion and probably could have been cut by at least two parts. This may not have resulted in an especially good "Acts of Vengeance" crossover but it would certainly have cut some of the tedium at the end of the volume.

This is another volume that mixes the strong and the weak. The best stuff is at the front with "Inferno" proving a strong resolution to a number of long running threads as well as a dramatic showdown in its own right. The rest of the volume is mixed with a number of odd moments but no especially awful moments even if the main storyline runs on for too long.

Essential X-Factor volume 2

Essential X-Factor volume 2 reprints issues #17-35 & Annual #2 plus Thor #378 in which Ice-Man teamed up with Thor with consequences in the main series. Bonus material includes the original character design for Archangel, the cover of the relevant issue of The Official Marvel Index to the X-Men and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Apocalypse, his Horsemen, Archangel, Rusty Collins, Infectia, and Ship. The regular issues are all written by Louise Simonson, with Tom DeFalco plotting one, and the annual is by Mary Jo Duffy. Most of the art is by Walter Simonson with individual issues by June Brigman, Sal Buscema, Steve Lightle and Terry Shoemaker, whilst the annual is drawn by Tom Grindberg. The Thor issue is written by Walter Simonson and drawn by Sal Buscema.

This volume has a cover design unique amongst the main Essentials; only the Handbooks and Marvel Saga have anything similar. The covers from issues #24 to #26 combine to form a continuous image which is wrapped around the whole cover, albeit with a transparent dark band on the spine. One consequence is that the word "Essential" is missing from the cover, perhaps a reason why the non-reference Essentials reverted to the earlier design for another year. It's a pity as I feel this layout is especially good at showcasing the artwork whilst displaying the credits on the cover.

The non-regular issues show a few varied problems of inclusion and placing. The Thor issue contains a guest appearance by Ice-Man that sees his powers increased out of control and this is followed up directly in X-Factor. However the Thor appearance is a two-part story and only the second part is included. It would have probably been better to have either both parts or none. The annual demonstrates a problem from 1987 as the regular series has some quite tight continuity between issues since the story flows from one to the next, thus making it hard to place the annual at a clear point where the team's day out in the park and trip to the Moon can take place between issues. The fact that it's by a different creative team from the regular series doesn't help and it feels as though the only character to have any lasting changes is Quicksilver, who otherwise is completely absent from both this volume and its predecessor. Otherwise this tale of X-Factor, Franklin Richards and Quicksilver both being caught up in Maximus's latest bid for power over the Inhumans, complete with a guest cameo by Power Pack, just feels inconsequential and easy to ignore despite efforts to delve into Jean's feelings about Scott and Phoenix. Here the annual gets placed between issues #23 & #24, which doesn't reflect the original publication dates either (that would be between #20 & #21), but this is the point where X-Factor gets teleported off to Apocalypse's Ship and not exactly a time for them to all go for a walk in the park. Still I'm not sure where the best alternative place to put it actually is.

Notably absent from the volume are any of the other issues involved with "The Fall of the Mutants". This was an unusual crossover as none of the three main titles - X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants - crossover in terms of storyline but instead in terms of the theme of big status quo changes. However a number of other Marvel titles did tie in, mainly with the events shown in X-Factor and there are references here to what happens in Captain America and Power Pack. The former's absence doesn't seem to impact on the story at all and is easily explained away by dialogue and captions but the latter might have helped to show how the kids got involved and the full fate of Pestilence, both of which are a little confusing when presented on their own. Also absent is annual #3, which is the opening part of the "Evolutionary War" crossover and which clearly takes place during this volume, not just because of the time of publication and the status quo depicted but also because the crossover's final part, in Avengers #17, takes place at the same time as issue #34 and is responsible for the Beast's absence from the latter issue. With the regular series seeing storylines flow from issue to issue and numerous cliffhangers, including at the very end of the volume, it would have been quite doable to push issues #34 & #35 back to volume 3 and run the annual here, with its precise placing no more awkward than that for annual #2. This would also have the advantage of putting more of the build-up to the "Inferno" storyline into the same volume as the main events (and is the reason why volume 3 is the place to consider the X-Terminators limited series). If the Essentials are ever revived this volume and its successor would be amongst the top contenders to have the contents reshuffled, providing of course that both new editions are out at the same time and it's always possible to get all the material in just a single set of volumes (which was a problem for a while when the new editions of Essential X-Men were staggered).

As for the regular issues, this volume charts the team facing great despair, destruction and death yet rising to the challenge to the point that "The Fall of the Mutants" really should be entitled "The Rise of the Mutants", ending with the team having achieved an amazing public relations success. Their victory over Apocalypse and saving of New York is lauded by the public, with their earlier deception explained away, and not only do the team become popular heroes but so do mutants in general. Individual members face redemption and restoration, but also some very dark moments affecting not only them but those around them. The series flows well with strong developments that enhance all the main characters. A recurrent theme is friends heading over to the other side, though in one case they had been secretly plotting there all along. The smallest scale Caliban, who becomes the first rescued mutant to be promoted to the full team, but he repeatedly feels inadequate as his powers can only track mutants and cannot contribute to fights. This weakness, and the team's failure to address it in time, leads to his accepting Apocalypse's offer of power when all the others reject it. It's a very brief rise and fall, and it's surprising how little its dwelt on by the others, suggesting that perhaps Caliban may have been right.

What is heavily dwelt on is the Angel's return. Having been rescued at the last minute by Apocalypse, Warren is now transformed into Death, the fourth Horseman of Apocalypse, despite not actually riding a horse. Warren is full of hatred from the circumstances of his downfall and so now armed with his new metal wings and leading War, Famine and Pestilence he is a force to be reckoned with, upping the tension no end. However he sees the consequences of his actions when it appears that Ice-Man has been killed and so Death turns on Apocalypse then flies off, staying his distance because he still feels abandoned by X-Factor and instead seeking his revenge upon the true author of his downfall, Cameron Hodge.

X-Factor's publicity director has already been causing the team problems with his campaign stirring up anti-mutant hatred, but it soon becomes clear he has an ulterior agenda. In the course of his aims he forced through the court order that amputated Warren's original wings then persuaded his old university roommate to leave all his money to X-Factor - with Hodge in control. It all goes on "the Right", an organisation Hodge has set up to destroy mutants, complete with some silly looking but deadly battlesuits. Hodge's motivations are rooted in class based superiority, believing himself to be part of the real homo superior, but there's also a hint in his conversation with the demon N'Astirh that his attitude to Warren is more complex. He talks of his private contempt for Warren even before the latter grew his wings, with a product of old money being scorned by that of even older money, but it's hinted that Hodge's feelings towards Warren are more complex and began in admiration, and also that his kidnapping and killing of Candy Southern may be to prevent anyone else being happy with Warren. Whilst the general idea of the team's business support having his own agenda works, some of the detail is offensive. Today it would be impossible to present a bigoted organisation under such a blunt name as "the Right" and rightly so but I don't know if anyone made a public fuss at the time about such a gratuitous swipe. The spurned homosexual theme is far more subtle but it does drift into a rather cliched theme that really should be avoided. Fortunately issue #34 ends with Warren decapitating Hodge, bringing closure.

The previous issue brings another form of closure as the Beast comes full circle. During the battle with Apocalypse's Horsemen, a touch by Pestilence causes Hank's mind to deteriorate whenever he uses his strength and over subsequent issues he steadily regresses. However new foe Infectia, who has the ability to rearrange people's bodies into monsters known as "Anti-Bodies", accidentally kisses the Beast and causes a chain reaction which restores Hank's mind but in his furry form. It has been less than three years since he lost the fur and next issue captions suggest this was not a popular move, so we see one further step in undoing some of the early set-up.

Not all the developments are reversionary, with Ice-Man suffering from his powers being so enhanced that he has difficulty controlling them and eventually has to resort to using one of the Right's restraining devices. Before then his main source o help has been the young mutant Leech, who now joins the other rescued mutants full time. Also added to the line-up is Rictor, a young mutant with the power to cause earthquakes. Ice-Man oscillates between being light-hearted around the children to showing a much more serious side when circumstances dictate it, slowly growing up. The younger mutants are at times sidelined but they're shown steadily developing control of their powers and proving their worth on the occasions they go into battle, especially when fighting the Xartans, aliens from the early days of Thor now impersonating the Avengers or, on a lesser level, dealing with gangs. Otherwise they settle into life aboard Ship, their new living headquarters, though show independence when they opt to take the Christmas gifts that have been showered on the team and donate them to children in hospital. Towards of the volume another status quo shift is foreshadowed with the announcement that the young mutants will be sent to regular schools to get mainstream education, not something they are looking forward to.

Meanwhile Cyclops and Marvel Girl are rekindling their relationship, with Jean coming to terms with the fact she has to compete with the memory of not one but two women who were identical to her, whilst Scott has accepted that his wife and son are dead when he gets the shock news that Madelyn had been alive all the time only to die with the X-Men, but Christopher is still alive. This leads into the big storyline at the end of the volume as Scott tries to find Christopher, eventually succeeding at the orphanage he grew up in only to clash with both demons and Nanny, a walking, talking metal egg who kidnaps children and has their parents murdered. The storyline isn't fully resolved in the volume but there's clearly a lot more building up. Unfortunately Nanny herself is too comical a foe to take seriously, even if her Orphan Maker sidekick has the horror of being one of the kidnapped children.

Although "the Fall of the Mutants" propels X-Factor and mutants in general to great public acclaim, there are dark clouds on the horizon with the passage of a Mutant Registration Act requiring all mutants to register their powers, but the response by team members is nuanced. Elsewhere it leads to increased tensions and fears. Meanwhile something almost magical is happening with everyday things coming to life in New York whilst the demon N'Astirh is plotting and seeking multiple allies. It all serves as a strong cliffhanger to carry things forward.

There are some individual elements in this volume that are silly or offensive, but in general it shows the series at full force, never resting but instead building things up and continuing to make this a very different series from the other X-Men books. The main cast are put through a tough set of situations but rise to the challenge and come out triumphant.

Essential X-Factor volume 1 - creator labels

Essential X-Factor volume 1 is another with large numbers of creators, hence a separate post to carry their labels.