X-Factor 40 - Inferno

Archangel cracks an egg with a voice.

X-Factor #40

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Rob Liefeld
Inker: Allen Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Tom Vincent
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

X-Factor return to Ship from Madelyne Pryor's funeral, observed from afar by Nanny and Orphan Maker. Atop Ship they set about returning the crowd to their various homes and schools. Iceman takes Leech, Artie and Taki back to their school then the other four members of X-Factor gather up the mutant babies to the FBI in Washington. The older X-Terminators have missed too much of summer school to go back until the autumn so they stay on Ship with Jean's parents to babysit Nathan Christopher. As their plane flies into Washington it is attacked by Nanny's ship. Nanny and Orphan Maker board the ship and a battle breaks out until Nanny throws Beast into her ship's control panel and is then badly wounded by Archangel, causing ships to come down in the park. Orphan Maker explains that Nanny is a human mutant who worked for the Right until discovering what her technology would be used for but the Right trapped her the egg. She escaped and started rescuing children before others like Mr Sinister could destroy them. Nanny and Orphan Maker teleport away as Jean finds and releases her nephew and niece Joey and Galen who don't recognise her due to Nanny's "pixie dust" drug. The babies and other children are transferred to the custody of Freedom Force who tell them Rusty Collins has been furloughed and so does not have to go back to jail whilst awaiting trial. X-Factor take Joey and Galen to Ship where they recognise their grandparents. Jean and Scott vow to find her sister eventually.

And so we have the wrapping up of the fates of several of the characters from across the crossover. It always seemed a little strange that Scott and Jean so easily accepted that whatever else she did Nanny would care for the children such that they could focus on saving the babies without even making any attempt to track Nanny for later. It's also unclear where the children were kept during Nanny's appearance in the Avengers issues when a good chunk of her ship was destroyed to cover her escape. Although the origin given here makes some sense to give Nanny a credible backstory and motivation she has still been an irritating character throughout too many appearances over the event.

There's also the breaking up of the X-Terminators with the youngest members returned to their school whilst the older ones are left slightly up in the air with hints that they won't be going back to school at all due to institutional nervousness about "incidents". Although it's only mentioned in a caption box at the end, the X-Terminators went on to formally join the New Mutants in issue #76 of their series, thus putting an end to any prospect of another X-Terminators series exploring young mutants living around ordinary humans. It's a pity as the idea had potential though the wards of a publicly known team were probably not the best characters to explore such a situation.

This issue is a landmark as the first Marvel story to be drawn by Rob Liefeld. And it's not the greatest though compared to some of his later work it's clear at Al Milgrom and Tom Vincent managed to rein in some of the excesses. But even through those filters the art frankly isn't very good. It took me several reads of the page to make sense of the scene where the Beast leaps atop Nanny and she throws him forward so he goes through the hole in the roof of X-Factor's ship and into Nanny's where he crashes into the control panel. Liefeld often omits backgrounds (which Vincent sometimes tries to compensate for with colour only indicating buildings and the like) and it can be very confusing as to what's just happened. There are other trade marks such as characters hovering in mid air, awkward poses, groups of characters altering their position relative to each other between panels, two left arms for Cyclops on one page, huge hair (in some panels Jean's is absolutely enormous) and even a few pouches. It's fairly easy to beat up on Liefeld's art and to make him a scapegoat for everything that went wrong with Marvel or the comics industry as a whole in the 1990s (which isn't fair but he was heavily involved in some pretty key moments) but when it makes the comic hard to read and very odd looking then it invariably gets called out. Why anybody thought this was the way forward is a mystery.

But apart from the art this is otherwise a relatively straightforward issue in wrapping up various threads on the periphery of Inferno and finishing off the Nanny subplot before it drags out for too long. There's a real sense of calm closure at the end with all the main plot points resolved and all five members are now clearly sorted out without any more heavy lifting. This is a satisfying conclusion to the main part of the crossover.

(Don't go away though. There's a few more relevant issues to come.)

X-Factor Annual 4 - Inferno Epilogue

Two FBI agents try to find out what happened in New York.

X-Factor Annual #4

(I'll leave the rest of the annual to another time if/when I look at Atlantis Attacks so this is just the Inferno story.)

Inferno Aftermath
Story: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Jim Fern
Inks: Joe Rubinstein
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Gregory Wright
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

FBI agent Jacob Farber narrates how he and his partner Elwood McNulty were sent to investigate exactly what happened in New York to cause so much costly damage. They start by interviewing the dentist who turned demonic then a police officer tips them off about the paranormal investigators who got eaten by the lift in the Empire State Building but woke up in a normal lift and found their instruments showed nothing. At the Daily Bugle newsroom J. Jonah Jameson recounts the attack by the demons but all the photographs turned out blank. They then go to speak to the Avengers but Gilgamesh is no help and Captain America is still in poor relations with Washington. Next they ring X-Factor and Ship tells them the team are out so Jake gives them two hours to call back. X-Factor discuss what to say and agree that telling the truth about demons from the netherworld would be damaging to the public. So they decide to give a cover story that it was fake. After consulting with Reed Richards they say some unclear group used a hynoptic ray beam and they suspect hi-tech terrorists. The story is released and the man in the street accepts it but a lurking demon is more surprised.

This back-up story is an interesting look at how the authorities and the public cope with the bizarre incidents that happen in the Marvel universe with plausible cover stories fed to keep people from having to confront the implications of what happens. Bizarrely for a story by Mark Gruenwald, normally the king of continuity, there are some discontinuities here with the whole event from the first animated objects to the final closure of the portal said to have taken place in a single night when the issues took place over a longer period. The closure of the portal seems to have reverted all the actual magic, with the damage stemming from looting, rioting and battles, whereas other issues showed lasting damage. And the newspaper at the end says Inferno was "two days ago" but is dated "January 30 1989" which just adds to the confusion of when in the year Inferno took place. In addition Gilgamesh lists some of the names he has used in the past including "Heracles", a reminder of the total mess with having the Eternals in the same universe as the various gods.

Also just why are the Blues Brothers working for the FBI? Jake and Elwood had previously appeared in a few of Gruenwald's Captain America issues but only with this issue are they drawn so clearly as the band characters.

Overall this is a tame little piece that focuses upon showing how New York returns to normal, that some of the more prominent one-off characters survived and how the public shrug off the whole event given a convincing explanation and the magic not leaving any lasting effects. It's a good effort that would have worked in 1989 when it came out some months after the event but when collected together with the issues it stands out the more how it doesn't quite match the actual aftermath.

X-Factor 39 - Inferno

Cyclops's eyes are fully opened.

X-Factor #39

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walter Simonson
Inker: Allen Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

At the ruins of the mansion the newly arrived Beast and Longshot fight against Mr Sinister and Malice/Polaris whilst the rest of X-Factor and the X-Men recover. Cyclops finds Mr Sinister is blocking his eye power and starts to remember him from his youth, including how he arrived in the hospital where Scott was taken after a plane crash and intervened when the young mutant's force blast blew a hole in the roof, knocking him out for a year. Sinister explains how he discovered Scott when the latter used his powers to reduce the impact of falling from a plane then had him transferred to an orphanage he ran and arranged for his brother Alex to be adopted to keep them apart. However before he could act Scott ended up with Professor Xavier and so Sinister prepared a trap by cloning Jean Grey then using Madelyne to secure a baby with potential. When the real Jean Grey reappeared Sinister set about cutting his losses now he had the child. Havok attacks but Sinister is unaffected and has no interest in the second Summers brother, ordering Malice/Polaris to kill him. Sinister continues to explain how he put blocks on Scott's power and buried his presence so no telepath could detect it but ultimately couldn't control the blasts with mental powers and had to resort to ruby quartz glasses. The others recover and through a telepathic conference they co-ordinate an attack, first knocking out Malice/Polaris then Wolverine disposes of Sabretooth. They release Havok who taunts his brother and fires plasma blasts at him which only have the effect of powering him up. Sinister breaks free and grabs Jean to kiss her. This riles Cyclops who overcomes Sinister's block and blasts him to fragments. Cyclops congratulates Havok on his tactics in powering him up as the X-Men head for home. Cyclops reflects on how he been vaguely aware of what he now knows was Sinister's influence and it drove him to try to be perfect but failed over the years.

And so we get to the final main chapter of Inferno (though there are several epilogue issues to come) with a showdown with Mr Sinister and more retcons to establish him as a longstanding presence in Cyclops's life. Why he has been so interested in one Summers brother but doesn't want the other is not explained beyond a "I could have if I chose" boast. I'm not sure just how much of Scott's childhood from the plane accident to the orphanage had been covered before the run-up to Inferno or just what if any contradictions there were in different accounts of those days that this telling sorts out but the insertion of Mr Sinister as a presence throughout his life is clearly intended to explain some of the awkward characterisation over the years, most obviously his desertion of Madelyne. The script doesn't quite go so far as to have Mr Sinister say that the desertion was directly because of him - indeed he instead blames it on Jean luring Scott to X-Factor - but Archangel voices it. It is as if the villain is intended to be a stand-in for the higher hand of editors over the years who have forced so much upon the titles that has had to be adapted to. But whilst it's possible for readers in the know to blame editors not writers for some of the messes, and there's also the reasonable defence that this development took place before Louise Simonson started writing the title, within the narrative it is still a weakness to resort to a supervillain manipulating everything as an excuse for past terrible characterisation.

There are many alternative ways the situation could have been handled but most of them required doing things differently when the series was created. Perhaps Jean could have been left for dead after all and the fifth female member of X-Factor could have been someone else - perhaps Polaris (a Silver Age member of the X-Men) or Dazzler (as seems to have been the original plan) or even a new character. Maybe Scott could have convinced Madelyne he had to return to his days in the costume and even taken her with him rather than just leaving her the moment the news of Jean's resurrection came. Having both one's wife and ex girlfriend around could have made for some interesting dynamics especially with the complication that Madelyne looked just like Jean. But all this required doing the start of the series differently. Instead first Scott walked out, then a large amount of time passed before he even tried to contact Madelyne and then a big crossover event (the Mutant Massacre) took up multiple issues so by the time a new writer was able to get him to travel back to Alaska it was not credible for his absence to have been a sufficiently short time for an easy reconciliation. The solution of just simply making Madelyne disappear as though she had never been there was tried, with the additional question of whether she had somehow been an amnesiac Jean all along to continue the long running tease, but it was insufficient especially once another writer brought her back. And so ultimately we get a tale of long-term manipulation with this issue adding elements to make Scott look better. It may convince Archangel but it's easy to see why many fans never truly accepted the explanation and Cyclops never fully recovered as a character.

It's also surprising just how major a factor Mr Sinister has been given how few issues he's been in. This is only the seventh comic he's appeared in and six of them have been chapters of Inferno. Although built up as a series unseen force there's something awkward about one-off villains being used to explain major story developments over multiple years. Also of surprise is that Sinister's relationship with Scott at the orphanage is not explained further. The hints all point to this "father" of Madelyne being Nathan (hence the son is named after all three of his "grandfathers"), the boy who tormented Scott and this has since been revealed as the planned origin of the character. However he gets killed off pretty quickly and doesn't return from the dead until later writers were on the title who infused their own ideas. "Mr Sinister" is actually quite a silly name for a villain, the sort of thing a child would come up with and the idea that one actually did is worth exploring more. Over the whole crossover there's been a lot of potential shown for the character and it's easy to see why he went on to become one of the leading X-Men villains not just in the comics themselves but also being an early presence in the toys and 1990s cartoon but he could have used at least one more story with his creator to be refined further. Also killed off surprisingly easy is Sabretooth as Wolverine casually deploys his claws though Sinister's use of cloning technology and the surprise resurrection of other Marauders provides a clear way to revive the character.

This is a surprisingly low key resolution to such a big crossover with just the two teams and three villains on a pile of rubble at the end and only one other character shown in a flashback. But Mr Sinister has not been directly part of the story of demons from Limbo invading Earth and instead has been the driving force behind the creation of Madelyne who got out of everyone's control. This is more of an epilogue to the main event and this probably explains why this issue and Uncanny X-Men #243 were not included on the advert for Inferno back in the summer of 1988. But it's still essential to the overall story as it resolves the role of Mr Sinister and brings closure for both X-Factor and the X-Men.

As an action showdown this is a strong piece. But as a retcon trying to fix one of the biggest problems caused by the creation of the series it's not the best approach, resorting to long-term manipulation by a basically new supervillain. However at this stage, and to be honest probably for the preceding couple of years, there isn't really a way to absolve Cyclops in a fully convincing way. At best one can parody the external influence that created the situation and it's not Simonson's fault that the problem was created. So this issue does as best as it can.

X-Factor 38 - Inferno

The many versions of Jean Grey come together.

X-Factor #38

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walter Simonson
Inker: Al Milgrom
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Tom Vincent
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Madelyne Pryor prepares to sacrifice her baby son Nathan Christopher Charles and tells the combined X-Factor and X-Men how she will gain power and have revenge upon them all. There are still demons around that are loyal to her and she sets them upon the two teams whilst also influencing them. The X-Men become more demonic and attack X-Factor, calling them "mutant hunters" which Cyclops explains was a now abandoned cover but Storm says they have seen no news of any change. She then remembers Madelyne is the one who collected the news for them and realises the teams have been manipulated to keep them apart. Madelyne tells Jean how she subconsciously used her powers to make Cyclops lose a previous fight with Storm that gave her the leadership and led to him quitting the team. She then offers Death/Angel power for revenge on all who have hurt him and he starts to succumb. The fight is complicated further when Dazzler and Longshot, both now incredibly vain and seeking the spotlight, start turning on other X-Men who they see upstaging them. Death/Angel frees Jean from her bonds but then Madelyne creates a forcefield around her, Jean and the baby. Madelyne tells how she was a clone created by Mr Sinister and Jean realises that just as with Phoenix she has again been duplicated with her duplicate unleashing dark power. Madelyne continues with how she has some of Jean's memories and the two realise that when Phoenix died and tried to return the portion of Jean to the original but in suspended animation she rejected the images of destruction and so the force found the genetically identical Madelyne instead making her everything that Jean rejected. With Madelyne's influence on the X-Men now fading they start coming back to normal and along with X-Factor they try to find a way to break through the forcefield. Wolverine convinces Havok to help who agrees but tells Cyclops he still doesn't approve of his actions and his brother admits he isn't proud either. Madelyne continues with how Mr Sinister arranged for her and Cyclops to get together and then once the baby was born and Jean returned he took steps to erase all trace of her ever having existed but the X-Men prevented the Marauders from killing her. Psylocke works on Longshot and gets him to find the weak spot in the forcefield which the others all blast. Madelyne explains how she censored news to manipulate the X-Men to stay apart from X-Factor. Then came S'ym and N'astirh driving her over to the darkness. She now prepares to destroy herself despite Jean's pleas. The forcefield is breached and Cyclops rescues his son so Madelyne unleashes an explosion of energy but fails to kill the boy. Mind locked with Jean she dies and tries to take Jean with her but the piece of the Phoenix force within her emerges and returns everything to Jean who now accepts it and absorbs them all. The demons vanish and the Empire State Building is restored. Death/Angel reflects and takes the name Archangel. Both teams reflect on what they've been through - and the need to confront Mr Sinister.

And so we have the final showdown with Madelyne Pryor amidst a major infodump issue that seeks to retcon a lot of the events of the last few years. Many readers were not happy with the way Cyclops was written through them whether it was losing a duel and thus the leadership of the X-Men to a depowered Storm or leaving Madelyne the moment he heard Jean had returned from the dead or failing to search for her afterwards until she had completely disappeared. In addition the length of time it took for the two teams to meet had become far too long. Although Louise Simonson's script has Scott admitting he is not proud of his actions, much of the blame is removed from him through the destruction of Madelyne as a character. Instead of having simply been corrupted by the influence of demons it's now revealed that through her creation and the intervention of the Phoenix force she was using her power to undermine Scott much earlier and then using her position to keep the two teams apart whilst Mr Sinister intervened to keep her apart from Scott. It's written in such a way to make it seem as though it was all planned and does its best to redeem Scott without going the whole hog and just having him mentally manipulated for years. It also makes a lot more sense of some of the more problematic elements caused by the creation of X-Factor. But in doing so it's making Madelyne a far worse character than a woman corrupted by outside influences.

With the Phoenix revelation Inferno effectively becomes an explicit sequel to the Dark Phoenix Saga as now seen through the lens of other retcons. Both stories involved a duplicate of Jean Grey being manipulated by others, ultimately succumbing to the power within her and turning dark (even down to the similar names and costumes for the Black Queen and the Goblin Queen), bringing down great destruction and finally committing suicide. Given the anniversary nature of the event it's perhaps unsurprising that the X-Men titles would return to their most famous story. And it's also clear that editorial demands wanted Madelyne removed completely with earlier attempts not succeeding. Having a little seen sinister force manipulating events doubtless reflects the editorial interference in the titles over the previous few years. But it can't take away from the fact that Madelyne had been built up as a character in her own right beyond someone who happened to be the spitting image of Jean and had shown herself to be a strong independent female character. Now she's been turned into literally a manipulative witch, used and sacrificed to satisfy the demands of others. It's hard to see how one spouse could have been so heavily absolved without such character assassination of the other but it doesn't sit easily. The reactions of others such as Havok's outrage at how his brother treated his sister-in-law or Jean's reaction to a duplicate of her becoming destructive again do feel credible.

But there's also redemption in these issues with Warren finally coming to terms with his own corruption at the hands of Apocalypse and resisting Madelyne's attempts to bring it out. In adopting the name "Archangel" he makes a clear rejection of all that others have done to him and can now fly tall. However it's surprising that he takes so many years to get rid of the costume Apocalypse gave him - had someone in Marvel signed a licensing agreement that locked him into that look? (He was in the first line of Toy Biz figures in 1991 but that agreement wasn't signed until 1990.) It's a final step up in empowering the character beyond the rich guy who could fly that he had been for so many years.

As a retcon heavy issue much of the action is limited with the further fight between the two teams largely serving to delay them from going after Madelyne but it does also allow for X-Factor to explain once more about how their initial set-up cover got out of control due to the manipulation of another and for the X-Men to realise how they too have been manipulated. The uneasiness between the two teams remains and shows you can't just remove a single point of disagreement and have everyone happy with each other. But all this is the sideshow to a very dramatic ending for Madelyne as she and the writers bring destruction down upon her. It's a well written issue and it solves the problem of Madelyne in the narrative once and for all but as was often the case with X-Factor a lot of heavy lifting was required to get the team to where editorial wanted it to be and this is perhaps the biggest lifting of all through destroying her character completely.

X-Factor 37 - Inferno

The team find themselves caught up in a rather messy divorce.

X-Factor #37

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

Fighting through the demons X-Factor are confronted first by N'astirh, reformed through the transmode virus and now far more powerful, carrying Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. Then appears Madelyne Pryor to confront her husband for the first time since he left her and her rival. The confrontation is explosive with the baby (called Christopher by his father and Nathan by his mother) distressed and threatened for sacrifice whilst N'astirh finds that Madelyne has gotten out of his control and can now only manipulate her through suggestions. The rest of X-Factor advise Cyclops that they must take tougher measures and he reluctantly agrees but Madelyne is extremely powerful.

Looking back it's astonishing that it took a whole three years for this encounter to happen. As discussed in previous posts the whole Scott and Madelyne situation came about because of a clash of visions with Scott having been given a retirement happy ending when suddenly an editorial order came down to reunite the original X-Men causing Madelyne and their child to be casually abandoned both by Scott and the creative team. Madelyne then became an awkward element to tidy away and demonstrated how difficult it can be to undo a superhero marriage when external demands change. Worse still came when one writer had her disappear with all records as though she had never existed but another brought her back into the frame. And in all that time there was no direct confrontation between her and either Scott or Jean.

This issue gives us that confrontation and it's brutal. The ex-couple cannot even agree on what their child is called. Scott seeks to justify his recent behaviour by his belief that Madelyne was dead. Madelyne blames the demons for distorting her through their influence but N'astirh thinks about how the manipulation of Madelyne has gone wrong, as though there's something deeper to her. Although both spouses' sins are touched on and given depth there's a sense that there's something deeper in Madelyne that has made her so willing, as though she bears more guilt for her actions than just the influence of others. There's even a hint that when Scott lost a dual for the leadership of the X-Men to a depowered Storm and opted to leave the team it was because of Madelyne somehow influencing it. Her encounter with Jean is less direct, reacting in anger at her rival trying to comfort her son and siccing demons on her, including her own distorted parents, then declaring her hatred. Madelyne's power is intense and there's something more to it than a mere tool of demons.

There are some other good moments in the issue with one of the more subtle fixes as the Beast literally shreds his uniform and restores his more traditional bare chested look whilst the re-emergence of N'astirh with enhanced powers is handled well to make the demon more credible as the stakes increase. But overall this is very much the eventual meeting of Scott, Madelyne and Jean that we've been long awaiting and it does so in brutal form.

X-Factor 36 - Inferno

The team is finally reunited.

X-Factor #36

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

The Beast is working with Iceman to deal with more inanimate objects coming to life and attacking people including a whole subway train and also trying to rebuild his relations with Trish Tilby who is struggling to come to terms with the recent changes in Hank but eventually realises he is the same man inside. Meanwhile N'astirh continues to scheme, thinking he has fooled Madelyne Pryor, and communicating with Death/Angel about his deal with Cameron Hodge. Warren determines to track down the demon and his schemes. Marvel Girl is finding her telepathic powers slowly returning as she tries to locate the baby Christopher whilst she and Scott's plane returns to New York. Suddenly a giant portal opens and demons enter Manhattan. All five members of X-Factor reunite in battle and set off to save Christopher from the demons.

This is an issue of coming to terms with recent changes. Warren has spent recent issues on a mission of vengeance and now that's completed he turns to Hodge's allies and protecting his friends. The end of the issue sees all five founding members together in action for the first time since the Mutant Massacre and the final panel is a delight although images of whole teams running forwards are at risk of getting a bit repetitive throughout Inferno. But the bigger acceptance comes from Trish Tilby as she struggles to accept the "strong, cocky genius with fur and fangs and a glib rap" is still the same person as "the Hank I knew... well, he was special. Handsome, gentle, and vulnerable... if not too bright." It's a reminder of just how long it's been since the Beast's mind started deteriorating and how people react to the big changes that often get made to characters. Also highlighted is how Hank uses a glib tongue to downplay the seriousness of a situation for those around him and reduce panic even as he's thinking how to deal with it.

Marvel Girl's development continues as her telepathic link to Christopher seems to be restoring her powers but she's also struggling with why the connection is so strong when he is not her son. N'astirh has also notice how similar she is to Madelyne but also of no use as there is far less darkness to play on. Across both this series and Uncanny X-Men the Jean-Scott-Madelyne triangle has been building up steadily and it's good to see the differing perspectives hinting at the build-up.

Again we get an issue that doesn't advance the overall Inferno plot too much but instead develops the characters and ties up one of the lesser loose ends with the Hank and Trish relationship. The overall crossover has had a massive build-up over many issues but at the Earth end of things the main titles have been dancing around the edges of the build-up. The opening of the portal to bring the demons through should step things up a gear but it's hard to shake the feeling that a relationship between one of the team and a supporting cast member is not the best use of the first issue of a core title in a big event.

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.

X-Factor 34 - Inferno

Death/Angel has his showdown with Cameron Hodge.

X-Factor #34

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

Death/Angel breaks into the Right's base in Chicago and smashes his way through both the Right's troopers and demons supplied by N'astirh. It transpires that Cameron Hodge has made a deal with the demon from Limbo to supply a list of mutant children. However the list is intercepted by Nanny, the strange egg creature, who goes to rescue the children first (and kill their parents in the process). This causes N'astirh to withdraw his demons to focus on the collection leaving Hodge to the mercy of Death/Angel. Hodge has captured Candy Southern and is slowly killing her when Warren smashes through and the two have their final showdown. Elsewhere Cyclops has deduced that his son may be held in the orphanage he grew up in in Nebraska so heads off there with Marvel Girl.

This is another issue the pointedly tears down part of the legacy of the beginning of this series. It's doubtful that Cameron Hodge was ever originally conceived as anything more than Angel's school contemporary turned publicity director but over the course of successive issues Louise Simonson built him up into a manipulating villain whose schemes could explain away a lot of the awkwardness about the whole mutant busters cover set-up. Hodge has also driven the destruction of Angel in so many ways, with Apocalypse providing the rebirth.

The issue gives us a strong insight into Hodge's motivation and some of it's tricky. The prep/public school educated snob who thinks himself superior by virtue of wealth and education is a recognisable character trope and his horror at the idea of actual "homo superior" is easy to understand. But his attitude to Warren is complex with hints of homosexual feelings for his school friend that turned to hatred of everything else that made Warren happy - the wings, the team and Candy - and a determination to bring them all down. There are also hints that his bigotry is also driven by an element of religious zeal. The problem is that this all adds up to some rather ugly stereotypes of the villain driven by a spurned gay crush combined with the bigoted religious zealot conservative homosexual. It's a relief when Warren loses control of his wings and they decapitate Hodge. However the effect is reduced by this not being Hodge's first seeming death.

Also conforming to an unfortunate stereotype is the fate of Candy Southern. She hasn't actually been seen on panel for a couple of years and here she is unconscious throughout with her mind already destroyed. It's one of the most casual dismissals of a female supporting character going. Worse still she's not some recent creation but someone who's been around since the Silver Age and was actually the leader of the New Defenders. She deserved so much better than die on the slab.

This is very much Warren's issue though both subplots of Nanny's child collection and Cyclops's search for his son seem to be advancing towards resolution soon. But otherwise we have a mostly action and philosophical issue that resolves his quest and prepares the character for redemption in truly spectacular fashion.

X-Factor 33 - Inferno

X-Factor face the twin threats of the Alliance of Evil and jumpers.

X-Factor #33

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

Marvel Girl and Iceman take the younger mutants shopping for items for boarding school but something strange in New York amidst a heatwave with inanimate objects coming to life and attacking people. This includes some of the clothes in the shop. It also transpires that jails have been releasing inmates including the Alliance of Evil who go on an attack spry that brings them to the shop. Meanwhile the Beast's body is fighting off all the outside influences that have been in it over the course of the series and his external form keeps changing between flesh and blue fur, eventually emerging in his fury form with both his strength and intellect restored. Elsewhere the mysterious egg creature arranges a kidnapping of two young mutant children with its henchman living up to the description "Orphan Maker" as it kills their parents. Amidst all this is the looming threat of the Mutant Registration Act with mutants divided over whether to register their identities and powers. Elsewhere Death/Angel is closing in on the Right and Cameron Hodge takes steps to prepare.

Although this is often presented as the first issue of Inferno the crossover name won't appear on the series cover for several more issues and at present the changes to New York are primarily only a backdrop to current events. Instead this issue concentrates on several over developments. The children will soon be going off to school in their own series but also Rusty Collins is still wanted by the naval police for an incident with his powers. This issues brings that to a head as he is finally publicly identified despite his best efforts and decides to turn himself in. The Mutant Registration Act is also a looming shadow with the Alliance of Evil telling the media and the world that they are motivated by opposition to it whilst most of the adult X-Factor members opt to sign but only under their public names. As the Beast's identity is public he has no problems signing completely but still expresses a rebellious streak by making a paper aeroplane out of his form and throwing it at Freedom Force who turn up at the end. Notably though Rusty, the only one of the younger mutants old enough to be legally required to sign, refuses to do so and makes a statement about freedom and human rights. The two ongoing subplots about the children kidnapping and Death/Angel's search for Candy Southern continue apiece. The former is stepping up the action with a very graphic shooting of the parents whilst the latter has surprisingly revealed the organisation he's targeting revealed to be the Right with Cameron Hodge suddenly shown to be alive again despite seemingly dying over in New Mutants #60.

But the big moment of this issue is the restoration of the Beast's blue furry form. Exactly which is the "normal" look for the Beast is a matter of debate. Throughout the original 1960s run of X-Men he was in fleshy form and it was only in the wilderness years of the early 1970s that he got the furry form. But it was as his blue furred form that he gained greater prominence in first Avengers and then Defenders/New Defenders. However when X-Factor began he was soon reverted to the fleshy form as yet another step taken in order to restore even the look of the original five X-Men. Much has been written about the way that big changes and retcons were wreaked on both Cyclops and Marvel Girl in order to get them into place for the launch of the series but it's easy to forget that the other three founding members also underwent changes even though in the case of Beast he didn't lose the fur until the third issue of the series and so was still furry on the cover of issue #1. The next issue caption at the end of issue #32 had proclaimed "...and the change you've all been waiting for!" suggesting that the letters bag at least was not happy with this change.

Much of Louise Simonson's run on the series so far has been the steady dismantling of many of the worst elements from the first five issues of the series that had required a lot of heavy building to get the characters in place for a rather bizarre set-up. To her credit she didn't retcon everything away in the space of a couple of issues but instead slowly used successive storylines to tackle awkward elements like the mutant busters cover or the way Scott had simply walked out on his marriage and child. Not all the changes were complete by this stage but bringing back the Beast's Bronze Age look was another step away. As someone who only discovered the character in his furry form it's natural to see the furry form as the default even though there was a case to retaining the fleshy Silver Age look but Walter Simonson does some striking artwork on the restored Beast both on the cover and in the interior to really make the most of the restored look. However once in action his continuing to wear the full jump suit (though not the cowl) does create a slightly odd look and it's easy to see why this didn't last.

This issue almost hurls the Beast back into action but it doesn't just stop there with the other storylines continuing to develop. But it's the restoration that it's most prominent for as the series continues to determinedly get away from the odd mix of wallowing in Silver Age nostalgia and operating under a cover set-up that bogged down the early days. This is another sign of a title with a strong mojo.

X-Factor 32 - Inferno Prologue

X-Factor battle with the Avengers - or do they?

X-Factor #32

Plotter/Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
Scripter: Louise Simonson
Guest Artist: Steve Lightle
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras

We're in the period when Walter Simonson was writing Avengers so it was perhaps inevitable that there would be an encounter with X-Factor at some point. But this comes on an issue from which Walter Simonson is notably absent and instead there's a plot from Tom DeFalco, who at this time was also now writing Thor. So rather than a natural encounter we get what has all the hallmarks of a fill-in issue just when major developments appear to be on the horizon.

In fairness the issue feels like it's been woven into the regular narrative rather than simply having a character suddenly flashback to a hitherto unseen adventure. That's particularly helpful as this issue came out and is set during a period of great flux in the Avengers. The Fall of the Avengers was an especially dark period for the team and this issue comes out midway through that storyline when the roster is down to four members - Thor, the Black Knight, She Hulk and Dr Druid - and this particular combination would last all of four issue. Things don't seem so bad on the opening pages as the team donate the site of the former Avengers Mansion as a public park but amongst the crowd are some mysterious strangers who analyse the Avengers and then turn out to be aliens. On board their ship they change into duplicates of the Avengers and reveal their plan - revenge on Thor for a past defeat that led to the leader's father's overthrowal as Supreme Warlord of Xarta, then conquest of Earth to use its resources to launch a bid to retake Xarta. However then they detect Ship over the Atlantic and opt to attack it.

Unfortunately there are no footnotes present to denote that these are the Carbon Copy Men from one of the earliest Thor stories in Journey into Mystery #90. In their original appearance they were poor copies of the Skrulls and even defeated the same way. DeFalco and Ron Frenz's Thor run was notable for being a particularly strong homage to the Lee-Kirby years with several obscure characters revisited so it's not that surprising to find the Xartans revisited. And shapeshifters allow for a battle that visually shows the two teams fighting in an era when it was no longer easy to engineer a fight between two superhero teams over some casual disagreement. But it is a very odd choice of foes for a fill-in issue of another series and so the main encounter is extremely forgettable. However there are attempts to weave ongoing development into the issue with the kids successfully convincing Ship to break its orders so as to let them help save the team from the aliens whilst Iceman reflects on his failures that led to the Beast nearly dying. We also get the introduction to the series of the demon N'astirh who has made a deal with the hooded leader of the mysterious group introduced last issue to have infant mutants kidnapped to serve as sacrifices in a special rite.

Despite these best intentions it's hard to deny the sense of frustration that the cliffhanger of the Beast's fate from last issue is left dangling as Hank lies on life-support throughout this issue rather than attempting to explain just what happened to him at the end. Some fill-in issues can hold up well when they don't feel too intrusive but this one comes at a very awkward time and so is less than welcome.

X-Factor 31 - Inferno Prologue

Infectia tries her hardest to get a kiss with Iceman.

X-Factor #31

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walter Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Greg Wright
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Infectia storyline reaches its conclusion in this issue. Much of the early part is taken up with Iceman and Infectia's attempts to be alone and intimate on Ship as all the kids and the vessel itself do everything they can to prevent a kiss having been warned by Beast that there's something about Infectia only he can't remember what it is. There's a lot of humour to an operation with a quite serious undertone but Bobby doesn't realise this is anything more than the equivalent of younger siblings being pests. Eventually Infectia tries her power on Ship and manages to persuade it to supply a plane to fly her and Iceman to her home. The other subplots continue steadily. The strange egg creature prepares a being in armour who invades a house and shoots the parents of an infant. A group of hooded people discuss Death/Angel's recent transformation and his search for Candy Southern, noting it will bring him to them. And Cyclops and Marvel Girl face down Freedom Force then learn from Destiny that Cyclops's son is alive and they must return to New York. But the main action comes at Infectia's home as she restrains Iceman then gloats by transforming another man into a monstrous antibody to show him what he has planned for her. However the Beast has realised the danger and arrives in time to take the kiss himself.

This is a storyline that has run on for a few too many issues so it's good to see it finally resolved even though the ending is shocking and also confused as the Beast is depicted in both flesh and furry forms. There's also a decent logic to it as nobody knows for certain just why it's dangerous for Infectia to kiss Iceman so nobody tries talking to him and he later admits he wasn't listening anyway. Instead they go for the less subtle approach of interruption. Infectia is written in a mixed form. She shows cunning when she tries her power on Ship and manages to coerce it into briefly helping her but she also shows foolishness in gloating rather than getting the long awaited kiss over and done with. And it's still never explained just why she is so desperate to get hold of Ship.

The other subplots are continuing but risk overstaying their welcome. Both the egg and Death/Angel get a single page each. The egg storyline continues to be highly mysterious without much sign of just where it's going. Death/Angel's search looks like it will soon reach a climax. But for readers of only X-Factor the conclusion of the encounter with Freedom Force must be something of a disappointment. Although Uncanny X-Men readers would already know that Madelyne didn't know where her son was, those readers that lacked this knowledge would be disappointed to find no great clues come out of the whole encounter. Instead it ultimately boils down to a quick fight and then Destiny muttering some obscure comments about threads of the future being tangled in the past and a displacement of place and time. The whole trip to Dallas has been necessary but this is ultimately not very revealing in the overall search.

Overall this is a mixed issue. There's some good comedy and tragedy in it but it also shows just how long one story strand has been running for and doesn't do too much to advance the big quest. The shocking climax does make it highly memorable and provides for a strong cliffhanger.

X-Factor 30 - Inferno Prologue

Infectia sets out to seduce Iceman...

X-Factor #30

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

This is an issue with quite a lot going on over several different strands. Death/Angel continues his search for Candy Southern. A strange egg shaped creature is stalking the suburbs of Omaha. The kids are continuing to practice their powers through playing with Iceman in ways that Cyclops does not approve. Cyclops and Marvel Girl fly off to Dallas to confront Freedom Force about the last moments of the X-Men and Madelyne Pryor. But the main thread comes as Iceman and the Beast go out on the town to enjoy X-Factor's popularity only to encounter a monster pursuing Infectia.

The underlying concept of X-Factor may be that the original X-Men have grown up and are taking their mentor's vision to the next level but it's clear some have grown up rather more than others. Iceman is still very carefree, playing around with the younger mutants like an elder brother rather than acting like a teacher to sensibly develop their powers. Although he's been on several teams over the years (including the X-Men, the Champions and the New Defenders) it's only now that he's found true fame and popularity and willingly accepts the invitation to the Hard Rock Cafe to enjoy his adoring fans. Meanwhile the Beast's intellect continues to deteriorate to the point that he flees when a woman approaches him and later struggles to articulate what he sees in an alley and so Iceman won't listen to his warnings. Instead when Infectia runs in pursued by a monster Bobby rushes to defend her and accepts her word that the monster pursuing her is lying, rapidly succumbing to her charms though they don't yet kiss in this issue.

There are some fun moments in this issue and the best is when Bobby and Hank are about to leave Ship and are reassured by the living vessel that the kids will be looked after sensibly with "a nutritious dinner and then we shall view a film explicating the political situation in Central America..." Once they have taken off Ship suggests "Chiliburgers with French Fries. And Apple Pie for dessert?" plus a Rambo film. It's delightful to see how Ship is not a mere processor but has a real personality and cheekiness to it.

Unfortunately it's still not clear just why Infectia wants to get control of Ship and so this story is starting to drag out even though it offers many good individual moments. The multiple subplots are building steadily but it can be tricky to have too many on the go at once. Tension is building but there is only so long it can build for.

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 29 - Inferno Prologue

New villainess Infectia tries to steal Ship from X-Factor...

X-Factor #29

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

This issue sees the introduction of a new villain, one whom it's hard to imagine would be created today. But this era of comics often still saw new seductresses created, frequently with Walter Simonson involved. Infectia is shown picking up a succession of men in bars and taking them home to kiss - only to transform them into monstrous forms to become her slaves in her initial assault on ship.

It's hard to imagine Infectia being created today. But the 1980s was another era and for now she takes on the role of a femme fatale as she lures multiple men into becoming her slaves for her unsuccessful first attempt to seize Ship. This raises the curiosity that the established rule that only mutants can enter Ship's forcefields doesn't apply to Infectia's slaves as they attack. The resulting battle is fierce and only resolved when Marvel Girl unleashes her full power and causes them to burn out and crumble to dust. It's a pretty dark moment as Jean comes to terms with what she's done.

The main focus of the issue is on character as Jean comes to terms with the believed to be dead Madelyne Pryor and the situation Scott is in. Meanwhile the Beast tries to discuss his situation with Trishy Tilby but is interrupted by Death/Angel searching for information about where Candy Southern has gone. And Iceman is coming into his own role as the team's spokesperson when he finds himself taking command of a press conference about the team's plans to move Ship out into the Atlantic Ocean so it will no longer disrupt New York's shipping lanes. There's a lot of threads continuing to build in this issue but a curse of starting where we have is that no big moments have come just yet.

X-Factor 28 - Inferno Prologue

The team battle Apocalypse's ship as both Cyclops and Death/Angel search for their closest ones...

X-Factor #28

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

This issue is a further step in establishing the new status quo for the series as the team comes into full control of Apocalypse's ship, discovering its artificial intelligence in the process. There's something almost goofy and retro about "Ship" being a fully sentient character but then the core concept of the series is a throwback to the Silver Age. However the execution of the idea isn't so great as it merely results in the team and the younger mutants battling against a series of mechanical traps as they seek to overpower the system's defences then getting a bomb away before it explodes.

The issue continues the Beast's problems as he struggles with his intellect disintegrating every time he uses his strength ever since Pestilence touched him some issues back. Hank's determination to save his friends and their determination to save him often clash and here we have the spectacle of Iceman freezing the Beast to the floor to prevent him from getting involved in the action; however ice is not shatterproof. Meanwhile both Cyclops and Death/Angel are seeking to reconnect with their closest ones. The latter discovers that his girlfriend Candy Southern has been kidnapped setting things up for later issues. Scott is heading to Dallas to see if he find any clues about the whereabouts of his son but only gets as far as the airport before seeing the news about the ship attacking X-Factor and hurries back. Although he's chosen the hot action over the cold trail, once again we see how readily Scott will drop everything to be by the others' sides, especially Jean's. By contrast Death/Angel's reaction is to leave X-Factor to it, still feeling abandoned by them.

There are some good ideas in this issue but the execution of the core concept is poor resulting in a rather stilted battle that marks the final triumph over Apocalypse. However the long term searches are building up as the key themes going forwards.

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.

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)