| Title | : | Essential X-Factor, Vol. 1 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0785118861 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785118862 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 568 |
| Publication | : | First published November 16, 2005 |
Essential X-Factor, Vol. 1 Reviews
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At the heart of this, what became the third main ongoing X-book, is the reformation of the original X-Men which included the cash-focused betrayal to comic book readers with the bringing back of Jean Grey. X-Factor have a believable, but terrible business plan, which sees them find a way of saving mutants by externally being portrayed as human mutant-hunters. I felt that the supposed core main romantic story line lacked real depth, as I can't really believe the way the one-time 'big brother' to all, morally superior Scott Summers behaves. Debuts included Cameron Hodge, Rusty Collins, Artie, Trish Trilby and more. All-in-all it is the
X-Men: Mutant Massacre stories in this book that make it such a good read. 8 out of 12
Collects X-Factor #1 to #16, Annual #1 and the cross-overs for 'Phoenix Rising' and '
X-Men: Mutant Massacre'. -
Loved this book! Can't for the life of understand why this series hasn't been reprinted in color yet. This is an overlooked gem in the Marvel archives. Perhaps it will get the Masterworks treatment at some point? Or at least an Epic Collection? Surely, one of these options must be under consideration.
Top talent creative wise. The main X-men central team. What's not to love. And all that Walt Simonson art! Gimme Vol 2 before I have withdrawl. -
This book barely got saved from 1 star.
This book starts out with one of the harder retcons to stomach as it potentially rips the guts out of the Phoenix story if you let it. And to do this the story runs through an Avengers issue where John Buscema looked like he was really trying to find a new style as it was starting to get very loose and awkward. Then, fittingly, it is given to John Byrne in a Fantastic Four comic. And then X-Factor starts.
And starts terribly. This is the first X-Title that Claremont is not responsible for in elevenish years. And it makes you realize that perhaps Claremont wasn't the greatest of writers, but you can do much much worse (this is pre-90s-hiatus Claremont of which I am speaking).
The premise is, resurrect Jean Grey (aka neuter the Phoenix saga) and put the original five X-Men back together. Have Cyclops get torn between his wife and child and his former love who has now returned to life. (melodrama-me) And top it off with all five mutants being really really stupid and setting up an organization that poses as mutant hunters to save mutants in distress. I realize there is a certain fellow who is trying to take advantage of them and it will be fun to see him turn into a slobbering cyborg with a mug full of crazy, but... yezzifassermackish are these character gullible! This is the type of thing where the reader has to fall for it too or it is just gonna come off as more and more painful and stupid as the lie grows. In this case you don't fall for it one instant. Louise Simonson tries to rationalize it a bit better when she comes on the stage, but it still ain't working.
Which brings me to why this ended up getting two stars. Louise Simonson steps in on the sixth issue and tries to salvage something out of this mess. It takes a little while, but by the end of this essential a number of things are starting to move in a positive direction. I have very little experience with Louise Simonson so this will be an interesting experience.
As for art, the only things of note are Marc Silvestri makes a couple appearances, the second of which really shows his style taking off. I enjoy his old art. The little I've seen of his newer stuff, it may be detailed, but it lost some of the enjoyable flair he put into his late-80s material. He drew the first issue with Boom Boom (I'm sorry, that's her name, blame Secret War II) showing up and just some of the illustrations had me smirking in good humor. He has a comedic edge that I haven't seen in any of his newer stuff. In fact I just smirked at the thought of his Longshot stuff coming up in Uncanny.
The other thing of note is Walter Simonson stepping in to pair up with his wife. I am not all that experienced with his art. It seems strong and consistent. I believe he'll be on the book for a while so perhaps I will get a better feel for his art.
This trade also collects the Mutant Massacre, again which I plan to address in its own review. It also goes on a little further and shows the effects of the massacre on X-Factor.
This book is mostly just for those who need their continuity fix. As stated Jean comes back. Apocalypse makes his first appearance (pretty laughable at first). The mystery of Madelyne deepens. Cameron Hodge doesn't do much yet, but he's around. Mutant Massacre. Cyclops mopes. Jean mopes. Angel mopes. Beast loses the blue. Mastermold comes back. The Twelve first gets mentioned (I think this was the first time). Oh and one of the five main characters "dies" (read finger motions into those quotation marks).
Oh and the best thing about this entire essential is the introduction of Artie Maddicks! -
2.5 stars. Decent initial run of this X-men spinoff series featuring the return of the original X-men line-up from 1963 (i.e. Cyclops, Beast, Ice-man, Angel and Jean Grey). Best issues are those featuring the arch villain Apocalypse.
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After Jean Grey aka Dark Phoenix dies the x-men are thrown in Turmoil and their leader professor X disappears into space. This collection of classic X-Factor starts with the return of Jean Grey and the formation of a new group of superhero's called X-Factor and all the original X-men are part of the team, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Cyclops and Angel.
They hide their mutant identity as the world becomes fearful of mutants and they up the mantle of Mutant hunters while in reality saving mutants from death and persecution. They will be persecuted themselves and find themselves opposed by evil mutants that operate on a license of the government or even those who want to kill of the weaker ones in order to keep the stronger alive. They will also live through the mutant massacre underground.
For fans of the original X-men series an interesting look at where x- factor started and the X-men would eventually get their mojo back.
Good comics and a nice collection -
Its starts out good. Then it dawdles with scott not revealing his secret for maybe two issues too long. Some cheesy 90s villains cause some trouble. It really picks up when the morlock story starts. Thor is a welcome tie in and i didnt mind the power pack tie in either. The side characters they introduce you warm up too. All the while they introduce Apocalypse and have him operating in the background. At times this was a labor to read but when it finishes you will be excited to read the next volume. A testament to Louise Simonsons abilitiy as a writer to make you care for the characters. Walter Simonsons art work really stands out when you come across the issues he pencils. I found myself flipping back to the start of an issue to find out every time Walt had penciled it... Only for readers who dont mind a dated story and art styles.
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This was a VERY quick read, MUCH quicker than I anticipated! These were all brand-new to me, which may account for at least part of its fascination. During the period from 1985 to 1987, I lost interest in superhero comics altogether with only Dick Tracy reprints & The Watchmen keeping me coming into comic shops at all.
This series introduces a LOT of new characters & at first, I was having trouble keeping up. Once I got in the groove, though, it moved very quickly. Lots of guest-appearances, cross-overs, shocking plotlines, if this was Vol. 1, bring on Vol. 2! -
A group of rich straight white mutants create an organization where they hide their mutant-ness and try to get anti-mutants to turn in mutants to their organization so they can help them... I wish the members of X-Factor were a little more strategic about their savior complex, but I enjoyed the ride. Minus one star for ALL THE SCOTT SUMMERS. Did people in the 80's actually like Cyclops? Because I'm tired of him.
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I had collected X-Factor from after Inferno, thinking the origin story would be interesting. I was quite disappointed. Even the origin of Hodge sucks. And what is this Apocalypse!?! Would not recommend.
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Not great stuff but introduced some important continuity elements. The writing is inconsistent and this just screams of a cash in during the rise of X-men mania.
Claremont has nothing to do with this book also. Likely do to his frustration over Jean’s retcon. -
Not a fan of the beginning storyline but it does pick up with Jean/Scott and the drama around Maddie. Nice tie in with Mutant Massacre and a myriad of characters that crossover several series later.
A rare shot of Cyclops with his visor off, holding Leech. -
Man I had never read this complete run before. Fantastic story of The Original X-Men forming a new team in more trying times
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This first Essential X-Factor volume collects issues # 1-16 and Annual # 1, as well as the team's "prologue" in the pages of Avengers # 262 and Fantastic Four # 286. Also included are the X-Factor related tie-ins to "The Mutant Massacre" crossover featured in Thor # 373-374 and power Pack # 27.
The return of Jean Grey, a.k.a. Marvel Girl, heralded the making of a new mutant team, or rather the re-assembling of an old one (the original X-Men, though in a very different form). At the time, part of the big news was that it would be Marvel's first mutant title in quite a while not to be penned by Chris Claremont, as the first five issues (and the first Annual) were written by Bob Layton, who in turn was followed by Louise Simonson.
The basic premise is that the original X-Men (i.e. Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Angel, Iceman and Beast) reunite upon Jean Grey return to the land of the living, but as society's fear of mutants is at a peak, the set up is two-fold. Under business management careof Cameron Hodge, an old friend of Warren Worthington, a.k.a. Angel, X-Factor is set up as a team of human mutant hunters, who secretly intend to offer their "captives" training to control their mutant abilities, but when there is need (and isn't there always), a different set of costumes allow the team to operate as mutants under the name of the X-Terminators.
Perhaps mostly (and certainly not incorrectly so) criticised for a not altogether pleasant or in-character portrayal of Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, the issues in this collection were nevertheless much more enjoyable than I had anticiapted (and clearly I had anticipated some enjoyment or I wouldn't have picked the volume up in the first place). Simonson's choice to alter a background villain from being the Owl (as planned) to the new evolutionary, Darwinian power struggler and mutant Apocalypse was a stroke of genius and I do not think that it is a co-incidence that the issues featuring him are among the strongest. Walter Simonson joining in as penciller from # 10 onwards certainly doesn't hurt either.
A fun read! -
X-Factor is a serious mixed bag of a comic. It starts off really really bad, slowly gets better, falls off a bit and then ends very strong.
Avengers #263 & Fantastic Four #286 set up the comic but are just dumb as dirt. The resurrection of Jean Grey is a bad idea to begin with and these issues execute it poorly on top of that.
Once X-Factor itself gets started, things don't get any better. The Bob Layton issues are just not good at all (with the exception of the Annual, which is a pretty fun standalone story). Again, X-Factor as secret mutant hunters is just a bad idea and Layton executes it poorly.
When Louise Simonson comes in on issue 6, things start turning around slowly. She has to clean up Layton's mess and the comic doesn't really pick up until issue 10. The Mutant Massacre issues with Walt Simonson are very strong, but the Cyclops/Mastermold storyline that comes afterwards is corny high drama. The storylines with Boom Boom, Rusty, Skids, etc. are much stronger than anything going on with Cyclops, Jean Grey, etc. The best issue in the whole set is #16, which is a Rusty/Skids love story that is genuinely emotional. The fill in art by David Mazzucchelli isn't quite as good as Walt Simonson's art, but Mazzucchelli draws great faces and it really works well for this issue. -
Page Turner und Fortsetzung der X-Men-Erfolgsgeschichte
X-Factor ist letztlich ein Spin-Off der X-Men-Reihe: Die Hauptpersonen, Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey, Angel und Iceman lassen die Ursprünge der X-Men neu aufleben und geben der ganzen Mutantengeschichte durch ihre Undercover-Operationen einen neuen Twist - die Doppelgeheimidentität der angeblichen Mutantenjäger bringt ihnen aber genausoviel Probleme wie Vorteile.
Die Geschichten dieses Bandes sind ein echter Pageturner, und beständig wird der Leser durch neue Wendungen bei der Stange gehalten. Dabei ist nicht nur das Superhelden-Gekloppe, sondern durchaus aus tiefere Inhalte vorhanden: Die Schwierigkeiten, die Mutanten gegenüber der "normalen" Menschheit haben, werden hier nochmals deutlicher und auf die Spitze getrieben, und stellenweise regt das sogar zum Nachdenken an (was für einen amerikanischen Superhelden-Mainstream-Comic ja schon durchaus eine Leistung für sich ist).
Dazu die sehr schön anzusehenden Zeichnungen von Guice, Simonson und diversen anderen Zeichnern, und man hat mit "Essential X-Factor Vol. 1" einen echt guten Titel der ausgehenden 80er Jahre in der Hand. Empfehlenswert. -
One thing I am enjoying about this series is that it can handle multiple story lines at a time without getting too muddled together.
The character that I'm actually most interested in right now in the story based on the writting is Angel. It's tragic and I'm curious to how it will progress.
I will also say that Scott and Jeans relationship can stop being ao uncomfortable and rather annoying and unrealistic any time. I'd like it to progess faster instead of staying at a passive agressive state.
Merged review:
My baby!
My poor, poor baby!
I have become attached to Angel most of all in this series, most the others feel like background characters and Scott and Jean have their moments, but generally tire me.
But I actually feel for Angel, and the court order leading to this cliffhanging ending is so sad!
Merged review:
Powerful, painful stuff.
My baby.
Angel no more.
Merged review:
A budding romance whose themes remind me somewhat of Gambit and Rogue's relationship, with less definition.
Masque is quite the.messed up character, and I can't see religion being brought to the Morelocks. -
Difficult to comment on because of the uneven nature of the issues included. The first half dozen issues of X-Factor are terrible. Layton's approach to the characters and the concept is misguide at best and offensive at worst. Imagine an organization that publicly advertises it's mission of hunting down Jews to remove "that menace from society" while secretly trying to provide a safe haven for Jewish people. I'm sure you can see the problem by publicly fueling the mistrust, at best, and the open hatred and condemnation, at worst, of any minority you only give credibility to bigotry. This is the way Layton approaches the issue of mutants in the Marvel Universe, and it is as much of a fiasco as it seems. Louise Simonson takes over the writing after the first 6 issues or so and refocuses the characters and ends the ill-conceived disaster that X-Factor started out as. Giving those early issues 3-stars is beyond being generous, but the latter issues are able to pull this collected volume together.
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This book is such a mixed bag: I was so unenthusiastic about the premise when I started reading it. I like some of the original 5, Beast esp, as individuals and these characters work okay on their own but all attempts to revive the original X-Men as a team have always bored me. Plus that they had Cyclops abandon his family to join making him even more unsympathetic really didn't help. The first few issues really aren't good at all but once Louise Simonson takes over there's still a lot I like here: I really love what she does with the teenagers and I like that we get to see another side of the Morlocks which kept me reading through the mess of a soap opera going on in the rest of the comic.
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The beginning of X-Factor. Jean comes back to life (never really died - Phoenix took her place and left her in a cocoon).
Scott leaves his wife (Maddie) and son to go see Jean, and his wife promptly disappears from the face of the Earth. We have the massacre of the Morlocks in the tunnels under NY, the introduction and appearance of too many to name, the slow buildup to Apocalypse and Angel loses his wings and is exposed as a mutant including his real identity as Willaim Worthington III. This is a first read for me, I didn't own these comics before. -
This was surprisingly entertaining, but the whole idea of Scott leaving his wife for his resurrected girlfriend really hurts all the characters involved. It was fun seeing Apocalypse make his debut, as corny as it got, and the Mutant Massacre takes place here as well. Decent, considering the strange setup.
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Obviously the whole Scott/Maddie thing was a ridiculous hot mess. that could have been handled a million different (and better) ways. That aside, I was really into this early on. I really liked when it was focused on getting the team back together and their early exploits. It lost me a little with Thor, Morlocks and Power Pack, but it was pretty enjoyable overall.
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Should have been subtitled: "How to screw up Scott Summer's life in under 600 pages." Well, read and find out!
The premise is bad, but the events that happen within shape the future of the X-men. Also has a cross over with Essential X-men volume 6... about 100 pages worth. -
Classic tales from the return of the "orignal X-Men." Lots of Cyclops/Marvel Girl angst fun for all!
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Some very good emotional storylines with Jean coming back from the dead, the political impact of X Factor and their feeling of betrayal by Xavier.
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Nothing special here, except for the issues drawn (a couple of them, sadly, badly reproduced) by Walt Simonson.
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I loved Louise Simonsons issues quite a bit. Her take on these characters is right on the border f definitive. Not my favorite but still excellent and ends with a bang
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Mastermold.
Merged review:
The best part is the friendship between Artie and Leech. Those two.
