X-FACTOR #70: Ends and Odds

In the aftermath

Originally Published September 1991

We begin with the Professor dreaming in space gray mist dreams. He has come to the astral plane in search of...

(Extremely David Seville voice)

The Prof meanders around the shapeless void of his son's vacant psyche looking for any signs of life, and indeed he finds one...

Xavier, calling upon his psychic prowess and advanced degrees, uses subtle means to try to reach the absent David.

Outside, in the ostensibly real world, Charles is being watched over by Moira (who has recovered her senses quickly,) Jean, Scott, Storm and Wolverine, who offers some insight into Charles' character:

We have decades of comics suggesting otherwise, Logan.

When Moira asks him to put his cigarette out, he does so -- by swallowing it, all but confirming he does so just to be as off-putting and discomfiting as possible to that square, Cyclops, who continues to gossip about him after Wolverine leaves to have a chat with his protégé, Jubilee.

Around the island, there is a pervasive sense of "what now?" as X-people like Beast, Colossus and Forge survey the damage that has been done to the Island, which is symbolic of, well, the damage done to them.

Mystique has a moment with Rogue, finally explaining her apparent death. Apparently, when Val went to kill her, the Shadow King's influence was just not quite strong enough to overwhelm her will, and she ended up pointing the gun at her own head, grazing her skull. Mystique then appropriated Val's appearance and underwent hypnosis with assistance from Nick Fury (who is here, having been running around a lot since leaving Antarctica) to believe she actually was Val, so that the Shadow King would not catch on. It's a plan so sane it has to have worked.

Rogue, for her part, is upset that she had been led to believe Mystique was dead. Mystique points out that at the time, she had been led to believe Rogue was dead.

It was, in fact, the exact same thing.

They do, however, manage to reconcile.

While Jubilee throws a fit over [something?] somewhere on the island, Charming Guido gets to know Lorna, who has had her magnetic powers restored by [explanation?]. However, she does note feeling a little physically out of shape. Guido has wellness tips -- I guess he's a reiki master or something?

I get the strong impression that this guy is trouble.

Lorna is approached by Val Cooper, who is looking for new members for the government-sponsored Freedom Force. Lorna bristles at the idea that she'd ever team up with the likes of the Blob, but Val notes that maybe they need a new attitude and a new name to go along with it. Hint hint, wink wink, say n'more, say n'more.

Back in the mind of Legion, Professor X ascends a staircase that doesn't go all the way to the top, to find a home where the lights are on but nobody is present. Puzzled about how to reach his son, he is visited by Jean, who offers some insight.

Jean insists that there's no point in continuing to search for Legion -- he's simply not there. Professor X can't help him, but he can help his students, who need him back more than ever. Yes, it's time to once again neglect his biological offspring in favor of his surrogate ones, putting all things right with the world.

Charles awakens, and he's...

He's all right!

Word spreads across the island in a fun, quirky little scene that puts a bow on this whole deal and lets you know that this will now be a book with a tone.

Charles says a final farewell to his son, leaving Legion to rest...

Dream a little dream of literally anything other than me

And then turns his attention to the immortal question... what do we do with fourteen X-Men?

Further Thoughts:

You're probably expecting me to say I hate it, aren't you? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this issue was just about everything it needed to be, and just about everything it could be, and a little more.

It's fairly odd that the spiritual ending of the Chris Claremont run on X-Men -- which is distinct from the literal ending, which is still yet to come -- is not written by Chris Claremont, or even a writer who had previously been associated with the X-Men, but by incoming X-Factor writer Peter David. As the epilogue to the Muir Island Saga, this issue is connecting tissue between all that has come before and what is next. And by all that has come before, I mean just about all of it, all the adventures from the first time we stepped foot on Muir Island back in the 1970's, to our first meeting with the Shadow King shortly thereafter, through the death of Jean, her return and the formation of X-Factor, the "death" of the X-Men, Inferno, the scattering of the X-Men and their reunion to battle the Shadow King here on Muir Isle. This is the end of all that and what's next is more or less meant as a fresh start, meaning this is the end of "The Claremont Run" in spirit, even if it's not written by Claremont, and Claremont himself still has a few issues of X-Men ahead with his name on them.

The issue is a peculiar artifact indeed. It occupies the space between what X-Factor was, and what X-Factor will be going forward -- a "government-sanctioned" mutant team, headed by the assorted characters who have sort of been orphaned by the latest developments: Lorna, Guido (dang, that guy still needs a strong name) Madrox, Jamie, and even the Multiple Man. What's more, it's our introduction to David's off-kilter sensibility when handling the mutant characters. As a writer, David is already quite assured, clearly knowing exactly what he wants the book to feel like, showing off what he brings to the table with buoyant dialogue, imaginative set pieces and brainy, impish humour. Admittedly, he doesn't quite have mastery over the voices of the well-established characters like Wolverine and Cyclops, who feel a little off-model, but of course having had Claremont's stamp on them for so many years they were going to feel off-model when someone else came to write them. The book thrives more when David gets to put his mark on a character like Guido, who as of yet has been only vaguely sketched as a dumb, muscular, sometimes ornery bruiser for hire. Whatever room David has to make for himself in this mercenary assignment, he gobbles up.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of heavy lifting to do, but the issue finds ways to make it all enjoyable as the book ties off the former status quo and tees up the new. Yes, the excursion into Legion's mind came to nothing, but it meant something to try to give weight to the proceedings it followed, and was something to look at  and chew on. I've complained that the stakes of Xavier's and Legion's relationship weren't well established in this story, and I wish I could say that this fixes everything, but all it does is acknowledge that there was something missing from the story and that we can make an effort to remedy that with the time we have left. Kirk Jarvinen helps add flavor with a more subdued and down-to-earth, occasionally even "1980s underground comix" feel than the flashy, pinup-ready splashes we are used to seeing in these 1991 mutant comics. It's a departure, and it won't maybe be the new sales sensation, but it works for the tone of this issue.

In any case, it's the end of an era and on to bigger and better things, or at least bigger things, for all the mutants.