X-FACTOR #84: Tough Love (X-Cutioner's Song Part 2)

X-Factor and X-Force clash in the search for Cable!

Originally Published November 1992

As you may recall, a high-ranking advocate for Human-Mutant Relations, Charles Xavier, is clinging to life after an assassination attempt during a speech made at a concert in Central Park. What you may not know is that Charles Xavier is himself secretly a mutant and the founder of the X-Men. As a result, not only are the X-Men flocking to his side at the hospital, where attempts are being made to revive him, but other prominent mutants like the ones in the government-sanctioned group X-Factor.

Inside the hospital, it's a reunion-comma-introduction as old friends Storm and Havok reconnect, and X-Factor's Rahne "Wolfsbane" Sinclair and Valerie "Normal Human Government Worker" Cooper meet new X-Man Bishop "Bishop" for the first time.

Upstairs, other members of X-Factor are tending to some mutants who were assaulted while also debating the fragile nature of co-existence between humans and mutants with some Genoshan expatriates (the, ahem, "X-Patriots") in a subplot that's going to have to go on hold for a few months.

I'm not saying Magneto was right, but I might have a t-shirt that does 

Elsewhere, Guido arrives with his friend Jo Beth, having not gotten the summons to the hospital since he had turned his communicator off while he was Guidin' some action.

I mean, we literally saw him uniformed-up and watching the concert where all this happened but whatever, it's a funny gag.

Alex orders Guido and Rahne to go to the scene of the crime and try to suss out Cable's location by following his scent. Elsewhere, Archangel sulks on a rooftop about how his wings didn't do any good for saving Charles' life. He vows to take his rage out on Apocalyspe, which would be a helluva feat since, as Cyclops told us in the most recent Uncanny, he himself already killed Apocalypse..

Not even already being dead!

At Central Park's crime scene, which is mysteriously vacant of any law enforcement or any people at all, Rahne tries to follow her nose, but can't come up with anything. She and Guido scamper off when members of the outlaw team known as X-Force touch down in their IPAC (a ship, not a fancy new communications device from Steve Jobs). They are also looking for Cable since, given Cable's longstanding connection with X-Force, any atrocity he commits reflects poorly on them.

Guido gets his orders to stay hidden and not engage X-Force, but it's too late for Rahne, who is overcome with joy to see her old New Mutants pals Rictor, Boom Boom Boomer, and Cannonball, who hd recently returned from the dead (who hasn't?)

Guido pops out to place X-Force under arrest, while Cannonball counters with an offer to surrender if Rahne leaves X-Factor and joins the Force. Unfortunately, she cannae.

With the X-Force's resident smellhound Feral also incapable for picking up Cable's scent, the Force is ready to leave, but the government team won't let them, and so the fight is on.

And while you may think it's an unfair fight with so many members of X-Force and only two X-Factorers, the odds are quickly evened. How quickly?

The rest of X-Factor, including Havok, Polaris, Madrox, Jamie, Multiple Man, and several dupes, is quickly on the scene.

Okay Boomer

They brawl a while before X-Force thinks better and slips away. Alex says that's okay, because they'll lead us to their hideout, and maybe even to Cable. I mean sure, it's clear that they don't know where Cable is either, but they've gotta be looking for him too, right? It's a fine plan even if it's an accidental one, aided by the just-too-late-to-do-anything arrival of...

Yes, it's THEE X-Men, and they're looking for Cable too.

Alex is glad to see his old friends, but when he asks where Scott is, Wolverine doesn't exactly have an answer.

Fortunately, we do -- when we last saw Cyclops, and Jean, they were being captured by the Horsemen of Apocalypse, who appears to not be dead but in fact alive and giving orders.

But wait! Apocalypse is not Apocalypse at all! It's...

Another guy we thought was dead!

Back at the hospital, the Doctors have done all they can: that was no ordinary gun that blasted Charles -- it infected him with an incurable technovirus that is spreading through his body.

TBC!

Further Thoughts:

This one was pretty much all action, as whatever X-Factor was up to in the previous issue is put on hold to get into the mix with the other X-Teams. Hero fights are nothing new, but having three mutant teams that aren't necessarily on the same page leads to a lot of intrigue. I don't want to be rooting for the government team here, but they are the protagonists of the issue, and a lot of fun, and from their perspective X-Force are outlaws who may know something about the whereabouts of the wanted killer Cable. 

One thing that 's really refreshing about it is the way the issue revels in portraying all the mutant powers. We're seeing more and more characters whose powers are just that they blow things up (Gambit, Bishop) or that are seemingly unlimited as the plot demands (Mikhail, Carter Ryking, Bella Donna) or that I have no idea what they are in the first place (Omega Red, Shatterstar, Cable -- as far as reading these comics goes.) So to see the way Peter David and Jae Lee deftly demonstrate the specific powers of Quicksilver (he's quick) Multiple Man (there are many of him) and Strong Guy (you get it) against X-Force is a lot of and demonstrates what's been missing from the slicker and more marketable X-Men titles. Having a power might have seemed stodgy by 1992 standards, when everything was configured for maximum cool factor, but it helps this book stand out thirty years later.

David also brings the spice to his dialogue. X-Men may have been written by a stand-up comedian in Scott Lobdell but it's Peter David who has the leeway and the ability to make the funny X-Book. It's important for secondary X-titles to find a niche for themselves aside from whatever the definition of "mainstream" is as exemplified by the flagship titles: while X-Force is the "cool" book with hypermasculine militaristic tones, X-Factor is the oddball borderline sitcom which also happens to contain mutant powers. I also love Jae Lee's stylish and expressive artwork -- there are times when the particular details are cranked a bit too much with herniated muscles popping out of characters' faces at all angles, but again it gives X-Factor a distinctive look, particularly with the heavy inks of Al Milgrom finding the perfect moody sweet spot to complement Lee's art.

Alex, you look so... vascular

That said -- is that a good thing? When reading an individual issue, yes, but now here we find ourselves- - much as we did a few years back during the X-Tinction Agenda -- with four books carrying a single story thread that somehow need to be distinctive and coherent. X-Men was largely following the lead of X-Force but X-Factor was the odd one out, naturally, with its art and tone being a little less conventional. It makes for a great individual issue but when you have to flip back and forth between this and the Lobdell-Peterson/Nicieza-Kubert/Nicieza-Capullo sibling titles, it's clear that not everyone is trying to write the same type of book.

Do you know how hard it is to make pithy remarks about a comic when it's actually funny?