RIP: Peter David

I'm very sad to have heard writer Peter David passed away this weekend. Although he wrote in many mediums, I knew him best for his work as a comic book writer.

Certainly he'll be best-remembered for his many years as writer on the Incredible Hulk (1987-1998). He started shortly after the Hulk had become gray but wound up writing the gray Hulk for so long that he remains the writer most-associated with that version of the character. The years he spent writing the Hulk - paired with great artists like Todd McFarlane, Dale Keown, Gary Frank - he kept finding new ideas about where to take the Hulk and what could be done with the character. Even then, he wouldn't have left in 1998 except that his editor wanted a lot of changes to the book that he had no interest in implementing.

Plenty of Hulk writers before and since have delved into the character's multiple personalities and how he's rooted in Bruce Banner's earlier psychological traumas but aside from Al Ewing, no one has made it so central what the series was about. I was especially impressed with the story in Incredible Hulk #-1 where he revealed Banner had accidentally killed his own father but repressed the memory. David's story for what became Hulk: The End (originally a prose piece) is likewise a terrific exploration of Banner's trauma, in that instance set in a distant future where the Hulk is the last being left alive on Earth; where Banner simply wants to die, the Hulk views Banner as his enemy and sees their psychological conflict as another battle to be won.

And there was so much more; his X-Factor really surprised me in the 1990s. His version of that series was a team of mutant heroes (mostly those no other writers wanted to use at the time) working for the government. I think I started buying it just because I had been swayed by the impression it was a "hot" book. Then I stayed because it was funny and well-characterized. His story "X-aminations" (X-Factor #87) in which the team were psychoanalyzed remains by far the best-remembered issue in that series; I remember even at the time it came out, I was wowed by that one. It's certainly for me the defining version of Quicksilver's character.

At times his sense of humour was very obvious and a bit too pleased with his puns. Still, overall I enjoyed his writing. Past the 1990s I followed him on books like Captain Marvel and his 2nd version of X-Factor. I'm not certain if I ever read any of his DC comics, nor have I read any of his prose (not even his Star Trek novels), but I know he had a huge fanbase in those areas of his career as well. Back in the day I regularly visited his blog-- although mostly because I was interested in his political opinions.

Rest in peace, Mr. David.

Marvel Super Villains and the Status Quo

I was recently going over some 1980s Marvel Comics and it got me thinking about villains and their status quo. Usually in fiction, the protagonists achieve some sort of status quo -- a basic structure that you can depend on being upheld from one installment to the next. It's more rare for the antagonists to have a status quo, because they're less likely to appear on a regular basis - they tend to turn up when there's a story to be told with them, then disappear until the next one.

And yet, when I was coming of age as a comic book reader, there were various Marvel Comics villains who had a status quo, one which would be reflected across the entire line of Marvel titles. It's basically gone away since then; villains may effect a temporary status quo -- as when Norman Osborn became the head of the Initiative in the company-wide Dark Reign -- but when the story wraps up, the villains are packed up until the next time they appear.

There are three villains whose 1980s status quo is, I think, interesting to reflect upon: the Kingpin; the Hellfire Club; and Freedom Force.

Although the Kingpin had been a New York crime boss in the pages of the Amazing Spider-Man since 1967, it wasn't until 1981 that Frank Miller reinvented him in the pages of Daredevil and the villain became a real mainstay of the Marvel Universe, one with a very identifiable status quo. The Kingpin became an untouchable criminal mastermind, maintaining the public facade of Wilson Fisk, philanthropist, while in actuality spearheading all organized crime in New York. Heroes such as Daredevil and Spider-Man would confront the Kingpin, but ultimately acknowledge they were powerless to stop him; the Kingpin had worked the system, had allies in law enforcement and the government. The heroes could fight back against him, but he could never be fully overcome.

Until, of course, he was. In 1992, Dan G. Chichester's storyline 'Last Rites' brought down the Kingpin, with Daredevil and S.H.I.E.L.D. employing evidence going back to the Miller run to bring about his downfall. This was not the end of the Kingpin as a comic book villain, but it was the end of that 11 year stretch when he was an undefeatable crime boss. Writers since then have frequently brought him back, but just as frequently brought him down again. The Kingpin has no staying power as an antagonist anymore. He'll always be around the fringes of Daredevil, but ever since we readers saw him taken down once, we've known he can't win.

The Hellfire Club had been a concept Chris Claremont had been toying with in many of his comic books until they made their proper debut in he and John Byrne's Uncanny X-Men in 1980, right in the middle of what would become known as "The Dark Phoenix Saga". Most (but not all) of the Hellfire Club's membership were mutants, but they saw themselves as elites, above the rest of their kind. They represented an interesting "third option" to the X-Men's "peaceful co-existence" with humans or Magneto's "no peace" with humans. The Hellfire Club didn't care about co-existence or waging war, just to feather their own nest. It was something of a libertarian approach to the mutant-human conflict -- the Hellfire Club had money, influence and power; they didn't care about the rest of mutantkind except as to how they might profit from them. For instance, they made a deal with the US government to manufacture Sentinels, doing so in part because it meant they could prevent themselves from being targeted by the Sentinels. Like the Kingpin, the Hellfire Club had power -- they were a resource the X-Men themselves had to occasionally make peace with to fight another foe. No matter who made up the club's ranks, their purpose remained the same.

Until Chris Claremont was unceremoniously booted from the X-Men franchise in 1991. The new writers spent a lot of time dismantling the status quo they had inherited, and for some reason took aim at the Hellfire Club. In a series of brief subplots mostly scattered in different X-Men titles (but principally in those by Whilce Portacio), the Hellfire Club's leadership were killed off by a new group called the Upstarts who had a sinister purpose of their own, and that was... erm...

The Upstarts were a pretty lousy replacement for the Hellfire Club. Their goals were only hazily defined and mostly were playing a "game" that involved attacking different X-Men characters. It was typically bad 1990s super villain plotting. With the failure of the Upstarts there were various attempts to bring back the Hellfire Club, but none of them stuck. Virtually every time the Club appears now, it's with a brand-new membership and the promise of many stories to come... until the next time they appear and have been completely revamped again.

Finally, take Freedom Force. This team debuted in 1981 in Claremont & Byrne's X-Men as a new incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants led by Mystique, but in 1986 Mystique cut a deal with the US government, obtaining status for her team as an official government group. Renamed "Freedom Force", Mystique and her allies were now on the right side of the law -- emphasizing the X-Men as an outlaw group. Freedom Force would sometimes respond appropriately to criminal threats, but at their core they remained the X-Men's enemies and took a ghoulish delight in going after the X-Men with the blessings of the government!

This lasted up 'til 1991 when, again, Claremont was let go. Several members of Freedom Force were killed and the rest absorbed into a new version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (which didn't last very long). The US government replaced Freedom Force with a new team called X-Factor, made up of various heroes adjacent to the X-Men. Unlike Freedom Force, the characters in X-Factor were genuine heroes; they would still be forced to play the part of government stooges from time to time, but it certainly eased the tensions between the X-Men and the government.

Change is good and no status quo should last forever. Creators should also try to make their mark on a series, not simply mimick what came before. Bringing down the Kingpin isn't a bad idea (in fact, "Last Rites" is a very good story); dismantling the Hellfire Club could have led to an interesting new threat (if the Upstarts hadn't been so lame); perhaps the time had come for Freedom Force to be retired, as with the end of the Cold War events such as the Iran-Contra affair seemed mere history (and Peter David's X-Factor was fun).

And yet, something was lost for each of these groups and to the Marvel Universe. The Marvel Universe became a gentler place to live; it seemed to say organized crime could be dismantled; profiteers would be engulfed by fellow consumers; government corruption would cease.

In the 1980s, most of Marvel's super heroes were vigilantes and outlaws; not just Daredevil, Spider-Man and the X-Men -- the Hulk barely counted as a hero; and while the Avengers had security clearance with the US government, it was as much as a curse as a blessing as the government constantly interfered with their activities, dictated who could be on their team, withdrew equipment and funding at a moment's notice, etc. Nick Fury was one of the only reasonable government figures in the Marvel Universe yet even he would be kept at arm's length from the Marvel heroes because of his allegiance to S.H.I.E.L.D.

There was a sense that the Marvel Universe was being run by forces beyond the heroes' ability to counter. Like the greatest villain of the Silver Age, Doctor Doom, many Marvel villains were untouchable. Their schemes could be beaten, but they were part of the system, as the Kingpin, Hellfire Club and Freedom Force were. In the 1980s, the Kingpin's status as crime boss of New York was not a problem the heroes had to solve -- it was a status quo they had to endure.

Today, of course, everything is different. Marvel's villains hatch schemes which have vaster implications, playing on bigger scales, but defeating the plot is basically the same as defeating the villain. It's now understood that whatever new modus operandi the villains may have, they will be defeated eventually, then come back again with a different scheme. And the heroes? Far from being persecuted by the government, these days to be an Avenger is essentially to be a government agent (certainly it seems to be paired with membership in S.H.I.E.L.D. now).

Is it any wonder that so many of the big 'events' from Marvel in the last two decades have been about the heroes fighting each other? (Civil War, Civil War II, Shadowland, World War Hulk, Secret Empire, Time Runs Out, Avengers vs. X-Men, Inhumans vs. X-Men) It feels as though the heroes' great existential battle against the system (the status quo) has been won -- so what's left except to fight each other?

All images from the Grand Comics Database

The Troubles of X-Factor Part 5: X-Factor and the Trouble With Character Derailment

(I apologize for running late on this, the final installment)

Appropriately, I'm ending my look at Bob Layton's X-Factor by discussing the very concept of the series - the controversial "mutants hunting mutants" set-up, introduced at a time when Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men cast included a young woman who was traumatized at having been forced to hunt her own kind. The idea that the original five X-Men would help mutants by developing an agency to hunt mutants down seems ridiculous. But before I condemn it, let's hear the original idea, as presented to the team by their public relations advisor Cameron Hodge in X-Factor #1:

"Our organization will capitalize on human beings' distrust of mutants by posing as a mutant deterrent agency. People that suspect a mutant menace will call our toll-free number to report an incident! We will then, in the guise of a team of psychologists and scientists, investigate the subject! In reality, our true goal is to isolate and protect the people who possess the X-Factor mutation in their genetic make-up. Appropriately, the name our organization will be known by is -- X-Factor."

And what sort of people contacted X-Factor to enlist their help during the Bob Layton days?

• - In X-Factor #1, a naval officer asked X-Factor to capture Rusty Collins, a young sailor who accidentally injured a woman with his powers; Rusty subsequently broke out of captivity when the officer tried to murder him, which is why the officer wanted someone outside the conventional authorities involved.
• - In X-Factor #2, Carl Maddicks worried that his hired thug Tower might turn on him so he told X-Factor where to apprehend him.
• - In X-Factor #4, Angel's former headmaster asked him to investigate student Martin Davis, who claimed to be a mutant telepath; Martin was actually a clever inventor and eavesdropper.
• - In X-Factor #5, Susan Nowlan hired X-Factor to find her drug addict husband Michael, whose mutant gifts were being exploited by the Alliance of Evil.

From four cases, the team was sent to assist in two cases which genuinely needed their assistance. In the second case, they were patsies to a villain. In the third, they frightened a lonely boy. Great work, everybody! There are many things worth questioning about X-Factor's set-up, such as how they were able to seemingly incarcerate people they "captured." I mean, Rusty Collins broke out of prison and it was public knowledge that since issue #1 he'd been in X-Factor's custody (Frenzy came looking for him in #4 assuming she'd have to break him out of the building). How were the legal authorities satisfied with X-Factor holding their own detention facility with no access to counsel?

Of course, the bigger problem is the very idea of creating a group to hunt mutants in order to help them. Hodge presented this idea as being a clever way to defuse "the problem of mutant hysteria by turning it upon itself!" And yet, the very concept of X-Factor - as presented to the public - is one which assumes the very worst of people. Recall that at this time in Marvel's X-Men titles, mutants were facing discrimination but there were no vast experimental labs, concentration camps or even public lynchings (the latter, not since Iceman's origin, IIRC). Xavier's school - and Emma Frost's sinister Massachusetts Academy - were both below the radar, not publicly known to register mutant students.

And into this comes X-Factor, an agency marketed towards people who are already afraid of mutants and, by its very existence, assures them they should be afraid! What sort of clients did the team expect they would be led to? Their manifesto - "people that suspect a mutant menace" - should, in a best-case scenario, lead to actual mutant menaces, not people in need of help. Which is fine, I guess, if battling evil mutants is the most important thing mutants can do for one another. But what about the new, young mutants who were in need of a positive voice, someone to reassure them? What about normal humans who care deeply for a mutant friend or family member who's in trouble?

X-Factor needed to establish itself as marking different territory than the X-Men, so the idea of Angel bankrolling a corporation to improve the lot of mutants in the public was a very savvy (and 80s) idea. The idea as presented, however, was obviously doomed to failure and could have only fanned the flames of intolerance against mutants. At best, X-Factor offered mutants sanctuary in a secret hideout - but the X-Men were already doing that much! What mutants really needed at the time was a voice, rather than assuming "keep your head down" is the way things should be. Being that Warren Worthington III was publicly known to be a mutant, any journalist worth their salt could have found the link between he and X-Factor within a week if they cared to. So why bother keeping secrets from the public which would inevitably be found out?

As one of the wealthiest and best-known mutants in the USA, Angel should have made X-Factor a transparent company. A corporation out to assist mutants who needed it, running 1-800 hotlines for young mutants just like those phone services which exist for addicts or teen pregnancies. This version of X-Factor would have been provocative in a way the X-Men weren't, engaging in a direct discourse with how the public views mutants, trying to affect public perception by placing mutants before the cameras and letting them speak their piece.

Before Layton's five issues were up the cracks had begun to form; one Senator Thompson confronted Hodge in issue #3, wondering "Do any of you realize that X-Factor may be doing more harm than good?" But although Thompson returned in the annual, the subplot did not. However, Jean took a moment to reflect upon the Martin Davis incident (from the list above) during issue #5 and wondered then what effect X-Factor was having on the public. When Layton left, his successor Louise Simonson took out the butcher's knives the concept, confirming that, indeed, X-Factor was making things worse for mutants and that had been Hodge's goal all along as he secretly resented the adulation Angel had received for being a mutant. Eventually, X-Factor would come clean about who and what they were and, by the end of Fall of the Mutants, would win a major public relations victory for mutants by saving Manhattan from Apocalypse.

But the damage was done, and in retrospect, the heroes looked rather dense for ever believing in Hodge's idea. When the "mutant hunters" angle dropped off, the series no longer ran with a particular mission statement, it simply became an X-Men comic book with a different cast than Claremont's. Later on, Peter David's X-Factor would fashion a new team and mission statement for the team's name, but that's another matter.

The power of nostalgia had been invoked to draw the original five X-Men back together again. With the X-Men franchise running at a high which ultimately lasted for another decade without any massive misfires, X-Factor just needed to be both diferent from the X-Men and decent. But it never managed both at once.

The Troubles of X-Factor Part 4: Cyclops and the Trouble With Character Assassination

As with Jean Grey, the troubles with Cyclops' character - especially as recounted in X-Factor #1 - have been hashed out again and again by comic book fandom. However, I want to do my best to place what happened to Cyclops and his relationship with Madelyne Pryor in proper context.

It's interesting that fandom doesn't hold any single creator to account for what happened to Cyclops - not Chris Claremont, the man who created Madelyne; not Bob Layton, the one who broke them up; not Louise Simonson, who assisted Claremont in delving into Madelyne's true origins. It's most interesting that the one who shoulders the blame in the eyes of fandom is Cyclops himself, as though a fictional character had true control over his character development! It really speaks to how much fans have invested in the X-Men's members, but it's certainly worked against Cyclops for the last 30 years as he's never fully crawled out from under the cloud of X-Factor #1.

Let's begin with the first perpetrator: Chris Claremont. Having killed Jean Grey in 1980, Claremont embarked on an unusual subplot for Cyclops in 1983 as the still-grieving hero met Madelyne Pryor, a woman with a remarkable resemblance to Jean Grey (or so every character claimed - Paul Smith's Madelyne looked nothing like Dave Cockrum or John Byrne's Jean; I don't believe the two ever did look alike until Marc Silvestri took over). This being comic books, naturally readers were led on to assume that Madelyne was somehow Jean Grey brought back to life, or at least someone with a connection to Jean. However, in a subversive climax, the subplot ended with all the seeming connections revealed as remarkable coincidences; Cyclops and Madelyne were wed.

Comic book readers and writers hate coincidences.

Recall that earlier in the X-Men mythos, Lorna Dane had been suggested as Magneto's daughter simply because the two had the same powers; that plot ended with the familial connection revealed as bogus, yet 30 years later Lorna would be (off-panel) made Magneto's daughter officially. When characters have similar surnames, powers or (seriously) hairstyles, regardless of what the initial creators intended, someone will assert "there are no coincidences!" and cement the connection in print.

Thus, regardless of what point Claremont intended to make with the initial Madelyne story, comicdom's disbelief in coincidence - coupled with Jean's resurrection - worked against that tale. Also working against Claremont (and more to the point, Cyclops) is comicdom's inability to allow characters to reach endings, no matter how well the ending is performed. Cyclops seemed to be set for a life of marital bliss with Madelyne, but editorial demands to have him participate in the Secret Wars crossover caused him to be spirited away during his own honeymoon. This frightened Madelyne, but she did her best to be understanding.

A year and half later, Cyclops returned to the X-Men (with a pregnant Madelyne in tow) to be present for Xavier, who appeared to be on his deathbed. This led Cyclops to be called away on two back-to-back missions, first to save the New Mutants from Asgard, then to be present at Magneto's appearance before the International Court in Europe. Thus, Cyclops was struck by three significant moments of upheaval: dealing with Xavier's departure (as he left the galaxy with the Starjammers), Magneto's ascension to head of Xavier's school and missing the birth of his son, Nathan.

In the aftermath of the birth, Madelyne noted nearly all of the X-Men who went to Asgard had called her to let her know they were in Europe - but not her own husband. She told Storm: "I understand Scott's not being here... but he should have at least let me know he cared." Although at this time the X-Men had been led by Nightcrawler (in Storm's absence since she lost her powers), Cyclops now intended to resume leadership of the X-Men, a role he hadn't officially held since Jean's death 6 years earlier. Cyclops rationalized this to Madelyne as needing to keep an eye on Magneto, although internally he felt Xavier was his true father and he should be the one to carry on said father's work. However, Storm had now returned to the team and she disputed Cyclops' bid. Despite her power loss, Storm faced Cyclops in combat and defeated him, proving true friends will kick your butt for you when you need it. Storm resumed leadership and Cyclops could then remain safely retired. Another happy ending!

One month later... X-Factor #1. Up until this point, Madelyne has remained sympathetic, never nagging or behaving shrewishly to Scott. Even as Cyclops engaged in combat with Storm, she knew that no matter how the fight ended her husband would wind up being hurt - either by losing leadership or by losing her because she intended to return to Alaska regardless. All of that, however, came from her creator, Claremont. To Bob Layton, Madelyne Pryor was an obstacle to getting the original nostalgic five X-Men back together and he worked quickly to turn readers against Madelyne, no doubt hoping they would be less troubled by Cyclops' actions, since for Scott to join X-Factor he would have to essentially abandon his wife and son - hardly a heroic decision. The first blow against Madelyne fell while the couple were at home in Alaska and Scott was distracted by a television news report about the Mutant Registration Act. Furious, Madelyne cattily yelled: "Haven't you done enough for them already? Isn't it about time they did something for themselves?" Given that she married a mutant and might have (later confirmed positively) given birth to a mutant, one would think Madelyne might share her husband's interest in mutant affairs. Heck, if she had steered him into being a political activist maybe he wouldn't have become a globe-trotting adventurer again.

Still, Madelyne dug deeper.

"You have a responsibility to your family now! I can't be the only one working on this marriage! We're supposed to be in this together, aren't we? Don't you think I know the only reason you came back to us at all is that you bombed out in your bid to lead the X-Men? Don't you think it hurts knowing that? Just like it hurts knowing why you married me in the first place! Because I reminded you of your old flame -- the late, but not forgotten Jean Grey!"

And:

"I love you, Scott, and the X-Men don't need you! Jean is dead! I'm the one that needs you!"

It's strange that the character assassination of Cyclops would begin by bringing down his wife, but there it is. In one month, Madelyne went from a troubled but loyal partner to an ultimatum-delivering shrew. To put it in terms of tropes you would find on TV police dramas, she went from being the police captain's wife to the duty-driven detective's ex-wife. Although Layton couldn't have known it, he was grooming readers to eventually accept Madelyne's transformation into a demonic super-villainess. Later that evening, Madelyne found Scott brooding on their balcony. She began to apologize, not wanting to "lose what we have." Scott retorted, "I'm... just not exactly sure what we do have anymore." When she pressed him, he admitted he'd been thinking about Jean Grey.

The very next day, Scott received a call from the Angel, informing him that Jean was back from the dead and in New York. It should be noted that the Angel was an inactive X-Man and that Madelyne didn't know Jean was alive (and wouldn't learn this for years' worth of stories). Regardless, this was how the conversation which ended their marriage played out (presented in its entirety):

"Darling? What is it? What did Warren want?"

"He... er... needs me to meet him in New York -- today!"

"Well -- tell him you can't make it!"

"I - I can't do that, Maddy!"

"Scott Summers! If you walk out that door -- don't bother coming back!"

"I'm -- sorry, Maddy! I have to go!"

Cyclops was reunited with Jean, but simply seeing her alive drove him to the brink of mental collapse, unable to reconcile his never-forgotten love for her with his devotion to Madelyne and his son. In fact, he wound up wandering around the pier where the Phoenix first appeared and when Beast and Iceman found him, he poured out his heart about Jean and Madelyne. Proving themselves inferior friends to Storm, the duo encouraged him: "We have a second chance -- all of us -- to do something beneficial! Like it was in the old days -- the five of us -- together!" He still wasn't completely convinced, but carried on for Jean's sake. "Look -- if not for anything else, do it because I want you to be with me, okay?" Jean asked. "That's the only reason I'm still here, Jean!" Scott answered.

And sure enough, with the blessings of nostalgia the X-Factor team came together and by going on their first adventure (saving Rusty Collins) Cyclops found his footing in adventure. This would remain a touchstone for some time, as Cyclops would range from non-verbal to shell-shocked while out of costume but confident and capable while in combat. Layton pushed that in the audience's faces as best as he could in the first issue with Cyclops saving the entire team at one point and thinking: "Jean -- all of my friends -- would be dead by now if I hadn't come with them! If I wasn't here... I would have lost her again! And the boy, Rusty, would have died without a chance for a decent life! Of the group, only I have the power to save us now! Finally, I realize what I need to do and -- we will be free!!" For a man who at the time must have still been under thirty years old, under Layton's pen Cyclops certainly read like a man suffering his mid-life crisis.

Despite his breakthrough in the climax of X-Factor #1, Cyclops remained a wet blanket through Layton's work. In the second issue, Angel took Cyclops to task for not contacting Madelyne or telling Jean about his wife. Scott finally dug up the courage to call Madelyne, only to find she had disconnected the phone, evidently literally meaning it when she told him "don't bother coming back." Madelyne & Nathan couuld have been part of X-Factor's ongoing supporting cast, but it would have pushed back against the nostalgic get-the-band-back-together voice of the series. And so Cyclops would angst for the rest of Layton's run, until succeeding author Louise Simonson finally pushed things forward by having Jean learn of Madelyne, sent Cyclops back to Alaska and finally had Cyclops suffer the mental collapse which Layton seemed to have foreshadowed (and seriously, X-Factor #18, where Cyclops went crazy? hands-down my favourite issue of the series).

At the same time, Claremont adopted Madelyne back into the pages of Uncanny X-Men, with Cyclops' abandonment of her proving a good justification to turn the X-Men team against X-Factor (especially Scott's brother, Havok) and all of that came to a boil in 1989's Inferno crossover. Of course, it was during Inferno that Madelyne became a true, full-on villain and was forever redefined as Jean Grey's clone (in retrospect, Cyclops should have looked up her friends from high school before marrying her). Madelyne died in Inferno, leaving Scott & Jean to care for baby Nathan (until editorial demanded he be written out of Scott's life for the second time).

Cyclops has been made to do plenty of disagreeable things outside of his marriage to Madelyne: he built a mutant isolationist empire, threatened to assassinate politicians, created a personal hit squad, murdered his father figure and tolerated Emma Frost's fake British accent. Yet for many fans, his original sin was leaving his wife and child to return to Jean Grey - never mind that he and Jean weren't a couple (not until Fall of the Mutants, two years into X-Factor's run), never mind that Madelyne had behaved like an ogre with her ultimatums and cutting off access. Heroes overcome obstacles. Heroes find solutions. Heroes do the right thing. If Cyclops couldn't stand up for his family, how could anyone expect him to stand up for a world of strangers?

Tomorrow: X-Factor.

(An aside: re-reading Uncanny X-Men #201 for this post, I was really struck by the scene where Rachel Summers first met baby Nathan and vowed to protect him. Reflecting on all that Rachel & Nathan have been through over the years, it is heartwarming to see their siblings-by-another-mother relationship, from Rachel racing into the events of Inferno to try and save him to the fully-grown Cable journeying to the end of time to rescue her! Perhaps I'm projecting my own relationship with my older sister upon them, but I really like Rachel & Nathan.)

The Troubles of X-Factor Part 3: Jean Grey and the Trouble With Character Resurrection

If you've been around comic book internet sites as long as I have, you probably aren't very interested in yet another discussion of the resurrection of Jean Grey. I can hear that sigh rising up in your throat. Yet another complaint about how Jean's resurrection diminished the Dark Phoenix Saga and overall cheapened the concept of death in comic books. You've probably already written my essay in your head, so what's left for me to do?

The means by which Jean returned to the dead have become particularly notorious over the years for being "too complicated." I'm not sure they are, not compared to some of the ridiculous ways characters have been resurrected. Heck, in 1970 X-Men fans accepted the explanation of how Professor X came back from the dead and it was nuts. Following Jean, Iron Fist went through an extremely complex resurrection but no one gives grief to Iron Fist over it. No, comic book fandom holds the resurrection of Jean Grey with a little contempt and that's really what they mean when they call her return "too complicated." Xavier & Iron Fist's deaths simply weren't considered great stories - unlike the Dark Phoenix Saga. Sure, comic book characters died and came back from time to time - but never before had it happened to a story which was so greatly admired.

Still, the demands of nostalgia brought Jean back - back to a world which had changed in her absence. Although Bob Layton's X-Factor was hep to get the original five X-Men back together and ignore Uncanny X-Men & New Mutants for as long as humanly possible, and although Beast quickly returned to his 60s personality, while Angel found himself attracted to Jean again (a dropped bit from the 60s), time had moved on. Cyclops was cut off from Jean (for reasons I'll dig into tomorrow). Jean heard from Reed Richards that in her absence, the X-Men had begun working with her old enemy Magneto (Reed evidently never thought to mention he'd also worked with Magneto during Secret Wars, where the X-Men/Magneto alliance originated; nor did Jean think to ask Storm as a friend to explain the alliance to her - or even tell Storm she'd returned!) and anti-mutant hysteria seemed much stronger than before. Jean's determination to make the world a better place for mutants is what ignited the concept of X-Factor.

There's something about super hero resurrections which inevitably invites comparison to Christianity. As in the death of Jesus, when a popular hero is dead characters enter into that twilight of the soul and angst, "With Captain America/Iron Man/Reed Richards/Gilgamesh dead, how can we carry on in their absence?" Then a year later Captain America/Iron Man/Reed Richards/Gilgamesh's second coming arrives with the promise that the super heroes' world is going to get better. Even though - let's face it - that's really up to the whims of the writers and editors. If the only hero left on Marvel's Earth were Captain Ultra I'm sure everything would still work out.

But Jean - for all the work done to get her back into circulation - had returned to a Marvel Universe which didn't need her. Madelyne Pryor was Cyclops' new love interest and Cyke seemed much the better for it; Rachel Summers was in the midst of an ongoing plot which seemed to point towards an idea beyond the limits of the Dark Phoenix Saga, rather than retreading old ground; and Jean Grey herself, although ostensibly still going by the codename "Marvel Girl," seemed to have aged well beyond the years of "girlhood" ("Marvel Girl" would appear infrequently during the total run of X-Factor; when Jean then rejoined the X-Men it became clear there that she had no codename and, except for attempts to turn her into Phoenix, she hasn't had one since).

Jean's return excused bringing the original five X-Men back together, but Jean had little else to offer, especially in the Layton issues where she was strangely unconcerned about any of her old friends and family beyond the old team. She did bring a lot of friction between her and her old friends, but that potential would need Louise Simonson & Chris Claremont to explore it further. "People thought I was dead; now I'm back" isn't a hook which draws readers in - we're not likely to have been in that situation ourselves (barring any unfortunate clerical errors). At best, Jean's issue is "why did things change while I was gone?" Which, is decent enough baggage for a person to carry - enough to make me empathize, but not sympathize.

(I am now going to compliment Wonder Man; ready your fainting couch)

An advantage which Wonder Man's resurrection in 1976 holds over Jean's is that while both characters carried around trauma from their time spent in un-life and developed friction with people who had moved on during their absences, Wonder Man was for several years afraid of dying because of his experiences and that fear of death is something which is actually rather rational amidst the sort of life and death struggles super heroes are placed in. I sympathized with Wonder Man's baggage.

Jean Grey's resurrection and its "complications" predicted what would soon become a complaint directed at the entire X-Men franchise: "it's too complicated." By the end of the decade, Madelyne Pryor's true origin and Mr. Sinister would rewrite the book on exposition. The subsequent decade would see competing time travel stories with Cable, Bishop and the Askani; the Onslaught crossover would sour the very idea of super hero crossovers for years to come; Magneto would be replaced by Joseph; Colossus would turn evil, Marrow would turn good, Gambit would turn useless and somewhere in there is a garbled story about Sunspot being Reignfire.* The X-Men comic books may not have been any more complicated than any other super hero "family" of titles, pound for pound. However, the believed importance of Jean Grey's death and fandom's complicated reaction to her complicated return would give them a reputation - one which persists to this day.

Tomorrow: Cyclops.

*= also: Externals, Silver Fox, bone claws, Crimson Dawn, Tolliver, Apocalypse, Stryfe, Domino, Copycat, Maverick, Thieves Guild, Douglock, Phalanx, Upstarts, Blaquesmith, Age of Apocalypse, Monet St. Croix, Shatterstar...

The Troubles of X-Factor Part 2: The Beast and the Trouble With Character Regression

By 1972 the X-Men had more-or-less dropped out of comic books, but the newfound interest in horror/super hero hybrid tales led to a solo series featuring the Beast which began in Amazing Adventures #11. Although he had lasted the sixties with his large hands + large feet "apelike" appearance, the newly-reimagined Beast now sported a permanent coat of fur (initially gray but quickly changed to blue). The Beast's solo adventures didn't last very long, but his new appearance caught on as he soon joined the Avengers and his newfound high-spirited attitude and sharp quips made him one of the most beloved members of the team's 70s incarnation; from there, he skipped and bounced into the "New" Defenders and then into the pages of Bob Layton's X-Factor.

By the third issue of X-Factor, the Beast had been changed out of his fur coat and back to his "apelike" appearance, with his spiked hair being the sole memento of the previous 14 years worth of stories. Changing the Beast into a more human visual held certain value to the series as X-Factor were meant to be disguised as humans hunting mutants, a role which the Beast couldn't play so long as his fur marked him publicly as a mutant.

Bringing the Beast out of his fur was no mean feat; Layton didst implore the Gods of Continuity and yea, he didst offer to invoke the plot of Amazing Adventures #11 by bringing back unto the sacred pages one Carl Maddicks, the very scientist responsible for the Beast's transformation. The Gods of Continuity didst thunder in their rage, noting that Maddicks had perished in that same issue, but behold, Layton didst kill Maddicks again by the end of X-Factor #3 and his blood offering didst atone for all continuity shenanigans.

But beyond the series' need for a quasi-human Beast, why did this change come about? In one word: nostalgia. X-Factor was, after all, a series designed to bring the original five X-Men back together. Jean Grey's resurrection was one part of the formula; presumably the cancellation of New Defenders (to free up Angel, Beast & Iceman) was another; undoubtedly Claremont wrote Cyclops out of Uncanny X-Men to likewise oblige them. But not only did Layton bring the "classic" five together again, artist Jackson Guice redesigned them into visuals which intentionally evoked the designs of the Neal Adams era. Setting Beast back into his "classic" appearance fit right in with the series' intent.

Strangely, however, the Beast's regression actually began prior to his transformation! In X-Factor #2, there's a scene where the Beast and Iceman went to visit Beast's old flame Vera Cantor (his frequent girlfriend of the 1960s). Much to Beast's surprise, the previously-conservative Vera now sported a "with-it" hairdo with a partially shaved head and enjoyed listening to Elvis Costello. However, the intended humour of the scene was drawn from Beast's discomfort at her interests. Layton wrote him there as being very "square." His Beast had the same loquaciousness and large vocabulary which Stan Lee had originated, yet somehow Beast's fun-loving, wild-living ladies' man persona from the Avengers had mysteriously vanished. Before the Beast's physical appearance had changed one iota, Layton was already turning back the clock on the Beast's personality.

As I meditated upon the Beast's regression to his 60s identity, I became startled to think of how unusual this was in 1986. Nowadays characters frequently go back to wearing old costumes, dredging up long-abandoned personalities, reactivate long-lost powers and so forth. And yet, in that "quantify and qualify" period of the 80s which I mentioned in part 1, there was a feeling that Marvel's characters were progressing into something else. Yet after the Beast's character regression I began to realize many other characters followed him:

• Hank Pym retired from being a super hero in 1983; resumed being Giant-Man in 1993 and over the next decade revisited his three other identities.
• The Wasp became the Avengers' leader in 1982; by the mid-1990s she had shed her leadership qualities and become a secondary, more submissive character - as well as getting back together with Pym.
• Hawkeye got married in 1983 and became a stalwart Avengers leader in 1984; lost all of that by 1989.
• Morbius cured of being a living vampire in 1981; back at it in 1990.
• Vision & the Scarlet Witch happily married in 1975 after a long courtship and a lengthy origin for the Vision; by 1989 the marriage, origin and their children were excised.
• Thor grew a beard, lost his father and saw Asgard cut off from Earth during Walter Simonson's famous run; all of this was done away with by the very next writer.
• Spider-Man adopted a new black costume with much fanfare in 1984; put it away (after a period of switching between it and his original duds) in 1988 in favour of his "classic" appearance.

...And so forth. It seems as though no character can achieve escape velocity from their own past, not when nostalgia is concerned (or the need to make a buck from a character; no corporation can afford to leave a potentially profitable property on hiatus indefinitely). Beast's own teammate Angel would be resdesigned by Walter Simonson in later X-Factor issues to be a Horseman of Apocalypse, granting him blue skin and metal wings. By 1994 he was back in his Neal Adams costume; by 1996 his feathered wings were back; in 2002 his blue skin went away; then in 2008 he went through his Horseman of Apocalypse story and appearance all over again! Comic book characters seem cursed to constantly revisit their pasts - which is why you should never allow yourself to get too bent out of shape about their present-day condition. Everything new will be made old - that is the promise of nostalgia and that's what Beast's transformation portended.

Tomorrow: Jean Grey.

The Troubles of X-Factor Part 1: Introduction

At the time Marvel Comics launched their X-Men spin-off series X-Factor in early 1986, it was only the third true X-Men ongoing series, joining the X-Men themselves and the New Mutants (Classic X-Men, Dazzler and Alpha Flight were spin-offs, but almost completely divorced from the present-day tales of the X-Men). However, what truly set X-Factor apart at its inception was the lack of writer Chris Claremont. Indeed, the series was initially edited by a different department at Marvel, making its home first with Mike Carlin, then switching to Bob Harras with its second issue, while Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants were edited by Ann Nocenti.

At the time Claremont's 15+ year run on the X-Men began in 1975 he was writing various horror, kung fu and other super hero tales at Marvel. As the X-Men quickly gathered steam, their stories were increasingly all that he wrote. The phenomenal success of the X-Men in the 1980s naturally resulted in various attempts by Marvel to milk his formula for other titles. Dazzler debuted in the X-Men to increase interest in her own title; Alpha Flight's guest appearances in X-Men led to actual demand for a series of their own. Even the "New Defenders" team comprised of inactive X-Men Angel, Beast & Iceman could be seen as an attempt to capture some of Claremont's reflected glory.

When the New Mutants spin-off came about in 1983, it was under Claremont's pen (and the same editorial office as Uncanny X-Men: Louise Simonson & Ann Nocenti). As this book was cast with characters who shared the same home as the X-Men and would frequently appear in the background of each other's stories, it was only natural for Claremont to seek fidelity between the two books (they also shared plots occasionally - it was, after all, Claremont). However, Claremont somehow lost control of his story in 1986 when X-Factor encroached on his territory, via writer Bob Layton.

I don't know what went on behind-the-scenes of X-Factor, but one supposes there must be tales of anger, heartbreak and vendettas. After all, Carlin left after issue #1; Layton himself left after issue #5 (and the first annual); Claremont's former editor Louise Simonson then stepped in and wrote X-Factor 'til Claremont himself likewise left the X-Men in 1991. At the time of its launch, X-Factor promised to bring back the original five X-Men: Cyclops, Angel, Beast, Iceman & Marvel Girl - this despite the fact that Jean Grey had died in the climax of Claremont's "Dark Phoenix Saga" storyline, widely-considered the zenith of his X-Men stories.

Claremont's "All-New, All-Different" X-Men had proved there was life yet in the X-Men concept, which had previously been a mostly-unremarkable Marvel property, one which went into hibernation through most of the early 1970s. The new cast of characters Claremont wrote caught on with readers in a way the original five simply had not. Of course, Claremont had retained their mentor Professor X, and Cyclops was an important part of the team. Jean Grey too, of course, played a major role in his series. Beast & Angel would also occasionally drop into Claremont's stories. Strangely, only Iceman seemed to receive the (ahem) cold shoulder from Claremont, playing his only major role in Claremont's X-Men for a single issue (Uncanny X-Men #146) and otherwise only appearing in stories where cast reunions (and later, crossovers) demanded his presence. Even when Claremont returned to the X-Men franchise in the 21st century, he showed little interest in Iceman.

But at the time, it seemed natural for the original X-Men to gradually fade away. In the two months prior to X-Factor's launch, Claremont even wrote Xavier and Cyclops out of the series (though I wonder if Cyclops' removal was dictated by the needs of X-Factor). The X-Men had proved that although their cast had remained virtually intact for all of the 1960s, they didn't have to be perpetually defined by the same faces like the Fantastic Four were - they could develop a rotating cast of characters such as that of the Avengers. They were still heroes to a world which hated and feared them; they still lived in secret at Xavier's Westchester County manor; this was even a time when the X-Men would often do normal things around normal people such as playing arcade games and watching movies - just as the original five X-Men had gone to beatnik cafes and dance clubs.

Layton's X-Factor ended before it could truly explore its ideas and Louise Simonson worked swiftly to bring the series closer to Claremont's vision. And yet, some of the problems which arose from those mere five issues have plagued the X-Men ever since. In those days, creators didn't simply ignore a deeply damaging series and move on (for instance, Ian Edginton turned X-Force into terrorist bombers, but since no one has referenced that story since publication, none of the characters were ruined by it). In the 1980s there were a lot of efforts by fans-turned-pros to quantify and qualify Marvel's fictional reality (the most notable being the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe). Tying up lingering details of another writer's book was virtually a holy cause; if any series concluded with a single plot left unresolved, you could almost bet it would find closure somewhere (often in a book where Mark Gruenwald's name appeared). Especially in a series as young as X-Factor, there was no way to brush off the damage which had been done, only to pay the book's ideas at the bare minimum the lip service of homage before writing the most troubling problems out.

Over the next four days I'd like to ponder what I view as the four greatest problems about Bob Layton's X-Factor. I possess no inside information as to what went on behind-the-scenes, I'm simply interested in examining the impact decisions made there have had on the last 30 years of X-Men comic books. The four I wish to speak about are:

• Wednesday The Beast and the trouble with character regression
• Thursday Jean Grey and the trouble with character resurrection
• Friday Cyclops and the trouble with character assassination
• Saturday X-Factor and the trouble with character derailment

Enjoy, won't you?

Collected in October: X-Factor Forever!

And will it include my X-Factor Saga feature from X-Factor Forever#1?

Dang, I don't know.

Well, it's a good book regardless of that.

X-FACTOR FOREVER TPB

Written by LOUISE SIMONSON Penciled by DAN PANOSIAN, ERIC NGUYEN & ALUIR ALMANCINO Cover by DAN PANOSIAN Once they were Xavier's young charges: mutant teens who bore the responsibility of protecting a world that hated them. But time has hardened these five X-Men, forcing them to reimagine their mission and purpose. And now, the original dream team returns to fight the one threat that's haunted them since the day they took on the X-Factor name. Join legendary X-scribe Louise Simonson as she reunites with the title and characters she made famous for an epic in the Forever tradition! This volume also include X-FACTOR #63-64 (1991), the concluding issues of Simonson’s original run. Collecting X-FACTOR FOREVER #1-5. 176 PGS./Rated A …$19.99 ISBN: 978-0-7851-4799-2

Hey, am I the only person to notice that Simonson's Power Pack story in Girl Comics#3 used the X-Factor Forever designs for X-Factor? That story should really be collected here, don't you think?

X-Factor Forever#1 tomorrow!

Louise Simonson's tenure on X-Factor back in the 1980s led to some of the best writing on an X-Men title outside of Chris Claremont. She's probably best remembered for building Apocalypse into one of the X-Men's greatest threats and renovating Angel into Archangel, but there's so much more to her 50+ run. Other highlights included Cyclops suffering a mental breakdown, Iceman losing control of his powers, Beast becoming dumber each time he used his strength but refusing to stop, Scott and Jean finally putting their emotional baggage behind them and working together and X-Factor's trainees becoming an interesting bunch of characters in their own right.

Tomorrow is launch day for X-Factor Forever, in which Simonson returns to the series right where she left off to tell one last story about the characters, using a separate continuity. It has art by Dan Panosian. It also has a back-up feature by me.

So, bring it home, yeah?