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Post by zaku on Jan 5, 2024 9:39:02 GMT -5
Instead of going to Wikipedia (I prefer meaningful conversation and anecdotes), could somebody please tell me what was happening in the main X-Men book when X-Factor debuted in 1986? X-Factor featured the original X-Men masquerading as “mutant hunters” away from Professor X, right? So, from, say, 1986 to 1988, or even just the first year, what was happening in the main X-title, who was leading the X-Men, was Xavier active, etc? If I remember correctly, Professor X was in space with the Star Jammers in that period. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 5, 2024 9:45:45 GMT -5
Instead of going to Wikipedia (I prefer meaningful conversation and anecdotes), could somebody please tell me what was happening in the main X-Men book when X-Factor debuted in 1986? X-Factor featured the original X-Men masquerading as “mutant hunters” away from Professor X, right? So, from, say, 1986 to 1988, or even just the first year, what was happening in the main X-title, who was leading the X-Men, was Xavier active, etc? Xavier had been taken away by the Starjammers months before due to life-threatening injuries; he would stay away for several years. (*edit* oops, zaku beat me to it). The X-Men themselves kept the home fires burning with Storm as their leader; she had just defeated Cyclops in a fight meant to decide who should be boss. Cyke retired to Alaska with his wife and kid, to meet his upcoming character assassination. As a book, Uncanny X-Men felt a little rudderless at the time. The team had to deal with the Beyonder ( Secret Wars II was still going on), then Nightcrawler and Wolverine had solo stories before the X-Men had to face that pink sentinel from the future, Nimrod. Nimrod was a character whose great potential was never developed to full effect; a sentinel so advanced that he developed a conscience and became more and more human. Next the X-Men faced the Hellfire Club again ( le bore) and Wolverine tried to murder Rachel, stabbing her through the heart. His reason? Rachelhl was out to kill the arch-villainous psychic vampire Selene, and "X-Men don't kill". (Logan is either the biggest hypocrite the world ever knew, or Plot-Induced Stupidity struck again). Right after that the team would be put through the grinder during the Morlock Massacre; they would abandon the X-mansion and eventually relocate to Australia, far away from X-Factor. As I recall, their only reaction to the existence of the mutant hunters was something like "how could our old friends betray Xavier's ideals like that"? A reaction as nonsensical as the whole X-Factor concept, if you ask me. They X-Men never bothered to go and ask what the %$# their founding members were up to. Nor did X-Factor volunteer the information (or even tell them that Jean Grey was alive again!) |
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Post by driver1980 on Jan 5, 2024 9:51:42 GMT -5
Thanks, guys.
Have to say, the main X-book sounds less than compelling, X-Factor sounds much more fun (I did read some issues).
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jan 5, 2024 10:17:25 GMT -5
Instead of going to Wikipedia (I prefer meaningful conversation and anecdotes), could somebody please tell me what was happening in the main X-Men book when X-Factor debuted in 1986? X-Factor featured the original X-Men masquerading as “mutant hunters” away from Professor X, right? So, from, say, 1986 to 1988, or even just the first year, what was happening in the main X-title, who was leading the X-Men, was Xavier active, etc? Xavier had been taken away by the Starjammers months before due to life-threatening injuries; he would stay away for several years. (*edit* oops, zaku beat me to it). The X-Men themselves kept the home fires burning with Storm as their leader; she had just defeated Cyclops in a fight meant to decide who should be boss. Cyke retired to Alaska with his wife and kid, to meet his upcoming character assassination. As a book, Uncanny X-Men felt a little rudderless at the time. The team had to deal with the Beyonder ( Secret Wars II was still going on), then Nightcrawler and Wolverine had solo stories before the X-Men had to face that pink sentinel from the future, Nimrod. Nimrod was a character whose great potential was never developed to full effect; a sentinel so advanced that he developed a conscience and became more and more human. Next the X-Men faced the Hellfire Club again ( le bore) and Wolverine tried to murder Rachel, stabbing her through the heart. His reason? Rachelhl was out to kill the arch-villainous psychic vampire Selene, and "X-Men don't kill". (Logan is either the biggest hypocrite the world ever knew, or Plot-Induced Stupidity struck again). Right after that the team would be put through the grinder during the Morlock Massacre; they would abandon the X-mansion and eventually relocate to Australia, far away from X-Factor. As I recall, their only reaction to the existence of the mutant hunters was something like "how could our old friends betray Xavier's ideals like that"? A reaction as nonsensical as the whole X-Factor concept, if you ask me. They X-Men never bothered to go and ask what the %$# their founding members were up to. Nor did X-Factor volunteer the information (or even tell them that Jean Grey was alive again!) It's been a while since I read them (like since they came out) but didn't the world consider the The X-Men dead during that Outback period after they went through the Siege Perilous or some such and weren't they trying to maintain the illusion they were dead so they were avoiding interacting with people that knew them or in public. Like I said it's been decades since I read those issues and I'm not sure I would revisit them, but I thought that was the prevailing conceit behind the Outback exile years. -M |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 5, 2024 10:26:54 GMT -5
Xavier had been taken away by the Starjammers months before due to life-threatening injuries; he would stay away for several years. (*edit* oops, zaku beat me to it). The X-Men themselves kept the home fires burning with Storm as their leader; she had just defeated Cyclops in a fight meant to decide who should be boss. Cyke retired to Alaska with his wife and kid, to meet his upcoming character assassination. As a book, Uncanny X-Men felt a little rudderless at the time. The team had to deal with the Beyonder ( Secret Wars II was still going on), then Nightcrawler and Wolverine had solo stories before the X-Men had to face that pink sentinel from the future, Nimrod. Nimrod was a character whose great potential was never developed to full effect; a sentinel so advanced that he developed a conscience and became more and more human. Next the X-Men faced the Hellfire Club again ( le bore) and Wolverine tried to murder Rachel, stabbing her through the heart. His reason? Rachelhl was out to kill the arch-villainous psychic vampire Selene, and "X-Men don't kill". (Logan is either the biggest hypocrite the world ever knew, or Plot-Induced Stupidity struck again). Right after that the team would be put through the grinder during the Morlock Massacre; they would abandon the X-mansion and eventually relocate to Australia, far away from X-Factor. As I recall, their only reaction to the existence of the mutant hunters was something like "how could our old friends betray Xavier's ideals like that"? A reaction as nonsensical as the whole X-Factor concept, if you ask me. They X-Men never bothered to go and ask what the %$# their founding members were up to. Nor did X-Factor volunteer the information (or even tell them that Jean Grey was alive again!) It's been a while since I read them (like since they came out) but didn't the world consider the The X-Men dead during that Outback period after they went through the Siege Perilous or some such and weren't they trying to maintain the illusion they were dead so they were avoiding interacting with people that knew them or in public. Like I said it's been decades since I read those issues and I'm not sure I would revisit them, but I thought that was the prevailing conceit behind the Outback exile years. Yes indeedy, but that happened a good while later (when the X-Men were killed by "the Adversary", an American Native demon, and then resurrected by Roma, the omniversal majetrixwhatever). By then, X-Factor had abandoned its facade as mutant hunters. They had had many months to ring up Xavier's school and say "hi guys, don't worry, we're not crazy; this is just pretend and we're still heroes. By the way, Jean's not dead anymore so tell Wolverine to prevent his going crazy when he picks up her scent in a few months". Louise Simonson tried to use the X-Men's death to undo the damage done to Cyclops as a character: Cyke saw his wife's death on TV (he didn't know she was still alive), urging him to find their son, which he did. So we readers could at least pretend that his dumping his family had never happened. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 5, 2024 10:52:50 GMT -5
Instead of going to Wikipedia (I prefer meaningful conversation and anecdotes), could somebody please tell me what was happening in the main X-Men book when X-Factor debuted in 1986? X-Factor featured the original X-Men masquerading as “mutant hunters” away from Professor X, right? So, from, say, 1986 to 1988, or even just the first year, what was happening in the main X-title, who was leading the X-Men, was Xavier active, etc?
Around that time Xavier was taken into space by the Spacejammers when he had a heart attack and couldn't return to Earth for plot reasons (Shi'ar civil war). Before he left, he asked Magneto to take over as teacher for the New Mutants.
The X-Men around that time were still based in the Mansion, though not for long. Storm (though she lost her powers) was the leader with Wolverine. The team itself was falling apart: Rachel Summers disappeared after a failed attempt to kill Selene, Shadowcat, Colossus and Nightcrawler were injured during a fight with the Marauders, leaving Storm, Wolverine and Rogue. The Marauders targeted also other mutants, so Havok and Dazzler joined up around that time. Cyclops' wife Madelyne Pryor was also attacked by the Marauders and joined the team as support. Psylocke and Longshot joined for other reasons.
In Dallas, just in time for Colossus to recover enough to join the team again, the X-Men faced a demonic creature called the Adversary who had ties to Forge and they (including Madelyne) sacrificed their lives to stop it, but were resurrected by Roma (the daughter of Merlin). Using their death as cover, the team moved to Australia where they used an abandoned town as their base of operations.
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Post by driver1980 on Jan 5, 2024 11:08:06 GMT -5
Doesn’t sound appealing to me at all, I’m afraid.
Be interesting to know what the sales figures were for the main book and X-Factor.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jan 5, 2024 11:12:48 GMT -5
Doesn’t sound appealing to me at all, I’m afraid. Be interesting to know what the sales figures were for the main book and X-Factor. That was still the period where distributors measured sales in context of X-Men because it was the #1 seller in the market most of the time. Books sold some equation to X with X being X-Men sales. A book that outsold X-Men would be said to sell say 1.5 (1 and a half times X-Men), but most books were measured at less than 1 so like .8 X-Men Real numbers were rarely given, but everything was juxtaposed to X-Men, I can't recall X-Factor ever being in the 1X or higher category during the time. -M |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jan 5, 2024 11:31:46 GMT -5
The overall storyline was weak, but there were some good individual issues in there.
X-factor itself had pretty much the same problems, made worse by the fact that they wanted to bring back the original X-Men, but had no real plan with what to do with them when they came back. Simonson at least convinced editorial that they would need some actual threats for the team. Originally they were going to fight the Owl.
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Post by zaku on Jan 5, 2024 12:20:12 GMT -5
I've just found that they stopped the "X-Terminators" facade only in the issue #21, when Cameron Hodge showed his true colors. I didn't remember that idiocy lasted so long.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 5, 2024 14:07:51 GMT -5
I've just found that they stopped the "X-Terminators" facade only in the issue #21, when Cameron Hodge showed his true colors. I didn't remember that idiocy lasted so long. I'd like to know when it was decided that Hodge was a heel and that the mutant hunters gig was a ridiculous idea. I have a hard time believing that it was planned from the get-go; there would have been some hint given to the readers so we wouldn't go "has everyone gone insane in this comic?" |
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Post by zaku on Jan 5, 2024 14:37:07 GMT -5
I've just found that they stopped the "X-Terminators" facade only in the issue #21, when Cameron Hodge showed his true colors. I didn't remember that idiocy lasted so long. I'd like to know when it was decided that Hodge was a heel and that the mutant hunters gig was a ridiculous idea. I have a hard time believing that it was planned from the get-go; there would have been some hint given to the readers so we wouldn't go "has everyone gone insane in this comic?" I vaguely remember it being decided during the series, but I honestly couldn't say when. Maybe when Walt Simonson started drawing it? |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 5, 2024 14:44:49 GMT -5
I'd like to know when it was decided that Hodge was a heel and that the mutant hunters gig was a ridiculous idea. I have a hard time believing that it was planned from the get-go; there would have been some hint given to the readers so we wouldn't go "has everyone gone insane in this comic?" I vaguely remember it being decided during the series, but I honestly couldn't say when. Maybe when Walt Simonson started drawing it? Sounds reasonable. There was a big shift in the series' tone at about that time. |
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Post by commond on Jan 5, 2024 19:41:03 GMT -5
I'm not convinced X-Factor was worth reading until Peter David took over.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2024 0:28:12 GMT -5
So Howard the Duck got quite a few picks in the recent Christmas Classic Comics threads and I barely know anything about him as I've never read a bronze-age comic. I asked my dealer about him to check out a few copies, he doesn't have any of the comics but he does have a couple of 1980s B&W Howard the Duck magazines, says one has a back up story with Dracula in it. Were those magazines reprints or original stories? I'll be checking them out eventually....
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