Chapter 24: X-Factor – X-Tinction Agenda (1990)

First, some housekeeping. I stumbled across a story from Savage Hulk Vol 2 (2014) that I missed when I covered silver age flashbacks last year. Check out the update here.

As X-Factor finally return to Earth after the extended “Judgment War” storyline, the team finally takes the opportunity to explore their status as New York’s public mutant super heroes. For Bobby, that means he gets a real love interest for the first time in ages.

X-Factor #51 (March 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Terry Shoemaker

X-Factor return from outer space, and Ship positions itself as a gigantic skyscraper next to the Hudson River. While fleeing from Sabertooth, one of the surviving Morlocks, Mole, takes refuge in the basement of the CD store where Opal Tanaka works.

X-Factor don’t even appear in half the issue, as Simonson lays the groundwork for the next year of soap opera. A lot of space is given over to Bobby’s future love interest Opal, who’s introduced as an apathetic shop girl with hints at a dark past. She says she’s been on the run and has debts to pay – we’ll eventually get back to that next year.

And for good measure, future Archangel love interest Detective Charlotte Jones makes her debut here too.

New Mutants #88 (April 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Rob Liefeld

The New Mutants are excited to see X-Factor has finally returned home, and bring them up to date on Rusty and Skids’ arrest by Freedom Force. When the Mutant Liberation Front threatens terrorist attacks if they’re not freed, Bobby cools down the New Mutants for cheering them on.

This issue has been reprinted several times, most recently in the New Mutants Epic Collection Vol 7: Cable, and it’s on MU.

X-Factor #52 (April 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Terry Shoemaker

Archangel gets a rematch with Sabertooth, but what really concerns us here is that Bobby meets Opal Tanaka for the first time.

Bobby is out on a shopping spree and stops into Opal’s record shop to get queer icon Kate Bush’s “latest CD” (presumably, 1989’s The Sensual World, which might’ve been released while X-Factor were in outer space).

While he’s pestered by her boss Carmichael (and boy does Carmichael seem like a smitten queen in this scene), Bobby suddenly decides he’s smitten with Opal. At first blush, his thought bubbles seem like genuine affection. But on a closer reading, he’s actually questioning his own attraction (or lack thereof) to her. It’s also worth remembering that Bobby is still wearing the power-inhibiting belt he got from The Right, which is an explicitly hard-right Christian and implicitly anti-gay organization. What if the belt (which I’ve previously commented is way to ugly for a gay man to wear) was actually also a homosexuality-inhibiting belt?

Bobby’s aggressive move to ask her out in front of Carmichael could also just be a defensive reaction to Carmichael trying to buddy up with him.

Meanwhile, Archangel and Det. Jones’ romantic subplot advances as he saves her from a trio of crack users who intend to rape her, and Scott, Jean, Hank, and Trish Tilby double-date at Windows on the World where they’re attacked by The Locust (from waaaaay back in X-Men #32).

X-Factor #53 (May 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Terry Shoemaker

Bobby’s date with Opal is crashed by Mole, who’s suddenly jealously infatuated with her. There actually isn’t much space given to developing their relationship or flirting here, though Bobby does have a very shy reaction to Opal inviting him back to her apartment.

Meanwhile, Scott asks Jean to marry him, but she refuses, citing the memories from Phoenix and Madelyne that are still in her head. And Archangel seems to heal pretty quick from the gutting Sabertooth gave him last issue – this is some early story justification for Archangel’s healing power that surfaced in the late 90s and early 2000s but hasn’t been mentioned since.

X-Factor #54 (June 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Marc Silvestri

Iceman’s in a rush to leave Opal’s apartment and uses his ice form to put physical distance between them. Opal gives him a talk about how he should leave his “ice form” at home next time they hang out, in a cringey speech that seems to be all about the subtext of what his mutant powers are a metaphor for. Even Bobby flags this when he points out that his mutant form attracted her flaming gay boss, the “raving fan boy” Carmichael last issue.

As he leaves, he starts thinking about Hank and Warren’s bodies – his old crushes. His immediate concern is that “It’s going to take someone special to fall in love with [Warren],” since his transformation, but immediately corrects his own thoughts by remembering that he now has someone special – Opal Tanaka, the girl he met two hours ago (yes, he’s still babysitting little Christopher from all the way back in issue #52).

Later, Bobby and Hank double date at an art gallery where they bump into the amnesiac Colossus, now an up-and-coming New York artist following events in Uncanny X-Men. Beast and Colossus have a run-in with the vampire Crimson.

And in the meantime, Jean leaves the team to take a break from Scott. She goes on to appear in Uncanny X-Men #261-265.

X-Factor #55 (July 1990)
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Terry Shoemaker

Beast fights Mesmero, who’s abducted his ex-girlfriend Vera and hypnotized her into believing she’s a sex worker. In the end, we learn Mesmero was hired by Infectia to capture Beast, but we don’t know why. It’s really not a great issue, and it’s the last time we’ll see Infectia before her death from the Legacy Virus in X-Men #27.

Bobby has another date with Opal, but turns down her offer to come up and have sex so he can go chase after Warren. Duty calls.

This bizarre fill-in wound up in the X-Factor by Peter David Vol 1 Omnibus that was just released, and so it’s the only issue from this era that’s been reprinted in color and is available on Marvel Unlimited.

X-Factor #56-58 (August-October 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artists: Steven Carr, Andy Kubert and Jon Bogdanove

Crimson returns with her flock of vampire Ravens, announcing her intention to feed off of Archangel, who’s on a vigilante spree across Manhattan due to the effects of a drugs Sabertooth hit him with in their fight. But when Archangel kills one of the Ravens, she has to recruit him to their side lest the imbalance in their group destroy them all (it’s some kind of magic thing). Archangel is eventually rescued by X-Factor, Banshee, Forge, and Det. Charlotte Jones, who does a mind-meld of sorts with him, which gives him the will to live again.

The middle chapter of this story is given over to an inconsequential and irrelevant fight with The Right, presumably to remind us that Hodge is still out there in advance of the big crossover coming up in a couple months.

Meanwhile, Trish Tilby duly reports on Archangel’s attacks, driving a wedge between her and Beast – a running theme in their relationship. Iceman’s role in this story is basically to be a sounding board for Hank as he complains about the relationship.

X-Men: Spotlight on Starjammers #2 (May 1990)
Writer: Terry Kavanaugh
Artist: Dave Cockrum

Iceman cameos when X-Factor’s ship decides to intervene against the Shi’ar armada, who’ve come to earth to help Deathbird kidnap Rachel Summers. Only appearing in two panels, Cockrum manages to put Iceman right in Beast’s arms as he coos “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

This is an incredibly tedious and poorly plotted story that really only works if your affection for Cockrum’s original run on Uncanny X-Men makes you particularly generous. Basically, the Starjammers and Deathbird are racing to find pieces of a map to an incredibly powerful weapon. When Deathbird gets it, it turns out to be Rachel Summers/Phoenix. I suppose it’s possible that the Shi’ar were unaware of Rachel/Phoenix’s return to earth, but this sure seems like a roundabout way of discovering it. Moreover, once they get to Earth, Deathbird manages to KO Excalibur and kidnap Rachel without any resistance, which, just no. Despite having nearly 100 pages to complete the story, the big final battle is so overstuffed we barely even see the resolution, and nothing is made of the fact that Xavier and Corsair are back on Earth so close to their former students and family. This is for absolute completists only.

Nevertheless, it’s been reprinted in the X-Men: Starjammers by Dave Cockrum paperback from a couple years ago, and so it’s on MU.

X-Factor Annual #5 (1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Jon Bagdanove

This is part three of the four-part “Days of Future Present” story that began in Fantastic Four Annual #23 and New Mutants Annual #6. It’s a sequel of sorts to the “Days of Future Past” story from 1980’s Uncanny X-Men #140-141, fleshing out more of Rachel Summers’ backstory. She normally appeared in Excalibur at this point, but that book isn’t participating in the crossover, which is an indication of what a mess this whole thing is.

Anyway, in the previous chapters, the adult version of Franklin Richards appears in the present day, having travelled back from the DOFP future. He quickly sets about trying to make this reality align more with the world he remembers. His arrival in the present also awakens Ahab, an agent of the DOFP Sentinels that monitors the timestream and also runs their mutant hound program. He sets out to recapture and destroy Franklin and ensure that the Sentinel future comes to pass.

In this issue, Franklin obliterates X-Factor’s ship because he doesn’t remember it being part of New York City. Rachel finally arrives, noticing that Franklin is somehow draining her power. All of this freaks out Jean, who was only just beginning to cope with having Phoenix and Madelyne replace her during her death and is now confronted with her daughter (or Phoenix’s daughter?) from an alternate future. After the combined teams of heroes defeat Ahab and destroy his time displacement machines, adult Franklin decides to make baby Christopher Nathan (we seem to begin gradually shifting his name to Nathan here) disappear. Iceman gets taken out during the battle and doesn’t appear in the final chapter.

But before that happens, Bobby is really happy to see his teenage crush Johnny Storm again!

It has to be said that this bizarre and unmemorable sequel is an unfortunate attempt to graft a heterosexual love story onto one of the queerest classic X-Men stories. Even still, Cable and Gambit’s first meeting in Uncanny X-Men Annual #14 is a gift to shippers.

This story has been reprinted a few times, most recently in the Days of Future Past Omnibus. It’s also on MU.

Marvel Comics Presents #74 (fourth story)
Writer: Dan Mishkin
Artist: Joe Staton

Iceman and Human Torch race to save Torch’s wife Alicia Masters (actually the alien Skrull Lyja in disguise, but we don’t need to worry about that FF story) from a bomb that’s about to go off.

This is mostly a throwaway story, but look at Bobby’s reaction when his old high school crush Johnny walks right past him to hug his wife.

X-Factor #59 (November 1990)
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Marc Silvestri

This is a stock-taking issue before the big crossover (and, I suppose, after the last crossover).

Bobby gets a whole half of a page to take Opal out on a date. The rest of the issue is devoted to the other characters’ romantic subplots: Archangel meets Det. Jones’ family and learns her backstory. Scott and Jean agree to go back to normal, with Jean suggesting that maybe some she’ll propose to him – which she does in Uncanny X-Men #308. And Hank goes to apologize to Trish only to find her with her ex-husband at exactly the right time to get the wrong impression.

X-Factor: Prisoner of Love (1990)
Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: Jackson Guice

Beast has an encounter with a sort of alien psychic vampire who seduces him into helping her fight some dark entity that’s chasing her. Iceman has a brief cameo in a danger room sequence at the beginning.

While this is ostensibly a story about Beast being seduced by a woman, it’s also clearly a story about how heterosexuality literally kills him. He even spells out the subtext on page two, where he compares himself to “the indignant straights.”

Iceman next appears in the framing sequence of Marvel Fanfare #50, which sets up a story that takes place earlier in X-Factor continuity, so we covered that a few chapters ago.

“The X-Tinction Agenda” (December 1990-February 1991)
Uncanny X-Men #270-272
New Mutants #95-97
X-Factor #60-62
Writers: Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson
Artists: Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Jon Bogdanove

Having weaseled his way into a position of power in the Genoshan government, the cyborg Cameron Hodge has the Genoshan Magistrates, including a brainwashed Havok, lead an assault on the X-Men and their associates. When they capture Storm, Wolfsbane, Rictor, Boom Boom, and Warlock, the remaining X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants take the fight to them. They defeat Hodge, the Genoshan magistrates overthrow the government, and Havok and a newly mutated Wolfsbane stay behind to make sure Genosha’s mutates are truly freed.

With such a sprawling cast, Bobby barely has anything to do in the crossover. He doesn’t even appear in half the chapters. And yet, X-Factor #60 has a fairly important moment where Bobby and Opal have their first on-panel kiss – though no one makes a big deal of it (oddly, not even Ship, who shouldn’t have allowed the non-mutant Opal inside).

Since this is the final battle with Cameron Hodge and The Right (for at least a while), you might have thought that Bobby’s homosexuality-inhibiting belt power-inhibiting belt of their design might’ve played into the story, but no.

I’ve always loved Cyclops and Banshee’s dainty body language in this panel.

I’ve always had a soft spot for “X-Tinction Agenda” as a fairly tightly plotted action adventure, but on re-reading through the run of stories that’s gotten us here, I have to admit it feels like it’s missing something. Uncanny X-Men had spent a few years following up on Genoshan refugees Philip Moreau and Jenny Ransome – they’re ostensibly the reason the magistrates attack the X-Men in this story – and yet they don’t even appear in this story that pretty much resolves their plot. Similarly, Genosha’s civilians play no role even though you’d assume that they’d be integral to a real resolution of the island’s status. Maybe Claremont and Simonson thought they’d get to revisit the rebuilding of the country in later stories. As it turns out, Genosha gradually devolves into a state of permanent civil war until the “Magneto War” storyline gives it a radically different status quo in 1998.

This entire story has been reprinted multiple times in hardcover and paperback, and is on MU.

Where to find these stories: Unless otherwise noted, none of the X-Factor stories from this era have been reprinted in color, but they do appear in Essential X-Factor Vol 4. Presumably an X-Factor Epic covering this era will be coming soon, though they seem to be focusing on the post-Peter David era right now. Perhaps these will end up in an omnibus someday too?

Next Time: It’s the end of an era as this iteration of X-Factor has its final battle and rejoins the X-Men.

ROB SALERNO

Chapter 24: X-Factor – X-Tinction Agenda (1990)

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