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Friday, March 21, 2014

X-amining X-Factor #26

"Casualties"
March 1988

In a Nutshell 
X-Factor cleans up after their battle with Apocalypse. 

Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Walt Simonson
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Plot
Outside Apocalypse's ship, police arrive and attempt to arrest X-Factor, but when they hear an explosion nearby, the cops allow X-Factor to investigate. Elsewhere, Apocalypse watches from his new base as he recalls Famine from Kansas. In Manhattan, X-Factor arrives at the site of the explosion, and helps rescue people trapped inside the burning building. As they finish, one of the cops tips them off to a collapsed building nearby, and they rush off to help, rescuing more people. At the police's suggestion, Marvel Girl telekinetically takes the wounded to Roosevelt Hospital. At the hospital, Beast runs into Trish Tilby, and she learns about his condition. X-Factor continues to help at the hospital throughout the night, until they're told things are under control. As they leave, they're approached once again by the police, but are told they're no longer under arrest. Thanks to all the reporters covering their acts of heroism, the city is now considering them heroes.


One of the cops suggest they get some rest back at Apocalypse's ship, and offers to drive X-Factor there in light of Marvel Girl's exhaustion. On the way, they tell X-Factor that the city is holding a parade that afternoon. When X-Factor reaches the ship, they discover that the human reporters are blocked from following them inside by some kind of energy barrier. Inside, Scott and Jean reconcile their feelings for each other. Later, X-Factor awakens to find new costumes delivered to them, created by one of the people they rescued. They emerge from the ship to find the police waiting to serve as their honor guard for the parade. Elsewhere, Apocalypse watches as X-Factor joins the parade, confidant that one day X-Factor will be corrupted by their power and forced to turn on their new human friends.

Firsts and Other Notables
Like the other "Fall of the Mutants" finales, this issue sets up a new status quo for X-Factor, as in the course of the issue their acts of heroism cleaning up after the battle with Apocalypse help win over the public and the authorities enough to rescind arrest warrants and receive a parade in their honor, setting them up as New York City's publicly-known mutant heroes, headquartered in Apocalypse's old ship.


And like New Mutants #61, the new status quo includes new costumes, designed by Walt Simonson, the best of which is easily Cyclops' (this is probably my second or third favorite Cyclops' costume). These are the costumes the team will wear until issue #63 (though Beast will quickly abandon his brown and yellow costume shortly after reverting to his blue and furry look), at which point new series penciller Whilce Portacio will unveil new, more uniformed, costumes for everyone except Archangel and Beast.


It's revealed that Apocalypse's ship won't allow any non-mutants inside, a condition that will exist for most of its existence. While at the moment X-Factor appreciates it simply for the break it gives them from the reporters hounding them, Apocalypse believes it will eventually sow discord between X-Factor and humanity.


Trish Tilby returns, giving up her hospital bed for someone who needs it more. She then learns about Beast's condition, and confirms that she's never been anti-mutant, only anti-mutant hunting X-Factor. It's also revealed that Candy Southern is the one who tipped her off about the connection between Angel and X-Factor.


A Work in Progress
In a sign of his still getting over Apocalypse's conditioning and his own bitterness at what Hodge did to him, Angel is less than receptive towards the cops at the beginning of the issue (though he does rescue someone later on) and watches from afar as X-Factor participates in the parade.


Apocalypse, along with War and a Horseman-fied Caliban, have relocated to a new base (Apocalypse claims his ship was the least of his many bases, though later stories will indirectly refute that idea), though we don't learn where it is. He also plucks Famine from her battle with the Captain in Captain America #339.


Scott Summers, Husband of the Year
Scott admits to Jean that part of him hoped Maddie was a resurrected Jean when he married her, a pretty obvious retcon of X-Men #174 & #175. He then proceeds to expound on this idea in a way that doesn't exactly paint him in the best light.


Young Love
It is heavily implied that Scott and Jean do the it this issue (in a sequence of panels I've always liked), after Jean essentially tells Scott its time to let Maddie go and that they've suffered enough before planting one on him.


Human/Mutant Relations
A doctor at the hospital mistakenly believes the Right's Smile Face soldiers from the attack in issue #21 were mutants, something which makes Beast sad.


As they spend most of the issue publicly performing acts of heroism, some within the city come to embrace X-Factor as heroes (while Maddie's message to Scott plays in the background).


A little girl gives a passing Marvel Girl flowers, saying her grandma told her it would be okay if she grew up to be a mutant.


Apocalypse, watching from afar, reaffirms that X-Factor are indeed amongst the strong, but that while they've seemingly earned the humans trust for now, it's only a matter of time before the humans turn on them.


Teebore's Take
Having severed the characters from the original premise of the title by the conclusion of last issue, with X-Factor revealed as mutants to the public, their headquarters destroyed, and the mutant hunting organization effectively dead, Simonson and Simonson use this issue to establish the new status quo for the book moving forward: they will be the publicly-acknowledged mutant team, the Avengers or Fantastic Four of the mutant set. With the X-Men believed dead and acting from the shadows and the New Mutants still students, X-Factor will function in the role of the traditional superhero team, operating out of New York City, amidst a media spotlight the X-Men have always avoided.

Simonson does her best to set up this shift in this issue, devoting it entirely to X-Factor working to rescue people and repair damage done by Apocalypse and his Horsemen, all captured on film by the roving reporters covering their actions or witnessed by the cops who, in light of their efforts, grow increasingly less antagonistic towards them. The ticker-tape parade ending is a bit much (if only for the fact that the city is in no condition to be throwing a parade of any kind, be it for new mutant heroes or not), but the idea of X-Factor becoming public mutant heroes is handled well enough (and the benefit of establishing a new status quo is that it can contain to unfold in future issues). It's amazing what an effect letting the public watch you rescue people can have on your popularity, and by embracing the spotlight the X-Men traditionally shunned, X-Factor ends "Fall of the Mutants" on a rare and surprisingly upbeat note.

Next Issue
"Fall of the Mutants" coverage concludes with Captain America #339 & Daredevil #252, followed by Power Pack #35 & Fantastic Four #312. Then, on Friday, Excalibur makes its first appearance in Excalibur Special Edition #1.

24 comments:

  1. I like the idea of X-Factor getting some respect and becoming the "legitimate" mutant team, though the whole thing seems a little contrived here. But I'm pleased with the end result.

    Regarding the new uniforms -- this series never had a costume combination for all the chracters that worked for me a hundred percent. I vastly prefer the white & blue Cyclops outfit over the yellow & blue, but I prefer the red & blue Beast over this ugly brown & yellow look. Jean looks fine to me in either of her costumes, though if I had to give an edge to one, it would be the green & yellow. And I like Angel's red & white outfit over the Archangel costume. Iceman is kind of a non-issue since he's iced up most of the time, and I think his actual uniform was the same white & light blue the whole time, right?

    So I guess it comes down to my preference being Cyclops's second costume alongside everyone else's previous ones.

    (this is probably my second or third favorite Cyclops' costume)"

    Third for me, behind the Cockrum/Byrne look and the Jim Lee outfit.

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  2. "setting them up as New York City's publicly-known mutant heroes, headquartered in Apocalypse's old ship."

    As you pointed out, while CC is moving the X-men as far away as possible from the standard super-hero status quo, X-factor is as close it gets to becoming a traditional super-hero team. I wonder if Simonson and CC planned this together, or just a random coincidence?

    With regards to the costumes, one thing I did like about the pre-FOTM was that the color scheme of each person incorporated the colors of a previous costume.

    Two points about Jean:
    1) Interesting that she goes from green & yellow colors to red & yellow...just like Phoenix.
    2) Remember during the Proteus story, where Cyclops and others were amazed that Jean could telekinetically fly herself and 6 other people? And yet, here she's flying herself and over a dozen people, and not a peep from Cyclops.

    "It's also revealed that Candy Southern is the one who tipped her off about the connection between Angel and X-Factor."

    I thought it was Mystique? I guess maybe Candy tipped off Trish personally?

    "Apocalypse claims his ship was the least of his many bases, though later stories will indirectly refute that idea"

    Disappointing.

    "It is heavily implied that Scott and Jean do the it this issue"

    Which would make it their first time, no?



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  3. "Scott admits to Jean that part of him hoped Maddie was a resurrected Jean when he married her, a pretty obvious retcon of X-Men #174 & #175"

    That whole explanation he gives her is pretty much a giant retcon of their whole history from Uncanny # 175 to 200!

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  4. "I like the idea of X-Factor getting some respect and becoming the "legitimate" mutant team, though the whole thing seems a little contrived here. "

    I find it a LOT contrived, at least in the larger context. In real-world time, the X-Men have been shunned despite their heroism for 24 years! All it took was one issue to turn that around? And this is JUST after they'd been outed as having perpetrated a huge hoax on people with the "mutant hunters" scam? I call shenanigans.

    Shenanigans, I say!

    I first encountered Scott and Jean's costumes in "Inferno" X-Men issues, drawn by Marc Silvestri. I really dig them. I prefer this design to Jean's previous one mainly because it lets her hair fly free, and it's a unified aesthetic in that most colorists seemed to draw her hair in the same shade as the red of her costume. (Also a neat idea that the progression of her X-Factor costumes --- from green/yellow to red/yellow -- mirrors the progression of her Phoenix outfits.) Good stuff.

    Scott, meanwhile, has always only ever worn a blue and yellow color scheme, so the switch to blue and white is surprising and interesting. I like it. I might even go so far as to call this my second-favorite Cyke outfit, after the classic look that he had from X-Men 40 to X-Men 201.

    (I'm looking forward to when we get to that Uncanny issue with Maddie's hallucination, where Silvestri draws Cyclops in both those costumes, in adjacent panels.)

    I've never read any of the X-Factor issues that link "FoTM" to "Inferno" so we all can look forward to no more anti-X-Factor rants from me over the coming weeks. :)

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  5. "1) Interesting that she goes from green & yellow colors to red & yellow...just like Phoenix."

    Dang it, you beat me to my canny observation!

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  6. wwk5d, don't we all sometimes try to "retcon" the thing to the wife when we have done a blooper? ;)

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  7. @Jason: Also a neat idea that the progression of her X-Factor costumes --- from green/yellow to red/yellow -- mirrors the progression of her Phoenix outfits.

    They got the costumes without asking and as a surprise from a "tailor they saved" if I remember correctly, and Jean gets this particular transition while Scott adopts blue 'n white colors... I smell "Nathaniel Essex Fashion" behind this. Say, did Cyclops' come with a preinstalled ruby quartz visor?

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  8. @Matt: Third for me, behind the Cockrum/Byrne look and the Jim Lee outfit.

    I go back and forth between this and the Lee outfit. Most often, I'm with you.

    @wwk5d:I wonder if Simonson and CC planned this together, or just a random coincidence?

    I'd like to think the former, or that Simonson at least saw the opening and took it, but it works either way.

    Interesting that she goes from green & yellow colors to red & yellow...just like Phoenix.

    I thought of that as I was putting the finishing touches on this post, but instead of adding it, I said "let someone point it out in the comments". :)

    And yet, here she's flying herself and over a dozen people, and not a peep from Cyclops.

    It has been established that post-resurrection, non-TP Jean is much stronger in terms of her telekinesis (it was part of why Crazy Scott was thinking she was Phoenix), so maybe he's just used to it now?

    I guess maybe Candy tipped off Trish personally?

    That's my take on it - Mystique leaked to the media, in general, Candy went to Trish specifically.

    Which would make it their first time, no?

    Depends on who you ask. Some maintain they had to be making the beast with two backs prior to Giant Size, while others maintain their first time was likely on the butte (I said BUTTE!) in New Mexico in issue #132.

    I tend to side with the latter (one of the Classic X-Men backups heavily implies that circa issue #98 Scott and Jean still hadn't sealed the deal), which would mean that, yeah, this is the first time Scott and Jean, and not Scott and an exact replica created by a cosmic being or Scott and an exact replica created by a manipulative villain with boundary issues, have sex.

    @Jason: In real-world time, the X-Men have been shunned despite their heroism for 24 years! All it took was one issue to turn that around?

    I definitely find it contrived, I just tend to see it as less contrived than a lot contrived. I think it also helps (as I alluded to in my review) that Simonson spends some time developing it in future issues, as X-Factor continues to help clean-up, moves the ship, speaks out about the Registration Act, etc., so that in the end, it feels less like the public made a complete 180 in one issue.

    The X-Men, after all, did most of their heroics off camera, or in such a way (like the fight with Nimrod in issue #194) that it looked like they were siding with villains to people who didn't want to give it much thought.

    The public, as a single entity, is pretty dumb, superficial, and easy to impress. Show them images of a pretty redhead (and not a demon looking guy or a dude made of metal) pulling innocent people out of burning buildings, and I don't have to squint too hard to believe they'd embrace these people as heroes (it's certainly telling that Beast is non-hairy at this point, and that Archangel isn't really part of the team, and certainly not part of the parade/public adulation).

    I've never read any of the X-Factor issues that link "FoTM" to "Inferno" so we all can look forward to no more anti-X-Factor rants from me over the coming weeks

    Awww. You've been keeping me on my toes. :)

    @Teemu: Say, did Cyclops' come with a preinstalled ruby quartz visor?

    Ha! I imagine not. Though with their old HQ crushed, he's probably running low on spares.

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  9. @Jason: I find it a LOT contrived, at least in the larger context. In real-world time, the X-Men have been shunned despite their heroism for 24 years! All it took was one issue to turn that around?

    It pays to advertise. And have the HQ on Manhattan instead of 60 miles north in middle of nowhere. I mean, Avengers Mansion and Baxter Building both house totally accepted supergroups. NO coincidence.

    Plus, if we are going with the mutants-as-oppressed-minority analogue, it may be that the good people of Manhattan took it less as an X-Factor parade and more as some sort of short notice Mutant Pride thing.

    @Teeb: I tend to side with the latter (one of the Classic X-Men backups heavily implies that circa issue #98 Scott and Jean still hadn't sealed the deal), which would mean that, yeah, this is the first time Scott and Jean, and not Scott and an exact replica created by a cosmic being or Scott and an exact replica created by a manipulative villain with boundary issues, have sex.

    So, does doing a cosmic replica or a clone rank higher or lower than doing an identical twin sister?

    Good thing too that they finally get it done if they already haven't, because it would have been just hateful to have Jean absorb the memories of both Phoenix and Maddie and remember Scott having a go at everyone but herself.

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  10. Speaking of awakward things... Jean would have also gotten the memories of Maddie sleeping with Havok during Inferno.

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  11. @Si: Speaking of awakward things... Jean would have also gotten the memories of Maddie sleeping with Havok during Inferno.

    And god knows what else... I don't trust this Logan fellow one bit with the clone of Jean and the enstranged wife of Summers in a completely boring place in middle of Australia.

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  12. "I tend to side with the latter (one of the Classic X-Men backups heavily implies that circa issue #98 Scott and Jean still hadn't sealed the deal)"

    Continuity-wise it's probably correct but...eh...it's hard for me to buy. Scott and Jean was portrayed as young adults having a romantic relationship for the 20 last issues of the first series, and none of them have ever been portrayed as this super chaste type.

    (Of coures, the sliding timeline might now force us to say that well, they were really 17 years old or something in those issues...in which case I got nothing :))

    "which would mean that, yeah, this is the first time Scott and Jean, and not Scott and an exact replica created by a cosmic being or Scott and an exact replica created by a manipulative villain with boundary issues, have sex."

    This is also a reason why I dislike the "they didn't screw until X-Factor" theory. It adds such a bizarre layer to the Scott-Jean relationship.

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  13. So not only did Scott boink 2 of Jean's doppelgangers before he boinked her, one of the doppelgangers also boinked his brother? And Jean has memories of all that? Geez, these 2 should have had relationship problems long before Morrison got anywhere near the X-titles.

    About the only drama that ever came from any of that was Jean going all drama queen when Scott proposes to her later on in X-factor, since she remembers Scott's proposals to Phoenix and Maddie...

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  14. wwk5d,

    or then the no-drama-over-sexing-around goes to say that she's no prude over that matter which of course would also suggest they must have been at it like rabbits when studying at Xavier's in the sixties. Where she also was the only girl and a telepath around teen boys which must have been an experience in itself.

    Which brings us to the reasons how Scott manages to attract all the telepaths... the popular explanation seems to be that they find his complete lack of personality soothing to be around to, but could it instead be that he's very alpha in what comes to marketing his prowess on psychical level? Works like magic on thrill-seekers like Emma and Betsy, while Jean may just have been happy that it was her body doubles that got physically caught in the way of it rather than her actual self.

    Phoenix-Jean was quite a long way in her seduction to the dark side when the butte scene happened, so...

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  15. I'm surprised at how much I like the white on Cyclops' outfit, because his visor is still yellow and the yellow on top of blue hearkened back to his standard costume post-graduation — as well as to the original X-Men school/team uniforms, which was fitting given what is for me his absolute indivisibility from the group.

    The move from green-and-yellow to red-and-yellow for Jean does mirror Phoenix's, but only when she explicitly became Dark Phoenix. Rachel wore a red-and-yellow outfit in homage to her mother, so perhaps in her timeline Jean (who apparently really was Phoenix) transitioned to red from green when the dystopic world of theirs angered or hardened her, causing her to kill, even if she didn't totally lose it... or something. Otherwise the red-and-yellow look is, where portents rather than aesthetics are concerned anyway, bad news.

    Anyway, Jean's colors are green and yellow to me, whether as Marvel Girl or Phoenix. I did like the original X-Factor uniforms overall, even though it was distracting when the colorists couldn't decide whether Cyclops and Beast had the same dark blue in their uniforms or not, but my preference is still for various individual outfits judging purely by the looks and not group theme. While the new outfits are an interesting change of pace, I don't care for the stripes on the arms, legs, and crest of the head; they're unnecessarily busy and distract from the X motif. Everything that we've seen so far, however, is better in my eyes than the coming era of random pouches and various armored bits.

    Regarding the Scott/Jean camera pull-back, cut away, cue tacky wah-wah guitar, if it is their first time together I wonder if Jean's distracted by Scott knowing just what she likes thanks to months if not years of practice (oh, Marvel Time, you even complicate sexual histories) with her doppelgangers.

    Man, I should've waited to shower 'til after I wrote that.

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  16. Hey, before they set out to do it, on what's essentially a balcony in front of a massive window, they had a lot of talk about Maddie. Had they at this point still missed the TV appearance of Maddie from Dallas just before her "death" there urging Scott to find their son and were under the impression that Maddie was dead and that the redheaded body found in Alaska was really her? Are they explicitly seen catching the broadcast for first time in some later instance, possibly just before they set for the Nebraskan orphanage?

    Because, they coming into terms with Maddie's death in "oh, well" manner just before succumbing to long-awaiting lust when her "death" still is literally a hot news topic drives right into the Scott Summers Husband of the Year territory and kind of makes me root for the Goblyn Queen.

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  17. Yeah, they missed the news about Maddie. They see it next issue.

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  18. On further reflection, I am going to call this my favorite Cyclops costume ... separating it completely from the stories associated with a given costume. I just think the white on blue looks better than yellow on blue ... white on blue has a very "cold" quality, and it contrasts nicely with the "hot" colors of Jean's outfit. The contrast seems appropriate given their personalities.

    I always ranked the classic Ross Andru design that survived into the Cockrum/Byrne/Smith eras just for the associations but, like I said, separating all that out, I think this costume is cooler. (And as noted, I love it when drawn by Silvestri.)

    So, yeah. Just sayin'.

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  19. Yeah, they missed the news about Maddie. They see it next issue.

    Oh, ok, thanks. Like Jason I too never got to read X-Factor issues between FotM and Inferno, and not much else either for that matter because of my local publication or more the lack of it. I'll make no promises of not bitching about things, though.

    And for all the bad press Inferno as a crossover and a storyline has gotten throughout the years, when discussing about the X-comics of this era I sure feel like I'm haphazardly flicking matches to see if one of them might ignite... the Inferno.

    So with the very shallow bridge that brought Alex to be mentioned here, I'll have to say that for all the talks about him being the Summers brother that's true to his word and thus standing by Madelyne in the Inferno, it sounds a teensiest bit hypocritical considering that his actual long-time girlfriend parades around possessed at the same time.

    I think it really because their daddy abandoned them a long time ago to go play pirate in a galaxy far far away. Hilarious really, how CC did some creative lifting back in the seventies after the first movie and inadvertently got more from the same package than he bargained for, with the daddy issues. And clones.

    Now with the retcons that Mr. Sinister had been scheming on the background since always, it's curious that in Inferno both of the Summers boys end up being with a Grey woman and her clone. Maddie had of course reeled out of his control at this point, but it's still a nice back-up combination for his to have because there probably wouldn't have been anything interesting in Lorna's genetic background anyway.

    In chronological sense the first of Sinister schemings is probably the young Daniel Summers back in 19th century London, and he too ended walking away from his wife. It's almost like this tendency of leaving their family and never calling back has been carefully cultivated into the Summers men, which from the spreading of the genes point of view is a terribly handy thing really.

    What I'm trying to say, those new uniforms so did come from Mr. Sinister. Scott and Jean with primary color designs, while the other too get uniforms as bland as they are to a 19th century genetical scientist.

    Captcha seems to be with me on this one, my not-a-robot-not-a-hoax check words for the post are "ameigin partaking". They should do more this positive feedback thing.

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  20. Teemu: there probably wouldn't have been anything interesting in Lorna's genetic background anyway.

    Oh, right, forgot. Mr. Sinister is a Victorian-era English scientist and apparently a former nazi scientist too. It's pretty obvious why he don't want to genetically engineer into that direction.

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  21. @Blam: if it is their first time together I wonder if Jean's distracted by Scott knowing just what she likes thanks to months if not years of practice

    I dunno. I'm the world's biggest Cyclops fan, but it strikes, at least at this point in his history, the guy's probably not that considerate a lover. ;)

    @Teemu: So, does doing a cosmic replica or a clone rank higher or lower than doing an identical twin sister?

    Uh, higher? Whichever one means "not as bad as".

    @Si: Speaking of awakward things... Jean would have also gotten the memories of Maddie sleeping with Havok during Inferno.

    Yikes. I've never even considered that, but you're absolutely right.

    @entzauberung: Scott and Jean was portrayed as young adults having a romantic relationship for the 20 last issues of the first series, and none of them have ever been portrayed as this super chaste type.

    If they did do the nasty pre-Phoenix, it probably would have started sometime during the brief Arnold Drake run, when Jean was working as a fashion model and Cyclops a radio DJ and they battled Computo and Quasimodo.

    I don't think it was ever explicitly stated whether or not they were living together at the time or not, but it'd be easy enough to think they were, in which case they probably were being "intimate" with each other on occasion.

    @wwk5d: So not only did Scott boink 2 of Jean's doppelgangers before he boinked her, one of the doppelgangers also boinked his brother? And Jean has memories of all that?

    Seriously, I love this discussion. :)

    About the only drama that ever came from any of that was Jean going all drama queen when Scott proposes to her later on in X-factor, since she remembers Scott's proposals to Phoenix and Maddie...

    I do really like that scene.

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    1. @entzauberung: Scott and Jean was portrayed as young adults having a romantic relationship for the 20 last issues of the first series, and none of them have ever been portrayed as this super chaste type.

      Ironically, they were kind of retcon into "those types" when "sexier" telepath's like Psylocke and the White Queen start coming on to Scott. First (by comparison) their more sexually aggressive style made Jean look rather staid and uptight on comparison (the "Betty" to their "Veronica".) In addition, there was also some whining by Scott during some of these issues about how Jean wouldn't even wear sensible shoes for him. And being "repressed" is practically Scott's power (literally. It's how he contained The Void in the Dark Reign ctossovers.)

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  22. @ Teebore: If they did do the nasty pre-Phoenix, it probably would have started sometime during the brief Arnold Drake run, when Jean was working as a fashion model and Cyclops a radio DJ

    ... in Manhattan, late 60s/early 70s. Yeah, I think we can call it. There's no need for us to be beating around the bush when his goddamn job at the time can be defined as beatin' around the, erhm.

    And don't give me any of that sliding timescale nonsense, I've seen what they've been wearing.

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  23. This direction (with X-Factor being the "respectable and accepted" face of mutantkind) is one of the reasons i fell in love with it when I first read the series. I LOVE X-Men but the "people hate and fear us" whining can get a little much at times, so it's nice to have an alternative. I also don't think the adulation is too contrived. For one keep in mind that the X-Men are "dead" (although they too publicly saved the day, which probably gave mutants in general a bit of a PR boost), and the Avengers and the FF didn't get "involved" with this situation. That situation gave X-Factor the lion share of the spotlight here. Secondly let's remember that when Beast was on the Avengers he was pretty popular in-and-out-of universe. Same (pre-House of M) with Scarlet Witch. I think being on more "public" teams that live with and interact with the public they serve probably helps in that regard (compared to the more "secretive" X-Men). Finally there's the fact that the public in the Marvel Universe is pretty fickle in their opinion (these are the same people who though Norman Osborne deserved hero status after all.

    I know there's debate about this, but X-Factor actually getting out there and interacting with humanity is what gives this title more and edge over Simonson's New Mutants.

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