Current
Members:
James "Jamie" Madrox a.k.a. MULTIPLE MAN
Guido Carosella a.k.a. STRONG GUY
Rahne Sinclair a.k.a. WOLFSBANE
Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix a.k.a. M
Theresa Rourke Cassidy a.k.a. SIRYN
Julio Esteban "J.E." Richter a.k.a. RICTOR
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Current Team
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Synopsis: In the last major storyline of the first X-Factor, published in early 1991,
Apocalypse kidnapped Nathan Summers, sensing that he would grow up to be a
powerful mutant and possible threat. X-Factor rescued Nathan from Apocalypse's
lunar base, but found him infected with a "techno-organic" virus that could not
be treated in the present time. A clan of rebels from the future, known as the Askani,
sent a representative to the present time to bring Nathan 2,000 years into the future
to be treated. Fully grown, he would return to the 20th Century as the anti-hero Cable.
Shortly after this, X-Factor, X-Men and several minor characters teamed-up to fight
the telepathic Shadow King in the Muir Island Saga. Afterwards, the members of X-Factor
rejoined the X-Men, and several of the minor characters became founding members of the
all-new X-Factor.
Although, it always existed within the larger X-Men saga somewhat awkwardly,
the era of the original X-Factor has had lasting effects on the mythos,
introducing Apocalypse, the Archangel version of Angel, and explaining
connection between Cyclops, Jean Grey, Sinister, Pryor, Apocalypse and Cable.
All of these storylines would, in some way, continue in future X-Men series.
The 2nd X-Factor with new members, all of who were already allies of the X-Men.
The new X-Factor worked for the Pentagon, making them the only salaried Mutant Team,
although their relationship with their benefactors was often strained and complicated.
The new X-Factor, debuting in issue #71, included:
Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man, Strong Guy and Quicksilver.
A new X-Factor, consisting of Forge (the team's new leader), Polaris and several new recruits:
Wild Child, who possessed heightened senses, fangs and claws.
Shard, a holographic computer program that took on the personality
of the X-Man Bishop's deceased sister of the same name. Bishop was
a time-traveler from a distant future, where he and Shard were members
the X-Men descendents the XSE. The holographic Shard was brought to
the 20th Century with Bishop.
Mystique, a shapeshifting mutant criminal and master of espionage.
Mystique was forced to join X-Factor following her capture by federal agents.
Sabretooth, a homicidal mutant criminal who possessed talons,
heightened senses and the ability to heal rapidly. Like Mystique,
Sabretooth was a captive member that Forge used special technology to control.
History:
X-Factor is a private organization whose publicly stated purpose is to
investigate reports of activity by superhuman mutants, to hunt down and
to capture those mutants, and to prevent those mutants from presenting any
further threat to normal human beings. However, X-Factor's secret true purpose
is to locate superhuman mutants who are or might become victims of persecution
by normal humans beings, to train these mutant in controlling their superhuman
powers effectively, so that they will not prove dangerous to themselves or to others,
and so that the mutants can better protect themselves, and then to reintroduce these
mutants into human society. Having learned how to control their superhuman abilities,
these mutants will theoretically be better able to conceal those powers, and thus to
pose as normal human beings.
The five founding members of X-Factor are themselves superhuman mutants: Warren Worthington III,
known as the Angel; Henry P. McCoy, the Beast; Scott Summers, Cyclops; Robert Drake, the Iceman;
and Jean Grey, known as Marvel Girl. These five individuals were the original members of the team
of superhuman mutants called the X-Men. Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, brought
the five original members together when the latter were adolescents in order to train them in proper
use of their superhuman abilities and to have the five mutants use these powers to combat criminal
superhuman mutants and other menaces to humanity. These five X-Men eventually all left the team and
are now adults. One of the original X-Men, Jean Grey, was nearly killed by intense radiation aboard
a space shuttle. A being of primal energy called the Phoenix adopted Grey's form and persona while
placing Grey's original body in a strange cocoon-like construct, within which Grey's original body
existed in suspended animation, slowly healing.
After Grey's emergence from the "cocoon" years later, she was reunited with her four fellow members
of the original X-Men. Grey was shocked to learn that anti-mutant prejudice had increased during the
time she spent in suspended animation, that Xavier had disappeared, and that the original X-Men's
greatest enemy, Magneto, had taken over Xavier's School for mutants and was working in close cooperation
with the current members of the X-Men. Actually, Xavier had been taken to the Shi'ar Galaxy to be healed
of severe injuries, and Magneto had recently reformed, although the original X-Men nevertheless remain
suspicious of him. Grey believed that she and the other original X-Men must do something to carry on
Xavier's heritage, which she believed that the current X-Men, having allied themselves with Magneto, would not do.
Believing Grey to be right, Warren Worthington III, the multimillionaire head of Worthington Enterprises,
founded the X-Factor organization. Worthington was the founder of the organization through Worthington
Enterprises, but he concealed the extent of the involvement of himself and his company with X-Factor from
public knowledge. X-Factor headquarters was a complex along the Hudson River on Manhattan's West Side; however,
the organization will operate anywhere in the world, and has even conducted an operation in the Soviet Union.
Worthington hired Cameron Hodge as X-Factor's Director of Public Relations. Hodge is aware of the purpose for
which Worthington and his four colleagues intend X-Factor, but his job has been to create its public image as
an organization dedicated to eliminating the so-called Mutant menace," an image he created through television
commercials and other means.
Drake, Grey, McCoy, Summers, and Worthington became the principal members of X-Factor, with Summers serving as
the team leader. Presumably McCoy and Worthington do not use their true names when dealing with the public as
members of X-Factor, since it is public knowledge that Warren Worthington III is the Angel and Henry P. McCoy is the Beast.
Repeatedly, since the founding of X-Factor, its five principal members have found themselves going into action
in their costumed identities, using their superhuman powers. It is, of course, essential to X-Factor's cover story
about its purpose that the general public be unaware that the principal "mutant-hunters" of X-Factor are themselves
mutants. X-Factor took the opportunity of an attack on their headquarters by the mutants Bulk and Glow Worm to make
it appear that the original X-Men and the five X-Factor agents were appearing together simultaneously. Cyclops,
the Beast, and Iceman, in their costumed identities, pretended to aid Bulk and Glow Worm, while Grey, Worthington,
Hodge, and their friends Rusty Collins and Vera Gantor, all dressed in X-Factor uniforms, pretended to fight all of
them. The public assumed that Hodge, Collins, and Gantor were actually the three other main X-Factor agents.
In their costumed identities, Drake, Grey, McCoy, Summers and Worthington are now known as the X-Terminators,
and are publicly believed to be opponents of X-Factor's activities.
Among the superhuman mutants whom X-Factor has aided so far are "Boom Boom," a mutant who can generate explosive
energy "bombs," Rusty Collins, who is a pyrokinetic, able to create flame without himself being harmed, Arthur
"Artie" Maddicks, a small boy with psionic powers, most notably the ability to create images of distant events,
and Skids, a Morlock who surrounds herself with a force field.
X-Factors methods have inspired great controversy, with many, including various superhuman mutants, believing
the X-Factor's publicity for its operations actually increases the extent of dangerous anti-mutant prejudice
in the nation. Freedom Force, an organization of formerly criminal superhuman mutants who now work for the
United States government, were assigned to arrest Rusty Collins, nut were prevented from taking him into custody
by the X-Terminators. Realizing that the X-Terminators were the original X-Men, Freedom Force's leader Mystique,
investigated and discovered the Warren Worthington, the Angel, was X-Factor's financial backer. She then leaked
this information to the news media, thereby creating a scandal: the famous mutant-hunting organization was thus
revealed to be financed by a known superhuman mutant.
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