In the past when a comic hero died, they died and that was the end of things. These days when a hero or villain dies in comics, give them a couple of weeks rest, and bingo they return to the land of the living. Bringing Jean Grey back was a risk, but with good writing it turned out to be a great move.
When Jean finally arrived back in the Marvel Universe many things had changed.
Firstly she had to deal with that an Alien force had replaced her as one of the X-Men . Who not only looked like her, acted like her, was accepted as her.... But believed itself to be her. Then she had to deal with it falling in love with her boyfriend Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops. Jean then learnt that this other Jean had gotten manipulated by Mastermind and end up turning into a Monster that destroyed planets and millions of lives. She nearly managed to kill all of her friends and family at the same time. However it had sacrificed itself to save the people it , or the part of her that was Jean, loved. It had died a Hero. Its body was then buried and mourned by the people who cared for her. People who loved the real Jean Grey.
To say that was hard enough for Jean to take all of these facts on was bad enough but there was more..... Jean learnt that after " Her" death, Scott had found love with other Women, ending up marrying a Woman that looked exactly like her, and having a child with her. If Scott had really loved her, why did he move on so fast ? Why did he forget all about her ? How could he ?
Jean was made aware that there was a small matter of a Young Girl calling herself Rachel Summers who clammed to be her and Scott's daughter from an alternative future, who had some how adopted some of the Phoenix Force.... Also there was a old guy with a metal arm and glowing eye who loved big Guns called Cable, who may be or may not have been a future version of Scott and Maddie's son Nathan. Yes Jean had a lot of catching up to do. She realised she need her family around her. Her real family ... her old school friends, the Original X-Men
During the time she had been "away", the World's hatred of Mutants had grown out of control. Mutants were being hunted down and killed by Human's worried that Mutants were going to take over the world. The Cherry on the the top of the cake was that her mentor and hero Charles Xavier, aka Professor X and the Current X-Men were now working hand in hand with Magneto. Jean could not comprehend why they would work along side such an evil presents as Magneto. The X-Men who had fort for years to try to united Mutants and Humans in peace, were now seen as part of the Evil Mutant Menace themselves.
Jean was confused, but knew that she needed to take a part of trying to sort out all of this mess.
This is how it all started back in 1986 and X Factor 1 #
The story was simple. The 5 Original X-Men. Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, Beast and Marvel Girl would pose as Humans who worked as Mutant Hunters. The idea that they would rid the streets of any rogue Mutant menace for a fee. Most of these Mutants they targeted were young, many of which could not control their powers very well. Thus bringing them into the public gaze and much fear. When they had captured each Mutant, the group calling themselves X-Factor would contain them at their Head Quarters - Compound where they could be dealt with. In fact what they were doing is help find Mutants in need of help, take them back to their compound where they would try to teach them how to handle their powers without causing them to be feared by the general public. Doing something like what Professor X had done with her and the Original X-Men. The main difference in this plan would be, where the Professor had trained his X-Men as his personal army to fight against the threat of any Evil Mutants. X-Factor would be different and help its charges to control and understand their powers so to be able to live side by side others mutant and non mutant in peace.
This series was a success, and introduced many new characters into the Marvel Universe like.
Artie a young deformed boy who could not speak but could communicate using mental projections.
Rustie, a young teen lad who could produce and control fire. Not very well at first.
Skids a Young teen girl who's body was surrounded by an invisible force field. Making her unable to truly touch anyone.
Rictor a Teen boy who had little control of the powers over the earth, and causing earthquakes.
Leech, another deformed boy who had the ability of taking away the Mutant powers of anyone standing close to him. Useful at times, but could cause issues at other times.
and Tabitha aka Boom Boom who could produce explosive Bombs. She liked blowing things up !
All of these characters still are around today in one form or another. This can not be said for many "New" characters that were introduced in the late 1980's and 1990's by Marvel.
Now back to Jean
This is how she looked in her "Human" X-Factor Uniform.
With Glasses
Very 1980's shades. Many of the Marvel Characters adopted this look at the time.
Jean without this fashion accessory...
All the team wore them. They acted like a bit of a mask. The glasses where really a nod to Cyclops, as it helped him not look out of place as he needed to wear some type of visor to control his optic blasts at all times.. Warren aka Angel wore a back back to hide his wings. He was the person on the team who had the the highest public image. He had outed himself as a Mutant and had continued to build the company he had inherited from his Father over the years. So the glasses help disguise his face. The Beast aka Hank was not a public face on the team, as he was still all big, blue and furry at the time....... but when he got devolved from his Blue Furry Beast form, and now Human looking again was able to go public with the rest of the gang.
Next time we get to see what Jean dressed like when she was playing as a Hero Again
Until then ENJOY
No comments:
Post a Comment