Product Description: The death of Jean Grey re-defined the X-Men, but her resurrection did nothing less! Recovered by the Avengers and revived by the Fantastic Four, Jean's return re-grouped her fellow founders into a supposed mutant-hunting unit that ferreted out some of mutantdom's rising stars - including the devastating debut of the ancient evil everyone identifies as Apocalypse! With Mystique, the Morlocks, and the Master Mold! Featuring tie-ins to the infamous Mutant Massacre! Guest-starring Thor and Power Pack! Collects X-Factor #1-16, Annual #1, Avengers #263, Fantastic Four #286, Thor #373-374.
New and Interesting Concept, Old Team, New Characters ^ X Factor is the reformation of the classic X Men with a new resurrected Jean Grey, Her death and resurrection were both suprisingly decent. As the hate for mutants grow the old team gets together and fakes capturing and hunting them to secretly train them to use there powers, a new twist on the same old super hero heroics. There are a lot of new characters like Rusty and Skids not to mention they fight against new and interesting villians. Unlike X Men vol 6, which seems to be filled in with too many tie ins to the mutant massacre this one contains the tie ins but then moves on with its storyline. I recommend getting X Factor vol 1
A Reminder of How Good Things Used to Be. ^ This book collects X-Factor 1-16, X-Factor Annual 1, Avengers 263, Fantasitc Four 286, Thor 373-374, and Power Pack # 27. The events cover the return of Jean Grey, the first appearences of Apocalpyse, the Morlock Mutant Massace, the de-winging of the Angel, and the introduction of a host of characters.
It has some of the best writing from the 80s, (most of it by Louise Simonson) which I believe is the 2nd golden age of comics. It skilly combines action with intense drama. The characters confront their problems, and second guess themselves in a very believable fashion.
The art is skillful throughout with a host of excellent talent: John Buscema, Marc Silvestri, Walter Simonson (the bulk of which is his), and the Fantastic 4 issue is by John Byrne.
I throughly enjoyed this collection as much, if not more than, when it was first released. It has stood the test of time, and come out quite well. For any older fans that are thinking of buying this, it will remind you why we enjoyed this medium in the first place.
Up and down... ^ This is difficult to review. It starts off very slowly and is not all that interesting. The premise is flawed from the start of the original X-Men reuniting and posing as mutant hunters, while actually trying to help the mutants they hunt down. Issue after issue they bring up the flawed concept, but never resolve it. Things get interesting when the collection reaches the Mutant Massacre issues. It is action-packed and just as good as I remember those issues when they first came out. The art is okay. I've always liked Walt Simonson's art, but the issues he does don't always show up as well in this black and white format, especially the two issues Dan Green inked.
Great Value, Great Read. ^ The Marvel Essentials are fantastic. For about 11 dollars you get over 500 pages of comics. They're basically big black and white phones books of classic Marvel. While they're not necessarily collectors items those of us who would rather get an amazing deal and still read the same great stories are more than pleased with these great reprints.
X-Factor is fantastic fun. You get the X-Men disband and Logan starting up a new group called X-Factor. They're disguised as a mutant hunting company who secretly helps the mutants they are hired to nab. You get to see this story from their earlier issues from The Avengers. It's great fun and you should definitely nab this if you love the X-Men.
I can't rave about the Essentials line enough. I wish they would reprint newer comics in this format. I love collecting comics and displaying them but when it comes down to it I read them for the stories. If you're afraid of the black and white art don't be scared because the artwork looks amazing anyway. For about 11 dollars you really can't find a better deal.
You should also check out all of the Essentials because they're great. If you're more of a DC guy then check out the DC Showcase which is the exact same thing. I recently bought the Jonah Hex and Green Arrow books and I'm obsessed.
MAKE MORE ESSENTIALS AND SHOWCASES!!!
Graphic SF Reader ^ The covert mutant mutant hunters are back, finally. It was a good idea to team the original X-Men back up in this series, and it was quite well done, inter-relating with the rest of the X-Universe in a time when it was still good, so great to be able to have this stories in a handy edition. Some top notch work.
Anything Goes Trivia
Last Kiss
Megaton Man
Trevor
