Marvel's New X-FACTOR Stars The Most Important X-Men
Marvel Comics has announced a new X-Men book, X-Factor, which will explore the most important mutants in the X-Men relaunch. Superstar comic book writer Jonathan Hickman has successfully relaunched the X-Men franchise, establishing a new status quo in which the mutant race has settled on the living island of Krakoa.
The key to Krakoa's future lies with an innovative approach to resurrection, involving a combination of Cerebro technology and synergy between five mutant powers. Hope Summers, Goldballs, Proteus, Elixir, and Tempus combine their powers to create and accelerate the growth of clone bodies for mutants who have died. Because of ethical fears of duplication, they're forbidden to create clones until an actual death has been confirmed. House of X #5 hinted that the mutants would need to put together an investigative unit who looking into mutant missing persons in order to confirm when the resurrection process should begin.
According to Polygon, that team is a new incarnation of X-Factor, who will star in a new book written by Leah Williams and with art by David Baldeón (Gwenpool Strikes Back!). X-Factor report indirectly to the Five, and the book will focus on how the Five work together, and how they establish the resurrection protocols. The X-Factor team includes two members Williams has written before, namely the super-speedster Northstar and the repowered X-Men villain the Blob. The rest of the team was essentially chosen for their tracking abilities, including Eye-Boy (whose x-ray vision is useful), Rachel Grey as the resident telepath, Prodigy because of his tremendous knowledge, and Wolverine's son Daken. According to Williams, he's around because the team needed a "f**** thot enforcer."
With the benefit of hindsight, it was inevitable that the procedural book investigating mutant deaths would bear the title "X-Factor." That particular brand is strongly associated with writer Peter David, and in the 2000s he reinvented X-Factor as a team of mutant investigators who went by the name 'X-Factor Investigations.' Williams intends to honor that in a creative way, introducing what she describes as "a kind of game" via the data pages that she encourages readers to figure out; she describes this as a new X-Factor Investigation.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new X-Factor, however, is the focus on Northstar. According to Williams, the book will explore just how Northstar's marriage to a baseline human works at a time when the mutants have segregated themselves away on an island, and where some mutants are appearing increasingly prejudiced towards humans. In House of X #5, Polaris openly wondered whether there was anything good about humans at all. It will be fascinating to get a true understanding of the relationship between mutants and humans in this brave new X-Men world.
Source: Polygon