X-FACTOR #90 – May 1993

A Green and Tender Place

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Quesada and Buzz (pencilers), Al Milgrom (inker), Richard Starkings (letterer), Tom Smith (colorist)

Summary

Polaris tries to comfort Wolfsbane after she learns that she was bonded to Havok while she was a Mutate. Havok discovers hidden monitoring devices that he feels are being used to gather information to create more Mutates. He confronts Genosha’s president and fights her Mutate bodyguard. The President agrees to tell X-Factor the truth; that there’s been a deadly virus outbreak amongst the Mutates, and that the government is gathering information on the epidemic. One of the Mutates escapes the hospital, and X-Factor chase after him to prevent the Gengineer, Sasha Ryan, from having him terminated.

Continuity Notes

This is the first real appearance of the Legacy Virus. Its existence was hinted at during the final page of X-Cutioner’s Song, but this is the first storyline to fully introduce the idea. The name “Legacy Virus” still hasn’t shown up, though.

According to Polaris, Wolfsbane is sixteen.

I Love the ‘90s

Val Cooper holds Socks the Cat. There’s also an ad for a Meteor Man comic book. You’ve got to wonder how exactly Marvel got talked into that cross-promotion.

Review

It’s the first post-Peter David issue, and his storylines are already being ignored. The X-Patriots, the reason why X-Factor traveled to Genosha in the first place, don’t appear at all in this issue, as the Genoshan story arc is hijacked to introduce the Legacy Virus. The Legacy Virus was a blatant AIDS metaphor, an idea that some readers found tasteless. Even as a kid, I always thought it was a cheat that the only characters to actually die from the disease were minor ones. The plotline was ignored for years and finally resolved during Scott Lobdell’s fill-in arc in 2001. Colossus was killed off in order to give the resolution more importance, but he was resurrected after a few years anyway, making it all seem rather pointless.

The disease itself is given a decent introduction in this issue. The image of sickly Mutates strapped into hospital beds while doctors in armored suits monitor them is disturbing, and it gives you the idea that this is a very serious problem. The rest of the issue is hit or miss. Polaris and Wolfsbane have a nice scene together that draws upon Polaris’ troubled backstory, but Havok is given an awful chapter that doesn’t make a lot of sense. He discovers monitoring devices in the President’s garden and assumes that it’s being done to gather info on creating new Mutates. Huh? It’s obvious that Genosha already knows how to make Mutates, so it’s strange that he would jump to that conclusion after spotting some Kirbytech in a bush. He also seems quite willing to kill the President’s Mutate guard, which is wildly out of character. Even if it’s a dumb scene, Quesada does a great job drawing it. It’s unfortunate that this is his fourth issue, and the third one in a row that needed a back-up artist.