006: X-Factor (Shatterstar and Rictor)
from: X-Factor #207
larger image: http://oi45.tinypic.com/bhlgcp.jpg
X-Factor the comic is a spin-off of the X-Men title featuring characters from the X-Men stories. (Just trying to list all the X-Men titles since the inception of the comic in the '60s is enough to make your head spin off [god that was an unintentional pun].)
I have a time hard describing X-Factor beyond that. I first jumped in with like issue #215 and then went back to only issue #200 to get caught up and random two digit issues since then. Another reason why it's difficult is the title changed so much since it was first published in 1986. The way to go about describing it, as I know it in its current formation, is that it's basically a mutant detective agency (that's the simplest answer).
Throughout its 20+ years of publication, the team roster has changed a lot. First it was comprised of the original five X-men - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman; then these five went their separate ways then came back, then they were mutant-hunters who pretended to be normal people to hunt mutants only to secretly train them to be "normal" and reintegrate them back into society (we can guess how well that went with the mutant community). Then they turned into a government team with all-new members for the first eight years in the beginning of the '90s - with some of the members also in the current run of the series now, Multiple Man, Polaris, Havok, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy; they then changed members again; then they were a Mutant Civil Rights Task Force but that is confusing as all hell even though it was only a 4-issue limited miniseries and finally we come to its current manifestation as a detective agency led by Multiple Man called X-Factor Investigations. -deep breath- Yep, that was a brief summary from Wikipedia, god bless it.
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This entry was originally posted at http://dahlia-moon.dreamwidth.org/242170.html.