X-Factor (comics)

X-Factor is a group of mutant superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

X-Factor launched in 1986 featuring a team composed of the five original X-Men that debuted in X-Men #1 (1963):

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Angel, Beast, and Iceman wandered through various superhero teams. By 1985, all three were members of the Defenders. With the monthly Defenders series already due to be cancelled, Angel, Beast, and Iceman were freed up for X-Factor.

A more difficult task was the return of Cyclops and Jean Grey. In 1980, Jean Grey was killed during the seminal Dark Phoenix Saga, and it was considered vital that the new team have a female member. In one of the most significant cases of retroactive continuity in comic book history, Jean Grey had never actually been the Phoenix. Instead, the Phoenix entity copied Grey's identity and form, keeping her safe in a cocoon-like structure beneath Jamaica Bay.

In order to join the team, Cyclops walked out on his new wife Madelyne Pryor, an Alaskan pilot who bore a strange resemblance to Grey, and their infant son Nathan.

The original X-Men choose not to associate with the current team because Professor X had placed their old nemesis, Magneto, as its leader. The five original members set up a business advertised as mutant-hunters for hire, headquartered in the TriBeCa neighborhood of downtown New York City, posing as (non-superpowered) humans to their clients. The mutants that X-Factor "capture" are secretly trained to control their powers and reintegrated into society. Through their "mutant hunting" X-Factor recruit a group of young wards:

Eventually, the team decides that the "mutant hunter" ruse did more harm than good by inflaming hatred and blame it on X-Factor's original business manager, Cameron Hodge, who is revealed as a mutant-hating mastermind.

In X-Factor #6 (1986), Louise Simonson introduced Apocalypse, who would appear in multiple issues and become X-Factor's nemesis.