Hiya guys!

After just finishing the seventh of the JB FF Visionaries volumes (far too little JB material in that particular JB Visionary, IMHO), I jumped right into my Essential X-Factor vol. 1 (as there was overlapping material). And I'm enjoying myself much more than I'd expected (and obviously I expected to enjoy it somewhat since I spent money on it), not having read much of that early X-Factor material before.

However, there is one thing that's kept bothering me, and which makes me really happy that I've reached the issues written by Louise Simonson now, is some of Layton's scripting. In particular a somewhat overbearing tendency to have various characters in various occasions stutter. Now, I don't now if Layton's was using it as a shorthand for surprise or something emotionally similar, but when one or two (or even more) different characters per issue (and sometimes on more than one occasion per issue), it suddenly becomes annoying because it becomes so obviously present. Now, I don't know if this is representative of Layton's scripting generally (or if it was a brief phase), but I think the peak of the misuse of it in the X-Factor issues I've just read was a character stuttering in a thought balloon.

But, other than that, I've enjoyed the story lines so far. Fun stuff.

I ended up kind of liking the Layton issues a little more. They were more actiony and near videogame like a little.

Re: X-Factor Essentials 1 & 2

My only gripe with it is that they made Cameron Hodge a jealous traitor. I wonder who the traitor could be? Is it the only ugly member with glasses? Gosh! It is! Guy with Glasses and no abs in an action flick = Backstabbing Bee.

The art's terrific though!!! *traces*

The main problem with X-Factor is that people were excited about the reunion of the original X-Men, but we were stuck with a clunky cover story that they were pretending to be mutant hunters.  That simply made the whole thing too convoluted.  I'm sure they thought it would be an interesting hook that would lead to neat conflicts, but it was a poor choice.  When they jettisoned it in later issues, the replacement was for them to live in a giant Celestial ship that overlooked Manhattan.  What?

It would have been far better to simply do the stories straight, and make a clear distinction between the styles of the new X-Men and old X-Men.  The heart of the idea is that the old X-Men viewed themselves as the real heirs of Professor X and thought the new team had become corrupted.  That by itself was good enough.  Since Warren was already a public figure, and the Beast was a former Avenger, (and half the team were the "new" organized Defenders), I think X-Factor could have presented a much more PUBLIC mutant hero team, fighting mutant discrimination in the press and defeating villains.  That would have been a far different tone than the secret strike force that Claremont was writing in X-Men.

I wasn't a fan of the Bob Layton scripted issues, as it had the characters acting too much out of character, especially Scott.

Plus, instead of Apocalypse, Layton was going to make The Owl X-Factor's arch-enemy, which doesn't seem like such a good idea.

Really enjoyed the Jackson Guice art, and wish he had stayed beyond issue 7.

The book greatly improved when Louise Simonson tookover and started getting the characters back in shape.

Chris wrote:
"Since Warren was already a public figure, and the Beast was a former Avenger, (and half the team were the 'new' organized Defenders), I think X-Factor could have presented a much more PUBLIC mutant hero team, fighting mutant discrimination in the press and defeating villains.  That would have been a far different tone than the secret strike force that Claremont was writing in X-Men."

I do think your comment touches upon a very distinct problem with the mutant set up at the time, which is that to the general public there would be very little difference between a superpowered human and a mutant. The criteria of fearsome power and difference somehow sticks to both categories, and since you can't really see whose a mutant or not, the powers themselves would represent the basic fear, meaning that more heroes would probably suffer, if mutant fear struck out by and large. I think JB and Claremont managed to avoid this problem in Days of Future Past by collecting all the heroes in the Sentinel concentration camps.

The biggest problem with Scott was the way he acted against Madelyne Pryor.

It was a case of: "I'm in love with this woman, but along comes my resurrescted first love. So, move over Madelyne and my son, I'm out of here."

Scott lost his appeal from that move alone, and as a bi-product it seemed as if Claremont and Simonson had to undo this with the whole "Inferno" storyline.