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From: dtuttle@uw-june (David C. Tuttle)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Re: X-Factor
Message-ID: <111@uw-june>
Date: Wed, 20-Nov-85 19:46:03 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-june.111
Posted: Wed Nov 20 19:46:03 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Nov-85 00:04:25 EST
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 51


>>> From: sds5044@ritcv.UUCP (He who will not give his name) <<<
>>> Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
> So no one likes Jean Grey's return.  What more can you expect from 
> John Byrne and Society of Claremont Haters.  Why does everybody hate
> X-Factor.  Let's see some articles saying why you think it is a bad
> book.  Something more substantial than " Sheer silliness.".
*** Also, in an earlier posting...
> So everybody is leaning on X-Factor.  I didn't think it was the
> greatest but I still enjoyed it.  It is obviously intended for
> fans of the original X-Men.  From what I've heard so far, not on 
> this network of course, more people like the book than not.

Wait a minute!  Are you saying Claremont was behind the resurrection
of Jean Grey (Gray? I can never remember...)?  No No No No No !!!
It's not Chris Claremont's doing!!! It's Jim Sh**ter's fault that
Jean is back.  Chris *hates* the idea (there have been excellent
previous postings to this group about this)!  Byrne wrote the story
that brought Jean back, but he was very unhappy with it (he refused
put his name to it), so I don't think he really likes it either
(despite what he says (has to say?) in public).  It was an Edict
From Above from a person who chooses not to look beyond(er) this
month's sales figures.

Now, as for the book X-Factor, it's not a "bad" book for *Marvel*
standards.  There are other Marvels (as well as other companies')
that reek just as bad (whoops, my opinion is showing :-).
And if you read them regularly (e.g., the Thing, the new Alpha Flight)
you can probably take X-Factor at face value and add it to your collection.
Objections come (mostly) from fans of the current X-Men, who enjoy Chris
Claremont's handling of their story (most of the time).  Now, suddenly
Mr. Claremont gets shafted, and characters he has handled so well in the
past (I'm speaking mostly of Cyclops and Madelyne here), characters the
readers have come to know and like, are now shoved into the
all-too-familiar, all-too-mechanized, one-issue-wonder-plot mediocre
writing that plagues the comics mentioned above (I know, there's
been only one issue of X-Factor, but we've seen this before, and it doesn't
look promising...)  It is *painful* to see someone's creation brutally
altered, just for the sake of more sales.  That is the crux of MY complaint,
and I think there are many others who agree (and even have more to add...)

P.S. A small side note: I speculate the following correlation:
     The older one is, and/or the more one reads comics, the more one
     hates X-Factor.  I small convention I attended last weekend had
     little kids liking it, and older folks and dealers calling it
     bird poop.  I know who *I'll* believe...
==========			 ==========			  ==========
David C. Tuttle 	 Dept. of Computer Science, University of Washington
[ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax]!uw-beaver!uw-june!dtuttle		dtuttle@uw-june.ARPA
>Some of the above is speculation and shouldn't be confused with the truth.<
>But at least I put my name on things that I submit...			   <