X-factor Visionaries: Peter David vols. 1-4

by: Peter David and a variety of artists.

Collects: Vol. 1 - X-factor 71-75; Vol. 2 - X-factor #76-78 and Incredible Hulk #390-392, Vol. 3 - X-factor 79-83 and Annual #7, X-factor 84-89 and Annual #8.

The Can of Mayo: The government puts together a mutant hero team to dispel the negative rumors, and give mutants a public and positive force to rely on.

Making Duplicates:

This is the first run by Peter David, and it's the first time Madrox (Multiple Man), Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, and Quicksilver are brought together on a team along with Havok and Polaris in these early 90's exploits. This run cam out at a time when the mutants were being over-exploited, and this run was a nice change of pace as this version of the X-factor team worked for the government, had some semblance of deepness in their personality, and was gag central.

Peter David's entire original run is collected in four Visionary trades. This run is still very wrapped up in 90's ambiance, artistic style, storylines, and superheroics, but it's still also very fun. David does a nice job of balancing the superheroic adventures with the the drama that usually comes along with a mutant book, all the while pushing the comedic aspect of his particular team. Each character is typically well-defined, with their own personality traits and each team member adds to the team.

As for the books themselves, they're some decent collections, in the initial volume, you can tell that David had some issues with the nailing each member's voice. They kind of blend in all together, but in later issues, David has nailed each one of the characters. Yet still the first volume isn't the weakest, the fourth volume is the weakest. And that's only because most of that volume contains parts from a large X-universe crossover, X-cutioner's song. David isn't allowed to stay off in his little corner of the world with just his team, he's forced to deal with the crossover and these issues suffer for it...BIG TIME.

Overall the plots are often just big very 90's-esque adventures, Mutanthood Liberation Front, Cyber, Mr. Sinister, The Nasty Boys, and other random villains make appearances in these plots. The themes hit though are more impressive, Peter David often deals with themes such as war, genetics, identity issues, emotional rages, bullying, parenting, relationships, among others. They're so subtle in this book that they just seem like natural parts of the plot. The most risque plot and probably my favorite arc of the run is the Hulk crossover that deals with a war situation very reminiscent of current Middle Eastern events, Iraq and Israel/Palestine come to mind.

Some of my favorite issues include issue 76 (also part of the Hulk crossover) that deals with feminism and Rahne's animalistic changes and issue 87 (the best issue of the entire run) that's a psychology evaluation of the entire team.

No More Dupes:
The books are a really fun ride, it's not the greatest run overall, and it takes a bit for David to gets his grasp over every one, but it really gets good with some great themes and subtext being touched upon throughout the run and some great HA-HA's for some relief. I'd recommend it to anybody who is at least a little bit interested in the earlier adventures of the X-factor team. It's a great background on the characters, and it sets me up for a read of the current X-factor run which is a blast of a series.