X-FACTOR by Mark Russell & Bob Quinn

[Anduinel]

YES!!! All-male, all-blond X-Men.

Angel
Brian Braddock
Cannonball
Cypher
Christian Frost
Havok
Longshot
Slipstream

Did I miss anyone?

Depending on the colorist, Iceman? Maybe Elixir - can you get any more blond than a literal fair-haired golden boy?

[Thievery]

Yeah, I'm eager to see how the book addresses some of the less-than-savory backgrounds and heroic lapses of some of the cast. There's a part of me that wonders if there's a rehab job in the works that might go so far as to erase the team's actual identities and literally fashion them new ones from the ground up. There's a lot of potential for questions of identity, optics vs reality, respectability politics, and how effective changing the system from within actually is within an exploration of a government-directed mutant team, and I am intensely curious as to why Russell chose Angel to take point on all of this. Angel is too high profile for suspension of disbelief to work so far as completely rebranding him from the ground up, but he's also the team member with the most credibility as a spokesman and, like you said, he might feel (correctly or misguidedly) that he has penance to pay...and some of that might go all the way back to the premise of the original X-Factor book, given their mutant-hunting facade.

For a little while I thought that X-Factor might be a way for some of the characters to gain government pardons. But I doubt if that is the case. I cant picture the government going down that road again after Freedom Force blew up in their faces. So some of them may just join for redemption purposes

Do you mean rebranding the X-Factor cast from the ground up with new identities the way that the Thunderbolts did, with new code names and everything?
I'm not sure if the comic would go that far. There would be no reason to recruit known mutants and repackage them that way when they could just use new, unknown mutants instead.
Just my opinion, and that's only if you are talking about a complete identity rebuild the way I think that you might be.

But, yeah, all that great stuff about respectability politics, changing the system from within, identity issues and all the other things that you talked about seem to be the real hook to this comic. I read the Bloodhunters comic by Russel, and I think that he can do that kind of commentary really well, and with some fun humor as well.

I don't know if you read the Giant-Size X-Men issue that starred Angel this week. I thought that the new villain, Maze would be a throw away villain, but after reading the story, she could be a good villain for all of the team members, as her gimmick partly involves getting people to admit whether how they see themselves is the truth or not, or if they are deceiving themselves. It could work well in a story with the X-Factor team, almost analyze them the way that the Doc Samson stories did in previous X-Factor runs did.
If you didn't read it don't bother unless you somehow gain a cheap copy. The story was okay, but it definitely wasn't worth the price, lol

It's also going to be really interesting to me to see why Russel picked his entire cast and why. There may look like there are obvious answers to that question, but I'm willing to bet that their are going to be some surprising reveals as to the motivation for most of the characters. Assuming that the characters won't get killed off before that can happen.

[Magnetic]

Depending on the colorist, Iceman? �� Maybe Elixir - can you get any more blond than a literal fair-haired golden boy?

Can’t argue with that - yes Iceman often has blond hair maybe he likes to dye it. This lineup is so hot.

Angel
Brian Braddock
Cannonball
Cypher
Christian Frost
Elixir
Havok
Iceman
Longshot
Slipstream

[Will Jones]

I’d argue that Havok is overused as a character, based on his history. He’s like a Mutant version of ‘fetch’ or ‘nepobaby’, getting plenty of leading man opportunities with very little to show for it. I’m sure there are a ton of fans of other characters who wish their favorite was as underused as Alex over the past decade. Maybe these guys will find something for him that will finally stick.

Rick Remender did that with him in Uncanny Avengers.

He gave him his own point of view, and put him through the grinder for the hard-earned victory at no small cost to himself and the Wasp. But of course, all anyone remembers is the speech from UA #5, and Havok was, and still is, actually right, and the social media temper tantrum X-Men fans threw because it threatened their victim complex.

Since then, your idea of "overuse" is, in reality, a hodgepodge of inconsistent characterizations that kept him tethered to an increasingly toxic brand and fanbase with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, enabled by the creators who took umbrage with the speech at the time.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Wasn't that speech Remender just using Alex to get his own personal views out there...

[Havok83]

Literally every complaint has been "[number] white blond guys". What "white" stands for, if not for the color of the skin = race?

Again, if the team featured Synch, Bishop and Manifold and I said "We just don't need three black brown guys on any team in 2024.", would you be fine?
This is the white-blonde edit of a specific line ("white blonde guys") that has been posted in this thread.
And if the fourth, new character, was another brown-haired black guy, and I went "He literally could have been any other hair color. Black, blonde, green, purple...but now its yet another brown-haired."
(quoting you here, Havok83)

I wouldn't be racist, I would be just pointing out that aesthetically it's "a choice", wouldn't I?
Yet, I have the feeling the line would be labelled "racist", me called out and even getting a warning.

But yeah, it's DragonsChi internalizing something. Whatever.

Hakka out.

I dont care what a person's opinion is of a lineup and im not going to start labeling them a racist on the basis of that. That word carries alot of weight and casually throwing it out there bc people are commenting on the lack of diversity of a specific phenotype as has been revealed on this cast is just wrong

[Will Jones]

Wasn't that speech Remender just using Alex to get his own personal views out there...

Maybe, but it still distinguished Alex from Scott, which is what he needed.

That's not to say he became some self-hating mutant, but people ignored the nuance of what Remender wrote, which, among other things, is that actions are what people should be judged by more than anything else, and that he wanted to be judged as Alex Summers, not as a mutant. Nowhere does he say he's ashamed of being a mutant.

It can be argued that growing up in a human foster family, being born to human parents, and working with different species in space with the Starjammers and the Shi'ar Empire helped him get to that point of view.

Isn't that what the X-Men strived for under Xavier before his character was assassinated?

[Hakka84]

I understand what you mean, and you're right. Fact is, it should always be like you say. But it isn't.
Will J. explained it better:

DragonChi is talking about the hypocrisy of complaining about too many straight white guys when if the targets of the criticisms were minorities, the person making those complaints would be labeled a racist, sexist, or whatever other label you can slap on them to stifle disagreement.

So we're just calling out people that, in a reverse situation, would apply "racists" labels to anyone who dared to criticize a lineup "not enough caucasian/blond". That's why I picked two quotes from this very same thread and switched up the "colours / ethnicity". To prove the point.

Really, I understand those who are disappointed because they wanted different characters or a whole different team rooster. And they're entitled to express such disappointment, especially if their faves still haven't found a home yet in the next era.
But the issue is not "I wished there was [x] or [y] here in place of [Warren / Alex / Pyro] because I think they fit better and also representation bonus point!", and neither "choosing three white blonds for this team will require from the artist more attention to details to make the three different enough on panel" (these would've been legit points!)
But it's been literally "why there are three WHITE BLOND MALES". No matter who these characters are and what can (or can not) bring to the story. No matter that at least two of these blonds have (or had) clearly psychological issues and have been mentally and/or physically abused at some point.
Also likely that they have been chosen for a reason that will be tackled in the story itself / meta-commentary.

We know that if, instead of Warren-Alex-Pyro the characters were Warren-Banshee-Logan there still would be "why this team is so much white". I don't think a Warren-Alex-Avalanche would've been fine either (Avalance = Greek = white). So there's that.
I mean, by the same logic, if today X-Men (2013) was solicited, we'd be complaining that the team was all female. Right?
Or would we instead be here cheering for an all female team uncaring that 3 characters (out of 6) are white. So why the X-Woman's team from 2013 was fine, but this isn't? I ask this as a woman. And please don't tell me it's the colour of the hair that makes the difference (or the fact Betsy was Asian-passing with Kwannon's likeness). I recall people pointing out (and complaining) here on the forums about the lack of diversity of the O5 class - even if the four males all had a different hair colour.
The issue has never been the blond part of the thing, let's be real. The issue is the "white + male" part. Which isn't labelled racist or any other -ism only because you can't be racist against Caucasians and males. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Still, if we legitimize what's happening on this thread, then I don't want to see complains in the future for any team in which there is more than one character of the same gender+ethnicity in a team.

[Wolverine12]

Enough with calling other posters racist, and this applies to both sides of the argument. Keep it civil everyone.

[whitecrown]

Maybe, but it still distinguished Alex from Scott, which is what he needed.

That's not to say he became some self-hating mutant, but people ignored the nuance of what Remender wrote, which, among other things, is that actions are what people should be judged by more than anything else, and that he wanted to be judged as Alex Summers, not as a mutant. Nowhere does he say he's ashamed of being a mutant.

It can be argued that growing up in a human foster family, being born to human parents, and working with different species in space with the Starjammers and the Shi'ar Empire helped him get to that point of view.

Isn't that what the X-Men strived for under Xavier before his character was assassinated?

I agree. Alex is a character I never took much notice of because I always saw him as Scott's brother and Lorna's boyfriend. Uncanny Avengers is the series that made me a big fan of him and made me realize he's more than just his relationships and actually far more interesting than Scott as his foil. I liked seeing him treated like an A-Lister and leading a team of A-Listers such as Wolverine, Cap, Thor, Wanda, and Rogue.

People really have a tendency to sum up that entire era as that one speech. I never had a problem with that speech and felt the hatred was overblown and people were using that to ignore addressing anything else from that run. And like you said, Alex has never had the same history of being a mutant like the others. He didn't manifest his powers until after he had already graduated college and we didn't really see him become a full-time member until after the Mutant Massacre era. He was not interested in being more than a reserve X-Man as that was his brother's life, not his. I can see why Dazzler and him were jogging buddies during the Outback era because both were reluctant heroes who were dragged into this life.

There are many people who do not like labels and don't like to be associated with only labels that people arbitrarily apply to them. I think of Raven Symone and how much hatred she got on social media when she said she doesn't identify as African American but just American. Or how despite her sexuality, she doesn't label herself as gay. The backlash to Alex felt very similar to that and unnecessary just because one person says they like to think of themselves as being more than just a sum of labels.

[whitecrown]

Rick Remender did that with him in Uncanny Avengers.

He gave him his own point of view, and put him through the grinder for the hard-earned victory at no small cost to himself and the Wasp. But of course, all anyone remembers is the speech from UA #5, and Havok was, and still is, actually right, and the social media temper tantrum X-Men fans threw because it threatened their victim complex.

Since then, your idea of "overuse" is, in reality, a hodgepodge of inconsistent characterizations that kept him tethered to an increasingly toxic brand and fanbase with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement, enabled by the creators who took umbrage with the speech at the time.

X-Fans were out for blood during this era, especially against anything that was anti-Cyclops and pro-Avengers. The very fact that Alex was serving as the face of the Avengers during this time made him target #1 between the m-word speech and being Cyclops' brother in opposition to him, even moreso than Cap, Wanda, and Wolverine who were equally as despised by X-Fans.

I remember how much hatred there was in these forums towards the Avengers side of things and the funny part is that if you went to the Marvel/Avengers side, they held absolutely no ill will towards the X-Men. It was bizarre how chill and laid-back that section was. Meanwhile, here there were regular threads calling for death to the Avengers and these types of negative posts would find their ways into just about any thread, even those with no connection. Of course, the "race traitors," like Alex, Logan, Hank, etc. were frequently targeted and I think Alex also got the brunt of it in part because he was the least famous of that group so it was easier to pin all these faults onto him as the poster child. X-Fans could still have some warm feelings for Logan and Hank from earlier eras but were maybe less inclined to be as nostalgic for Alex.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

If memory serves Alex used his powers as a kid and killed somebody with them, though not sure whether or not on purpose, before his powers and memory were messed with to cover it up or something like that. Perhaps it's all about all of those times Scott beat him up as a kid before they were split up.

[From The Shadows]

Can’t argue with that - yes Iceman often has blond hair maybe he likes to dye it. This lineup is so hot.

Angel
Brian Braddock
Cannonball
Cypher
Christian Frost
Elixir
Havok
Iceman
Longshot
Slipstream

I always saw Bobby as having light brown hair naturally. Not Blonde.(?)

[BroHomo]

We just don't need three white blonde guys on any team in 2024.

Bruh ..YES!

This is not racism and it seems you are internalizing something that isnt a thing here. I dont think its fair to put that on other posters here

Bruh ...Right!

Swing and a miss.

DragonChi is talking about the hypocrisy of complaining about too many straight white guys when if the targets of the criticisms were minorities, the person making those complaints would be labeled a racist, sexist, or whatever other label you can slap on them to stifle disagreement.

Err cause they're usually following that 'criticism' by something racist...sexist... homophobic

This is the only book with any blonde white men in it at all, let them have something.

I'm glad they FINALLY get a win

I dont care what a person's opinion is of a lineup and im not going to start labeling them a racist on the basis of that. That word carries alot of weight and casually throwing it out there bc people are commenting on the lack of diversity of a specific phenotype as has been revealed on this cast is just wrong

Like this is seriously hilarious. People are racist for calling out the lack of diversity? Damn that's meta. Fans ask for 95 different reasons as to why a team would have 2+ black/POC male members aas if they'd have to be a Huge, world ending secret that ties them together

[Anduinel]

I always saw Bobby as having light brown hair naturally. Not Blonde.(?)

Bobby's hair color has bounced around a lot. That's why I joked about his qualification for the X-Blonds depending on the colorist.