TheThe next wrinkle in
the unfolding story of the X-Men is all about the newest mutant power: unlimited resurrection. Polygon can exclusively announce the next book
to join Marvel’s expanding X-Men slate is
X-Factor, and partly about
the Five, a group of characters whose powers combine to create the miracle of mutant immortality.
But it’s
mostly about a new team of Krakoan operatives, comprised of the speedy Northstar, one of Marvel’s earliest openly queer characters; the all-seeing Eye Boy; the telepathic Rachel Grey; the polymath Prodigy; the magnetic Polaris; and Daken, Wolverine’s disaster son. They are X-Factor, and their job is to investigate and confirm mutant deaths — but not to avenge them.
That’s because the Five resurrect a mutant by
creating a new body for them, and telepathically implanting a backup of their mind and personality. In the new series, X-Factor will hunt down missing mutants to confirm their deaths, so that the Five never run the risk of creating a duplicate of a living mutant — because that’s a big no no.
Leah Williams and David Baldeón,
fresh off of Gwenpool Strikes Back, will craft the series, due this spring. And while it was initially pitched as a missing persons mystery book, Williams jumped at the chance to dive deeper into the Five after noticing how interested fans were in how the resurrection process would change mutant culture.
“We’d already planned on having
X-Factor report to the Five for obvious resurrection work reasons,” Williams told Polygon via email, “but I asked [
Jonathan Hickman and X-Men editor Jordan D. White] if we could focus a significantly greater concentration on the Five to not only help develop their evolving group dynamic, but also how they come to establish each resurrection protocol.”