Following House of M, with all but 198 mutants de-powered, Madrox forms a new team. It starts with a now-powerless Rictor wanting to kill himself, under Madrox’s narration…
Madrox sends one of his dupes to talk Rictor off the ledge, but instead the dupe throws Rictor off. (Don’t worry, Monet rescues him.)
This is where we first see what author Peter David has done to Madrox. Madrox now is a “prime” and his duplicates, when they rejoin his body, share their learning with him. But while separated, their personalities are quite different from “prime” Jamie–they represent extreme versions of parts of his own psyche.
David gives each member a truly distinctive voice, adding nuance and detail to characters who up to now have nearly always been painted with broad brushes as side-characters, or even background. But David breathes life into every one of them.
Siryn gains the ability to do what banshees are actually supposed to do: Hypnotize people who hear her scream. But this is a new secondary mutation and she’s learning how to use it.
Guido now calls himself Strong Guy, and leans in fully to the role of team tank.
Layla Miller, who appeared briefly in House of M, “knows stuff” but we the readers don’t know how she knows what she knows. And she doesn’t want to tell her team, either.
She has a strong bond with Guido.
Rounding out the team are Wolfsbane and Monet, who are the most “previously developed” characters on the team.
The first story has the team facing Singularity Investigations, or SI, who at first appear to be a competitor private eye team led by Damian Tryp–a man who has managed to stay alive for centuries. The twist is that there are three of him: One is a middle aged man who serves as CEO of SI; 20something Tryp (who pretends that 40something Tryp is his dad); and “Old Man” who is from the distant future.
Of course SI are evil. X-Factor crosses paths as Madrox’s team investigate the cause of M Day and suspect that SI was somehow involved. They also protect a rapist in this arc–the X-Factor team are hired to investigate alleged mutant activity but find that what appeared to some to be mind control was just garden variety violence and detestable behavior. Not going into details about the story of the case because it’s not critical to continuity, but it’s worth noting that it’s fairly gritty. The series has a noirish tone that is well-supported by the art. It’s by two pencilers, but Ryan Sook is clearly the star of the the two.
Anyway, the team is able to crack the case in this first story and has their first confrontations with Tryp.
The first four issues of the series had a “Decimation Event” badge on the cover, but by issue #5 it must have been clear to Marvel that this series was excellent and would out-last the event.