How did the original X-Men turn into mutant-hunters? Stan Lee and Jacky Kirby created the X-Men back in 1963, but their first incarnation was frankly a flop. They hadn’t exactly put a lot of thought into the book; the first issue was created at speed, with Lee literally spending just two days putting the first issue together. The X-Men didn’t really achieve superstar status at Marvel until 1975, when the fabled “Second Genesis” assembled.
And yet, in 1986 the original X-Men returned as X-Factor. The idea was pitched by writer Bob Layton, who wasn’t really a fan of the Second Genesis team. As he explained it in an interview with the fan-magazine Dolmen (reproduced on Layton’s website), “To me, The Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman, The Angel and Cyclops were the real X-Men. So, I pitched a proposal to bring back all the originals.” Jean Grey was dead at the time, having sacrificed herself at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga, so he proposed using Dazzler instead.
Layton is an excellent writer, but in the end his pitch turned into something quite surreal. The original X-Men figured public persecution of mutants was only increasing, and they decided to help by getting at-risk mutants to safety. To that end, they established X-Factor, a business venture supposedly in the business of “handling” the mutant menace. Civilians were encouraged to report potential mutants to X-Factor, who would deal with the threat by removing the mutant. X-Factor was overseen by the US Government, with some senators aware of their real agenda, but others motivated purely by prejudice. It paralleled the old “Red Scare” movements in the US, complete with government-sponsored television ads.
![How The Original X-Men Became Mutant-HUNTERS](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/X-Factor.jpg)
The problem, of course, is that X-Factor’s ads were essentially fanning the flames of anti-mutant prejudice. They were implicitly telling Americans they were right to be afraid of mutants, and they should never feel safe around a mutant. What’s more, because X-Factor charged to provide a service, they guaranteed poorer people wouldn’t contact them at all; instead, they’d take matters into their own hands. It’s really not hard to see just how dangerous this strategy was – and, to be fair, the X-Factor team gradually began to realize they were part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Meanwhile, they had learned just how deep the prejudice ran in the American political system, and other world governments were establishing their own X-Factor equivalents – but legitimate ones, following what they believed was the American pattern.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Layton was finding it difficult to enjoy working in the X-office. He was an outsider, entering a franchise that had been tightly controlled for some years. Worse still, his X-Factor pitch became blended with the resurrection of Jean Grey and major retcons of the Dark Phoenix Saga, and he was forced to conduct substantial rewrites to fit into legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont’s continuity. This had the unfortunate effect of damaging Cyclops’ character-arc, because he was seen as having abandoned his wife and child in order to work as a superhero alongside Jean Grey, his ex. It didn’t take Layton long to turn over creative duties to writer Louise Simonson, and he’s publicly noted this was one of his most unpleasant experiences in comics.