Trivia / X-Factor

• Executive Meddling: Although X-Factor did originate from a pitch by the original creative team of Bob Layton and Jackson Guice, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter greenlit the series without the knowledge or involvement of the writer of the two existing X-Men titles Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants, Chris Claremont, who almost quit in protest. Further meddling came in the book's early development: the first few issues were ordered to be rewritten within a very short amount of time to include Jean Grey from the beginning (as they'd originally been plotted with Dazzler as the fifth team member in her place), rather than taking Layton's suggestion of reintroducing Jean later. Finally, Layton was replaced by former Uncanny X-Men editor Louise Simonson as someone who Claremont would be more willing to cooperate with.
  • There had been Executive Meddling in action regarding Jean Grey in the years before the series began as well: Shooter had originally demanded Jean's death for the planetary genocide she committed in The Dark Phoenix Saga, and insisted that she could only be brought back to life in a manner that absolved her of it.
• Throw It In!: The idea of bringing back Jean by revealing the Jean from X-Men #101 to #137 had been a duplicate was actually something Kurt Busiek had come up with, and idly suggested to Roger Stern some years before. He was quite surprised when later on he was given credit for the idea after it was passed on to John Byrne.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When the book was first conceived, Dazzler was planned to be the team's fifth member. The decision to instead resurrect Jean Grey led to a bit of an Aborted Arc, as the final issue of Dazzler's solo series ended with Beast offering her a spot on a new team he and his old friends were putting together. As a compromise, Dazzler joined the X-Men to make up for this.
  • Chris Claremont, who had been opposed to bringing back Jean, also suggested that the team's fifth member be Sara Grey, Jean's older sister. He pointed out that a scene in Bizarre Adventures #27 where the Phoenix altered Sara's genes to return her to normal after she'd been transformed by Attuma could be used to retroactively declare her mutant, an idea that apparently intrigued Jim Shooter. However, by that point, the decision to resurrect Jean had already been made, and Sara ended up falling by the wayside.
  • Originally, it was going to be long-time Daredevil foe, the Owl, who would be revealed at the end of issue #5 to be leading the Alliance of Evil. However, after Bob Layton left and Louise Simonson came in, Bob Harras requested "a Magneto-level villain" for the book to shake things up, leading to Apocalypse being created.