X-Factor was a fascinating team when Marvel Comics created it, and it has changed drastically over the years. Debuting in 1986, the original lineup of X-Factor brought the original five X-Men back together as they posed as mutant hunters for the public. However, this was a ruse, as their goal was to rescue mutants in danger. Things changed in 1991, when the government sanctioned the team, with Havok as the new team leader, and the group ended up walking a morally gray line. They then changed again when Jamie Madrox started the group back up as a private investigator firm run by mutants.
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Here is a look at the team’s first 10 members throughout these changes, ranked by their overall power levels.
10) Beast
Beast was one of the five original X-Men members, and he was also one of the founders of X-Factor. Beast was highly motivated to return to the ranks when he struggled to find a university that would hire him to be an instructor despite his high IQ. Beast wasn’t completely motivated at first, though, since his last team was the Defenders. That previous team ended when several members appeared to have died. That said, he still had his superhuman strength, agility, and durability, but he ranks below others because these powers are simply enhanced human abilities.
9) Angel/Archangel
Warren Worthington III was also a founding member of the X-Men, and it was Angel who financed and formed X-Factor after Jean Grey returned from the dead. He partnered with Cameron Hodge, who was the man behind the scenes for the group. Angel suffered some tremendous losses during the X-Factor run thanks to two events. First, the “Mutant Massacre” saw Angel severely injured, and he had to have his wings amputated, stripping him of his powers. Hodge then betrayed him and blew up a plane he was in, making it look like a suicide. Apocalypse saved Angel and gave him bio-organic wings that could kill. However, as someone whose power is flight, even with the new deadly wings, he ranks below many of his teammates.
8) Multiple Man
Jamie Madrox was one of the members who joined the government-sanctioned X-Factor team working under Havok. Valerie Cooper recruited him, along with Havok, Strong Guy, Polaris, Quicksilver, and Wolfsbane. Many years later, he made a change, acquired the X-Factor name, and turned it into X-Factor Investigations, a private investigation firm with mutants. His power is creating self-sustaining duplicates of himself, but there is one twist. Everything those duplicates learn, Jamie Prime absorbs. He sent countless duplicates out at once to study different fields, making him a master at just about anything imaginable.
7) Strong Guy
Strong Guy joined the government-sanctioned X-Factor team after working as a bodyguard for Lila Cheney. His only real goal when he joined X-Factor was to get a regular paycheck, although he was also close friends with Wolfsbane and joined to support her as well. As for his power levels, he can absorb kinetic energy from attacks and give himself amplified strength with that energy. However, this often deforms his body when it happens, and his power levels are extremely limited because of his one weakness. Strong Guy has a bad heart, and every time he uses his powers, he risks fatal heart failure. When at his peak, he traded blows with villains as powerful as Blob and Juggernaut.
6) Quicksilver
Quicksilver is one of the original members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and he has also been an Avengers member on more than one occasion. The twin brother of Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, he is extremely powerful thanks to being one of the top-tier speedsters in Marvel Comics. He joined the government X-Factor that Havok ran after he left the Avengers and had marriage problems with his wife, Crystal. His speed is Mach-level, which is slower than the X-Men movies showed, but still extremely fast. It allows him to end almost any fight before it starts.
5) Cyclops
Cyclops was the first member of the X-Men, and while he didn’t want to join X-Factor at first, he ended up as one of the team’s strongest members when he finally gave up his life with his wife, Madelyne, to return to help his former X-Men teammates. This provided the biggest drama of the series, since he had married Jean Grey’s clone and had a child (Nathan Summers). He struggled with Jean’s return, but eventually came around. His power is shooting optic beams from his eyes, but he has no control unless he is wearing his visor. He is also the greatest tactical leader the mutant nation has ever seen.
4) Polaris
Polaris is Magneto’s daughter, Lorna Dane, and she joined the government X-Factor team with her half-brother Quicksilver. She had lived on Muir Island for years before Cooper sought her out and asked her to join X-Factor. As Magneto’s daughter, she shares his same powers, with the ability to manipulate and control magnetic fields, different metals, and even the Earth’s electromagnetic spectrum. While Magneto is an Omega-level mutant, Polaris has fallen short thanks to her lack of self-control at times. It has been said more than once that when she finally unlocks her full powers, she could rival even her father.
3) Havok
Havok has the same basic powers as his brother Cyclops, as he absorbs cosmic radiation and then releases it as plasma blasts in the hot-blue spectrum. This means his blasts have an even higher level of energy than Cyclops’ concussive eye beams. When Cooper recruited Havok, she wanted him to serve as the field leader of the new X-Factor, and he proved to operate on a level of moral grayness that the original team members never approached. At peak, Havok can destroy buildings and disintegrate Sentinels, although he has less control over the actual precision.
2) Iceman
When the X-Men first formed, Iceman was a guy who could freeze things, ride an ice sled, and that was about it. Even when he joined X-Factor as a founding member, these were still his power levels, which made him seem like one of the team’s weaker members. However, over the years, Iceman has leveled up. In reality, Iceman is an Omega-level mutant who can manipulate all moisture and thermal energy around him. He can freeze an entire lake at once, and he has even reformed after seemingly dying, just using water. On top of being nearly immortal thanks to his powers, he has the ability to send the entire Earth into a new ice age, as there is no ceiling to his power.
1) Jean Grey
Jean Grey was the catalyst for forming X-Factor. She was thought dead after “The Dark Phoenix Saga” saw the Phoenix sacrifice her life to save the X-Men. However, that wasn’t the real Jean Grey and was just the Phoenix replacing her. Jean had been in suspended animation at the bottom of a lake since Phoenix first arrived, and she was found in a crossover between Avengers #263 and Fantastic Four #286. Her powers are greater than almost any mutant in history. Jean is the most powerful telepath on Earth, surpassing Professor X. She also still has a connection to the Phoenix Force, which adds to those powers, and no member of X-Factor compares to her.
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