The X-Men #28
The X-Men #28 (January 1967) is the debut issue of Banshee (Sean Cassidy) and the Ogre (Brian Dunlap), marking the first appearances of two characters who would both become fixtures — and one of them an enduring fan favorite — across decades of X-Men storytelling. The issue simultaneously delivers the very first mention of Factor Three, launching one of the earliest sustained multi-issue story arcs in the series' history, running through X-Men #39. Banshee in particular proved significant enough to join the celebrated 'All-New, All-Different' roster in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) and later headline the Generation X spin-off title in the 1990s, cementing this issue's place in the broader architecture of the X-Men franchise.
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The issue was written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Werner Roth, and inked by Dick Ayers, with Stan Lee editing — the same creative core that drove the title through its mid-Silver Age run. Thomas originally conceived Banshee as a female character, but an editorial decision by Stan Lee changed the character to male, reportedly because Lee felt it was poor optics to have an entire team gang up on a woman villain. Thomas has also noted in retrospect that the fictional espionage syndicate Factor Three was directly inspired by the alphabet-soup spy organizations prominent in early James Bond films and the then-popular spy-fiction genre. A now-notorious scripting error — Thomas accidentally typed 'pliers' instead of 'screwdriver' in a panel where Jean Grey hands Beast a tool, prompting Beast's condescending response — generated reader mail and became a small piece of X-Men production lore.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Banshee (Sean Cassidy), an Irish mutant with a sonic scream, created by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Werner Roth (January 1967).
- First appearance of the Ogre (Brian Dunlap), a tech-equipped operative of the villainous Factor Three organization.
- First appearance and first mention of Factor Three, a secret world-domination organization Roy Thomas modeled after the spy-fiction groups of the James Bond era; the Factor Three storyline ran as the book's overarching plot from this issue through X-Men #39.
- Story title: 'The Wail of the Banshee!' — Banshee is introduced as a coerced operative, forced to work for Factor Three via a bomb hidden in his headband; Professor X telepathically disables the device, clearing Banshee of wrongdoing by issue's end.
- Issue serves as the second chapter of a three-issue arc (X-Men #27–29) spotlighting the Mimic (Calvin Rankin) as the team's deputy leader, a status that ends the following issue when Xavier expels him.
- Banshee was originally designed by Roy Thomas as a female character, but the gender was changed to male by editor Stan Lee before publication.
- Reprinted in X-Men #76 (June 1972) with a new cover by Gil Kane, and also issued as a 1994 JC Penney mail-order reprint (identifiable by a Stridex advertisement on the back cover).
- Banshee's debut here preceded his role in the landmark Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) and his later turn as co-headmaster of Generation X; the character was portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones in the 2011 film X-Men: First Class.