X-Factor #66
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeX-Factor #66 holds a firm place in Marvel's mutant mythology as the debut of the Askani — a future-born sisterhood whose entire raison d'être is protecting Nathan Summers, the infant who would grow up to be Cable. That first appearance, of Sister Jen Askani arriving from thousands of years in the future to guard the child, planted the seed for one of the most elaborately constructed lineages in X-Men history, ultimately threading together Cable, Stryfe, Rachel Summers as Mother Askani, and the dystopian Askani timeline. The issue also stages the self-destruction of Ship, the sentient Celestial vessel that had served as X-Factor's headquarters since 'Fall of the Mutants,' a genuinely consequential loss that stripped the team of both a home and an ally with its own personality. Taken together, these two events — the Askani's arrival and Ship's death — make issue #66 the emotional hinge of the 'Endgame' arc, the story deliberately engineered to dissolve the original X-Factor lineup and funnel its members back into the X-Men for the landmark 1991 relaunch.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The 'Endgame' arc (issues #65–68) was plotted by artists Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio, with Chris Claremont brought in to script the dialogue — his only writing contribution to this volume of X-Factor and reportedly taken on so he could get comfortable with Portacio's style before the two worked together on Uncanny X-Men. The division of labor was clear: plot by Lee and Portacio, words by Claremont. An intriguing editorial footnote is that the story was originally conceived to include the wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey as its centerpiece, but editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco (some sources say Bob Harras) shut down that idea, judging the marriage too significant an event to run in a satellite title rather than as a line-wide event — the wedding was saved and eventually published in X-Men #30 (1994). Bob Harras, Lee, and Portacio had also independently decided during this period that Nathan Christopher Summers would eventually be revealed as the adult Cable — a decision that put them at odds with New Mutants artist Rob Liefeld, who had his own plans for the character.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Askani (identified in the Marvel Database as Jen Askani of Earth-4935), the time-traveling future warrior who arrives to protect the infant Nathan Summers from Apocalypse's forces.
- The story is titled 'Endgame, Part II: Heroic Effort' and is the second chapter of a four-part arc spanning X-Factor #65–68; plot by Jim Lee & Whilce Portacio, script by Chris Claremont, pencils by Whilce Portacio, inks by Art Thibert.
- Ship — the sentient Celestial vessel that X-Factor claimed from Apocalypse after 'Fall of the Mutants' and used as their mobile headquarters — is destroyed in this issue, self-destructing in Earth's orbit after being infected with a fatal cybernetic virus by the Dark Rider Hard-Drive.
- Apocalypse's new strike team, the Riders of the Storm (later known as the Dark Riders), are active here; their first appearances occurred in the preceding issue, #65.
- Nathan Christopher Summers (the infant who will become Cable) is kidnapped by Foxbat in the chaos, setting in motion the chain of events that concludes in #68 with Cyclops surrendering him to the Askani for treatment in the far future.
- Cameos by a wide roster of Marvel heroes — Captain America, Sersi, the Thing, the Human Torch, and She-Hulk — responding to Ship's out-of-control attack on New York City.
- The issue includes a backup feature, 'The Apocalypse Manifesto' (also called The Apocalypse Files), consisting of in-universe dossiers on Iceman and Beast written from Apocalypse's perspective, scripted by Fabian Nicieza and Portacio.
- Reprinted in: X-Men: Wrath of Apocalypse #1 (1996), the X-Men by Chris Claremont & Jim Lee Omnibus Vol. 2 (2011), Essential X-Factor Vol. 5 (2012, black and white), and X-Men Epic Collection Vol. 19: Mutant Genesis (2017).
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Reprinted in Facteur X #18 (1992), X-Men #9/1994 (1994), X-Men: Wrath of Apocalypse #1 (1996), X-Men by Chris Claremont & Jim Lee Omnibus #2 (2011), Essential X-Factor #5 (2012), X-Men Epic Collection #19 (2017), X-Men - La Collection Mutante #41 (2022)
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