The original X-Men return as X-Factor. No need to be fearful any longer! - Rated 
When "Giant Size X-Men" #1 came out in 1975 the good news was that the X-Men were back with their own comic book. However, the next generation of X-Men was made up of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus, and Thunderbird, with the only left over from the original lineup being the team leader, Cyclops. Well, Professor X is around too. The new lineup would change, relatively quickly, with Sunfire leaving and Thunderbird dying and Phoenix (nee Marvel Girl) joining the lineup, but there was a basic divide between the old team and the new team. The Beast popped up again, but what we did not have was the old band getting together. At least, not until ten years later when Marvel launched "X-Factor," which brought together the original X-Men, without Charles Xavier.
By then things had changed. In "X-Men" #101, Marvel Girl was reborn as Phoneix, became Dark Phoenix, and died in #137. But killing a comic book character is damn near impossible, because they all come back, and Jean Grey proved to be no different. There was Madelyne Pryor, the look alike that Scott Summers fell in love with and who turned out to be a clone created by Mr. Sinister and eventually become the Goblyn Queen. She is now married to Scott and they have a baby. Then we have the increased in anti-mutant hysteria. There was also another wrinkle in that Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who had ordered that Phoenix must die for having devoured the sun that destroyed the planet of the asparagus people ("X-Men" #135), had decreed Jean Grey could only be brought back into the Marvel universe if it could be shown she was not culpable for the crimes of Dark Phoenix. Kurt Busiek came up with an idea of how this could be done, that was worked into the opening stories of this collection.
Before launching "X-Factor" the storyline was set up in issues of two other Marvel Comics. In "Avengers" #262 powers bursts from the bottom of Jamaica Bay get the attention of the group and they find a strange pod lying on the bottom. The pod is sent to Reed Richards and in "Fantastic Four" #286 it cracks open and out steps Jean Grey. Since the FF are dressed in black instead of blue she attacks them thinking they are fakes, because she does not know that several years have passed and has no memories from when she flew the shuttle through the solar flair (in "X-Men" #100-101) and when she emerged from the cocoon. Her powers have also been downgraded, because not only is she no longer Phoenix (in point of fact, she never was), but she is also no longer telepathic, although her telekinesis powers are now enhanced. It is only when she touches the holoempathic cyrstal that the Shi'ar gave to her parents after the death of Dark Phoenix that Jean relives what happened between her and the Phoenix power on the shuttle. Now all that is left is to tell the other original X-Men that Jean is alive.
In the premier episode of "X-Factor" it is Warren Worthington III (a.k.a. Angel), who finds out the news about Jean first and who has to wrestle with the decision to tell Scott. The fact it is Warren also matters because the guy is filthy rich, which allows for setting up the mission statement of X-Factor. The original premise of the X-Men was that Professor Xavier collected teenage mutants and trained them to use their powers to fight super villains, mutant or otherwise. Now that the original X-Men are older and wiser they are taking a different approach, posing as a mutant detection agency. People who suspect a mutant menace call a toll-free number to report the incident. X-Factor then shows up, in the guise of a team of psychologists and scientists, to investigate the subject. But their true purpose is to isolate and protect the people who possess the X-Factor Mutation in their genetic make-up. Meanwhile, all of the interpersonal dynamics get worked out, with the Scott-Jean relationship being, as always, the key one.
The premise is fairly interesting, but the idea of wanting to find new mutants, and therefore new villains, runs a bit thin. It is hard to look at the Alliance of Evil (#5) and not see a lesser version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but I did like when Freedom Force showed up to fight X-Factor for the young mutants Rusty and Skids (#8)., and it felt good when Master Mold (#13-14) showed up as a serious blast from the past. Volume 1 of the "Essential X-Factor" has the first sixteen issues of the comic book, along with the first annual, along with the aforementioned prologue issues and crossovers with "Thor" #373-74 and "Power Pack" #27. Bob Layton writes the first five issues and the annual of "X-Factor," with Louise Simonson scripting the rest. The pencilers on the comic book were Jackson Guice (#1-3, 5-7), Keith Pollard (#4), Marc Silvestri (#8, #12), Terry Shoemaker (#9), Walter Simonson (#10-11, 13-15), and David Mazzucchelli (#16). I like the irony that on the X-Factor/Thor crossover Walter Simonson does the art for "X-Factor" but writes "Thor."
"X-Factor" only lasted from 1986 to 1991, when the original X-Men were incorporated back into the main team., so there cannot be too many Essentials volumes if they decide to reprint them all. It is just that I doubt this is going to be a front burner title for Marvel (it took us four years to get to Volume 2 of the "Essential Classic X-Men"). Actually the one I am looking forward to would be Volume 1 of the "Essential New Mutants," because that is arguably the true heir to the orignal "Uncanny X-Men" since it gets back to the original mission statement.
Good stories, bad value and some shocking print quality - Rated 
Let's get it out of the way....this black and white volume prints the 'resurrection' of original X women Jean Gray who was killed off in the classic Dark Pheonix saga (see Essential Xmen vol 1 & 2). This rebirth rates not only as one of the worst ideas in comics history, but from the first 2 issues presented here it's also one of the worst realised. Sorry folks, dems da breaks. Once the ressurection business is dealt with X factor vol 1 sets itself up as a return to 60's Xmen format as the original team seeks out young mutants and helps them come to terms with their powers. They even take on the Soviet Union as if to complete that authentic 60's feel. The X factor, Power Pack and Thor issues from the 'The Mutant Massacre' are included. This 80's Marvel mile stone is presented more completely in Essential Xmen vol 6 and it is a shame that the two volumes have to duplicate so many issues. The end result is that this volume is the worst value of all the Marvel Essentials so far printed. As for the story itself, Z list bad guys kill off C list Morlock characters, and you have to wonder why Marvel historians go on about it. Like most of the stories here, it will hold your attention but it is far from 'Essential'. Saddly the best moment in this volume is paradoxically the worst in the whole essential series. Issues 13 & 14 tell the best story here, as Cyclops confronts his past and the reborn Sentinel boss Master Mould in Alaska. These two issues also feature the best art work of the volume, saddly this is very hard to tell as the quality of the reprinting is terrible, easily the worst in the Essential series so far. This is because Marvel have not retained the original art work for these issues. But there is no excuse for releasing this volume to such a poor standard and similair problems have been better over come in other volumes. Hopefully a future reprint with resolve this issue. Overall this is an entertaining but patchey volume in terms of both story content and reprint quality.
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