1. Factor Three: team overview

1. Factor Three: team overview Factor Three gives the original X-Men a different kind of enemy: a secret organization that gathers familiar opponents, hides its leadership and works toward a coordinated international attack. The name describes its ambition. With the United States and Soviet bloc facing each other, Factor Three intends to become the third power left standing after a nuclear war. Its members are promised a world ruled by mutants, and the X-Men’s efforts to protect humanity make them targets. The confrontation in X-Men #37 makes that position explicit. Captured inside the organization’s mountain headquarters, the X-Men face a staged trial. Blob, Mastermind, Unus and Vanisher turn their previous defeats into accusations against the team. Changeling conducts the prosecution, while Mutant Master presides over the proceedings and explains the larger plan. Mutant Master is the leader, with Changeling as his deputy. The four returning villains make up the principal field team in the final confrontation. Ogre belongs to the earlier operation in #28. Banshee is forced into service there, then becomes an ally against the organization. Factor Three has recruits, hired expertise and a captive operative under one banner. It can coordinate an attack, but its members do not all understand what they are helping to build.