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Appearing in "The Evolutionary War Part 1: Unnatural Selection"

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Supporting Characters:

  • Ship
  • Val-Or (Main story and flashback) (First appearance)

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Synopsis for "The Evolutionary War Part 1: Unnatural Selection"

The Purifiers, minions of the High Evolutionary, are scouring the tunnels deep below the Earth seeking to sterilize the various races of Moloids, Tyrannoids and Lava Men due to the fact that their master has deemed them an evolutionary dead end. As the heads of this operation Dr. Stack and Major Purge remark about how stupid the Moloids are. Unknown to them, one of the Moloids is a mutant with telepathic powers and when one of the Purifiers harms him he unleashes a telepathic scream. His cries for help bombard the psychic plane, also effecting Marvel Girl, who is aiding he comrades in X-Factor in helping repairing the damage done to New York City following an attack by Apocalypse.[1] Recovering Jean and preventing any further damage, the members of X-Factor have their Ship teleport them back to base to find out what's going on.

X-Factor is not the only ones who heard the cry for help, as at the secret base of Apocalypse, Caliban also detects the cry for help of the mutant Moloid and informs his master. Apocalypse is much interested in this turn of events as they counter his belief in survival of the fittest. While down below in Subterranea, the the Moloids are being brought through the sterilization machine, and the mutant among them uses it's powers to make his fellow Moloids attack the people who would seek to commit genocide against it's people.

Meanwhile, Jean has convinced her comrades in X-Factor to go to investigate the cry for help she received and they begin to travel down into Subterrainia. Finding an access to the underground world, X-Factor is shocked to find dead Moloids when they reach their destination. Before they can act on anything, they are suddenly swarmed by an army of Moloids under the control of the telepathic mutant that brought them down there.

In deep space, the High Evolutionary watches as the sterilization mission is underway, when suddenly he is interrupted by Apocalypse who teleports on board his space station. The two argue their belief systems, the High Evolutionary believing that his sterilization of the Moloids would be for the best of all beings on the planet, while Apocalypse believes that they should be left to their own devices -- arguing that the weakest should be culled by nature, not the grand design of an individual. When the High Evolutionary refuses to see things the same was as Apocalypse, the eternal mutant attacks the Evolutionary. His blast ruptures the Evolutionary's space station causing both men to be pulled out into the vacuum of space -- Apocalypse laughing the whole time.

On the planet below, X-Factor attempt to fight off the attacking Moloids when Marvel Girl spots the mutant Moloid due to it's different skin color. Pulling it away from the horde with telekensis, she passes the frightened creature over to the Beast and they manage to calm it down. Realizing that they pose no threat, the mutant Moloid tells them it's origins through primitive mental images. How it was born a mutant and from it's first day of awareness it had the ability to control his fellow Moloids -- a simple feat due to their near mindless nature -- and helping them prosper until the Purifiers came. As if on cue, the ones that would seek to create the eventual extinction of the Moloids attack, once more sending the Moloids into a panic and X-Factor struggling to try and help.

In space, Apocalypse uses his powers to protect himself from the vacuum of space and continues to battle the High Evolutionary. The two clash both physically and ideologically over their beliefs on how evolution should work on their planet. The Evolutionary argues his justification based on the fact that he is like unto a god on an evolutionary level and he wishes his fellow man to achieve this status, while Apocalypse -- centuries old -- argues that only time and war will determine who is the strong. Unable to convince the Evolutionary otherwise, Apocalypse decides instead to transport him to Subterranea to see the struggle for himself.

As X-Factor battles the Purifiers, trying hard not to get in the way of the raging Moloids, Dr. Stack and Major Purge figure out that the Moloids are being driven by one mutate of their own kind and manage too single him our. Major Purge grabs the mutate and is about to kill it. Watching this, Apocalypse boasts that even the High Evolutionary's Purifiers are proving the validity to the point of his argument. As the battle rages on, the Beast notices what is going on and rushes to the aid of the mutant Moloid however Major Purge blasts him away. As X-Factor struggles to try and get to the mutant, the creature finally learns how to focus it's ability, learning the English word "No" and making his fellow Moloids rally together and fight off the Purifiers in a coordinated attack, freeing him and pulling the Moloid to safety.

When X-Factor aids them, the battle appears lost to the Purifiers. Apocalypse laughs at the High Evolutionary's failed mission -- pointing out that despite their differing opinions, they are still pushing evolution forward that Apocalypse sees fit and the eternal mutant teleports away. The Evolutionary decides to ponder this and teleports away, taking his Purifiers with him before they can provide any answers to X-Factor. With the battle over, Beast is surprised to find that the mutant Moloid has learned rudimentary English. He tells Beast his name is Val-Or, and when Beast offers him a place living with X-Factor to learn how to use his powers, Val-Or declines, telling his new friend that he wishes to stay and lead his people.

Appearing in "Changes"

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Synopsis for "Changes"

X-Factor's young charges Boom-Boom, Rictor, Rusty, Skids, Artie and Leech decide to race across X-Factor's ship to the hydroponics garden, and allow each other to use their mutant powers in order to achieve their goal. While the older students fumble over each other to try and win, Artie and Leech sneak through an air duct to get to the finished line before everyone else. They literally run into the Beast who is going over old photos salvaged from the ruins of X-Factor's old headquarters.[2]

Ship decides to create three dimensional holograms of the photographs so that the children can see them better. The first is of the original X-Men, then they pay focus on Beast's graduation from the team, his becoming the furred Beast, and how Artie's father Carl Maddicks reversed the condition. With his intelligence waning whenever he uses his strength, the Beast gets upset when he considers how smart he used to be and leaves the children to go brood. The Children instead continue to look over the photographs, marveling at how much the members of X-Factor have changed over the years:

How Iceman started in a snowy form and eventually had his powers super-charged and uses a special belt to keep them stabilized, Warren Worthington III's transformation from the high flying Angel, to having his wings amputated and being remade into Death, the fourth Horseman of Apocalypse, before finally regaining his freedom. Talk about Cyclops and Marvel Girl brings up their strange relationship, Cyclops's leadership of the original and new X-Men, the ride and fall of Phoenix and Scott's rocky relationship with Madelyne Pryor which not even a child could stabilize. They also see how X-Factor has changed since they first formed, with them posing as mutant hunters until they were outed as mutants and how because they saved New York City from being destroyed by Apocalypse, became heroes.

Looking at all this change, the young students of X-Factor consider the idea of going to a private school as a new chapter in changes in their lives.

This story is continued in X-Terminators #1....

Appearing in "The Saga of the High Evolutionary Part 1: The Gift"

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  • Mrs. Wyndham (Herbert's mother)

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Synopsis for "The Saga of the High Evolutionary Part 1: The Gift"

In 1928, Hebert Edgar Wyndham is a young geneticist researcher in London who bombards rats with radiation in an effort to stimulate mutations. So far all of his test subjects have died. He receives an imitation to a major genetics conference in Geneva, which he is only able to afford with family donations. There he befriends a Yale zoologist named Jonathan Drew, and also encounters the renowned geneticist Wladislav Shinski, who advises young researchers to hold off on mutation experiments until the DNA code has been fully mapped. Wynham chafes at this tacit rebuttal of his own work, especially as he knows that mapping process will take several more decades. Getting drunk that evening, Wyndham tries to collect himself in a dark alleyway when he is approached by a mysterious, supernatural figure, who hands him a sheath of papers containing a blueprint for breaking the genetic code.

Notes

Evolutionary War
X-Factor Annual #3 Punisher Annual #1 Silver Surfer Annual #1 New Mutants Annual #4 Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 Fantastic Four Annual #21 X-Men Annual #12 Web of Spider-Man Annual #4 West Coast Avengers Annual #3 Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 Avengers Annual #17
  • Part 1 of "The Evolutionary War" Annual crossover event.
  • The X-Terminators view photographs and learn the pasts of X-Factor's members.
  • Issue includes bonus pinups & images of:

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