Issue(s): X-Factor #126
Cover Date: Aug 96
Title: "The Beast within"
Credits:
Howard Mackie - Writer
Stefano Raffaele & Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Matt Idelson - Assistant Editor
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
All i see in this issue is a big mess. Havok seems brainwashed and he fights Random. The other characters are running around doing one thing or another but i can't figure out what. Layouts in this issue are by Herb Trimpe, and he's definitely in Starblast mode here instead of using the good Silver Age sensibilities that i know he had to do some good storytelling that penciler Stefano Raffaele could have embellished (which would have been a great way to bridge the gap between the classic era artists who still needed work and the modern artists). As for the writing, i had forgotten that Jeph Loeb was writing X-Force, not X-Factor, and so i thought this was one of his and was looking forward to it with my newfound appreciation of him. And then when my head started to hurt i actually looked at the credits and saw my (and everyone's) old nemesis, Howard Mackie.

The only development here is that the real Beast is rescued. If you thought i was being too hard on X-Men #53 regarding the Beast's escape, consider that that issue and #54 both devoted pages to him trying to escape, only for him to get rescued here by X-Factor in completely unrelated circumstances.

Anyway, this is crap.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Beast rescued

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is an "Impact 2" comic. Beast can start appearing again (he appears in Fantastic Four #416 - which i don't have - after this but otherwise doesn't appear again during the Onslaught crossover).

References:

• It's said that Random seems to have been working for the Dark Beast since before we first met him in X-Factor #88.
  
• Havok and Random continue a grudge fight that began in X-Factor #118.

Crossover: Onslaught

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A