Issue(s): X-Factor #94
Cover Date: Sep 93
Title: "The Longest Day part II: Evening where"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Script
Scott Lobdell - Plot
Paul Ryan - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Jaye Gardner - Assistant Editor
Kelly Corvese - Editor

Review/plot:
This is a total downtime issue.

Havok and Polaris are out on a dinner date but are accosted by anti-mutant humans and - in part thanks to their own frustration at recent events in the mutant world - things escalate and they get thrown in jail.

Forge, who is still transitioning into Val Cooper's role, arranges to have them released. Forge says that things are going to get a lot worse for mutants soon, and that X-Factor is going to be "right in the middle of it" (which sounds like a mission statement from the writers committing to this book not being a second tier mutant book; i.e. it's going to be involved in the crossovers).

Meanwhile, Strong Guy accompanies Wolfsbane to Muir Island, where she's going to be treated to undo what was done to her in Genosha. Wolfsbane asks Strong Guy why he never told anyone that he was is constant agony (she found out when she saw him trying to manage the pain one day, not via Doc Samson), but he denies that he is.

We also see that Quicksilver has taken up sculpting (and with his super-speed allowing for trial-and-error, he's already got talents that rival Alicia Masters). He's upset that he's always treated like an outsider, but when he's approached by Madrox, who is interested in bonding, he's happy when Madrox is dragged away by a double (or vice versa).

At the very end of the issue, we see Random stalking Polaris, thinking to himself that it would be hard to not "love a woman like that" but that he has to kill her.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: As noted in the entry for last issue, both last issue and this issue are parts I and II of a story called "The Longest Day" (according to the titles) but they don't seem to actually depict the events of a single day (beyond the things noted in the last entry, Forge and Val Cooper are wearing different clothes in this issue).

References:

• Havok and Wolfsbane learned in X-Factor #89 that they were bonded in Genosha circa New Mutants #97 (where Wolsfbane was turned into a mutate).
  
• There's an oblique reference to X-Factor #87 when Wolsfbane mentions Strong Guy's pain, and another when we see that Quicksilver has taken up sculpting as a hobby.
  
• Forge cites Illyana's funeral in Uncanny X-Men #304 as one of the trials that X-Factor has gone through recently.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A