Today's Fact
Verified against three independent sources. Issues cited below.
Cyclops once ran a mutant-hunting business. When Jean Grey returned from apparent death, the five original X-Men — Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman — reunited not as the X-Men but as X-Factor (X-Factor #1, February 1986). Their public pitch was simple: for a fee, these apparently ordinary humans would hunt down dangerous mutants for you.
It was a con — a rescue operation in disguise. Posing as non-powered humans, Scott Summers and his teammates took the calls, 'captured' young mutants like the pyrokinetic Rusty Collins, and secretly brought them to safety, training them to control their powers the way Professor X had once trained them.
The deception cut both ways. The real X-Men had no idea it was a ruse — and the public branding fed anti-mutant hysteria. Worse, the team's backer, Cameron Hodge, was deliberately stoking that hysteria and would become one of the X-Men's most hateful human enemies. The cover lasted until the original five rejoined the X-Men in 1991.
Why It's Obscure
X-Factor is remembered as 'the original five got back together.' The actual premise — heroes advertising themselves as mutant bounty hunters — is the strange, risky part Marvel rarely leads with.
Gallery
Official Marvel and comic cover art of Cyclops — no AI imagery, nothing mislabeled.
Sources
Every claim above is verified against at least two of these independent sources.
Bullpen Bulletins
- Look Back at 'X-Factor' — Marvel.comMarvel's own history confirms X-Factor set themselves up as mutant-hunters so they could find young mutants and get them to safety, starting with Rusty in X-Factor (1986) #1, Artie in #2, Skids in #7 and Rictor in #17.
- X-Factor (comic book) — WikipediaCorroborates the five original members setting up a business advertised as mutant-hunters for hire in TriBeCa, posing as normal humans, secretly training captured mutants, with Bob Layton and Jackson Guice on the first issues.