X-Factor #28
X-Factor #28 is the issue that formally transforms Apocalypse's hijacked Celestial warship into Ship — a sentient artificial intelligence character who would become a fixture of the X-Factor title for years and whose lineage eventually extends to the Professor aboard Cable's Graymalkin station and beyond. The issue simultaneously introduces Infectia (Josephine) in an epilogue scene, planting the seed of a subplot that would inadvertently restore Beast's blue-furred, fully intelligent form. It also sets the stage for Caliban's genetic transformation under Apocalypse, a character arc that deepens the moral weight of the entire Fall of the Mutants aftermath and paves the way for the Inferno crossover.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Written by Louise Simonson with plotting and pencils by Walt Simonson — the husband-and-wife creative partnership that defined the title's Copper Age run — the issue was edited by Bob Harras under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and released with an on-sale date of January 26, 1988, carrying a May 1988 cover date. It falls in the immediate aftermath of the Fall of the Mutants crossover (X-Factor #24–26), functioning as a status-quo-establishing issue that retools the team's new headquarters while simultaneously seeding multiple subplots — Warren Worthington's estrangement, Caliban's impending augmentation, and Infectia's debut — that Louise Simonson would develop across the lead-up to Inferno.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Infectia (Josephine), a mutant with the power to induce biological mutations through touch, created by Louise and Walt Simonson; she appears in an epilogue scene coveting X-Factor's Ship.
- Ship is formally established as a sentient AI in this issue: X-Factor's student trainees free the vessel's enslaved artificial intelligence from Apocalypse's memory-lock, after which Ship asks to join the team as a member.
- Apocalypse's fail-safe bomb — planted to destroy the ship if it fell into enemy hands — is defused by the team, with Beast hurling it skyward before detonation.
- The closing scene shows Apocalypse inviting Caliban into his laboratory, signaling the beginning of the Morlock's extended genetic augmentation that will eventually make him Apocalypse's Hellhound.
- Warren Worthington III (still in his Death persona) appears in a brief subplot, searching Candy Southern's empty apartment and discovering evidence of her disappearance — a thread that runs through multiple subsequent issues.
- Written and plotted by Louise and Walt Simonson; inked by Bob Wiacek; colored by Petra Scotese; lettered by Joe Rosen; edited by Bob Harras.
- The issue has been reprinted in Essential X-Factor Vol. 2 (2007, black-and-white), X-Men: Inferno Prologue (2014), and the X-Men: Inferno Prologue Omnibus (2021), confirming its standing as part of the canonical Inferno build-up.
- Ship's AI would later evolve into the Professor — the sentient computer aboard Cable's space station Graymalkin — and then into the techno-organic entity Prosh, giving this issue a long downstream narrative legacy in the X-Universe.
Cast · 18 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Facteur X #1 (1989), X-Marvel #34 (1993), Essential X-Factor #2 (2007), X-Men: Inferno Prologue #[nn] (2014), X-Factor Epic Collection #3 (2021), X-Men: Inferno Prologue Omnibus #[nn] (2021), X-Factor: The Original X-Men Omnibus #2 (2025)
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