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Cover: Whilce Portacio

X-Factor #68

Name: X-Factor #68
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Jul 1991 · Marvel · 1.00 USD; 1.25 CAD; 0.60 GBP

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“Finale”

★ Key event — Scott Summers

About this Issue

X-Factor #68 is the narrative pivot on which Cable's entire mythology turns: it is the issue in which Cyclops—faced with an impossible choice—surrenders his dying infant son Nathan Christopher Summers to the time-traveling Sister Askani, who carries the baby two thousand years into a dystopian future so that the Clan Askani can treat his Techno-Organic Virus. That act of sacrifice retroactively gave Cable, who had already debuted as an adult warrior in New Mutants #87 (1990), a concrete in-continuity origin and made him an inseparable part of the Summers family saga. The issue also contains a preview panel identifying members of the prophesied 'Twelve'—a thread Marvel would not fully resolve for nearly a decade—cementing its role as a long-range world-building document as much as a single-chapter resolution. Its emotional weight, a father permanently relinquishing his child, gave the X-line a new register of sacrifice that writers and adaptors have returned to ever since, most recently in X-Men '97.

writer Jim Lee · writer, artist Whilce Portacio · writer Chris Claremont · inker Art Thibert · inker Josef Rubinstein · colorist Dana Moreshead · letterer Michael Heisler · cover Whilce Portacio

ComicBooks.com Value

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CGC 9.8 · 35 in census $108

CGC 9.6 · 26 in census $40

CGC 9.4 · 14 in census $32*

CGC 9.2 · 5 in census $25*

CGC 9.0 · 12 in census $23*

CGC 8.5 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 8.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

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CGC 9.8 ▾ $200–$340 7 listings

CGC 9.8 $200 CGC 9.8 $200 CGC 9.8 $200 CGC 9.8 $205 CGC 9.8 $235 CGC 9.8 $235 CGC 9.8 · Signed $339.99

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History

The 'Endgame' four-parter (X-Factor #65–68, April–July 1991) was plotted collaboratively by penciler Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee, with Chris Claremont scripting the dialogue—a division of labor that reflected the broader editorial reorganization under Bob Harras, who was steering the X-books toward the superstar artist-driven storytelling that would define early-'90s Marvel. The decision to reveal Cable as the grown-up Nathan Summers was made by Harras, Portacio, and Lee at the X-Factor level, even though Rob Liefeld—who had created adult Cable in New Mutants—originally envisioned Cable and his archenemy Stryfe as the same character and reportedly disagreed with the retcon; continuity would eventually reconcile the two characters by making Stryfe a clone. The Endgame arc is also notable as the only X-Factor storyline of that era to carry a Claremont script credit, and it was among his final significant X-book contributions before his acrimonious departure from Marvel in mid-1991.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover-dated July 1991 (on-sale May 28, 1991); part 4 of 4 of the 'Endgame' arc spanning X-Factor #65–68.
Story plotted by Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee; dialogue scripted by Chris Claremont; pencils by Whilce Portacio; inks by Art Thibert; edited by Bob Harras under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.
The issue depicts Cyclops surrendering infant Nathan Summers to Sister Askani, who transports him approximately 2,000 years into an alternate future (Earth-4935) so the Clan Askani can treat his fatal Techno-Organic Virus—the narrative event that retroactively explains Cable's origin.
Cable (as infant Nathan Summers) appears in a cameo capacity; this issue is widely catalogued as the scene in which baby Nathan is sent to the future, bridging his birth in Uncanny X-Men #201 (1986) and his adult debut in New Mutants #87 (1990).
A panel near the issue's end foreshadows 'the Twelve'—a group of prophesied mutants including Cable, Professor X, and Storm—planting a seed that Marvel would not harvest until the 1999 'The Twelve' crossover event.
The Watcher (Uatu) appears as a silent witness to Cyclops's decision, a narrative device signaling the moment's cosmic significance within Marvel continuity.
Guest stars include the Inhuman Royal Family (Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Gorgon, Lockjaw), who had been enslaved as Apocalypse's 'Riders of the Storm' throughout the arc.
The issue is narrated entirely by Cyclops, a structural departure from the previous three chapters of the arc, lending the finale a confessional, retrospective tone unusual for Marvel superhero comics of the period.