X-Factor #80
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeX-Factor #80 marks the first appearance of the Hell's Belles — Flambé, Vague, Briquette, and Tremolo — an all-female mutant enforcer squad that gave Peter David's government-sponsored X-Factor one of its most sharply designed villain ensembles of the run. The issue also delivers the first full appearance of Shrew (Marilyn Maycroft) and advances the concurrent Rhapsody subplot, weaving two independent plot threads through a single tightly structured issue — a hallmark of David's approach to ensemble storytelling. Cyber's role as the Belles' handler cross-pollinated the Wolverine corner of the Marvel universe with the X-Factor title, broadening the threat geography of both books. Though the Hell's Belles would appear in only this issue and its direct sequel, the characters enjoyed enough reader goodwill to resurface in later Marvel continuity, including post-M-Day stories.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Written by Peter David with pencils by Larry Stroman — who came to X-Factor directly from his run on the Epic Comics series Alien Legion — the issue was edited by Bob Harras under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, with Suzanne Gaffney serving as assistant editor. The issue went on sale May 19, 1992, carrying a July 1992 cover date, placing it squarely in the middle of David's celebrated government-team reinvention of the book that had begun around issue #71. A production-side footnote survives in the Grand Comics Database: David publicly credited his wife Myra for the issue's opening Wayne's World parody sequence — rebranded 'Rahne's World' — which set the issue's playful tone before the action escalated.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Hell's Belles as a team, with individual first appearances of each member: Flambé, Vague, Briquette, and Tremolo.
- First full appearance of Shrew (Marilyn Maycroft), a former Hell's Belle turned government informant whom X-Factor is assigned to protect.
- Cyber (Silas Burr) — created by Peter David and artist Sam Kieth in Marvel Comics Presents #85 (Sept. 1991) — appears here as the Hell's Belles' criminal mentor, poisoning Strong Guy with his adamantium claws and setting up the cliffhanger resolved in issue #81.
- Story title is 'Belles & Whistles'; released May 19, 1992 with a July 1992 cover date.
- Creative team: writer Peter David, penciler Larry Stroman, inker Al Milgrom, colorist Glynis Oliver, letterer Michael Heisler, editor Bob Harras.
- The opening sequence — a Wayne's World parody titled 'Rahne's World' — was devised by David's wife Myra, as credited by David himself in the issue's notes.
- Rhapsody (Rachel Argosy) continues her subplot from issue #79, imprisoned in Maine while Multiple Man and Quicksilver investigate the death she is accused of causing.
- The issue is collected in the trade paperback X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David Vol. 3, which gathers issues #79–83 and Annual #7.
Cast · 17 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Facteur X #25 (1993), X-Force #9 (1995), X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David #3 (2007), X-Factor Epic Collection #7 (2018), X-Factor by Peter David Omnibus #1 (2021)
Key issues in X-Factor
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