X-Factor #96

Name: X-Factor #96
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Nov 1993 · Marvel · 1.25 USD; 1.60 CAD; 0.95 CAD

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“In the Beginning”

★ 1st appearance — Haven

About this Issue

X-Factor #96 marks the debut of Haven (Radha Dastoor), a morally complex Indian mutant prophetess whose plan to deliberately trigger a catastrophic 'Great Dissolution' — the Mahapralaya — in order to birth a utopian New Humanity gave the government-sponsored X-Factor team one of its most philosophically distinctive antagonists of the 1990s. Haven was a rare villain whose stated motives were rooted in genuine humanitarian conviction rather than simple malice, and her introduction set a thematic undercurrent — the tension between apocalyptic idealism and the cost in human lives — that ran through the team's stories all the way to the milestone 100th issue. The issue also advances the ongoing subplot around Random (Marshall Stone III) and the covert government forces targeting Polaris, weaving the Legacy Virus anxieties that were reshaping the entire X-line in 1993 into X-Factor's own street-level political drama. Together, these threads make #96 the narrative engine that launched the final and most thematically ambitious chapter of J.M. DeMatteis's run on the series.

writer J. M. DeMatteis · artist Greg Luzniak · inker Al Milgrom · colorist Glynis Oliver · letterer Richard Starkings · cover Greg Luzniak, Al Milgrom

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Marvel Comics X-Factor Issue #96 NOV 1993 Dawn of Destruction $2

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History

By the time #96 went on sale in September 1993 (cover-dated November 1993), the series had just passed through a turbulent editorial handoff: fan-favourite writer Peter David had departed the government-team incarnation of X-Factor earlier that year, leaving Scott Lobdell to bridge the gap before J.M. DeMatteis assumed sole scripting duties — which this issue represents. Penciller Greg Luzniak, who had come aboard a few issues earlier, provided the art, inked by Al Milgrom, with Kelly Corvese editing under group editor Bob Harras and editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco. DeMatteis conceived Haven as a vehicle for examining how sincere spiritual conviction can curdle into fanaticism, a thematic preoccupation evident throughout his broader Marvel work of the era.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Haven (Radha Dastoor), created by writer J.M. DeMatteis and penciller Greg Luzniak; her civilian name, powers, and apocalyptic 'Mahapralaya' philosophy are all introduced here.
Haven is depicted as carrying a sentient, never-born mutant fetus whose abilities — including healing, telepathy, and dimensional portal control — manifest through her; this unusual power source was a deliberate story conceit by DeMatteis.
The issue's story title is 'Dawn of Destruction!' and the on-sale date was September 14, 1993, with a November 1993 cover date.
Written by J.M. DeMatteis; pencilled by Greg Luzniak; inked by Al Milgrom; colored by Glynis Oliver; lettered by Richard Starkings; edited by Kelly Corvese (editor) and Jaye Gardner (assistant editor), under group editor Bob Harras and editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.
Random (Marshall Stone III) appears as a supporting character whose mercenary assignment against Polaris — secretly arranged by a rogue government faction — reaches its payoff in this issue, deepening his eventual turn toward an alliance with X-Factor.
The plot runs concurrent with the Genoshan political crisis and the emerging Legacy Virus storyline that would culminate in Multiple Man's apparent death in issue #100.
The issue has been reprinted three times: in the French anthology Facteur X #34 (Semic S.A., March 1995), in the Italian Marvel Miniserie #22 (Marvel Italia, January 1996), and in the X-Factor Epic Collection Vol. 8 — X-Aminations (Marvel, 2019).
Haven went on to appear in a total of seven issues before her death in X-Factor #117, when the Adversary — the Cheyenne trickster demon — used her unborn child as a vessel to re-enter the physical world.