I think in a lot of ways, it's hard for us to understand from the current moment the importance of this comic in Marvel's history. There was a time when it was actually a pretty rare occurrence for a superhero to return from the grave. The Doom Patrol had, mostly, done it about a decade earlier, but in Marvel's continuity, especially with its slightly more "realistic" aesthetic, it was a very rare thing. You'll note the "It begins here! X-Factor" box up in the top right corner. I was on board for X-Factor right from the beginning, and today's issue and the Fantastic Four comic that followed it was where that all began.
(That said, I think I actually got these after the fact, once I realized that the story of the original X-Men team's renewal started here.)
These days, I think Jean Grey returns from the grave on a semi-annual basis, but when this comic came out, she'd been dead a few years. Cyclops had moved on and was married with child, the other original X-Men were part of The Defenders. Jean's death was a historical happenstance, something that provided a bit of angst/drama whenever its legacy reared its head in the comics. And there was absolutely no inkling that Phoenix, who had served with the X-Men, and then opposed them, and then served with them again, was anything other than a cosmically-powered Jean Grey. The ramifications of her return (well, sort of return) are wide-ranging.
I'll do a proper reading, at some future date, of the original run of X-Factor. I think it's a wonderful comic, and utilizes the mutants-as-civil-rights metaphor in some really great ways. It also interweaves with all of the really great mutant crossovers of the 80s (the Massacre, Inferno, Fall of the Mutants). It was my gateway into the world of the X-Men which, for a while, I was wholly invested in. And it all, as the cover says, begins here.
To be continued.
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