STORY: "The Wail of the Banshee" (20 pages)  Factor Three send the Banshee and the Ogre to kidnap Professor X.  The X-Men defeat them and free the Banshee from Factor Three's control.

What you need to know:
After being trailed as an upcoming mutant menace in the last issue, the Factor Three storyline begins.  We'll come to Factor Three later on when the group actually appears - in this issue, it's just the Banshee and the Ogre.  Suffice to say that Factor Three were a group of second-tier X-Men villains united by the Mutant-Master in a supposed attempt to take over the world for mutants.  Eventually it turned out that the Mutant-Master was an alien invader who was exploiting the other team members.  Nobody's ever attempted to revive Factor Three after this storyline.  But to be fair, there wouldn't be much point - most of the other characters are already associated with the various incarnations of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, while the "Factor Three" name is more associated with the Mutant-Master's scheme.

The Banshee debuts.  At this point he's meant to be working for Factor Three under duress, because they've attached an exploding headband to him, and put him under the supervision of a thug called the Ogre.

The Ogre is just a throwaway villain - a generic henchman character who's there to keep an eye on the Banshee.  After this storyline, he was ignored for decades until he was finally dusted off and added to the supporting cast of Thunderbolts.

Factor Three didn't give up on their plan to kidnap Xavier.  They had another stab in issue #33, and that time it worked.

The Mimic is still acting like an intolerably obnoxious prat, but at least he's broadly on the right side.

Somebody has been trying to control Xavier's mind - presumably a Factor Three operation.

Ted Roberts has another stab at explaining his angst-ridden relationship with older brother Ralph, and gets interrupted for the second issue running.

A more innocent time:
Mythologically, a banshee ought to be female.  But Stan Lee felt that readers didn't accept female supervillains in those days, so he was rather irrationally turned into a man.  The Banshee's daughter Siryn, essentially a female version of the same character, is apparently closer to what Roy Thomas and Werner Roth originally had in mind.

The Mimic to Cyclops (and I swear I'm not making up this dialogue): "Flake off, bright eyes!  You're just beefin' 'cause you muffed your own shot at ramroddin' that kooky crew!"

Cerebro has a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

The X-Men's anti-Banshee ear shields look suspiciously like cotton wool.

Comments:
The first Thomas/Roth character to show real staying power, the Banshee goes on to become a mainstay of the X-books after joining the team in 1975.  However, this early incarnation of the character is almost unrecognisable - despite being a reluctant participant, he acts like a villain throughout, even down to calling the New Yorkers "puny humans" and "mortals."  He's also got a slightly deformed appearance.  Other than his love of tobacco, there's not much to connect this guy with Sean Cassidy as finally developed; it's a very early draft, to put it mildly.

In fact, given that he's wearing an exploding headband, Sean seems remarkably cavalier about ignoring orders.  He's meant to be lying low, but he spends his time going around New York in full costume, stealing nice landscape paintings and quality tobacco.  He's remarkably arrogant and smug, and frankly, he could use a good punch in the face.

The Mimic's storyline takes a relative back seat in this issue, but it's kept ticking over.  We're getting to the point in X-Men history where Roy Thomas is finally getting some subplots ticking over, with Ted's continually thwarted attempts to tell us about his brother, and the long build-up for Factor Three (who hung around as an unseen presence for months before finally turning up for real).

FEATURE CHARACTERS
Professor X, the Angel, the Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Marvel Girl I (all last in Strange Tales vol 1 #156)
The Mimic I

SUPPORTING CHARACTER
Ted Roberts (next in issue #31)

VILLAINS
The Banshee (Sean Cassidy; first appearance; from behind the scenes in the previous issue; next in issue #35)
Factor Three: the Ogre, the Blob, Mastermind I, Unus the Untouchable, the Vanisher (all next in flashback in Thunderbolts #33), the Mutant-Master and the Changeling (all but the Ogre behind the scenes)

OTHER CHARACTERS
The students of Metro College (last in Fantastic Four vol 1 #61; no further appearances)

Written: 3 October 2004

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