WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Factor #5 by Leah Williams, David Baldeón, Israel Silva, V.C.’s Joe Caramagna and Tom Muller, on sale now.
When Krakoa became a nation, it accepted all mutants: the X-Men, their villains, and everyone in between -- so long as they had an X-gene. Krakoa planted gates in every nation that allowed them to and sent out Kitty Pryde and the Marauders to help the mutants in the nations that refused. There are still some nooks and crannies they haven’t been able to reach yet though, and X-Factor has been working to fix one of them: the Mojoverse.
Mojoverse is an alternate dimension, run by Mojo, a (literally) spineless television executive. In his world, digital entertainment is the dictatorial state’s religion. He kidnaps the X-Men repeatedly, putting them through different battles in order to boost ratings. It’s a hellish dimension, though it has created many fan-favorite characters.
In X-Factor #5, the former New Mutant Wind Dancer recently made her messy way back from the Mojoverse. As an alternative to Apocalypse’s Crucible, she agreed to be shot to death on Adam X’s Hot Seat after viewers of that program voted for her to die. Once she’s dead, the Five agree to resurrect her with the newly restocked resurrection protocols. When she’s done celebrating, she reveals that three other mutants are trapped in Mojoverse: Adam X, Shatterstar, and Spiral.
Adam X is a half-Shiar, half-mutant TV host. His powers allow him to ignite the electrolytes within other people’s blood, essentially non-spontaneously combusting them. Outside of that, he’s a skilled warrior who suffered from amnesia when he arrived on Earth and has since been brainwashed again. He’s fought with and alongside X-Force multiple times. He might be brainwashed again now by the Headshot TV Psychic Shield Neural Nets Mojo requires his stars to wear. Wind Dancer seems to be implying as much this issue. Adam X’s Hot Seat™ consists of him killing his friends and doing “comical” commentary over snuff films, which seems out of character for someone who used to be a hero.
Before this current stint, Adam X hasn’t been to Mojoverse before. The other two mutants Wind Dancer says are trapped there have long histories in the pocket dimension. Shatterstar, for one, was born there. The child of X-Men mainstays Dazzler and Longshot (who is a clone of Shatterstar thanks to time travel), Shatterstar fought with the Cadre Alliance in a rebellion against Mojo. The need for reinforcements led Shatterstar to Earth-616. There he joined X-Force and later X-Factor Investigations where he fell in love with Rictor. In X-Factor #3 by Williams, Baldeón, and Silva, Shatterstar was back in the gladiator pits, fighting for his life and higher ratings. He’s also been implanted with a Headshot TV Psychic Shield Neural Nets.
Spiral may be the most surprising of the three Wind Dancer wants to rescue. While Spiral has a long history with Mojo. She started as a regular human stuntwoman, in love with Longshot, who brought her with him into the Mojoverse. Mojo defeated the hero and experimented on Spiral, giving her four extra arms and the ability to transport people through dimensions. She’s worked with him and fought against him since, as well as joining Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Rather than serving Mojo behind the scenes, as she has in the past, Spiral is now hosting an interview show. It’s a good bet that she’s been implanted with a Headshot TV Psychic Shield Neural Net too.
Wind Dancer is keen to save Adam X, Shatterstar, and Spiral. She claims that all three helped her try to escape and that they’re being held against their will. Normally, rescuing mutants would be any X-teams bread and butter, but Polaris counters that the team has been “permanently banned” from Mojoworld. If more than 50 years of X-comics has taught us anything, it’ll take more than a ban to keep X-Factor from rescuing their friends.