The Alliance Of Covers

Since there are a number of comics covers which dramatically depict two super-teams charging each other, it's hard to know for sure where the cover to X-Factor #5 gets its inspiration from:

What, you don't remember the Alliance of Evil?? To tell you the truth, I don't know if they actually named themselves as such--it was probably just a name whipped up for the sake of cover copy, and meant to be more descriptive than formal. From top to bottom, the "alliance" is made up of Tower, Timeshadow, Stinger, and Frenzy. If you have four question marks springing from your head, you can reasonably assume that these characters didn't exactly set the comics world on fire.

Anyway, what other comics cover could this issue be trying to pay homage to? Its story takes place in mid-1986, so we can narrow it down to three likely candidates:

Obviously, Avengers #53 is playing a big part in the process. Even with the X-Men now appearing on the opposite side of the X-Factor cover, it's clear that Marvel Girl, Cyclops, and Iceman are mimicking their original poses--and flipping the coin, Frenzy could be standing in for the Beast from that Avengers issue. Tower's pose looks to be taken from Giant-Man's on the Avengers Annual cover; and while Timeshadow certainly doesn't look like a Thunder God, his pose closely resembles Thor's from the cover of Avengers #70.  Apparently, there's a good chance artist Ron Frenz decided to sample elements from all three for his X-Factor cover.

Angel, Beast, and Stinger are the only people who don't seem to have counterparts on the other covers. The airspace is the best use of Angel, of course; while the Beast's posture is probably to accommodate that dratted barcode symbol.