  The study of massive X-ray binaries provides important observational
diagnostics for a number of fundamental astrophysical issues, such as the
evolution of massive stars, the stellar winds of massive stars, the formation
of compact objects and accretion processes. More than three decades of study
have led to a coherent picture of their formation and evolution and some
understanding of the physical mechanisms involved. As more and more systems are
discovered, this picture grows in complexity. Over the last two years, INTEGRAL
has discovered a new population of massive X-ray binaries, characterised by
absorbed spectra, which challenges some of our previous assumptions and
guarantees that this will be a major subject of research for the near future.
