I became a fan of X-Factor late last year, and have been in love ever since. To be fair, it’s pretty much just a giant man-crush on Jamie Madrox, but there is nothing too shabby about Siren either, a character that I really do like. However, the reason I continue to keep reading X-Factor – primarily – is to see when in hells bells Layla Miller will return.
And to anyone who wants to cry “Marvel continuity sucks†at me for her appearance in Secret Invasion, give me a break; it was a flash-back!
X-FACTOR #31
COVER BY: GLENN FABRY
WRITER: PETER DAVID
PENCILS: PABLO RAIMONDI
INKS: PABLO RAIMONDI
COLORED BY: JEROMY COX
LETTERED BY: VC – CORY PETIT
I’m not quite sure how to look at this series anymore though; it seems to have lost its way a bit. Yes, I still have a thing for the team, but the writing seems to be asking too much of me. Take for example the scene where Rictor punches Arcade, and his face comes flying off revealing him to be a robot. Makes sense, right? Except, that the robot face is actually another mask, and it was actually Arcade all along. I’m all for a little unrealism in my comics, but this is going just a bit too far. Is writer Peter David trying to tell me that no one would have noticed that it was a mask?
I was also a bit annoyed at the seeming fact that Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, was the only person in the whole world who was going to be of any help to Mutant Town and their giant force field problem.
The scenes where we weren’t focusing on the members of X-Factor were hard to read as well, as they seemed to play no other part then fill a few more pages with words and art. The book is called “X-Factor,†not “The Trials and Tribulations of Mutant Town;†we should at least be focusing on said team a little bit more.
Now granted those irrelevant scenes I mentioned did make for some great X-Factor story, in that they split up and began saving whoever they could get too. It was a testament to what we – the readers – have always known about X-Factor, and what the rest of the Marvel Universe seem to believe about them.
There were two highlights for me, and naturally one of them included Jamie Madrox’s classic comedy timing. He’s making his way up a building to save an old guys life, and though he can’t fly, he announces that he’s “got a kick’ support system.†This is accompanied by a pyramid of Jamie’s, with a bottom one whining “could we move this along? Please?†It’s Jamie to the core!
The best bit of the comic though was Rictor’s attempts to bring down the force field. Though he tried his best to bring down the system using whatever computer hackery skills he has up his sleeves, it was throwing a chair in to the computer system that did the trick. This is an example of unrealism that I don’t care about.
I can’t say much for the art either. I won’t say I don’t like it, but it was nothing special either. All the faces seemed just a bit too plain, and Arcade’s robot mask looked exactly like a robot mask, adding to the total unbelievability of their being unable to identify him as the real Arcade.
All in all this book gets a 3 out of 5 on both counts, and continues to leave me baffled as to why no one is making a rescue attempt on Layla; especially Jamie who, despite everything, really cared for her.
