Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 10:26 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=10148" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/xfactorv3-12t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="X-Factor #12"></a>Reviewer: Robin Lewis, lucillerobin@aol.com
Story Title: Actually, it looks as though Peter David is having no truck with such mundane things as story titles.
X-Factor's simmering confrontation with Singularity Investigations reaches boiling point.
Writer: Peter David
Art: Renato Arlem
Flashback Art: Roy Allen Martinez
Color Art: Jose Villarrubia
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover Art: Ryan Sook & Jose Villarrubia
Production: Kate Levin
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel (http://www.marvel.com)
Forty percent of all letters printed sent in by: Ann Nichols
As Marvel's hugely hyped Decimation has ended up being virtually ignored in the core books, it's refreshing to see an ongoing attempt to deal with some of the fallout. While the only nod towards it in most books has been to have a few panels in which people sneak past the Sentinels standing outside the mansion (whose new design manages to take the classic look, feed it through Japanese manga and come up with something that avoids the virtues of either), X-Factor has dropped its cast right into the middle of things, in the heart of what used to be the Mutant ghetto in New York. Walking plot-device Layla Miller has been transformed into a character you look forward to seeing, rather than one whose appearance elicits a groan, and Quicksilver has lowered the moral tone of the neighbourhood by moving in and crowning himself as the man who can return mutantkind to the glory days of its population explosion. If nothing else, David has shown that Decimation can provide fertile ground for stories, even if no other writer on an ongoing can be bothered to tell them.
X-Factor's current story has set the team against the mysterious Singularity Investigations, who seem intent on making sure that the Decimation remains permanent. This issue we find their motivation stems from the knowledge of what will happen if it doesn't. Time-travel stories in comics always set my teeth on edge, if only because they're so difficult to do right. It doesn't help that so many have ended up collapsing in on themselves as the writers and editors contradict themselves or find they've written the whole story into a corner. The sprawling mess of Cable's stories in the nineties should be warning enough to anyone attempting a time-travel story should make sure they have all their ducks in a row before even starting one. All of which might make you approach this issue of X-Factor with some trepidation. Though the various Mr. Tryps that have plagued X-Factor are explained this issue, David can't help but stick one piece of fudging in there, having the eldest version be an anomaly that is supposedly 'between time'. David does put some effort into explaining why this is the case, but it sounds less sensible each time he explains it. The same problem exists with super-heroes whose powers are explained as being 'energy-manipulation' - it's vague enough and malleable enough for the writer to interpret however he likes, eventually stretching your suspension of disbelief far enough to make it snap. Layla Miller should have this problem as well, as characters who can see into the future are notoriously prone to having their powers fiddled with as the writer realises that he's going to have to write icky dialogue like 'the mists of time are thick today, I cannot see our fate' in order to get his team to walk into a trap, but David's handle on her has been a joy, avoiding the mystical mumbo-jumbo route and instead making her use her gift as a practical tool for manipulating events around her. Having her do this in as amusing a way as possible, this time making smart use of pizza-delivery trucks and a judicious application of bolt-cutters, should be the model for all soothsayers.
Given that this is the (highly satisfying) payoff to the Singularity Investigations plot that's been simmering away for the past twelve-issues, we are duly rewarded with a good deal of action (at least by this book's standards) and an enormous explosion of the traditional variety, though how it comes about is a neat little nod to the work David's been doing on the nature of Jamie's powers. In someone else's hands Madrox would be the guy who can make copies of himself, but with David writing him he's the guy who contains many different selves. This one's a pacifist, that one's a coward, that one shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects and small children, etc. It's unquestionably more interesting.
Art duties are split between Renato Arlem and Roy Allen Martinez , with the latter doing the work for the four pages of flashback scenes. Both impress, with Martinez's work making it clear Marvel should get him pencilling a regular monthly title as soon as they can. Next issue we're getting something that should make those of use who remember David's original run on X-Factor very happy indeed. The finest single issue of the entire run featured nothing more than each member of the cast talking in turn to Doc Samson, but with a combination of acute character development, wit, style and the oft-missed pencils of one Joe Quesada, it managed to make X-Factor #87 a touchstone of excellence. High expectations are always dangerous, but it's nice to have cause for them every once in a while.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save!’ (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2061&cat=X%2DFACTOR+%28CURRENT+SERIES%29)
Story Title: Actually, it looks as though Peter David is having no truck with such mundane things as story titles.
X-Factor's simmering confrontation with Singularity Investigations reaches boiling point.
Writer: Peter David
Art: Renato Arlem
Flashback Art: Roy Allen Martinez
Color Art: Jose Villarrubia
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover Art: Ryan Sook & Jose Villarrubia
Production: Kate Levin
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel (http://www.marvel.com)
Forty percent of all letters printed sent in by: Ann Nichols
As Marvel's hugely hyped Decimation has ended up being virtually ignored in the core books, it's refreshing to see an ongoing attempt to deal with some of the fallout. While the only nod towards it in most books has been to have a few panels in which people sneak past the Sentinels standing outside the mansion (whose new design manages to take the classic look, feed it through Japanese manga and come up with something that avoids the virtues of either), X-Factor has dropped its cast right into the middle of things, in the heart of what used to be the Mutant ghetto in New York. Walking plot-device Layla Miller has been transformed into a character you look forward to seeing, rather than one whose appearance elicits a groan, and Quicksilver has lowered the moral tone of the neighbourhood by moving in and crowning himself as the man who can return mutantkind to the glory days of its population explosion. If nothing else, David has shown that Decimation can provide fertile ground for stories, even if no other writer on an ongoing can be bothered to tell them.
X-Factor's current story has set the team against the mysterious Singularity Investigations, who seem intent on making sure that the Decimation remains permanent. This issue we find their motivation stems from the knowledge of what will happen if it doesn't. Time-travel stories in comics always set my teeth on edge, if only because they're so difficult to do right. It doesn't help that so many have ended up collapsing in on themselves as the writers and editors contradict themselves or find they've written the whole story into a corner. The sprawling mess of Cable's stories in the nineties should be warning enough to anyone attempting a time-travel story should make sure they have all their ducks in a row before even starting one. All of which might make you approach this issue of X-Factor with some trepidation. Though the various Mr. Tryps that have plagued X-Factor are explained this issue, David can't help but stick one piece of fudging in there, having the eldest version be an anomaly that is supposedly 'between time'. David does put some effort into explaining why this is the case, but it sounds less sensible each time he explains it. The same problem exists with super-heroes whose powers are explained as being 'energy-manipulation' - it's vague enough and malleable enough for the writer to interpret however he likes, eventually stretching your suspension of disbelief far enough to make it snap. Layla Miller should have this problem as well, as characters who can see into the future are notoriously prone to having their powers fiddled with as the writer realises that he's going to have to write icky dialogue like 'the mists of time are thick today, I cannot see our fate' in order to get his team to walk into a trap, but David's handle on her has been a joy, avoiding the mystical mumbo-jumbo route and instead making her use her gift as a practical tool for manipulating events around her. Having her do this in as amusing a way as possible, this time making smart use of pizza-delivery trucks and a judicious application of bolt-cutters, should be the model for all soothsayers.
Given that this is the (highly satisfying) payoff to the Singularity Investigations plot that's been simmering away for the past twelve-issues, we are duly rewarded with a good deal of action (at least by this book's standards) and an enormous explosion of the traditional variety, though how it comes about is a neat little nod to the work David's been doing on the nature of Jamie's powers. In someone else's hands Madrox would be the guy who can make copies of himself, but with David writing him he's the guy who contains many different selves. This one's a pacifist, that one's a coward, that one shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects and small children, etc. It's unquestionably more interesting.
Art duties are split between Renato Arlem and Roy Allen Martinez , with the latter doing the work for the four pages of flashback scenes. Both impress, with Martinez's work making it clear Marvel should get him pencilling a regular monthly title as soon as they can. Next issue we're getting something that should make those of use who remember David's original run on X-Factor very happy indeed. The finest single issue of the entire run featured nothing more than each member of the cast talking in turn to Doc Samson, but with a combination of acute character development, wit, style and the oft-missed pencils of one Joe Quesada, it managed to make X-Factor #87 a touchstone of excellence. High expectations are always dangerous, but it's nice to have cause for them every once in a while.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/xnone.jpg
‘Buy this issue online now from X-WORLD and save!’ (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2061&cat=X%2DFACTOR+%28CURRENT+SERIES%29)