Stephanie Kay
Oct 14, 2007, 11:06 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/4images/details.php?image_id=10523" target="_blank"><img src=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/marvel/xfactorv3-15t.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="X-Factor #15"></a>Reviewer: Phil Hunn, philiphunn@hotmail.com
Story Title: Multiple Issues, Part Two
“The toast of two continents… royalty falling all over me… and whom do I bed? Jamie Madrox.”
Writer: Peter David
Art: Pablo Raimondi
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover Art: Pablo Raimondi
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
There I was, sat in my old, squeaky chair, a glass of cheap whiskey and an overflowing ashtray on my cracked, uneven desk, alongside a pile of unpaid bills two feet high. My office, if you could call it that, was grimy from years of neglect, cracks, damp and frills of fungus making themselves at home on the walls alongside the occasional hungry cockroach. I hadn’t gotten myself a decent job in weeks, and my rent cheques were bouncing harder than a rubber ball against concrete. Outside, the stars sparkled brighter than diamonds on tar, the moon curved like a scimitar blade and clouds like threads of dark wax smearing themselves across the sky. I shrugged my shoulders, rubbed my tired, darkly-ringed eyes, and slugged down another mouthful of the swill in my glass. The fire of it burned my throat and made my eyes water…
… and then she walked in. A dame so beautiful you could’ve taken her for a princess. She shone like the moon, and for a moment, I was blindsided. What could a woman like her want with a washed-up old private eye like me? I asked her what her name was, and she said “X-Factor.”
Strange name for a girl, I thought, and then I…
… okay, enough with the Raymond Chandler narration. If I’m not careful, I’ll choke on the grittiness of it. Anyway, here we have the latest issue of the current story arc in Peter David’s excellent noir-esque detective series, X-Factor, and in it we find Jamie Madrox a prisoner of Hydra, evil terrorist fiends, and Siryn and M having a girl’s day out in Paris after Layla Miller forced them to make peace with each other in the previous issue. Contained within the issue itself are some intriguing ruminations on the nature of Jamie’s powers and his current state of mind, both of which are thought-provoking, to say the least. David has steadily been moving Jamie Madrox further and further away from his previous comfort zone as “team prankster”, and his evolution into a more rounded (and, frankly, sometimes quite disturbing) character has been very interesting to watch, and this issue is no exception, with Madrox using his powers in a very clever and unprecedented fashion. Meanwhile, M and Siryn are used as (relative) comic relief, and this works too -- M is actually very funny when you get past the whole “ice queen” façade she likes to present, it seems, with her searing sarcasm and virtually continual projection of superiority making a good counterweight to Siryn’s more measured, level-headed approach (although apparently Terry is just as capable of being a bitch as Monet is, which is always amusing). And some things which are off-panel actually have more impact than those that appear on-panel, especially considering their accompanying dialogue.
As usual, Pablo Raimondi provides some pretty decent visuals to complement the writing, with action sequences well-choreographed and scenes with legions of Madrox duplicates still intricately detailed. Some pages also have the intriguing sense of being very claustrophobic, to help the reader almost step into the story. It’s a very effective way of making the reader understand what the characters involved are going through. And he can carry through David’s unique and quirky sense of humour very effectively, so that many panels raise a smile, and almost as many raise a laugh.
I’ve consistently been impressed by X-Factor. It’s been the crown jewel in the second-tier X-titles virtually since its inception, with its mixture of scalpel-sharp wit and deeply affecting drama. While other satellite X-titles post-Decimation have often flailed around blindly looking for a purpose, this one has consistently shown that it knows where it’s going, even in the dark, and has plotted out a definite route to get there. It actually used the giant plot-turkey that was Decimation to its advantage, which was something of a miracle. My only concern is whether the reduced amount of stereotypically superheroic action in this book can sustain a large enough readership for it to carry on in the long term, as Joe Public tends to know what he likes, and like what he knows, but here’s hoping, anyway. Introspective, thoughtful storytelling like this deserves to be like the Energiser Bunny, and go on and on.
And then that dame left my office for the last time, and for once, I knew I’d made a difference…
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 X-Factor #15 online now at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21915)
Story Title: Multiple Issues, Part Two
“The toast of two continents… royalty falling all over me… and whom do I bed? Jamie Madrox.”
Writer: Peter David
Art: Pablo Raimondi
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover Art: Pablo Raimondi
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (http://www.marvel.com)
There I was, sat in my old, squeaky chair, a glass of cheap whiskey and an overflowing ashtray on my cracked, uneven desk, alongside a pile of unpaid bills two feet high. My office, if you could call it that, was grimy from years of neglect, cracks, damp and frills of fungus making themselves at home on the walls alongside the occasional hungry cockroach. I hadn’t gotten myself a decent job in weeks, and my rent cheques were bouncing harder than a rubber ball against concrete. Outside, the stars sparkled brighter than diamonds on tar, the moon curved like a scimitar blade and clouds like threads of dark wax smearing themselves across the sky. I shrugged my shoulders, rubbed my tired, darkly-ringed eyes, and slugged down another mouthful of the swill in my glass. The fire of it burned my throat and made my eyes water…
… and then she walked in. A dame so beautiful you could’ve taken her for a princess. She shone like the moon, and for a moment, I was blindsided. What could a woman like her want with a washed-up old private eye like me? I asked her what her name was, and she said “X-Factor.”
Strange name for a girl, I thought, and then I…
… okay, enough with the Raymond Chandler narration. If I’m not careful, I’ll choke on the grittiness of it. Anyway, here we have the latest issue of the current story arc in Peter David’s excellent noir-esque detective series, X-Factor, and in it we find Jamie Madrox a prisoner of Hydra, evil terrorist fiends, and Siryn and M having a girl’s day out in Paris after Layla Miller forced them to make peace with each other in the previous issue. Contained within the issue itself are some intriguing ruminations on the nature of Jamie’s powers and his current state of mind, both of which are thought-provoking, to say the least. David has steadily been moving Jamie Madrox further and further away from his previous comfort zone as “team prankster”, and his evolution into a more rounded (and, frankly, sometimes quite disturbing) character has been very interesting to watch, and this issue is no exception, with Madrox using his powers in a very clever and unprecedented fashion. Meanwhile, M and Siryn are used as (relative) comic relief, and this works too -- M is actually very funny when you get past the whole “ice queen” façade she likes to present, it seems, with her searing sarcasm and virtually continual projection of superiority making a good counterweight to Siryn’s more measured, level-headed approach (although apparently Terry is just as capable of being a bitch as Monet is, which is always amusing). And some things which are off-panel actually have more impact than those that appear on-panel, especially considering their accompanying dialogue.
As usual, Pablo Raimondi provides some pretty decent visuals to complement the writing, with action sequences well-choreographed and scenes with legions of Madrox duplicates still intricately detailed. Some pages also have the intriguing sense of being very claustrophobic, to help the reader almost step into the story. It’s a very effective way of making the reader understand what the characters involved are going through. And he can carry through David’s unique and quirky sense of humour very effectively, so that many panels raise a smile, and almost as many raise a laugh.
I’ve consistently been impressed by X-Factor. It’s been the crown jewel in the second-tier X-titles virtually since its inception, with its mixture of scalpel-sharp wit and deeply affecting drama. While other satellite X-titles post-Decimation have often flailed around blindly looking for a purpose, this one has consistently shown that it knows where it’s going, even in the dark, and has plotted out a definite route to get there. It actually used the giant plot-turkey that was Decimation to its advantage, which was something of a miracle. My only concern is whether the reduced amount of stereotypically superheroic action in this book can sustain a large enough readership for it to carry on in the long term, as Joe Public tends to know what he likes, and like what he knows, but here’s hoping, anyway. Introspective, thoughtful storytelling like this deserves to be like the Energiser Bunny, and go on and on.
And then that dame left my office for the last time, and for once, I knew I’d made a difference…
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 X-Factor #15 online now at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopexd.asp?id=21915)