Previously...Arcade(yes,
Arcade) has decimated the little corner of New York once called Mutant Town with bombs, force-fields...y'know Arcade stuff. But since M-Day only left X-Men and X-Men villains with powers, there wasn't too much 'Mutant' left in mutant town anyway...
And now...Jamie Madrox helps an old man to the hospital while stalwart government worker and long-time X-Factor friend/nemesis Valerie Cooper renders aid as a member of O*N*E.
Jamie Madrox begins seeing Layla(Don't worry; Jamie has just gone a little crazy. She's still in a concentration camp in the near-future.), who tends to give him good advice, acting as the wiser voice in his head. It's funny, because you figure that "Multiple Man" would visualize his dissenting internal impulses and/or borderline multiple personality disorder as...y'know...himself.
Valerie then offers/mandates that the team either enters witness protection, or begins doing "special jobs" for O*N*E. As they are the last "X team" to operate in the open, they're a lightning rod for every mutant-hater, and a source of danger to everyone around them. The team talks tough and blusters before using the time they've given to think the matter over to get out of Dodge. ...and mine Dodge.
In the end, the team has relocated to Detroit, and just as quickly, Val has found them.
Story: It's okay. I mean, it's...good? It goes right for the mutants/Jews comparison, as Jamie Madrox carries a holocaust survivor to a hospital. It works well with Jamie's trip to the future during the
Messiah Complex storyline; if the mutants forget their future (and humanity's past) and don't stick together; they
will end up in those camps. The theme of "mutants; hated and outnumbered," is back, and it's in X-Factor. The super-wankery of X-Men proper leaves that serious theme behind, and I like that X-Factor keeps it, even if it is delivered fairly heavily at times. But then, how subtle do concentration camps get?
It moves forward, and it makes sense. The X-Men are moving to San Francisco. The Initiative is setting up super-teams across the country. X-Factor is in Detroit now. Hopefully (fingers crossed), not every major event of super-proportions is going to take place in the City that Never--
aw, bullocks. Maybe
next company-wide crossover event.
The witty one-liners are the Joss-Whedon quips that were tired jumbles of fail when I was trying to retch during
Serenity(not that the movie wasn't good; it's that when it tried to be funny, it wasn't funny.), but the dialog still moves well without being mechanical. The quips break up Valerie's "this is what I want and why" speech, Layla gives us Jamie's thought process while keeping her in the picture, the Holocaust survivor has a good reveal, the team does think over their decision makes some convincing 'what are we going to do' motions(even if their end choice is inevitable), Richter pulls a gun and that's some fake tension with a leadup to a mediocre joke, but I'm sure it amused some people so it's not a total waste.
Character: Jamie is getting a lot of attention. Everyone else is...just supporting. Richter is a useless wad. Everyone else just makes snide comments while Valerie Cooper tells them that they have to split up in order to appease militant anti-mutant sentiment. Aside from Siryn being pregnant with his child (which isn't really character development), I'm hoping they get more ink future issues.
Art: It's good. I like this art. I really do. I'm not sure who generally gets the credit for these things? Penciler? I think, but if I'm not mistaken, inkers do a lot too. Whoever is involved, it looks good. The details fade right with distance and action(close ups show more lines, distant shots shot more detail), faces and postures match attitudes, etc.. Granted, sometimes, you can only tell people apart by their details: hair color and length, style of dress, stubble/no stubble, DNA-imprinted tattos/no DNA-imprinted tattos, etc.. I'll pull out some old issues to compare some faces and see how true that really is.
Comments (4)
I've recently started picking up X-books again, after being on hiatus since the mid-90s. Back then X-Factor was my favorite mutant team; sponsored by the government, sort of the "rejects" of the X-crowd who nonetheless tended to be pretty cool. Back then Multiple Man was definitely a supporting character. I stopped reading shortly after he "died." With Wolfsbane off to join X-Force, the only members of the X-Factor I knew who are still around are Jaime and Guido. I like the addition of Siren and M, but I miss Havok and Polaris. They kind of made it for me.
That said, I'm glad that Val Cooper is still around and kicking. And who knows? Maybe someday Quicksilver and the younger Summers Brother will return after all.
I'm still not entirely sure what the deal is with the O*N*E. They ride around in pimped-out Sentinels, mostly, but they seem to be primarily mutant affairs? And I'm still not clear on why some mutants fall under the Registration Act and others are pretty much left alone. But like I said, I've been on hiatus for a long time.
@RDGStout - Crazy. I got a free, six-issue subscription that started right after he died. I was totally taken, and have been every since.
I also miss Havok and Polaris, but if I'm not mistaken, they're in space fighting Alex and Scott's retconned-in brother and the whole of the Shi'ar army. That's the short version anyway.
I'm also lost when it comes to O*N*E. It sounds like they're just a department of mutant affairs whose use of Sentinels depends on how much of a threat is posed to/by mutants. No doubt they'd love to just put them all on reservations of some kind...in the whole-hearted belief it's in best interests of everyone, of course.
As for the Registration Act...I have no idea. Somehow, Cyclops declared the X-Men 'neutral.' I never knew I could declare myself 'neutral' to a law because of my race, but apparently, that kinda thing flies with Tony Stark. :P
@Alan_Nominus - Well, Thor got himself declared "neutral" by kicking Stark's ass.
Alas, poor Alex went and lost that Shi'ar war. Which was a pity, too, because his Evil Brother (tm) thew him into a star... which turned him into uber-Havok.
Right now, though, he's a prisoner of Emperor Vulcan and the newly-reunited totalitarian state.
I just finished Uncanny X-Men #500. It had an Eternal, the Dreaming Celestial, the High Evolutionary, a pair of Mark One Sentinels, and a lot of property damage. That's good soup!
@RDGStout - Ah, I thought the resistance to Vulcan was still ongoing. Glad to hear you've got it, my primitive backwards outlet is still holding twenty issues of #499. They'll probably skip #500 and pick up #501 next.
Yeah, and though I've never given two shiny shits about Thor, I'm really a fan of the new comic. I blame JMS.