Marvel cancels ALL-NEW X-FACTOR

News broke this week from Peter David himself (haven't seen word from Marvel officially yet but the horse's mouth seems good enough for this one) that ALL-NEW X-FACTOR will be cancelled with issue 20. David writes on his blog that, though this was reported by Bleeding Cool, their report was almost entirely inaccurate except for the crucial detail of "this book is being cancelled." I guess Bleeding Cool (a terrible news site that no one should visit or give positive recognition to because it's often just rumor printed as fact) said that the book was cancelled with issue 19 and that it had to do with Quicksilver being brought back to the Avengers. Instead, David says on his blog, it's cancelled with issue 20 simply for poor sales, leading to some observations from David about the way comic sales are calculated, about Gambit's trouble heading up a book, and about how terrible Bleeding Cool is.

This doesn't necessarily come as a surprise but it still elicited a frown from me. I haven't been a huge supporter of this book in the way that I liked David's old X-FACTOR but it's certainly had its moments, showing that David can still craft a good story with compelling characters who have very specific and interesting dynamics. I thought the book tripped over itself occasionally and had the tonal issues of a book that wanted to infuse humor maybe a little too often, sometimes leading to ham-fisted jokes and references. Regardless, it certainly isn't the worst book out there right now, probably not even in the lower ten percent. Unfortunately, "middling with potential" doesn't tend to stick around.

All-New X-Factor 9, Amazing X-Men 8, Amazing X-Men Annual 1

All-New X-Factor 9
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

It's rather a rest day to start for X-Factor as the team returns home from their perhaps ill-thought-out mission to rescue Georgia Dakei with young Georgia in tow. She blames Cypher for the problems but seems onboard with Gambit, to Cypher's chagrin. Gambit is having his usual troubles with the team and its mission, troubles that will no doubt be exacerbated by the fact that he just unknowingly slept with Harrison Snow's wife Angela, as discovered by Harrison's assistant and secret lover Linda. Meanwhile, resident mad scientist Doctor Wexler DNA tests Georgia (pretty much just for fun) and reveals that Scott Dakei isn't her father and her deceased mother isn't actually her mother. Instead, her birth mother, Dakota Bennett, lives in Minneapolis and her birth father is unknown. Quicksilver argues on Georgia's behalf that she ought to be able to meet her birth mother and X-Factor brings her to Minneapolis, where she's greeted happily by her mother. Unfortunately, her birth father is apparently a supervillain named Memento Mori and he's been watching the house for a long time waiting for Georgia to return.

For a rest issue, there's plenty happening here. One of the good things about an issue like this, one that removes them from immediate action, is that we can get a sense of where the team is and how everyone stands with everyone else and what's happening in everyone's life. In many ways, the rest issues are some of Peter David's strongest because he understands the way a team works and knows that the important part of a team book is making sure they feel like a team. That was one of the strengths of his previous long-running X-FACTOR title and it's clearly at play here. There are certainly parts of this issue that drag a little and I'm still finding it a little hard to get behind the Georgia stuff (I'm not really compelled by her character as yet, but it's still obviously an early issue for her). Worth looking at in this book is a nice two page sequence where Georgia talks to Cypher and, when he leaves, she talks to Danger. The two pages are near-mirror images of each other with a few of the panels set exactly the same way and with Gerogia in the same position. Big shout-out to colorist Lee Loughridge on that one because he does pretty spectacular things with the very slightly different light on each page as time has passed a bit. I read it on my computer and could easily flip back and forth between the pages and it was pretty neat, you guys.

Total Score: 4/5


Amazing X-Men 8
Kyle and Yost (w) and McGuinness (p) and Farmer (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

It's important to note before I start this review and summary that Wendigos, the incredibly powerful, nigh-unstoppable Canadian murder machines that every so often run into Hulk or Wolverine, are created, thanks to a curse on the land, whenever anyone eats human meat. Anyway, two guys in Canada at a meat processing plant get into a scuffle and one accidentally shoves the other into a table at just the wrong angle, snapping his neck. To protect himself, the murderer shoves the victim into the meat grinder. Do you see where I'm going with this? Wolverine, kind of sick of being cooped up in the school and seemingly invited away, pays a visit to old friend Heather MacNeil Hudson (though she's labeled as Heather McDonald here so maybe I missed something?), AKA Vindicator of Alpha Flight. Heather tells him that her husband James Hudson, AKA Guardian, has been missing for some time and she's worried about him (they've also been fighting a lot lately, as they did the last time we saw either of them in FEAR ITSELF). She and Wolverine go to try to find him as back home Ororo worries about where the healing factorless Wolverine has gotten off to now. Wolverine and Heather quickly learn that Guardian was attacked by a Wendigo and immediately try to call in backup but they may be too late, as they're set upon by a whole slew of the creatures just as Ororo, with the help of Rachel Grey and Cerebro, calls an X-team to Canada.

AMAZING X-MEN so far has been an okay book, one that seemed to take the place of Jason Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN in its lightheartedness and its near whimsicality. Now Craig Kyle and Chris Yost take over and immediately throw it into a much darker place, though the art of Ed McGuinness and colors of Rachelle Rosenberg still rather keep it a little lighter than most books. It's an immediately interesting story which will pit the X-Men, including, presumably, reintroduced Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Northstar, as well as a non-healing Wolverine, up against a ton of extremely powerful Wendigos. It immediately gets dark to the point where there was a legitimate chance that Heather was about to be torn in half by Wendigos. So bit of a different tone here but I certainly don't think it's the wrong way to go on this book right now. I also like the addition of Mark Farmer's inks on Ed McGuinness' pencils since McGuinness tends to draw action and certain people very well but sometimes makes people look a little too young for my liking and Farmer's inks seem to balance that a little. Overall, very good start to a new look AMAZING X-MEN.

Total Score: 5/5


Amazing X-Men Annual 1
Nero (w) and Larroca (a) and Oback (c) and Caramagna (l)

A new villain, who seems to be Inhuman though his origins are rather unknown and, presumably, will stay that way, named Meruda has been attacking and brutally killing members of Ororo's old tribe in Africa and has now targeted her cousin Abuya. Ororo rallies the X-Men and they set off to Africa, where they find Meruda is using Abuya's soul to power a dark and evil force. While the rest of the X-Men fight the beast, Ororo fights fellow elemental Meruda, who explains that Ororo killed his family and his tribe when she was a child with a sandstorm she could not control. Though all of this hurts Ororo and brings up some past doubts about what happened that day, she manages to fight Meruda down, destroying him in the process. Meanwhile, the X-Men manage to take down the beast and save Abuya. Ororo discovers, thanks to a spirit on the plains, that she was not responsible for the death of Meruda's tribe, that it was an unrelated sandstorm that killed them. There's a backup story in here by Marguerite Bennett that focuses on Firestar, too.

It's not an awful one-shot sort of story, focusing on Ororo and her past in Africa and that questions what could have happened thanks to a young girl who could control the weather but couldn't, you know, really control the weather. The story is a bit bogged down, though, by lengthy exposition and overlong dialogue. The art is alright but loses some points as well for one of the weirdest shots to end the story as we see Ororo from the back, butt clearly defined past her cape(?) looking out onto her team. Geez, egregious butt-use there, Larroca.

Total Score: 3/5

SUPER QUICK REVIEWS: Amazing X-Men 7, Wolverine and the X-Men 4, All-New X-Factor 8

I was trying not to get into SQRs until later (Wednesday and Thursday I tend to review the most Avengers/X-Men related books or the biggest releases or what-have-you) but then I felt KINDA like there was no other way to do this one? Look, let's just get into it.

Amazing X-Men 7
K. Immonen (w) and Medina (p) and Vlasco (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

Firestar and Iceman are sent to the local mini-mart to pick up snacks for "the big game" only to find themselves hurled into an interstellar negotiation as Spider-Man shows up tracking a baby that's just appeared in their cart. After some fighting (plenty of which has to do with resentment about Doc Ock), it's explained that the baby is actually an alien that serves as the only trade-bait that Spider-Man has to re-acquire the mascot for one of the teams in "the big game" that was taken by the aliens for reasons. After much fighting and chasing and squabbling and other actions, the aliens come back down and Spider-Man successfully works out the deal and returns the mascot, a goat, to the game while Firestar and Iceman return to the X-Mansion.

I really love a lot of the stuff I've seen from Kathryn Immonen (I will defend her JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY run with my very LIFE) but this book borders on absolutely inexplicable. There are fun moments throughout, certainly enough to make for an enjoyable enough read but it sometimes does seem to get a little bogged down under the weight of so much joke-making (also, Spider-Man kind of comes off like a jerk, which I suppose is not sacrilege in an X-MEN title). The plot is admittedly thin with plenty of references to "the big game" that don't particularly add weight. Still, it's hard to mistake the tone of this issue as more a fun issue and a throwback to the old Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon so it's also hard to judge this one harshly because I do think it hits its mark, it's just not a mark I'd be looking to buy.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 4
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c) and Cowles (l)

While reaching out psychically for help, Quentin was discovered by the Cuckoos and co and Cyclops gave the order to pull him to their base. He throws a little simulated psychic fight at him to see how trustworthy he is and he fails pretty miserably but Cyclops decides to listen anyway, hearing about what Quentin saw but unable to offer much advice about the right way to handle news of the Phoenix or Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Storm continue to push forth in their fight to Edan Younge before Wolverine sends Storm back to the school, knowing they'll need her help to stop Faithful John, who is currently pushing through the X-Mansion and convincing some of the students that Evan will be Apocalypse. Preparing to enter the fight to protect Evan, though, is Fantomex, who has secreted Evan to the World and emerges out of it to defend the mansion.

There's a lot happening here and a lot of it is interesting but some of the Younge stuff starts to get a little convoluted in the midst of everything else that's happening. It feels rather like there's just one too many stories happening here (which could, of course, all be skillfully linked together when the arc is said and done) and that one seems compelling but doesn't feel like it fits yet. Obviously Younge was the catalyst for all this but it's still such a weird and disjointed story that it's almost distracting from the other stories which are just as if not more compelling. Still, it's a pretty solid issue and Mahmud Asrar has some pretty strong art to go with it. I also rather like Latour's Quentin Quire, a character I tend not to like.

Total Score: 4/5


All-New X-Factor 8
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

Cypher has had all the water drained from his body and the team is a bit startled by it. As things very slowly piece themselves together and the situation starts to go crazy as Dakei calls all the cops on the mutant intruders, the team convinces Georgia to do what she can to restore the incredibly weak Cypher. She's never done it before but she vows to try. They bring her past all of the guards and to the kitchen where she can get some water to transfer into Cypher. She eventually succeeds as the team yells at Dakei for berating and hating mutants while his daughter was one and then, as things reach a boiling point, Harrison Snow shows up and has a private meeting with Dakei (who he apparently knows) and the two emerge having come to the decision that Snow will take Georgia.

The tone of this book jumps around so quickly that it's hard to really latch on to it. Sometimes it's tense while they hope for the best for Cypher but then it turns into strange humor but then it jumps into mutant-rights outrage but then it shifts to almost casual conversation. Not helping anything is the inability to lock down an age for Georgia, who occasionally acts like a five-year-old and occasionally acts like a ten-year-old and occasionally acts like a fifteen-year-old. I think we're supposed to get that she's incredibly sheltered (various characters tell us that repeatedly) but I've met some incredibly sheltered people in my life and they still manage to act a consistent age. The humor in the book occasionally works but it also occasionally feels really out of place, which is sometimes pointed out but sometimes ignored. A book that cannot settle on a tone is a book that has some fundamental problems. Hopefully this one straightens it out next time.

Total Score: 3/5

All-New X-Factor 7, New Warriors 4

All-New X-Factor 7
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

Serval doesn't need X-Factor today so they come up with their own mission, brought to their attention by new team member Cypher. The daughter of anti-mutant author Scott Dakei has broadcast a live stream to the world saying how she's too cooped up and how she wants to experience the world before her stream is stopped by her father having one of his men shoot out the computer. The team agrees (some more willingly than others) to try to secret Georgia away from her father if it's what she really wants. They visit his locked-down home and, after some initial bumps, manage to get a chance to talk with Georgia. She says she doesn't want to run away and that she's happy where she is, happy to wait until she's able to leave. Cypher refuses to accept such an answer, believing that she's being held prisoner by her father, and tries to take her with them regardless. She shows off her own power then, though, as she reaches up and touches Cypher's face, seemingly draining life force from him.

Story
Peter David does have a tendency to take what's in the news of the day and place it into the comics world. I remember, in fact, reading a long section about it in his book on writing comics (I would be more specific but I'm not near the book right now, you guys). There are plenty of examples of this sort of thing happening, a discussion about whether you can separate art from its creator, but the most recent example is Ender's Game creator Orson Scott Card, an outspoken anti-homosexual...uh, bigot (I was trying to go with something classier but nothing came, sorry dudes and dudettes). Scott Dakei (guys, his first name is even Scott!) engenders the same sort of conversation: should Danger be reading his book despite his anti-mutant beliefs? Who does she support when she buys the book? Does she show support for his causes by buying a book unrelated to his beliefs? All sorts of questions and very few answers here because it's a hard question to answer. Beyond that, the attempted rescue of Georgia is a little far-fetched but David (something else he pointed out in his comic-writing book) himself makes sure to point out it's a little far-fetched before we can. Well countered, Peter David, well countered. 4/5

Character
There are some character movements in here, particularly surrounding everyone's motives for saving the girl and how far each is willing to carry on with it. Quicksilver hates Dakei and wants to upset him, Gambit wants to be the sort of hero who doesn't get so muddled up in dealing with supervillains that he forgets the little guy, and Cypher seems particularly attuned to the idea of a depressed girl trapped maybe against her will. Probably some more on that coming later, supposing Cypher isn't dead. There aren't huge revelations here but David is doing a good job to ensure we understand a little more about who these guys are as we push forward. 5/5

Writing
The issue gets a little long-winded and borders very tentatively on preachy well after we understand what the debate is. The order of the day in comics is shorter and quicker interactions but David forgoes that to make sure the specifics of each debate in this issue (whether you can separate an artist from his or her work, why this group of mutants should get involved in Georgia's struggle, the ethics of kidnapping someone who wants to be kidnapped, etc.) are unveiled. It's maybe a slower read than some of the other ones but it doesn't really drag, particularly. If there's a problem with it, it's really that there are too many debates going on and it means we jump from one ethical dilemma to another without any sort of resolution, leaving the reader exhausted by the end. David, though, does a good job to illustrate multiple points and counterpoints to a lot of these questions. 4/5

Art
Di Giandomenico does a pretty good job with the character designs here and works to some of his own strengths by showing faces at very specific angles and often giving the characters somewhat longer, wavier hair to give everyone a solid sense of motion. I don't always love Di Giandomenico's art but it works out pretty well here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Maybe I should have talked about all that creator/art stuff down here and left "story" to the broader strokes. Whatever.

Total score: 4/5


New Warriors 4
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c) and Caramagna (l)

Just as Nova has been captured trying to protect his fallen comrades, Justice, Speedball, Sun Girl and Haechi (that's what the splash page calls Mark, the new Inhuman they found) turn up and enter the fight. With the New Warriors assembled, they begin to fight back against the Evolutionary and the High Evolutionary (two different people, you guys, totally unrelated somehow) and manage to send the High Evolutionary fleeing for his machine. Well, maybe it's not totally fleeing because the machine will kill everyone with powers once he starts it up. It immediately knocks out their entire group (save for Nova, who was knocked out at the end of the fight) except for Sun Girl, who is human using tech. The High Evolutionary explains the stakes but Sun Girl refuses to listen and blasts him through the stomach before blasting the machine. With the High Evolutionary wounded and the New Warriors back on their feet, the villains are forced to flee (for reals fleeing this time). Though they regroup in the Savage Land, the High Evolutionary proclaims that there's no time to try again, the Celestials are on their way.

Story
It remains an intriguing story, the idea that the Celestials are ready to wipe out the unclean planet as evolutionary progress has been so...unique up to this point and as the villains of the series are trying to protect the Earth as a whole by killing the majority of the superpowered beings on the planet. It's the ultimate "kill one person to save a hundred" sort of story but ramped up to a much bigger scale (as the High Evolutionary points out). With a pretty neat group of characters representing each of the major evolutionary off-shoots (and a few more at that), this story has set itself up to be an exciting one. Also, bonus points for invoking Ghostbusters with the next issue tease of "Dogs and cats, living together." 5/5

Character
Christopher Yost has been one of my favorite writers recently for picking up just about any character and immediately writing them with a strong voice and a pretty interesting thing to add to a story. No one ever feels like they were just tossed into a story without a reason for being there and that's the case now too as everyone adds something to the issue and as Yost manages to write fun and exciting fight dialogue. It reminds me, in a way, of what Bendis likes to do on just about every page of every book but, instead of it being irritating to me, it's paced in a way that works and that makes sense and flows better. I'd say more but I'm afraid I would just rail against Bendis' back-and-forth dialogue some more and we've all already heard plenty about that. 5/5

Writing
I feel I've rather covered this in the previous two sections, particularly in "character," but Yost's writing continues to be strong and the pacing starts to get pretty hectic right when it needs to here, ramping everything up as the fights start. Solid stuff. 5/5

Art
Marcus To and David Curiel are doing a great job here. There wasn't a lot that really struck me in this book (I'm not great at reviewing art unless it really sticks out to me, positive or negative), but To conveys plenty of emotion and his action sequences work extremely well. Fun and fitting stuff. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I had high hopes for this book when it kicked off and I'm yet to see them disappointed. I also like that cover quite a bit.

Total score: 5/5

All-New X-Men 25, All-New X-Factor 6

All-New X-Men 25
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) w/ Timm, L. Martin, A. Adams, Mack, Young, J. Keith, R. Rodriguez, Bermejo, Gracia, K. Williams, JG Jones, Del Carmen, J. S. Campbell, Ruffino, Wicks, Shiga, Hipp, Wittert, J. Parker, M. Wilson, J. Thompson, P. Smith, Wiacek, and Bellaire (a and c)

Beast (present day Beast, not Beast of the past in the present) lays in bed being lectured by the Watcher about how his decision to bring the original X-Men to the present was so bad that it's ruined the chance of happiness for mutants ever again. We see a ton of different possible timelines from a slew of guest artists (seen above) with a brief close-up on every one of the original X-Men and see all the bad futures they could have and all the good futures they can't have before Beast asks for help resetting things and Watcher tells him that he's deplorable and that he only watches and can't act.

Okay, so this is a weird little boy-who-cried-wolf situation because I tend to spend a lot of time not enjoying ALL-NEW X-MEN (I spend a lot of time actively not liking it which shows just how sad I am) and then this issue comes out. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like this issue but I dislike it for more reasons than normal and I even don't like it for the message Watcher's sending, although it's the message I've wanted sent since day one. No, what I don't like about this one is the fanfare. It's an oversized issue with what the cover claims is "the greatest artist roster ever assembled." I have no qualms with that claim and the art is pretty impressive throughout (though it takes some questionable turns here and there) but I don't understand why it has such a roster. It's the 25th issue of an X-MEN book. It's not like people are surprised it made it to 25. Even with Marvel's sometimes flagrant renumbering, 25 isn't a huge, huge mark to reach. DEADPOOL celebrates issue 27 this week. THUNDERBOLTS and IRON MAN are both on issue 24 this week and I'd be quite sure neither will pull out all the stops for issue 25. Even a book like X-MEN LEGACY that must have been constantly on the bubble numbers-wise hit 24 before the big 300th issue. Even putting that aside because why should I complain if comics get celebrated every once in a while, this story simply isn't that good. Like, it's a perfectly serviceable story but it feels perfectly serviceable as a .1 or something. It lands between arcs and it gives something of a recap of what's happening to give readers a jumping on point. The story, then, is fine for what it is but let's not act like what it is is something absolutely groundbreaking and worthy of the attention this book wants from everyone. Look. I shouldn't complain, this book has some great art in it (I particularly shouldn't complain because David Mack and Skottie Young each get a page and I adore them both). I just hate fanfare that feels so cynical. And I just flat-out don't like this book.

All-New X-Factor 6
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

The team goes to see Doug Ramsey, AKA Cypher, in the hopes that he'll shed some light on Warlock's current situation. Doug's been having some bad dreams wherein he becomes an incredibly powerful villain and kills all of his friends and he's decided he's going to throw himself off a cliff to prevent it happening. However, X-Factor shows up in time to shake him from that notion though it's still clearly sitting in the back of his mind. Danger scans him and discovers that he has a piece of Warlock tech in him and, despite his protestations, removes it to show it to him. He discovers that it's been sending transmissions about him to Warlock. The team and Doug go to find Warlock and the Magus, following the transmission from the piece of Warlock previously in Doug. When there, they're welcomed by the Magus who reveals that he's just trying to carve out a life for himself in the wake of the destruction of his home planet. The techno-organic virus that had infected him before gave him the ability to break from traditions once held by the Technarchy, meaning that he was able to set aside his enmity for his son and work together with him to promote their race. Now the Magus really is just a businessman trying to live life on Earth. He allows Warlock, who explains that the machinery in Cypher was just to ensure he didn't hurt himself as he'd been thinking of doing, to leave with X-Factor and the two former New Mutants join the team.

The book is coming together more and more and as these two new members join up with the team we can start to see that there are plenty of plot lines waiting to be unraveled. On top of the Quicksilver+the Uncanny Avengers storyline, there are burgeoning details about Cypher, about Danger and Warlock (Warlock quickly falls in love with Danger) on top of the Danger and Gambit weird thing that's happening, about Polaris' mental state, about the whole Serval thing, and even about Harrison Snow's affair with his personal assistant and his newly introduced and troubling wife in this issue. The characters are starting to come alive in their own way now too and it seems like things are really starting to fall into place for this book. Now there are a number of threads to be pulled, all of which could seemingly unravel everything, and still, presumably, plenty of other plots to build on going forward. Peter David lasted as long as he did with a book like the previous X-FACTOR because he write a solid team book and knows how to layer in problems for his characters as well as anyone in the business. They don't always work and sometimes the characters start to sound a little similar but by and large he manages to build a team that has a lot of heart and personality and a story that is barely keeping itself together in the best of ways. That's starting to come through here and ALL-NEW X-FACTOR could be primed for a nice run.

Amazing X-Men 5, All-New X-Factor 5, Marvel Knights X-Men 5

Amazing X-Men 5
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

With all of the X-Men by Nightcrawler's side again, they prepare for war with Azazel's ship. Nightcrawler and his friends do what they can to keep Azazel and his pirates at bay but they begin to make a real push against the X-Men and, after Wolverine is stabbed through his back, Nightcrawler is forced to consummate his deal with the Bamfs, the terms of which are still unknown to us. He goes through with it, despite the pleadings of an also-Heavenly Charles Xavier in his head, and the Bamfs pile on Azazel, forcing him to Earth, while Nightcrawler and the X-Men make their way back out of the portal. The deal that Nightcrawler made chained Azazel to Earth, meaning he can't take over Heaven or Hell or anything out there at the cost of his own soul. But hey, Nightcrawler's back!

I still don't really like this arc in its conceit. I think it's a dangerous move to bring Heaven and Hell into a universe that can't possibly abide them. Well, okay, Hell already exists in the Marvel Universe so I suppose it's not that much of a stretch to say that Heaven is there too but the truth of the matter is that Hell works in a somewhat different way than the typical model of Hell. Heaven, then, seems just like a place that would contain the souls of all of the heroes that have ever died and how do you close that door once it's been opened? Obviously heroes don't exactly suffer from overly long deaths, but dropping Heaven into the equation seems both like it's going to bring up religious issues and just be a possible panacea for any deaths that are still to come. On top of that, the scale of the story almost didn't seem big enough; I don't know that it ever truly found its footing here and I particularly don't like introducing Heaven so blatantly with a story that doesn't really shine. I continue to be very torn on Ed McGuinness, who has all the basics of drawing really mastered but whose characters (particularly the women) have really child-like faces (Storm on the cover of this issue terrifies me more than most things in the world). But hey, Nightcrawler's back!

All-New X-Factor 5
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

When Gambit wakes, Danger is standing in his room. She explains to him that his kiss introduced organic counteractions to the programming Nil had done to erase what she once was but that she fears it wasn't enough and needs more counteracting. Gambit doesn't really know what this means and he leaves more than a little shaken. Meanwhile, the introduction of Danger to the team has made things a little trickier around the office as she recognizes immediately that Quicksilver had left through the bathroom window and run somewhere before running back and pretending to be finished with the bathroom based on his heart rate and she deduces that Harrison Snow is having an affair with his assistant when she scans that the assistant has Snow's DNA on her in ways that suggest such an affair. Of course, everyone denies these allegations and Danger is left doubting herself even more. Finally, when X-Factor is brought into a business meeting with the head of an up-and-coming tech business that Snow wants to buy out, Danger immediately recognizes that the man isn't human. As everyone protests Danger's accusation, she plunges her hand through his chest to reveal his true nature. It's the Magus, head of the Technarchy and father of former New Mutant Warlock, who turns up apparently on the side of his one-time enemy Magus as X-Factor faces off against him. Warlock appears to save his father and the two escape while X-Factor tries to put everything together. Polaris decides they need to go see Cypher to understand what's happening with Warlock.

The introduction of Danger to this team has already made the book a good deal more interesting. It's thrown another dynamic in with this team and it's already showing how much more difficult it's going to be to keep secrets around here. With the reveal that Danger can sniff out everyone's little lies, we're able to see just how much of a powder keg Peter David has built with his core three characters and with Harrison Snow, who is still obviously set to be the villain of the piece. In that way, this issue has to be the strongest so far of the bunch and it hints that things may continue to improve as we get a little deeper into a new plot and as we start to establish new members for the team (color me surprised if Cypher and/or Warlock doesn't end up on the team when all of this is said and done). There are perhaps a few too many nerdy references in here for the characters - I have no doubt that they don't sail over the head of anyone reading it but I don't believe that some of the characters would actually make them let alone make them in the situations in which they are made (Snow makes a Doctor Who reference to the head of the other company and then quickly explains that it's a Doctor Who reference for literally no one's benefit in his first time meeting the other company's head). Still, the plot is moving, the characters are coming into their own, and everything's working out one way or another so let's hope this ball keeps rolling.

Marvel Knights X-Men 5
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

The dream-Xavier shows up at just the right time as he gives Kitty all of the inspiration she needs to continue fighting and to inspire Krystal into doing what she can to give them an army and to find her way to Darla. Meanwhile, Rogue and Wolverine, their recent fight put aside, re-enter the fray near Darla and manage to keep things chaotic for the young mutant while she begins to panic and tries to use the drugs she got from the head of the cult to up her powers. Kitty and Krystal, leading a Krystal-controlled team of bikers back into the town, cut a swath through the battles and all of the X-Men present begin to get added help when they create their own backups in the form of dream-Storm, dream-Nightcrawler, and dream-Colossus. While the fight rages, Krystal makes her way to Darla and tries to talk her down. Though it's a struggle to convince Darla that she's not doing the right thing here, Krystal eventually succeeds and gets Darla to give up the fight and let the X-Men help her. Finally everything begins to calm down and, to help a little bit more, Krystal convinces the press that everything they'd seen from the outside of these fights were created by a mine cave-in and subsequent explosions from that.

It's a nice little ending for what has been a nice little series. One of the most apparent things about writer/artist Brahm Revel throughout this series has been a true love for the X-Men. He cares who these characters are and where they've come from and, while this story was a sweeping tale about two scared mutants in a town that hates and fears what they are, it's what really drove the story all the way through, right up to its ending with the dream-X-Men team coming to the aid of fellow X-Men Wolverine, Rogue, and Kitty Pryde. The book reads as a real love story to the X-Men while managing to create and craft a story all distinctly its own, aided by Revel's outstanding art. I liked a lot of the things that were happening in MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN (thanks, in large part, to the incredible Marco Rudy art) but I think this series stands a little better as a complete story. Certainly a story worth telling and I think we can safely say, now that the newest batch of MARVEL KNIGHTS books have all been completed, this little experiment of reintroducing the MARVEL KNIGHTS line was a success.

All-New X-Men 24, All-New X-Factor 4

All-New X-Men 24
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

J-Son, King of the Spartax empire, interrupts Gladiator's tribunal to ask why Jean Grey has been put on trial for crimes she hasn't committed and why he'd still be going after her even after he's done so much to harm her, like hunting down her family to destroy any sort of genealogical attraction the Phoenix felt to Jean Grey. Of course, this leads to a delay in the trial and to a very angry Jean Grey. She's escorted back to her cell while Gladiator and J-Son argue but she breaks away from her captors, escaping into the city. Meanwhile, the Guardians, O5 X-Men, and Starjammers manage to secure a Shi'ar ship with the aid of Angela and fly it down to the planet, hoping to go unrecognized. They land and find themselves immediately discovered by Gladiator and his Imperial Guard. They quickly get into a fight before Jean emerges and asks to be brought back in and tried as a murderer.

It continues to be a little hard to review this book (and a good deal of Bendis' books, but the difficulty increases steadily the more characters are involved. I should make a graph) because my problems with the dialogue and the interactions and the tone and the double page spreads and everything else is already so well-documented. There's probably something deeper I could say about the fact that nothing changes in the style of so many of his books from issue to issue but it seems petty to complain about that; clearly if Bendis is popular, he's going to keep writing in that style and putting out books that fit that formula. So maybe one of my issues with this whole series and everything else that's come out surrounding this in the last year is that it's all so boring to me. I very rarely have found Jean Grey interesting, I tend not to be too connected to the Phoenix as a whole but particularly Jean Grey is uninteresting in the hands of many writers, and she and Cyclops, the oatmeal of the superhero community, are really at the center of this series, just like Cyclops is the center of UNCANNY X-MEN. Of course, it doesn't help that I have had real misgivings about the conceit of ALL-NEW X-MEN since it launched and I am getting more and more sick of stories about "can we kill an innocent person to stop crimes they may commit?" which means that, at least for right now, literally nothing about this book is working for me. Okay, and there IS something to be said about the fact that the format of these books never seems to change and I don't feel invested in ANY of these characters, partly because I know they all must get back to the past at some point and because I just haven't been given a reason to care about any of them yet. Too much to complain about in so little time.

All-New X-Factor 4
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Rosenberg (c)

X-Factor has discovered that Gambit's old associate Nil was the one responsible for taking considerable funds from Serval Industries and that he did it using a a very damaged Danger, former X-Man. Now she seems to have no memories and a distinct desire to kill her captor. Gambit, who has the closest semblance to a relationship with her on the team, tries to talk her down to no avail before Polaris destroys her body with her powers. However, Danger can inhabit other mechanical forms and quickly inhabits the team's ship to preserve herself and continue to fight. Her body rebuilds itself and she transfers back into that, ready at last to kill Nil, who finally offers himself up in the hopes it will save the island. Gambit refuses to allow it though and jumps on Danger again, this time kissing her before she can strike at anyone. Somehow, this restores her to herself enough for her to recognize Gambit and stand down. The team convince Nil to give back the money he took and they all leave with Danger in tow. Without discussing it with the rest of the team, Gambit promptly offers her a spot with X-Factor.

Okay, so let's get the compliments out of the way first. The issue moves pretty well. Peter David has a tendency to chew scenery a bit and load up dialogue with exposition and it happens here to an extent but, despite that, the issue moves quickly enough, keeping the action intense enough to merit a very action-based issue. There are, of course, still some flaws after that. The big one is the cliché yet also inexplicable return of Danger's memories after a kiss from Gambit, who admits himself that he never had any sort of romantic link to the robot, the living embodiment of the Danger Room. They had spent time together in various X-meetings and the like but I don't even think they've had a particularly close bond at any point. And yet, here we are, as the issue winds down, with Gambit kissing a robot and it having enough of an impact on that robot that her memories return and her homicidal rage is quelled. It's simultaneously a giant cliché and a deus ex machina, all wrapped neatly into one package. I think that the interesting things that are happening in this book are getting somewhat overlooked by moments like that and some of the exposition pieces. For example, I think David is developing something very interesting with Polaris but I think it's going to be hard to get to it if the book can't get past some of the set pieces. I'd also like to see a little bit more happening with Gambit and Quicksilver. It's a hard book to judge right now because we're only four issues in so there hasn't been a lot of time to really get into it with some of the characters and still tell compelling stories but I'd like it to at least go one way or the other. This story wasn't compelling enough (it basically boiled down to "Danger is crazy for some reason and Gambit's kiss made the crazy go away") and it ended up just taking away from the book as a whole. Still, four issues in isn't unusual for a book to still be finding its footing.

All-New X-Men 23, All-New X-Factor 3

All-New X-Men 23
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The ANXM find themselves in space alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy in the quest to find Jean Grey. They know that it was the Shi'ar who took her and have been tracking the Shi'ar ship but it's not gone unnoticed. The two factions quickly get embroiled in a space battle with various members of the Guardians deploying to fight the Shi'ar in space and others and the ANXM staying behind in the ship, where they get unlikely support from the thought-dead space pirate Starjammers, led by the Corsair, Cyclops' father Christopher Summers. Meanwhile, Jean continues to be told that she's on trial for crimes committed by the Phoenix and ham-fistedly tries to explain that she hasn't committed these crimes.

I would, perhaps, be less averse to this series (despite its horrible conceit) if issues read as quickly as these summaries went. Instead, thanks to Bendis' famous back-and-forth dialogue, the issue ends up losing both its tension and its pace. Bendis tries to restore it with the Jean Grey bits, putting her up against a seemingly impregnable foe, and with the tension Scott is clearly feeling (Scott, who will soon star in his own ongoing soon from Greg Rucka), but it falls short when you have Bobby making non-stop jokes and Rocket making non-stop (grr) fake swears. Of course, there is a time for comic relief in the midst of a serious situation but it tends to be bad if it's impossible to separate the two. I've pretty much been solidly on record about my dislike for the conceit that the O5 X-Men are in the present in the first place but I'm willing to accept it if it still yields good stories. This one feels like an attempt to bring up the trope of "can you find someone guilty of crimes they haven't yet committed," a question asked constantly in comics and other media and one that Bendis himself has even asked in the last year in AGE OF ULTRON. So I'm not on board with this plot, I'm not on board with the dialogue, and I'm not really on board with a lot of these characters. Guess how I'm feeling with this book?

All-New X-Factor 3
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

X-Factor is starting to get its bearing as Gambit moves into Serval Industries, Polaris continues to lead the team, and we discover that Quicksilver is working on behalf of Havok to keep an eye on Polaris and the entire set-up for the Avengers. Any sort of subtlety to the potential corruption or evil of Several Industries, too, can be put to rest as Snow reveals that he's planted a camera in Polaris' eye and as he offers a job to last issue's enemy, Dr. Hoffman. Of course, he doesn't tell any of the X-Factor members any of this and he sends them out on a new mission to find someone who hacked Serval's servers and made off with all sorts of plans and ten million dollars. Their physical trace leads them to the hidden Thieves' Guild island and Gambit immediately knows that Nil, the technomancer who threatened Gambit's leadership in his own title, must be behind it. They go and investigate and find that Nil has upped his abilities by hooking X-Man Danger up to his set-up. When Polaris frees her, Danger attacks all of them.

Plot-wise, there's a lot going on here. Serval is taking a very obvious step towards evil corporation even faster than I expected it would, Danger's a danger, and Quicksilver is, as Gambit suggested, a spy for an Avengers team. Aside from the introduction of Danger, though, all of these plot points are expected plot points, going so far as to even be plot points that Gambit, a character in the book we're reading, has expected them all along. In that way, the big plot shifts aren't super meaningful to us because they're plot shifts we've all been expecting and they're plot shifts only three issues deep, while we're still trying to figure out what this team is all about and who Serval is. Granted, we are only three issues in so these plot shifts may just be red herrings to cover bigger issues, but, on the face of it, it's not a terribly compelling set of plot twists. In addition, the writing ends up focusing a lot on quirky little quips and shoe-horned jokes. I'm a pretty big proponent of Peter David and his work (particularly his long work on the last X-FACTOR book) but this series isn't selling me quite yet. Of course, I'll keep reading it but that doesn't mean much coming from me, the guy who willingly reviews every single one of these jerk books.

All-New X-Factor 2, Cable and X-Force 19

All-New X-Factor 2
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

X-Factor enters the AIM lab to try to find Dr. Hoffman and Quicksilver and Gambit are almost instantly whisked away into traps, leading Polaris to start ripping the place apart. As the lab reacts and launches gas at her, she vaults into the holding cell where they're keeping Fatale. The traps that Quicksilver and Gambit were pulled into are ultimately beatable and the two reunite pretty quickly. The invasion, though, has drawn the notice of Hoffman and he's begun to launch into his testing. He had been draining the power from mutants Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss to charge himself up and to give himself a bunch of energy based powers. As Polaris tries to fight back, Quicksilver and Gambit rush on to the scene, with Quicksilver giving Gambit an opportunity to toss a kinetic card into the monster Hoffman's ear, destroying him from the inside out. Hoffman himself is alive but unconscious as the power dissipates. As the team regroups, Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss want to kill Hoffman but Polaris and Quicksilver won't let them. The appearance of Quicksilver, though, gives them an ample enough hate to turn their focus to him (fun fact: Quicksilver is hated by like, everybody). They leave, though, and swear their revenge someday.

Bit of a strange issue. It's also one of those issues that annoys me because it highlights some possible level of hypocrisy in me. I often think about long first arcs and wonder if it maybe hurt the book to stay in one story for so long to kick it off. In some cases, I think it works really well, like with CAPTAIN AMERICA and with THOR: GOD OF THUNDER (which did eventually wear on me a bit but was mostly solid and was technically two arcs, though it really was just one). Yet when this book comes along and gives a two issue arc to establish our characters, at least half of our team (the splash page indicates there may be more on the way) has been introduced, and we see a plot resolved, I'm left wanting maybe a bit more. It's not a bad issue, per se, just one that feels like we missed chunks of story that were maybe important. It also does the Marvel thing of playing with what exactly it is to be mutant. Right now, Rick Remender has Red Skull walking around the Marvel Universe with Charles Xavier's actual brain in him to give him telepathy while Peter David here explains that Dr. Hoffman was able to drain the energy from mutants to gain powers that may or may not be THEIR powers but are powers. Kind of have to overlook that. The ending is also a bit abrupt as everything winds down quickly and the issue ends with Gambit quipping about Quicksilver. Bit of a strange read, really.

Cable and X-Force 19
Hopeless (w) and Unzueta (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The two X-Force teams have met up and things have calmed down a bit between them since last time as they try to figure out what happened to Cable, Spiral, Bishop, and Hope. Psylocke can't locate them anywhere until Forge suggests that they get to a junkyard where he and Nemesis can whip up a power amplifier for her. Meanwhile, Stryfe has contained everyone in his vicinity and force-teleports Spiral away, not caring about her. He then makes Cable watch as he leaves Hope and Bishop in a room with a psimitar and he taunts Cable about how, despite all of his wishes, he built a daughter who knows how to be a killer. Back in California, the power amplifier works and leads the teams right to Spiral (sent to a fishing ship). Betsy says that the power amplifier can help her take the blocks out of Spiral's head as far as remembering where Stryfe is if she's willing to take them there. Spiral agrees and they prepare to take off.

It's a bit sad that this crossover is the way that both of these books will end because it means that we don't get to see a real Hopeless send-off to the book he so neatly crafted. Instead, this is the final issue of CABLE AND X-FORCE and it's very clearly not the final issue of the story. Sad to see it go and sad that it has to spend a lot of its time focusing on characters who weren't even in this book. Sure we'll see a little bit more of Cable's X-Force team as VENDETTA wraps up next week but it would have been nice to get just one more book to see the finale for this team, which Hopeless wrote so well and made so fun. As an individual issue in the crossover, this isn't a bad one. As I said in the last VENDETTA review, you can pretty much map out the beats of a four-issue crossover like this one and this issue is hitting those same beats now as the two teams come back together and put their differences aside to prepare for the final fight against the big bad with the stakes raised to their highest points. In a way, maybe that's what's so sad about this being the final issue. We don't get closure for the team we grew to like but we also don't get anything we weren't expecting in the course of this crossover. Kind of a buzzkill. As much as I want the new X-FORCE series to start, I wouldn't mind a true final issue for this book, no matter the outcome of the next issue.

All-New X-Factor 1, Cable and X-Force 18

All-New X-Factor 1
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

Wolverine's annoyed that Gambit keeps missing school, has taken over the Thieves' Guild, and has continued his thieving ways. He tells Gambit that he's going to have to shape up if he wants to keep teaching at the school. Polaris, though, shows up with an alternative: come work with her on behalf of Serval Industries. They go to Serval HQ to meet with Harrison Snow, CEO and president of Serval, to hear his pitch to Gambit, which is basically that Serval has plenty of resources as a huge and rising company (and poses Snow as the next Tony Stark, weapons-manufacturer-wise) and that Snow would like to see those resources used for good in the world. Gambit agrees to go on a mission with Polaris and surprise teammate (surprise to Polaris, anyway) Quicksilver and test it out. The three break into an AIM research facility harboring scientist Dr. Terrance Hoffman who is allegedly experimenting on mutants. As they make their way through the facility, Hoffman continues to test the mutant Fatale and relishes the idea of testing even more mutants.

This is definitely looking like a wait-and-see book after the first issue. Of course, plenty of books are like that and there's no shame in it (I would say, though, that both AVENGERS WORLD and BLACK WIDOW, which debuted this week as well, landed pretty squarely in the "things are looking good" camp). Right now there's just too much that needs establishing before we can start to see what these characters and this plot is going to feel like. Gambit (and probably the rest of the team but we get narration from Gambit this time out) is certainly skeptical of Serval and he probably should be, given the fact that it's a huge corporation hiring a superhero team to do good work in the world. Huge corporations don't tend to work exclusively on the side of good in comics (unless they're run by a superhero to begin with) and Gambit clearly recognizes that. The team's an interesting one and there's reason to believe we'll get good chemistry out of them and Peter David keeps up his knack for dialogue and fairly easy-flowing scenes in his return to Marvel (he wasn't gone for long, no, but it's still a return). Carmine Di Giandomenico brings a crisp art style to the book that could certainly pay off and Lee Loughridge's colors are phenomenal. Should be fun to watch this one play out.

Cable and X-Force 18
Hopeless (w) and Unzueta (a) and Rosenberg (c)

After a conveniently timed nightmare about Bishop (to be fair, we're led to believe she has nightmares about Bishop fairly often), Hope wakes up to find Boom Boom watching a live stream of Cable's visions. As she walks in, the TV flashes by an image of Bishop and informs her that Bishop is in Hollywood this very instant. Hope knocks out Boom Boom to stop her telling Cable, takes guns from the armory, and embarks on a mission to kill Bishop. When Boom Boom awakes and tells Cable, he sets off after her, hoping to spare Hope from cold blooded murder. Meanwhile, on the west coast, Bishop has angrily set off to stew in the city after learning that Storm erased his memories of hunting Hope. Now he's got them back, he's trying to learn to cope. He doesn't have much time to try, though, as Hope attacks him before either X-Force team appears to intervene. However, someone does appear in time to intervene as Stryfe, Cable's clone from the future, shows up and grabs both of them before, disappearing with the two of them as Cable arrives. It's not long before the Uncanny X-Force arrives and suddenly Cable has to explain why Psylocke can't find Bishop any more.

There's a lot happening here of interest but it's ultimately going to rely on the random Stryfe plot twist. It would have been enough to pit Hope and Cable against Bishop and eventually have the X-Force teams get involved with it (though I then would have complained about why no one is talking to one another just as I'm going to complain about Bishop's relationship with his new team) but this new wrinkle can either vastly improve the story or unnecessarily complicate it. We'll have to see which way it goes, though typically the words "clone from the future" tend to be in the latter camp. The other major issue I'm having is that UNCANNY X-FORCE hasn't exactly done a lot to show that the team actually cares about Bishop. Sure, the act of removing his memories was done out of some bit of caring and sure they already know Bishop but he's only just returned from the future and he's spent as much time fighting against them as fighting alongside them. I don't think it doesn't work, necessarily, but I would have liked to see some stronger connection between the team and Bishop. The VENDETTA crossover will pick back up in the next issue of UNCANNY X-FORCE so we'll likely get a better sense then of how this event will go.

Quick hits on NYCC announcements

I almost certainly won't catch everything that was announced at NYCC but here are some quick thoughts on what I did hear.

Captain Marvel relaunch
Not really thrilled by relaunches while the series is still going and this isn't the only series doing that. Still, there were rumors that this series was going to be cancelled so this beats that, and we've still got Kelly Sue DeConnick writing the series as Captain Marvel goes, it sounds like, into space. Weirdly not news? Still excited about it but it is an odd announcement.

New Warriors
New New Warriors series written by Chris Yost and starring Justice, Speedball, Scarlet Spider, and Nova, among others. Nice that Yost will still have Scarlet Spider to play with after the series ends and happy that he's on another book. Could be fun.

Silver Surfer
A new Silver Surfer series by Dan Slott and Mike Allred. Gonna hold off judgment on this. Dan Slott's a good writer but I haven't seen him on anything but Spider-Man for so long and Surfer's a very different character. Allred's art will suit the Surfer well though.

Punisher
New Punisher series from Nathan Edmondson with Castle moving out west. I have no thoughts on this.

Ghost Rider
All-new Ghost Rider series coming from Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore. I don't know too much about either of these guys (though Tradd Moore did one of my favorite Young Avengers variant covers, so there's that). But Ghost Rider coming back to the Marvel Universe is...interesting. I guess. Ghost Rider will also be jumping on to the current Thunderbolts team. Because we needed more crazy murderers, it would seem.

Iron Man and Deadpool Infinite Comics
Haven't heard too much about the Deadpool one except that it will be a 12-part comic facing Deadpool off against Dracula (or making them work together, perhaps). Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing will collaborate on the writing of the Iron Man infinite comic. I tend to like the infinite comics but long form ones are an interesting idea.

Loki: Agent of Asgard
A new Loki-driven series by Al Ewing which will find Loki as an older Loki again working as a sort of spy or double agent or something else that seems to suit him. Sad if the young Loki is going away but the idea fits the character.

Miracleman
Reprint of Neil Gaiman's 80s series Miracleman which will lead to new material from him. Very cool. Never got to read Miracleman but can't help but love Gaiman and the idea of new Gaiman Marvel material is pretty awesome.

Elektra
New Elektra series. Haven't heard much about that but heard that it's happening. Not sure how many stories there are out there with Elektra as a lead but she's doing pretty well in the universe these days so let's see where this one goes.

Fantastic Four and FF ending in January
Writing was kind of on the walls for this one as Fraction moved off of these books for Inhumanity. Still, pretty major books (well, at least one of them) to be flat-out ending. Don't be surprised to see more announcements tied to these moving forward.

Iron Patriot
James Rhodes is the new Iron Patriot and he's getting a new series all his own in March. Interesting decision here. I liked Iron Man 2.0 when that was going on a couple years ago and the character's a good one. Curious as to where this is coming from.

All-New Invaders
Haha whaaaaaat. Starring at least Winter Soldier, Human Torch, and Namor. Haha, whaaaaat. Pretty pumped about that, you guys.

Inhumanity
Launches in January.

Ultimate Comics: Cataclysm
A new event for the Ultimate Universe that might feature the end of that universe and probably has something to do with Galactus (bad omen for the characters in Hunger right now, hm?).

Lego Marvel
The video game announced a whole slew of new characters including, but not limited to, Iron Fist, Power Man, Havok, Taskmaster, Polaris, Aunt May (yes, she's playable), Captain Britain, Black Bolt, Ant Man, and Moon Knight. Pretty excited for this game.

Avengers World
A book that will, it seems, tie directly into the main Avengers series that will serve to better focus on some of the characters (particularly the newer characters to the team) who have been relegated to the background to make way for the plot. Could be interesting, though that's kind of what I saw Avengers Assemble doing. I worry they'll spread themselves too thin. People will only buy so much. Right?

Black Widow
B-Widz gets another solo series, this time written by Nathan Edmondson with Phil Noto art. I'm a big Black Widow fan so another solo series is welcome news. Hopefully this one can change things for a pretty great character who, somehow, hasn't been able to sustain her own book. I think the stories and potential are there, we just need to see it (or sell it).

Avengers Undercover
Dennis Hopeless' follow-up to Avengers Arena finds some of the survivors infiltrating the Masters of Evil to try to bring them down from inside. Interesting concept and it will probablyw ork out nicely for the characters. Excited to see Hopeless writing some of these guys more.

X-Factor
Not only does X-Factor return to the Marvel Universe, but it returns with Peter David still as the head writer. Certainly not upset to hear that. Not everything is the same, though, as X-Factor will now be a corporate team consisting at least of Polaris, Quicksilver, and Gambit. Interesting for sure.

Secret Avengers
Secret Avengers gets a rebrand, a slightly different team, and a new creative team as Spider-Woman joins up with Hawkeye, Black Widow, Maria Hill, Coulson, and Fury. Presumably the mind-wipe business will be erased from this new series (WORDPLAY). A little sad since Secret Avengers seems to be finding its footing just now under Spencer.

The Trial of Jean Grey
Six-part series. I could not care less.


Like I said, there's probably more, but that's all I've got for now. Tons of news, lots to digest. Let me know if you saw something I didn't, okay?

This week's picks

Twelve books this week and not a whole ton of standouts among them. Some good books, some fun books, some really irritating books, but very light in books that really blew me away. I guess not every book can do that every time. Sigh.

Iron Man 15

This one seems like it might be able to though. Just a great series with another great issue. 451 has been a suspicious character ever since he, you know, allowed the Voldi to be destroyed. Truthfully, he was suspicious before that, with his Tony obsession and everything else. Still though, he alternated between good and bad, usually doing bad things but claiming them to be for good reasons. There was little indication that this was all true and that he wouldn't just get Tony in the Godkiller then point him at whatever planet he felt needed destroying that week. Until now. Now we're talking about a being who had sacrificed everything good about himself to save Earth only to find he couldn't, not in the way he intended, so everything horrible he did now has no purpose; they're just horrible acts. If we do believe everything he said is true now, 451 went from being a watcher (not a Watcher, just similar) who never interfered to finally choosing to interfere and, in his first real opportunity to change things, killing billions of lifeforms for nothing. The weight bears down on him here and it's amazing and devastating all at once. Great issue, continues to be a great series.

Venom 40

This was a tough pick for the week. I had Iron Man in the list all along and the next book, particularly in what was kind of a weak week, earned a pick as an "in memoriam" pick so that left this spot for a couple of similar books. It was really between this, Infinity 2, and X-Men Legacy 16. In the end, though, the pacing of this one really won out as it seemed like a well-packed issue without being too overdone or too hard to follow. Legacy had some cooler moments, with David facing down some of the most respected mutants in the world and picking them apart one-by-one, but that one's conclusion might have more weight to it than the set-up had. This has some good character weight between Flash and Andi dealing with their symbiotes and what exactly they want and mean as well as a solid plot that will serve as a jumping off point for the next story. Sad this book is coming to an end; the stories keep flowing out of it and providing genuinely interesting issues.

X-Factor 262

The final issue of Peter David's long run on X-Factor which, if my math is right, led to over one hundred issues for the long-time comic scribe. It was a reliably solid book with one of the best true "teams" in the Marvel Universe. Not a super powerful team or a particularly influential team, just a team that has banded together and grown closer, despite their differences, to do what little they can. Pretty consistent sense of fun and some really great characters who probably wouldn't have a home if not for this series. The final issue wasn't anything super special but it deserves to be here as a summation of the series. The conclusion of 262 finds the team spread out, disbanded after Hell on Earth, and team leader Jamie Madrox choosing to settle down with new wife Layla and coming child on their family farm. A nice sendoff for the man who started it all (Peter David was given the book after a Madrox mini-series). Sad to see it go but it seems like maybe it was time.

X-Factor 262, X-Men Legacy 16

X-Factor 262
David (w) and N. Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The final issue of X-Factor kicks off focused on Layla as she discovers that, at perhaps the worst possible time, she's pregnant. Old X-Factor enemy Tryp shows up to threaten her a bit and to tell her of something new coming, another version of him, more or less, who she would perhaps call the "good" version, coming to replace the bad. Before dying, though, he does call the police on her for "trespassing" in the house she's staying at, which is a Madrox family farm. Though she's Jamie's wife, no one really officially knows that and Jamie himself is a goat-headed demon being hidden in the barn. Layla tries to bring him food and he breaks free, launching himself at her. He pins her down and she screams that she's pregnant, which is enough to send him fleeing back to the barn. As Layla begins to return to the house, the police arrive. Meanwhile, Jamiegoat seems to pray to something and something seems to answer. As the police begin to take action against Layla, we see Siryn, now the Morrigan, talking with Jamie. The police brought weapons to handle Layla, knowing her powers and knowing she has something in the barn. Siryn joins in the fight against the strange special agent the cops have brought and Jamie, no longer a goathead, jumps in to prove his identity and that they belong in the house, finally sending the police away. Later, Siryn briefs the couple on the rest of the team's whereabouts and asks if they want her to bring them all back together. They think it over briefly but decline, saying they have a family and a farm to get back to.

It's a sweet little ending for X-Factor and one that ties up what remaining threads may have been out there. Great to get Jamie back to his normal self, even if he is in a nondescript white tank and jeans instead of his trademark green duster and if he's not exactly brimming with personality in this issue. Still good to get everything wrapped up and a nice little close for the series. Some intrigue with the strange police special agent with a specially prepared weapon. Also a nice wrap-up note from Peter David at the end of the issue to assure that he wasn't wrapping the series because of his recent stroke or anything of that nature; instead, they wrapped because it was a good time to wrap and they had a story that could do it nicely. He also promised something new coming up that was hinted at in 260 (the issue with Polaris and Quicksilver wherein Polaris was offered a job of a sort). Sad to see the series go but perhaps it was time.

X-Men Legacy 16
Spurrier (w) and Davidson (a) and Rosenberg (c)

David is ready to dispense some filial justice but he actually has to track his father's killer first. No easy feat as Cyclops has dedicated himself to not being found in recent days (not well, they keep running into traps, the dummies). Watching all sorts of international news programs, David begins to track Cyclops' movements and is able within a few hours to figure out Cyclops' location. He bursts in, riding down on thunderbolts and lightning (very, very frightening) with Blindfold and begins to set to work taking out Cyclops' team one-by-one. There are several nice moments in here, including him putting the new mutants on Cyke's team down first (gently and thinking to himself about the ugly legacy his father built of sending children into battles like this) before attacking the big guns on the team. He dispatches them nicely (his feelings about the members also come out, including his calling Magneto a grandfather and Emma Frost a trollop) before turning to Cyclops. Cyclops tries very minimally to talk him down but knows he won't likely listen anyway. David, for his part, says that they won't use powers, just a man vs. man fight, to be continued next issue.

I'm always a little surprised when this book sends an arc for multiple issues and I really shouldn't be at this point. Through 16 issues we've probably had, at this point, more to-be-continueds than not. Still, the feel of this book doesn't always lend itself to cliffhangers so it always catches me a bit off-guard. Maybe it's just that I'm eager to see every story to its conclusion so I am left a little disappointed when I don't immediately see the end. That's probably a good sign, though. Just means that I want to read more of this series. Good issue overall, really great stuff as he dismantles, one-by-one, one of the pre-eminent X-Men teams around. Granted, they're not at full power but the idea is still the same and his confidence-based powers are still on full display here. Solid work. Still a pretty great book. As this series has gone on, too, the art has grown on me again and again. Davidson's has typically been solid but I had to grow a little on Tan Eng Huat's stuff. I have, though, overwhelmingly, and I've really liked what's come recently. What a great book.

Comics this week

Back down to 12 major releases from Marvel this week which means that my week is a little bit lighter but no less meaningful. We have a couple of books at or hurtling towards their finales and a couple of events continuing this week. So let's pick the five most anticipated then, shall we?

Infinity 2
The really big Marvel summer event is pushing on even as summer is winding down. I thought the first issue was interesting enough and big enough to justify an event and I'll be curious to see if that holds true in issue two. Also, we've now had a number of tie-ins to book one (including Avengers Assemble, Avengers, Captain Marvel, and New Avengers) so I feel like we've covered most of that ground by now, leaving us ready to start issue two. I liked the books that tied in with issue one well enough but I worry that this format, if it continues to be like this (which at least Avengers and New Avengers will certainly do), will burn the event out faster than just the six main event books. We'll have to see.

Iron Man 15
I've really enjoyed Gillen's run on Iron Man and particularly this arc and the 451 storyline. I believe that's winding down so I'll be very anxious to see where it goes and where it goes after the conclusion. As an individual issue I'm very excited to see where this one will take us as we left the last one on the big cliffhanger of Tony not being able to control the suit and 451, unaware of his attempt to do so, destroying a planet then pointing the computer at Earth. Lots going on and just a brilliant series as it's been. Happy to have this one come out.

X-Factor 262
The final book of X-Factor, sadly. There has been talk, though nothing official that I know of, of a new X-Factor series taking the place of this one but I'd imagine that spells the end of Peter David's time on this book (which is not inconsiderable). It's been a solid book from start to finish, providing plenty of fun and some great characterization of a lot of mutants who normally wouldn't get that kind of focus anywhere else in the Universe. Hopefully most of these guys find a home, whether in the new X-Factor series or elsewhere in the Universe. Regardless, sad to see this one go. They better wrap up Madrox's goat head killer thing because I really love Madrox and the fact he hasn't been able to talk the last however many issues now is devastating for the book.

X-Men Battle of the Atom 1
It's hard not to be a little burned out on events right now but my feeling continues to be that events can't be ruled out simply because they're events; if the story and characterization is good, it was worth having an event for. Granted, this one (like Infinity) crosses over between several books in the coming couple of months, which is a format I rather hate (suddenly consumers are paying loads to follow a single story), but the idea of events can't rule out the possibility of a meaningful story. ALSO, still optimistic we could be getting Nightcrawler back here, so I'm hopeful.

X-Men Legacy 16
It's not often that I have this many X-books on my pre-game post but it's also not often that a really long-running X-book ends, an X-event kicks off, and a fantastic X-book release an issue all in one week. I can't get enough of this series. It is, in my mind, the pinnacle of X-books right now, including any solo mutant book (which this pretty much is, despite the "X-Men" tag in the name). There are other solid books out there (though I'd say the majority of the best ones are ending soon) but this one is consistently amazing and one of the best books at Marvel, let alone in the X-wing of the Universe. This issue should see David going after Cyclops and his X-Men with his renewed power going up against Cyclops' team's out-of-control powers. Legacy will not tie in with Battle of the Atom and I think we'll end up better for it.

X-Men Legacy 15, X-Factor 261

X-Men Legacy 15
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Pete Wisdom set up a meeting for David with his rather estranged mother Gabrielle Haller and it instantly starts on a pretty hostile note as David brings Gabrielle to Muir Island, the place where David was at his craziest and abandoned to Moira MacTaggert's experiments. There's an emotional core to the issue that's really solid as David tries to get to the center of his abandonment issues and why Moira MacTaggert was a bigger role in his life than his own mother. There are some really great resolves here for David and his own issues (including Gabrielle going into David's mind and identifying the demon that's been in there as specifically not Charles Xavier, which is rather a weight off of David). It's good that these resolves come, of course, because Gabrielle is promptly shot after David's issues are lessened. He immediately, in a remarkably cool moment in his brain, harnesses new powers and destroys the attackers (an attack organized by the newly unseated President Abdi) before teleporting himself to the Jean Grey School where he can sit in front of the statue of his father (unbothered after he telepathically suggests to everyone around that he's not there) with Blindfold. The two talk for a bit and it leads to David's revelation that he ought to maybe dispatch some "filial justice" in honor of his father, dead at the hands of Cyclops.

Exciting times for the book and, really, what this whole thing boils down to as ever, is that I really love this book you guys. It's just...it's the best book and I don't get why you're not reading it. If you are reading it, ignore that because you totally know how awesome it is already and I don't need to tell you (I will anyway). There's a great emotional core to this book, as I mentioned above, and it really strikes home for David and for the readers that care about David. There's a lot of resolution to hope for and certainly not enough that could ever be given (David was given up by his mother to Charles and Moira when he developed his powers, where he inevitably went a bit crazy and was ultimately sedated and tested on relentlessly, so yeah, there's a bit to come back from) but David gets enough to satisfy and to make more of a weight for Gabrielle's death. I talked in a Fearless Defenders review in the last couple months about "fridging" a character, creating them just to kill them off for an emotional resonance, but this isn't exactly that. Gabrielle is an established character in the Marvel Universe and her death, even though she's been off the pages for a while, still has a real impact to it. She's big in that world (head of the Israeli Embassy) and she's big in the mutant community. Most importantly right now, she was somehow big to David, even if he didn't grow up with her around. So it's not exactly fridging, it's bigger than that and the weight it holds can't be ignored. Some more great stuff with David in his own mind and hey you guys, I really love this book.

X-Factor 261
David (w) and N. Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

We're on the penultimate issue of this iteration of X-Factor (it's very likely it will be rebooted shortly after it ends but no official word yet) which means we're still trying to figure out what's become of the team since the events of the Hell on Earth arc. Today's team members: Darwin and Monet. Darwin, sick of being a lackey for Hela, is trying to hunt the Norse goddess down and work some things out with her when he runs into Monet. He questions how she came back from the dead (it happens) and isn't totally satisfied with her response. Like Guido before her, Monet has come back not feeling much of anything and hoping to fix that but can't find the team and has no real outlet so she's shooting in the dark. She and Darwin talk for a bit and he reveals that he's in love with her, that he always has been, leading the two of them into a brief entanglement that ends when Hela appears the next morning and Darwin shoos her off, deciding he's happy the way he is. Awwwwww.

I've mostly been happy with the wrapping up of individual arcs as the book winds down and I think Peter David's taken great care to make sure his characters, the ones he's been writing for years and years pretty much untouched now are in good shape as their book concludes. It's especially nice for X-Factor fans because there's a good chance we won't see much from these characters in the immediate future, particularly if they don't end up on the newest iteration of the team. Sure, some will probably find their way into X-Men books here and there but by and large these characters are ones that are likely to drift into the background of the universe. Truly sad, sure, but kind of expected. The fact we had them in this book for as long as we did is nice (except Rahne, who I still don't care for). But BOY, he better resolve the Madrox thing in the final issue or I'm going to be so angry. I love Madrox. He better not be a goat-headed demon for the rest of his life. I'll be so mad, you guys.