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.

New Spider-Man 2099 series announced

Marvel has just announced the start of what seemed to be an inevitable new SPIDER-MAN 2099 series, slated to launch in July. The series will be written by comics pro and current ALL-NEW X-FACTOR scribe Peter David (who broke the news on his blog at http://www.peterdavid.net/2014/03/27/spider-man-2099/ - sorry, the app doesn't allow hiding that link dudes and dudettes) and drawn by former FEARLESS DEFENDERS artist Will Sliney. Hopefully there won't be too many future swear words but what are the chances of that? 

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.

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.

X-Men Legacy 12, X-Factor 258

X-Men Legacy 12
Spurrier (w) and Davidson and Leisten (a) and Peter (c)

David is still set on taking the pill as the issue starts, a move that thrills Red Skull. For his peaceful anti-mutant organization Darwin's Martyrs, this is perfect; the son of the most famous mutant of all hoping to rid himself of his powers. They start the cameras rolling as David explains who he is and why he's doing what he's doing. Right as he's about to pop the pill in, Blindfold and her quickly assembled team show up, stopping David from taking the pill. A fight breaks out on camera as the team recognizes Red Skull and attacks. Unfortunately, this is all still according to Skull's plan. When the camera pans to see what's happening, it simply looks as if mutants killed Marcus Glove, the figurehead of the organization (who, of course, was just a Red Skull creation). Now it looks like these dangerous mutants broke in and killed a peaceful man who had a peaceful solution to ending mutant threats. People watching the report are furious, rallying together against what seems to be a common enemy. On the plus side, this actually has all played into David's hands, who was never actually there to take the pill. He brings out one time Legacy star Santi Sardina, the boy whose mutant power is to take credit for things, and it confuses the watching populace, who all believe Santi is a hero but may have just killed Glove but who is also taking credit for leading Darwin's Martyrs but who is also a mutant and...well, it's all very confusing. David, of course, knew it would be and nothing kills a rally like utter confusion at its core. The mutants team on Red Skull, secure knowing that they won't be crucified for the events of today. Just as Skull goes down, the gold entity in David's head takes his minute of control of David's body. He calls himself Legion and makes his way for Skull, hoping to inhabit the body that holds Xavier's brain and claim the brain for his own. The mini X-team holds him for part of the minute as Blindfold tries to help David from inside his own brain (where she can hear all of his loudspeakered thoughts). Right as Legion is about to take hold of the body, Karasu-Tengu shows up with her psychic raven and attacks Legion, stopping him long enough for the minute to end and for David to regain control of the body and trap Legion in a cell. David reveals that Darwin's Martyrs was just another threat to mutants that needed eradicating and that there was never a chance he'd give up his powers. If he really is meant to do something awful to the world, he'll handle it with his own abilities because he rules himself.

I really like this book. I'm not sure I've said that enough here. Even this issue, which took the twist of last issue, which had twisted the entire superhero genre on its own, kind of reversed that twist and still didn't leave me unsatisfied or depressed. Of course, I knew David couldn't really lose his powers but the idea was so brilliant that he was willing to, even after everything converged to convince him to fight back. Still, I guess the way I figured his powers would stay was that the team would show up and they'd all fight and the day would be saved. That sort of happens but not in the straightforward way it could have, and that many lesser books would have done. That's cliche and old but this was new and exciting and worked so perfectly within everything else Spurrier's done with the series. Just a brilliant set of twists and turns and it's hard not to cite David among my favorite characters in the Marvel Universe at the moment.

X-Factor 258
David (w) and Edwards, Carnero, and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

X-Factor is winding down and, while for Layla and Madrox last issue that meant asking more questions, for Rahne this issue it means closing doors. She jumps into John Maddox's church (he's a priest who was a duplicate of Madrox but chose not to be reabsorbed when the time came) and kills two gunmen who were tearing up the church aiming to kill Maddox for his suggestion to the wife of one of the gunman that she leave him. The gunmen have killed members of the congregation already by the time Rahne launches through the window but she puts them down quickly, killing one and possibly fatally wounding the other. She leaves just as quickly as she came, leaving Maddox confused and alarmed. She comes back later to talk with Maddox, who recognized something was wrong with her when she came in. She tells the whole story about Tier's death and another story about where she ended up after the events. She was sent to the Arctic, though she fever-dreamed that it was Niffleheim, the land of the dead, and that Tier and his father were both there and that she was finally able to join them. Unfortunately for her, she's actually just talking to a polar bear. Guido appears and saves her from it then apologizes, sort of, for things that happened. He knows he can't make it up to her but he sends her to Maddox's church just in the nick of time. As Rahne is about to leave, having told her story, Maddox offers her a position in the church, learning to become a deacon. She accepts and Maddox recognizes that it's the start of a new life for her, meaning probably we're don with her through the end. One would think, but I've been burned before.

I'm not a big fan of Rahne so I wasn't particularly thrilled by this issue. Also, there are a lot of weird bits to this one. On the one hand, there's a couple of gunmen shooting up a church and then that storyline is done. Obviously it will still weigh on the town and on Maddox when he's not dealing with X-Factor related things, but it was weird for such a devastating attack to be thrown aside so quickly. There is also a bit of recap here as we recount what happened in the lords of hell arc and bits of Rahne's past. Still, David had to wrap up the character if his intent is to wrap up the series by ending each character's respective arc and this is about as good a place to leave her as any, with a person she's comfortable with and in a church. It'll do, I suppose. It'll do.

Winter Soldier 19, Red She-Hulk 66, X-Factor 257

Winter Soldier 19
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

The final issue of Winter Soldier finds Tesla having created a cosmic cube of some sort, the Tesla Tesseract. Her plan is to create chaos by going back in time with it to kill the people who have brought her pain. She advises Bucky to take the opportunity to go back and finish Novokov before he can hurt Natasha or wipe her memories. He refuses, knowing that time shouldn't be broken this way. He watches helplessly as she jumps them to various points in her life where she was hurt and kills whoever was torturing her. All the while, Bucky pleads with her to return and live the life she has. Finally, she brings him back to the day he killed her father and tells him that now he has the chance to make all of this go away by not killing her father. He explains that he understands what he was and who he is and how everything feeds into his life and how he can't just go back in time and change things, as much as he wants to erase his Winter Soldier past. No good can come from altering the past. Tesla attacks him, using the body of Father Hammer, who was evidently watching Bucky even at this point to see his skills. As Bucky gives up the fight, he shows Tesla her reflection on his knife. When she could have gone to see her father in this time, she chose instead to look like Father Hammer. Mortified by this, she brings them back to the present and admits her mistakes, fighting a war on soldiers. Unfortunately, it's too late to save them as the cosmic energy is expanding too quickly. Bucky uses his arm, rigged with a homing beacon, to send them back to Earth while she keeps them intangible so they don't crash into anything. They land in the ocean and she sinks away, disappearing, while he emerges at the top. There's a nice wrap-up for Joe Robards where he acknowledges without acknowledging that he knows Bucky killed his wife but he understands the weight of having a mission. Bucky returns to the cube despite himself and goes back in time to kiss Natasha at a time when she knew him before leaving again.

It's a wonderful and fitting wrap-up for the Winter Soldier, whose biggest demon since his return, and rightfully so, has been his past as the Winter Soldier. This issue gives him an out, a way to try to erase the things he's done and the person he was in that time, or even small parts of it. He could erase the horrible acts he's committed, he could erase Novokov and get back Natasha, he could do just about anything. Instead, he comes to terms with what the past means. Will he ever be over it? No, probably not. He probably shouldn't ever be. But maybe he can move past it with this feeling. Latour and Klein inherited an almost impossible job (replacing a beloved writer who created this character on a near-failing book) and did very nice work anyway. Klein's art really stands out here as there's a great piece at the beginning that shows the Winter Soldier's beginning as Bucky falls into the water from the drone he couldn't stop which calls back to early Avengers style art and uses great colors. The issue is solid and their run was well-executed. Still very sad to see this book go. Well at least the other two books in this review are still going strong and will never-oh.

Red She-Hulk 66
Parker (w) and Pagulayan, Olliffe, Bennett, and Jose (a) and Staples (c)

Red She-Hulk and X-51 arrive in the Florida Everglades, the Nexus of Realities, according to the Terranometer. Time is different here and Aaron is hopeful that they'll have the best shot of changing a fixed point in time by going to where time is least fixed. As they arrive, Red She-Hulk instantly spots and attacks Man-Thing, home after his journey with the old Thunderbolts some months ago. He teleports her into a different reality, one where she goes out and saves Bruce Banner on the gamma testing site where he saved Rick Jones and became the Hulk. As a result, she becomes the Hulk (still red and a she, but now the only Hulk) and he's just a great scientist. In this reality, Banner is able to help Betty keep Hulk in check and maintainable, leading to her eventual transformation into a form far more like the Red She-Hulk we know. As a result, she's more accepted in society and is a valued Avenger (who makes out with Thor at least once in her lifetime), all of which makes Banner jealous. Banner teams with Dr. Stack and creates the Machine Men, used to attack super-powered individuals. This whole time, Aaron has been trying to contact Betty in this world to get her to remember who she really is and bring her back to their universe. He can only effectively communicate with her through dreams and she shakes them off in the morning, fully embracing her new life when awake. When Banner and Stack create the Machine Men, Aaron is finally able to enter the world as more than just a spectator, as he enters his own alternate body. Man-Thing continues to watch from the sidelines, unsure of what exactly is happening and unable to teleport them back in any useful way. On the plus side for them, though, She-Hulk has tracked Red She-Hulk with the help of Echelon before leaving them in the dust to reach Betty and Aaron first. She arrives as Aaron, who, in this world, is programmed to hunt superheroes, is trying to tell Betty that this world isn't hers and she needs to go back with them. Unfortunately, Aaron is just a machine and must continue attacking her while trying to give her advice so it comes off pretty misleading. Man-Thing is able to open Betty's eyes to her past, but now she has both histories running through her mind so she's not in great shape. Man-Thing and Aaron try to get She-Hulk to help but Betty goes full Hulk right as General Fortean arrives so everything is going completely wrong and crazy as the series ends next issue.

GUYS, I can't believe this series is ending. I've loved this book since it switched over to Betty as the primary character and this issue illustrates again how perfect it is. First and foremost, this is an alternate timeline done right. Parker did it very well in Dark Avengers but this is a different animal, as it's one change that has meaningful implications and that logically moves from one step to another. I could name other books where, for example, Hank Pym is killed and then everything changes to such a ridiculous degree that you might mistake Hank Pym for God. Instead, one switch changes the whole Hulk dynamic of the Marvel Universe and everything naturally follows from that switch. On top of that, we have our characters acting in character (except occasionally Betty, who doesn't actually know what her character is) and doing what they can to solve this. One of the best parts, though, comes from Aaron who is fresh off his failure against the Yologarch because he couldn't escape the fact that he's just a robot following code. In this new universe, he is humbled again to find that he still can't break code so, as human as he is, he can't stop attacking Betty, his friend, while he's trying to save her. It's a brilliant extension of the ideas addressed with Aaron before this, and something that comes up occasionally with AIs but is still an engaging idea made far more engaging by the long game Parker has been playing to make us like Aaron so much and to give him so much personality over the course of this series. It's hard for me to understand why this book is ending, though Jeff Parker has assured me it's not my fault so I feel pretty good about that.

X-Factor 257
David (w) and Edwards and Carnero (a) and Milla (c)

"The End of X-Factor" six-part arc has officially started which should bring us right up to Peter David's final X-Factor issue and the final issue of this run on X-Factor (there is some speculation that it will be restarted as a part of Marvel NOW! or Marvel NOW! 2 which is apparently a thing that is happening that I'll probably have to look into more when I haven't written a few overly giant reviews already (stop writing and canceling great books and maybe I'll stop typing so much...but don't actually stop writing great books, okay? And look, in the interest of honesty, I probably won't stop typing so much). We jump right into it as Layla has tracked the demon goat-headed Madrox to Marrakesh, Morocco where he's being held by a boy named Aziz who hopes to use him to open a portal to the afterlife and bring his mother back from it. Yes, it's already kind of the saddest story. Layla, who knows things, has found her powers to be a bit off of late. This run-in with Aziz and his uncle (who has dabbled in dark arts and thinks he can use Jamie to open the portal successfully) was something she saw in her thoughts but it was supposed to be a quick detour as the portal never opened and Madrox was supposed to still be Madrox when it happened, not goat-head Madrox. Unlike her visions, though, they successfully open the portal and goat-head goes in and pulls the mother out. Unfortunately, the mother is a horrible demon thing now and kills Aziz almost instantly before approaching Layla. Layla's forcefield doesn't protect her from this otherworldly being and she's about to suffer the same fate as Aziz when goat-head Madrox pulls the demon back and throws her into the portal. Layla disguises Madrox and they leave, still unsure of what to do next and Layla unsettled by her inaccurate visions.

This is a certainly compelling storyline. I love Madrox, as readers of this blog should certainly know by now, and so I'm happy if this final arc focuses on trying to get him back. The idea that Layla's visions aren't predicting the correct events is an interesting one and how exactly she'll be able to translate those to help could lead to a great story. On top of that, this seemed to be the first time that we saw goat-head show some sort of semblance of an idea of what was happening, as he saves his wife and escapes with her pretty willingly. Whether that's more a survival instinct or part of Jamie's personality coming through is up for debate. Still, the issue was a very quick read and was over well before I was ready for it to end, which is always a good sign, if a little depressing. I'll be interested to see where this one takes us to trigger the ending.

Winter Soldier 18, X-Factor 255

I know what you're thinking: Tim, you're so good at this blog and you almost always have a reason for choosing a couple of books to be reviewed together, as imperceptible as those reasons may be to us, the wonderful readers! But we are having some trouble understanding this team-up, especially so early in the review week. Friday is too early to have paired up the other books and have these left as the remainders and you LIKE both of these books, you would work to pair them up with things first. In fact, there were several more X-books this week you could have paired X-Factor up with, though we admit we too would have been hard-pressed to figure out with what to pair Winter Soldier. Well, I have some bad news for you upbeat and very complimentary reader. This is "sad day" in the review week, wherein I review two cancelled Marvel books as they live out the rest of their sentence. That's right, though we knew Winter Soldier was cancelled, we've learned recently that the long running and nearly always entertaining X-Factor has also been cancelled. As a proponent of both of these books, I'm depressed over this most recent news, but I haven't the time for a proper retrospective this week and will have to dive into it next week. Instead, I'm writing an overly long introduction to my reviews for this week's issue of each book.

Winter Soldier 18
Latour (w) and Klein (a and c)

Just as with Hawkeye this week, we get a background for the villain of this arc in this, the penultimate issue of Winter Soldier. Tesla Tarasova was, as we know, a child when the Winter Soldier killed her father, a brilliant scientist who focused his work on cosmic radiation. A very smart girl, Tesla was raised in the same horrible orphanage/school that Bucky destroyed a few issues ago. We get a deeper look into life as a child of that institute and find it every bit as disturbing as we may have speculated last time. Every child there is trained to be a killer, a whole school of little Winter Soldiers to end up sold to the highest bidder. However, Tesla was different. Though she still excelled in training and was extraordinarily intelligent, she obsessed over her father's work on cosmic rays and eventually managed to expose herself to some, creating the Electric Ghost. Now her goal seems to be to unleash the same potential unleashed in her in the people like her, people without fear. Instead of seeing James as the man who killed her father and, as one would assume, hating him for it, she sees him simply as being like her, someone without fear and with power to be unleashed. She immediately deduces that he's fighting against his past not because he can't live with what he's done, but because he can live with what he's done. That's a great idea for Winter Soldier. Bucky has, since his return to the Marvel U, been haunted by everything he's done but he has never hidden from it. In fact, he's fully aware of what his past has wrought, including a pretty great arc (when he was the acting Captain America) where he had to fight people from his past and decidedly used the Winter Soldier costume to inspire fear and recognition. The fact that he still wears that costume is very telling of who he is. He fights against his past, but the question has never been raised about why he's insistent on still being the Winter Soldier. Is he simply not willing to shy away from his past? Is he upset about his past and needs to atone for it as the same person? Maybe. But the question itself of whether or not there's a part of him that can live with it is interesting.
So the Electric Ghost doesn't hate Bucky. In fact, she sees a kindred spirit in him and thanks him for changing her life in such a way that she's now here, controlling satellites and making people fear her or overcome any fears. She's so thankful, in fact that she makes out with him at the end of the issue. She doesn't like that he's still chained to Natasha and his past, chained to something like any other normal person. Where will that lead next issue for her and for Bucky? What will become of Bucky after this ends? Is this a way for Bucky to cut his losses with Natasha? I kind of hope not. I love them as a couple and hope that eventually things settle themselves out. But there are all sorts of interesting questions being raised and I worry that one remaining issue might not be enough to answer them all.

X-Factor 255
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The Hell on Earth arc continues (admittedly somewhat regrettably) as Mephisto wins the day. He's defeated all the other Hell Lords while Tier waffled about in deciding to try to kill the Lords or not. Now Mephisto has won and has set himself up as the new ruler of all the hells and is seemingly unstoppable, except for Tier who finally chooses to take the fight to Mephisto. Meanwhile, Monet and Guido continue their fight, both physically and verbally. Guido notices that Monet is getting more shaken up by the fight than she should be and comments on it. She denies it and continues to fight with him, eventually leading to him punching her a little too hard (though, he notes, not hard enough that it should hurt her as badly as it does) and, well, killing her. So that was a shocker. Oh yes, spoilers and all that. Look, it's a review blog and my formula has stayed more or less the same, so there are quite a few spoilers in each review. Maybe I should make more of a note of that. I'll take it into consideration. Maybe clump the summary together more and then leave the analysis separate. We'll see. ANYWAY, Monet just died, what are we talking about? That's a pretty big deal. Of course, people have come back from the dead before in this book (and recently, at that) so it's not out of the question that she'll be revived. HOWEVER, with the book facing cancellation and Peter David never looking for the book to get stale, maybe this is the real deal. Also, one of the cool things (and one of the things I'll miss most about X-Factor) about this book is that no one who stars in this book really appears anywhere else in the Marvel Universe. Someone might make an appearance, or the team might even pop by in an event or something to see what's happening, but they seem to be the largest self-contained team in the 616 and the most self-contained characters in the Marvel Universe. What I'm getting at here, in my long-winded way, is that Monet could very well die here and the Marvel Universe at large would not even need to take notice. It's not like a fake-out Cap death where he's on 90 teams and in his own book so we know he's probably fine. It's Monet in one book on one team and, frankly, if you asked 90% of the 616 who she was they probably wouldn't know unless they were particularly well-informed. That's where this book pretty much leaves off. OH, and Jamie is still a goat-headed demon and Mephisto needs to turn that around stat because Madrox is great.
I alluded to not particularly liking that this arc is continuing at the start of this review and I stand by that. It's a major arc and I guess, when shaped this way, it definitely could have a final story feel to it. Major characters have returned, major characters are dying, major events are happening, etc. Still, it hasn't been my favorite story from X-Factor and I'm going to be more sad if the book ends on this note. I'll say again, though, that's personal preference. It's entirely possible some diehard X-Factor fans are loving this arc and loving what the team is going through right now and are contentedly sighing at the final outcome for our beloved second-tier heroes. Sadly, I'm not one of those people and if the book ends with this arc I'll feel a little empty inside.
I plan on doing a real sort of retrospective on X-Factor at some point but this week is a little busy and I already have my Monday post planned and it's a little more time sensitive than whatever my thoughts on X-Factor are, especially when my thoughts on X-Factor are pretty well documented here.

X-Termination 1, X-Factor 253

X-Termination 1
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Lapham (w) and D. Lopez, A. Lopez, and Martinez (a) and Mossa (c)

The X-Termation event officially starts after a bit of prologue work in Astonishing X-Men and X-Treme X-Men over the last few weeks. AoA Nightcrawler has recruited AoA (or Dark) Beast to get them back into their universe from the 616. Dark Beast decides that the only way would be to go inside the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco, as the Celestial is a sort of access point to all universes. It's a dangerous prospect and has never really been considered before but, with the aid of some helmets Beast whipped up to guard their psyches, Nightcrawler successfully teleports the pair inside. Meanwhile, Wolverine and his astonishing X-Men team are still tracking Nightcrawler. Wolverine has been betrayed by the elf and intends to make sure it doesn't happen again. If there's a weakness in this premise, I think it's here. I understand that Wolverine's mad and this comic does what it can to illustrate why Wolverine's so mad (he was betrayed by Nightcrawler who Wolverine trusted, despite being told not to, but that betrayal led to Wolverine having to kill his own son) but it still feels a little forced. To the issue's credit, I think they know that. I think they go out of their way to establish why Wolverine's mad and focus on it a little more instead of shying away. I do believe that Wolverine would consider Nightcrawler an enemy now, but in the way he doesn't go hunting down Creed or Mystique 24/7, I imagine Wolverine wouldn't send an X-Men team out after Nightcrawler. There is, the comic points out, a more personal element to this too; not only was Wolverine betrayed by someone he thought of as an ally, he was betrayed by someone who is another universe's equivalent of his dead best friend. It's not so far-fetched that it's lingering over my head all the time, but it's enough that I'm a little dismayed when Wolverine and team travel through the portal into the Age of Apocalypse Universe with Beast and Nightcrawler because it seems excessive. When they get to the AoA, things escalate, as Nightcrawler learns he's missed the war, all his friends from this universe are dead except for Creed and Jean, and Weapon Omega has been stopped. Dark Beast is captured by Jean and friends and told he'll stand trial for his crimes after he fixes the portal, which is still open and tearing things apart a bit. Wolverine and his team come through the portal and get into an argument with Jean over what's happening and who gets to hang out with Nightcrawler. Dazzler and her X-Treme X-Men team burst through the portal warning of the horrible things on the other side, which then proceed to come out. Three extremely powerful entities emerge and one kills Charles Xavier (the one that's just a head) and seems to grow. Now, as we move on to part two in the next Astonishing X-Men, three X-Men teams are facing down the possible end of the multiverse.
It's an interesting story to tie these three teams together and it'll be fun going forward because we have three different teams from three totally different backgrounds (including the X-Treme X-Men team whose members come from all sorts of different backgrounds as it is) forced to work together and to work alongside people they'd rather not work alongside (i.e. anyone and Dark Beast, Wolverine's team and Nightcrawler, Wolverine's team and most of Jean's team who are villains in the 616, etc.). One of the interesting things about this issue was that it centered itself around Nightcrawler, even putting Nightcrawler's thoughts on display as the captions. This takes some of the ambiguity out of his character, showing us that he regrets betraying the team and understands why Wolverine hates him. It also shows him as still mourning the loss of his wife and now re-appearing in the AoA as a man without a home. The aftermath of Weapon Omega has left him feeling just as much an outsider here as in the 616. Knowing what we know of him through his thoughts, we know he's still a pretty good guy at heart, someone who may wish for his own death but will still fight beside whoever he's with for the right cause. I think it's a really smart decision to take that ambiguity away for the audience's sake. Let Wolverine be mad at him, let us know that Wolverine won't forgive him, but let us know that he's on our side. The issue escalates quickly as all three teams meet up. Should be fun moving forward.

X-Factor 253
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

I think I've put my finger on why I'm not a huge fan of this "hell on Earth" arc of X-Factor, a book I routinely love. I've already touched on this before but I had decided that it was rooted in my own anti-Rahne biases. I think that plays a role but the real key is in the captions. As I said above with X-Termination, it's an interesting decision for a writer to have to make to choose whose thoughts are shown in the caption. With the disappearance of thought bubbles in comics (as brought to my attention, in fact, by Peter David's Writing For Comics and Graphic Novels), captions play a similar role but usually only give us one character's thoughts, where thought bubbles could potentially drift to a couple characters in any given issue. Single-character books, like Winter Soldier or Captain Marvel, will typically focus the captions on the titular character, while team books will often use captions either as a narrator, like Avengers or Uncanny Avengers, or will select one character per issue or arc to focus on, like X-Factor or X-Termination. Throughout this arc, the captions have been with the thoughts of Tier, Rahne's son. My problem with that is kind of two-fold but both severely affect my enjoyment of this arc. For one, Tier doesn't have much to say. He's a kid in the middle of this weird situation so he mostly just remarks on how weird this situation is. When he's an interesting character, it's because he's gone berserker which means he's not thinking and has no real memory of the event, so his captions don't bring us for that ride, just the before and after, again leaving Tier with little of value to say. The other problem with Tier's captions, for me at least, is that I tend to view X-Factor as the ultimate family-driven book. They're not a family but they act like one. They're a closer team than just about any other team in the Marvel Universe and, for me, that's what drives this book. When you take the focus off of the team, I lose some interest in the title itself. If there's going to be a center to the book in the captions, I want it to be in the form of someone on X-Factor.

Jamie, as a horrible goat-headed demon, is guarding Jezebel for Mephisto when Strong Guy shows up and knocks Jamie out to rescue her. Strong Guy reveals that he's playing an angle that suits him but won't say what that angle is, making his character more compelling again. Meanwhile, X-Factor debates using Tier as a weapon against the Hell lords, as he's already taken down one of them himself. He takes down Satana in this issue, so that plan seems like a go. Monet, who has been weakened by Pluto and fainted earlier in the issue, gets the news of internal bleeding from Layla, who knows that she'll die from this. Monet confirms this with Layla and tells Layla to tell no one before flying off. These are the moments in an X-Factor book that intrigue me. They're the character moments that only need a page, despite the huge implications, because they're precisely what David has set up with his run. It's a strong team element driven by people and little interactions. Hopefully next issue will see a return of Madrox as Madrox and not as goat-headed Madrox. Also, according to the title page of the comic, Peter David is recovering well from his December stroke and has been released from the hospital and is writing again. Hooray! Still continue to learn what to do to help if you're so inclined.

Deadpool 5, X-Factor 252

Deadpool 5
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Moore (a) and Staples (c)

I think I said pretty much everything I needed to say about my feelings on this title last time but it all still holds true. Let me say, too, that it wouldn't be impossible for this book to win me over. It would be impossible for the first five issues to retroactively win me over, but I'm rooting for this book to be good. Why wouldn't I? I like Deadpool as a character and I'm going to keep reading this book so I'd really prefer it be readable. But right now, I will readily say that it is the worst book Marvel is putting out at current.

I'll be honest, I don't really have a ton to add to this review. I said it all last time and everything is the same. Yes, Deadpool went off and fought different presidents. Yes, some things happened in the plot, including the death of an important character. But really, I don't care about the character because the book hasn't made me care about any of these characters. It's hard to care about characters when they're just a pile of pop culture references and insults. Every issue feels the same and I cannot really care about it. That's a tough thing when you write a Deadpool-centric comic. Deadpool is a kind of crazy character who is supposed to be openly funny and morally ambiguous and a little out of his mind. Not only is that a challenging character to write, it's a hard way to frame a story. You can't do big world-ending stories like with some characters because no one would buy it. The scale is toned down in a Deadpool book. So you have to focus on threats to Deadpool or threats that people have hired Deadpool to deal with. It's a hard line to walk with both story and character and I think Posehn and Duggan are not near that line. This is a fundamentally depressing run on the book just because, if it's done right, it's a pretty different book. Not just different from what Posehn and Duggan are putting out, different from most of Marvel. There aren't a lot of mercenary-based books, especially not featuring mercenaries who are as conflicted as Deadpool but who hide conflicts in their humor. So we're missing out on a solid book and we're given, in return, this really unfunny book that's trying so hard to be funny in the most Family Guy manner possible.

X-Factor 252
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

So the rules of the "ruler of hell" contest are a little more complicated than anyone predicted. Tier is able to actually "kill" the hell-gods (which doesn't really kill them, just seemingly takes them out of the competition). This new twist puts the other hell-gods on edge after Tier disembowels Pluto. Mephisto turns on the other hell-gods, attacking them before abruptly leaving for his hell. Meanwhile, the fight against Pluto before Tier joined in left X-Factor wounded and disoriented. Jamie and Jezebel are missing, Shatterstar's arms are broken, and everyone else has had their pride a little bit on the low side. After they watch Tier single-handedly destroy Pluto, they try to regroup and Shatterstar teleports them out of there. Madrox is still missing and only his new wife Layla seems to care a whole bunch in the immediate aftermath of the battle. The issue ends with Mephisto waking Jezebel back in their hell and announcing that, while he's gone, she has a new babysitter, a demon-headed Madrox.

I'll be honest, I've no idea where this is heading but BOY do I hope Madrox comes out okay. I don't know if you guys realize this, but I like Madrox. He's a good dude. There are a couple of important plot points in this issue, most of which are summarized above. It does still feel like this was more of a stepping stone issue than a huge reveal kind of issue. We know more about the rules of the competition but we have no real progress to the end. Still, the book is paced well and it's easy to read. I wonder how many issues David had in the bank before his stroke (which it sounds like he's recovering positively from, but was still a stroke, so I imagine he'll need a good deal of time to recover) and if this run will be interrupted at all or if David will present notes to another writer or something along those lines. I also don't know if David writes full-script or Marvel method. If he writes Marvel method, he could potentially give the script outlines to Kirk and then help to tag it all together later. Of course, I'm speculating these things with practically no information on how is recovery is going and how much he'll need to do. Likely he'll need time fully off to recoup one way or another, I'd just wonder how he'd take that. This has been his book for a very long time and David is an old comics pro (fun fact, if you're interested in writing comics, his book on the subject is very interesting and well done. It's also nice if you're just interested in comics and how they're built) so I'd wonder if he'd pass the buck on to someone else while he recovered, at least in the middle of an important arc. And of course, THIS speculation comes with absolutely no personal knowledge of Peter David. Oh well. All interesting questions, at least to me. Remember, you can learn more about his stroke and recovery and what you can do to help, if so inclined, here.