This Week in Spandex
Written by Nicholas Yanes on November 9, 2009 – 5:24 pm -All of this week’s books are in mid storyline, so instead of covering the middle of a plot I figure I’ll cover a book that I wanted to review last week.
X-Factor #50- Writer: Peter David
- Penciler: Valentine De Landro
- Company: Marvel Comics
Issue #50 of X-Factor numerically functions as a means to celebrate that this volume has run for 50 issues and as a means to prepare readers for the jump to #200 as the title will return to the original volume’s numbering. As a piece of narrative, this issue finishes a story that Peter David has been working on since this title began in 2006 (2005 if you include the Madrox miniseries).
For those of you who have forgotten how this title began and are too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia…don’t be lazy.
Yet, I will summarize a little for you. The main villains of this title started off as Damian Tryp and his Singularity Investigations, who had the agenda of keeping Madrox from undoing decimation. In short, Tryp wants to keep the mutant population on the verge of extinction. In addition to this, Madrox, X-Factor and Layla Miller are the only people that keep Tryp from succeeding. Implying that Miller and Madrox will some how be able to undo decimation and restart the mutant population.
Over the course of this title Peter has had to deal with multiple crossovers interfering into his plot. These being Civil War, Messiah Complex, and Secret Invasion. While I felt that at the time that these crossovers were greatly interfering with David’s grand plan, I’m impressed to see how he’s worked them into the conclusion. In particular, I’m grateful to see that the other Madrox from Messiah Complex has been used so well.
To continue to harp on the good of this issue for the moment I want to point out the fight scenes are incredibly well written and drawn. Additionally, I couldn’t help but truly feel for the plight of the characters and the pain that they go through. I found that as this story came to an end I realized that we won’t get to see Ruby Summers any time soon. While I usually can’t stand characters from alternate timelines, I would like to see her again. And as terrible of an idea as this sounds, I’d like to see an issue that forces her to work with Rachel Summers and Cable. I think an the idea of having three half siblings from different alternate realities working together could possible be the a comic book that is so awful, a black hole might form in the production process. Overall though, I will look forward to rereading this fifty issue story arc.
However, I know that I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t acknowledge the Layla Miller reveal.
In her first appearance in House of M, when she displayed the power to reawaken the true memories of the Marvel Heroes (a power she’s never again displayed). Afterwards, David was given the responsibility of developing her into a proper character. His approach was to transform her into a girl that claimed to “Know Stuff.” This issue reveals that her power has always been to bring the dead back to life and that she only knows stuff because her future self uploaded information about the future into a younger version of herself. I have no idea how to comment on this.
I was hoping that it would be revealed that she was a piece of the Scarlett Witch, but now I’m just a little bit more confused.
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- This Week in Spandex (The Final Reviews Of 2008)
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Tags: Comic Reviews, Marvel Comics, This Week In Spandex, X-Factor
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