X-Factor #219; Fallen Angel: Return of the Son #4

This is the place to discuss them (provided for your convenience.)

PAD

33 comments on “X-Factor #219; Fallen Angel: Return of the Son #4

  1. Well my LCS has a devil of a time getting stuff from IDW in on time, so I haven’t seen Fallen Angel yet, but I did get X-Factor and put it right at the top of the pile. I’ll admit that the situation with Guido has not gone remotely the way I was expecting. I didn’t expect him to die and I really didn’t expect him to come back. It had never occurred to me that Layla would bring back Guido because the lack of a soul appears to turn you into a monstrous sociopath. After being shocked by this, I then decided that the only reason she’d be willing to do this was that she must have learned a mystic way to retrieve the soul while she was studying under Doctor Doom. I kinda congratulated myself for my cleverness when “figured that out.” Not so much now…
    .
    In short, I have no idea where this is going, but I’m along for the ride. I expect that’s the reaction you were shooting for.

  2. Yeah, I’ve been enjoying X-Factor a great deal and am very glad this run has lasted so much longer than the 90s one.

    I was a little confused about the ending of the issue regarding Monet. Was the idea that she was so upset over what she had done that she no longer had it in her to pursue the others? It’s also a dubious distinction that I hope comes back up between leaving someone brain dead but saving them from dying.

    1. You know, other people have voice confusion as well. “Why didn’t Monet stop them? Why did she say she couldn’t catch up with the copter when we’ve seen her fly much faster than that; was that a continuity error?”
      .
      I don’t quite understand why people are bewildered. I spelled it out. Monet is clearly ambivalent about the women they chased down because she feels that they’re as much victims as villains. Plus considering Monet’s history of literally not being in her right mind, naturally she’s going to be sympathetic to people who have had their minds and bodies screwed with. But they were hired to do a job–catch Ryan’s killer–which she did. So the job was done. And then she lied about being able to chase down the copter because of her ambivalence about what was done to the women. I mean, it’s all RIGHT THERE in the dialogue.
      .
      LONGSHOT: But you could fly after them, Monet!
      .
      And Pock is looking to her anxiously.
      .
      POCK: Yes! Yes! Stop them for good so they won’t–
      .
      MONET: Won’t what? Kill you for messing with their minds? Destroying their lives?
      .
      Pock looks taken aback.
      .
      POCK: I…

      And Monet walks away.
      .
      MONET: We were hired to catch Ryan’s killer. We did that. Job’s over. Besides…they’re probably too far away. I could NEVER catch them.
      .
      Far shot of Monet walking away.
      .
      MADROX NARRATIVE: Like I said…everybody lies. To our friends…to our enemies…and to ourselves.
      .
      I mean, how much clearer do I have to make it?
      .
      PAD

      1. I didn’t really get the vibe that she had sympathy, just that she was calling the doctor out on his hypocrisy which is something Monet does a lot. I haven’t had a chance to go back and reread where she got their story to see if there were details or hints of sympathy that I missed.
        .
        But one of the things that threw me was the fact that she made such a transparent lie about not being able to go after them. I’m not used to seeing excuses from her, just statements. Obviously there are time that she makes excuses but even then she usually makes them in such a way that she seems confident in it. You probably would have still got questions from people but I would have found it less confusing if her statement had simply ended with “Job’s over.”

      2. It was intended to be so transparent that it was obvious to everyone there that she was lying; she was making a statement by doing so. It was really closer to being sarcastic than a lie, especially since the word “never” was emphasized the way it was.
        .
        PAD

      3. I don’t quite understand why people are bewildered. I spelled it out.
        .
        Apparently not clearly enough. Else why are people bewildered?

      4. Monet’s motivations are never obvious to me. In Generation X, Monet was originally meant to be the fusion of the twin sisters, but the book changed authors before the actual reveal. Now she was always existed as a single person, but was trapped in the form of Penance. There was suddenly a very different character, that we never knew. She didn’t act anything like the Penance character, and just felt unreal. She was the perfect mutant(having most powers short of energy blasting); very high and mighty with little motivation to be where she was.

        I’d stopped collecting Gen X and hadn’t seen the character until X-factor. To me she finally was receiving true character development. She’s a very strong woman, but damaged underneath due to her what was done to her as Penance. I never go by what she shows externally. I expect she’s hiding a deeper motivation that she will not show(reminds me of Layla that way).

        As soon as she does something obvious, I was still looking for the hidden motivation. Except, in this case, she had no hidden motivation.

      5. Sarcasm is probably the most difficult thing to get across in writing. The stressed “NEVER” I read as whining instead of sarcasm. Then Maddrox’s voiceover didn’t really clear things up for me. By saying “and to ourselves” it made me stop and question why Monet was lying to herself, taking me further away from the idea that she was being sarcastic. It made me look for introspective reasons such as personal guilt.
        .
        Also the fact that she walks away instead of flies away makes the scene more pensive. She usually flies, so when she doesn’t it strikes as something unusual.
        .
        The art didn’t really help. I’m not saying it’s bad and hurt it, just that it’s average and didn’t really help sell the sarcasm or feigned but transparent confidence that you wanted Monet to display.

  3. I quite enjoyed Fallen Angel: Return of the Son #4. Something about the image of the car driving by at the end made me smile.
    I’m going to have to go back and reread the four issues in one sitting. I’m sure it’ll read better that way.

    So, PAD… how much of an ending to the series is this? Is that the final issue of Fallen Angel (as it seemed to me) or is there more planned.

    1. Really not sure at this point. If it’s the last issue, then it serves as a conclusion. If I do more limited series, then it’s a game changer and it would be a very different book upon its return.
      .
      PAD

  4. This conversation sounds like the lyrics to Mike and the Mechanics’ “The Living Years”.

  5. Hi PAD, I’m following up here on my question from the other thread (the relative toughness of Monet and Guido) since there is now a thread dedicated to the comic.

    Although Monet did catch the bullet aimed at her in issue 218, she appears to have actually been shot in issue 219. After Black Cat and Longshot run into each other, Monet is chiding them when she is interrupted by a “BLAM” effect and her head snaps backwards. In the next panel, Ballistique is standing there with a smoking finger-gun and firing again. A few pages later, Monet is standing over Ballistique’s body with some scuff marks, but no sign of blood.

    This implies that Monet is so much tougher than Guido that her bare forehead is more resilient than a combination of Guido’s costume, chest and kinetic-absorbing powers combined. Alternately, since those ‘cyber-bullets’ can also apparently punch through the bulletproof material in Jameson’s limo, the attack may have some weird property that simply doesn’t effect Monet for some odd reason.

    1. My panel description read, “Monet twists away as a line of blood is raised on her forehead.” Basically Ballistique endeavored to shoot her in the head and missed because Monet barely managed to get out of the way. It creased her skull. You didn’t see the injury in the subsequent panels because her hair covered it.
      .
      PAD

  6. Really enjoyed the last storyline in X-Factor. Haven’t picked up #219 yet (but probably will tomorrow or Sunday) but it sounds like the murder plot pretty much gets resolved. Also, from the Monet situation… I’m going to agree with Peter, guys. Sounds like something Money would say, and it’s definitely in-keeping with her characterization since she’s been on X-Factor. Moments like that one? Saying she could NEVER catch it? It’s what makes her one of my favorite characters in ANY comic.

    I do have some general X-Factor questions, though.

    1) I always dread the day that I will go to my comic shop and X-Factor won’t be there. Do you have any plans to end the series at a certain point? Will you go as long as Marvel lets you? As this is now the ONLY X-book (do people still say that?) that I pick up, I really hope you just keep writing it forever. It’s one of the only CONSISTENTLY good comics still out there. Plus, your GLAAD award was well deserved.

    2) I remember you hinting, probably in your blog somewhere, that the Longshot/Shatterstar connection was going to kind of explained. Any plans to do an arc there? I like how you’ve played with it so far, Madrox’s observations, the panel where they have pretty much the SAME FACE, etc. but I really just… I want more, okay? It would also be nice to see a little more of Longshot… he must be fun to write, and you definitely make him the coolest he’s ever been.

    3) Darwin coming back anytime soon? I’d like to see him as a villain – death power taking over and such. But even just a return to the team. I know there’s already *so* many characters, it must be nice for a break. But now that he’s gone? Hey, I miss the guy.

    Okay, those are my two cents. If you tackle any of my questions, thanks in advance.

    1. 1) I’m not actively thinking about a way to end the series because it’s a company-owned series. My assumption is that if I got hit by a truck tomorrow, they’d just bring in someone else to write it.
      .
      2) I do have a story in mind to explain the connection; I’m just not entirely sure the PTB would let me do it. So I have to wait and pick my spot.
      .
      3) Darwin will be back eventually.
      .
      PAD

  7. Making Guido come back changed/evil doesn’t seem like a good idea. I like the humor of this character, and would hate to see him loose it. I like Madrox when he was funnier. The meaning of “this” joke wasn’t funny. Lot of great humor over the years. ~~~~

      1. I am very upset that this has happened to Guido. I really like him. Oh the terrible things he’s going to do now that he’s ‘unburdened’.

      2. I think it’d be interesting if soulless Guido (if he actually is soulless) weren’t really evil. After all, who says that the lack of a soul instantly makes something evil?

        Perhaps Fitzroy simply had a hidden sadistic streak that came to the surface when he no longer had a soul to keep it in check.

      3. I think it’d be interesting if soulless Guido (if he actually is soulless) weren’t really evil.
        .
        I’m curious to see what PAD has to say about souls and the lack thereof. I’ve been wondering about the same possibility – that we might see Guido’s experience turn out differently from Fitzroy’s.
        .
        It also adds another dimension to Layla’s emotions. Is she upset because she thinks (but doesn’t know) what happened with Fitzroy will happen with Guido, or does she know the details of what is next for Guido? Which also goes back to my other comment about whether or not Guido remains an unknown quantity for Layla. Very exciting stuff!

  8. Loved Shatterstar quoting Unforgiven. Any chance we can have a post to gush about Blind Man’s Bluff?

  9. Just a question about the blurb in solicits for X-Factor #220 and #221:

    It sounds like Rahne’s going to confession in a Catholic church. Will there be an explanation of why she, as someone who was raised Protestant, decides to seek confession? You’ve been doing an amazing job with her, but I just wondered about that detail.

    1. There will be no explanation of why Rahne, being raised Protestant (Presbyterian, to be precise) is going to confession at a Catholic Church because she isn’t going to confession at a Catholic Church. I don’t know what the solicits said to lead you to that conclusion, but she’s just going to plain old morning services.
      .
      PAD

      1. Ah, good. Thanks for clearing that up! The part that confused me for a bit was the line “Hoping to be absolved of recently committed sins before she gives birth, Wolfsbane goes to confess” – I’m just more used to seeing that sort of wording when applied to Catholic confession that I found it a little confusing.

  10. I have this horrible feeling that Guido is going to meet his end in a roundabout way. Like he’s already dead and now he’s The Thing That Should Not Be and his inevitable end is still looming in the distance when everybody accepts that Gudio is dead and the person that is alive isn’t really him. Kinda like how Nathan Petrelli on Heroes died in the S3 finale but there was mind-controlled Sylar/Nathan for awhile. Well, maybe not exactly like that, but y’know what I mean.
    .
    I dig the new artist, it’s a nice mixture of realism and more anime-based, keep them around.

  11. Since Layla seems genuinely worried about making things right for Guido, I’m guessing that a solution is not among the things she knows.
    .
    Way back when, young Layla mentioned that she knew very little about Guido. Is that still an issue? Is that why she didn’t know he would be shot and doesn’t know how to resolve his current situation?
    .
    At the time, I thought the cause of that blind spot was the fact that Tryp was manipulating Guido. Now I’m wondering if this incident is the cause, or at least another contributing factor.
    .
    Looking forward to #220 next week!

    1. Good catch, Andy! That’s pretty cool if PAD’s been plotting this from that long ago.

  12. I begrudgingly support Soulless Guido. If ever there was a way to raise the stakes of killing/resurrecting a character, it’s by providing a non-hokey and non-vampire way to make them instantly without conscience. I can’t wait to see where it goes. On another note, I’m really eager to see more of grown-up Layla as her role in the group becomes ever more ambiguous. While other characters have been central in recent plot lines, it feels like Madrox and Layla are waiting in limbo in regards to how they act around each other. Will we see more of this dynamic developed in upcoming issues? Also, on the topic of Monet….whatever happened to Penance (as in the twins)? I kinda lost track of Gen X towards the end…

  13. Ah, I posted in the prior Fallen Angel thread that was rather old, and my post went unanswered, so I’ll repost a slightly edited version here.

    (I see it isn’t simple to leave blank lines, not sure how to spoiler-tag here, so there will be spoilers about the Fallen Angel ending below.)

    Really enjoyed this mini-series. Great writing and stunning art from J.K. Woodward as always.

    1) Plans for future minis? Things have certainly taken an interesting turn. Hope it sold well enough. The title doesn’t get anywhere near the publicity or public notice that it deserves.

    2) I found the sequence and content of the climax to be confusing – don’t know how to ask this without spoiling.

    I don’t really understand the significance of Terrance’s coin flip.

    Seems to me it could dictate one of two things, though neither makes to me sense given the sequence:

    1) The survival or end of the world, meaning either life or death wins in the upcoming battle. But that battle will only occur after the destruction of the balancing Bete Noire, and that destruction doesn’t happen until Liandra agrees to do this for God, which happens after the coin flip.

    2) Simply the nasty hëll the world will go through in having to go through that battle of life vs. death, meaning the flip decides whether Liandra will or won’t agree to destroy Bete Noire and trigger that battle. This seems to be what Terrance expects in his final scene, that there is going to be a war and the world will be caught in the middle and messed up by it. So when he called the flip wrong, and that meant the world would “lose,” it would lose only in the sense that it will have to suffer through the battle between life and death, not that death would definitively win that battle (which would REALLY be the bigger, final loss). Still, the flip happens before the decision to destroy Bete Noire.

    So either way, the flip happens before Liandra knows what God will want of her. Which is why I’m confused. Liandra doesn’t know that this is what God will ask her to decide before she asks Terrance to flip.

    I can rationalize this by imagining that Liandra guessed what was coming and asked for the flip ahead of time to be prepared for her decision in case God asked this of her.

    Well – obviously I don’t know what happened. Usually I find the writing of this title to be both sophisticated, and funny, yet crystal clear, heads and shoulders above most comics (which I admit I find to be mostly logically incomprehensible).

    Hope you can illuminate, kay? Or maybe you planned to clarify this in the next series?

    Thanks! Looking forward to more Fallen Angel.

  14. Mr. David:

    Any word on when (if ever) we’ll have another Fallen Angel mini?

    Huge fan, over here. Not sure if it was addressed elsewhere on the blog that I missed, but figured this was as good of a place to ask in the comment section as any.

    Thanks,
    Amit Sharma

Comments are closed.