OUT THIS WEEK–X-FACTOR #1

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Although some folks have been commenting on the previous update thread, this will be the official commentary thread for the new issue.

Whad’ja think?

PAD

70 comments on “OUT THIS WEEK–X-FACTOR #1”

  1. Ðámņ! I was too fast 😉

    PD: X-Factor is the only mutant book that I buy at the moment (in fact, they only one I’ve bought for years!). It’s good to be back after all this time and still feel like you know those guys. Still to early to judge, but I’ll defenitevely stay for a long ride.

    PPD: We want Shatterstar!!;P

  2. I really enjoyed the style of the book. Very film noir, like the Madrox mini-series. Ryan Sook is a fantastic artist, especially for a book like this.

    I’ve grown pretty weary of most “mainstream” comics lately, the “superhero” stuff, what with all the internet-breaking crossovers, but this one, X-Factor, I think I’ll stick with it a while. It’s different. I like different.

  3. I was sad when Madrox wound up just being a miniseries, but X-Factor’s return made me just as, if not more, happy. A few things soured the formula for me — “House of M” making Mutant Town “Formerly Mutant Town” and Layla Miller showing up on the cast (will her codename be Deus Ex Machina?), but I’m sure if anyone can still make it could, it’ll be PAD. Reading back issues of PAD’s last run on X-Factor is what made me a fan of his work — I’ll be sure to buy it as long as his name’s on the cover. It’s also great that Madrox is the lead character now, as opposed to the interesting-but-underused background character he was the first time around. Ryan Sook’s is an amazing artist, too.

  5. I thought the ending was cool. Totally a surprise and I can’t wait to see how PAD wraps it up. Also, the art was gorgeous. Very film noir. I also love what PAD is doing with Siryn. I’d love to see Deadpool show up and try to start up a relationship with her again. I think Wade can do noir.

  6. Loved it. I’ve been looking forward to it for months (rare thing in comics for me these days) and I wasn’t dissappointed. Sook has always been great, but I was blown away by his Zatanna recently. X-Factor is bit looser, but somehow looks even better to me. He really did a great job of just punching the character’s emotions right at you. The facial expressions in the “Siryn’s a pistol” scene were wonderful. Colors are very nice as well. My wife even read this one, which, seeing as there’s an “X” on the cover, is no small feat. Great job, Peter.

  7. I definatly liked the story, but I do dislike the villian perhaps of the piece. It seems like that has been done multiple times in the first arc and in the miniseries. Also the cast seems to be getting a little large at the moment.

    I am also wondering if the Mutant Civil Rights Task Force might appear or make a cameo.

    Still very good writing and I do look forward to Issue 2.

  8. I also thought of something else that bothered me. Rictor. The idea of being bonded and linked to the Earth seemed wrong. It was creating vibrations and there was noething about the earth that was special, just that it was the medium like air or water. His powers worked on other planets ( Gambit and the X-Ternals ) so this feels weird and a total surprise to make his powers something more and a feeling of loss rather then just losing his powers.

    Origonally he wated to get rid of them because of all the devistation that he caused ( way back in the first X-Factor )

  9. As Christopher Eccleston would say, “Fantastic!”

    This is pretty much the only Marvel comic I’m buying these days, so I’m completely in the dark as to this “Layla” person, but otherwise I had no problems with the first issue. Madrox’s ability (hëll, Madrox himself) is proving to be as great a liability as an asset. I’ll be interested in seeing how the series progresses.

    JSM

  10. Missed it, I have to go back and pick it up. I don’t pick up any Marvel titles currently (Not even Friendly, until they fix Gwen). This will be my one and only Marvel title for a while.

  11. It was good, Sook’s art is great, I like the idea that they’re gonna have this pushy teenage girl(Layla Miller) to deal with.

    And just once, just once I’d like to see someone who had issues with drinking too much NOT call themselves an alcoholic and talk like an AA spokesperson.

  12. Layla was in House Of M, she was the one person in that universe who remembered the real MU, besides Wolverine. She was able to make others remember the truth.

    Fix Gwen?

    She’s dead. How do you fix her?

    This isn’t because she got frisky with Norman Osborn and had those kids, is it?

    WHO CARES?! Was she some kind of fricking saint or something?

  13. PAD,

    First impression: It exceeded my expectations, and my expectations for you are high.

    The premise was solid. I have a reason to come back. While there was some necessary dialogue to introduce or reintroduce the characters, it flowed with the story.

    The tone fit the premise. While I do not prefer dark comics generally, this one fit both the characters and the fact it is following House of M (which I did not read other than your Hulk stories). I am waiting to see if there is a sense of hope that will develop. If it does not, the story might wear on me after a while.

    One question: Why is Rahne sounding more like a Catholic than a Scottish Presyterian? (There IS a difference.) It has been many years since reading New Mutants, but I don’t remember her being Catholic. Perhaps my theological training makes it more obvious to me, but this is the one element that is out of sync. It does not ruin the book or anything, but it is hard to ignore. You normally nail the character, so when you don’t it really stands out.

    Sidenote: I am hoping that Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man has a little more light heartedness to it along the lines of Q-in-Law and other past stories you have written like it. I think X-Factor needs a darker tone, but I am hoping for something different in FNS.

    Iowa Jim

  14. One more thing: When will you bring Quicksilver back? I know enough about House of M to know that other things are in motion. But he is the one character that was missing to me. I am intrigued by the other choices you have made and don’t mind the new characters. He is the one character from your prior time on the book that I miss the most.

    Iowa Jim

  16. Loved it. The ending was a complete surprise to me. Did not see it coming.

    By the way, this is the only X-title that I am currently buying except for the upcoming DEAD GIRL miniseries.

  17. I love it when you Write Jamie. I’m just hoping that Rick Jones doesn’t show up with his Comic Awareness Like in the end of Captain Marvel.

  18. Enjoyed the book.

    Btw, re: Jaime’s method of getting a lot of money. Barring not doing it via mutant powers of duplication, that’s pretty much what most smart folk who get on WWTBAM do. For example, the phone-a-friend lifeline for the person who has won the most on the show consisted of someone in a room with most of the UMichigan quiz bowl team and a bunch of Internet connections, the contestant being their coach.

    Which I’d already figured would be one of my lifelines if I ever got/get on (in fact, the same team, since I know Kevin from having been on it way back when). Amusingly, one of my other planned lifelines would be Harlan…and I’d love it to end up with a similar situation as in X-Factor, but with my still having the phone lifeline left, just so I could call him and say “So, Harlan, any idea who wrote this Mephisto in Onyx story?”. 🙂

  19. I really enjoyed this issue.

    As others have said it kept the tone of the Madrox mini, and moved on from there. I like the idea of the “X-Factor” being unpredictability. It’s a somewhat unusual concept for an X-title, eh?. 😉

    The art was terrific, too. Ryan Sook gets better with everything he draws. Zatanna was well-done, and this continues with that high standard.

    I’m looking forward to X-Factor having a nice long run.

  20. I really liked it, Peter. And I am SO glad that Ryan Sook, who is clearly influenced by the Adam Hughes/Terry Dobson style, is the artist on the the book. He is clearly the best regular artist you’ve worked with since Gary Frank on your first run of Hulk.

  21. Fix Gwen?

    She’s dead. How do you fix her?

    This isn’t because she got frisky with Norman Osborn and had those kids, is it?

    WHO CARES?! Was she some kind of fricking saint or something?
    ———————————–
    Ok, grab your shovels, let’s go dig up Uncle Ben and change his past. Let’s see, he could’ve pimp’d out Aunt May, killed Pete’s parents, and throw on some sex scandle to make it “kewl”, because…WHO CARES?! He’s no saint or anything oh yeah he’s a mutant too.

  22. Eric!, you may have missed it, but Ben was recently depicted in a questionably uncharacteristic manner when he essentially threatened some bullies who had chased Peter to the house. While it may not be completely out of character, I found it quite disturbing in light of JMS’s run on the title over the past 4 or so years.

    Brilliant writer, but has always struck me as being better suited for his own creations, since the company owned franchises that he has written seem to be shoe-horned into scenerios and personalities that fit a story he has in mind rather than acting consistantly with their 40+ years of history.

    Fred

  24. Me, I loved it. Of course, since your X-Factor was my favorite run in comics before, and Madrox is my favorite X-men character, chances were good I’d like the first comic I’ve bought in a good 8-9 years. But regardless, the art’s quite good, the writing is witty, and I didn’t see the ending coming. Madrox still makes a great narrator like he did in his miniseries, and Rahne’s rant on the horrors of Hëll had me in stitches.

    The only thing that made me squirm a little was Siryn screaming “NOOOOOOO!”. After watching Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, I can’t really see or hear that particular scream without having horrid Vader flashbacks. That, and I thought Rahne looked better with the long hair. Then again, I’ve only seen her in the old X-Factor run, which didn’t have her with the cropped hair like in her New Mutants days, from what I gather.

  25. Sweet issue. Your Madrox is quickly becoming one of my favorite Marvel characters, and this book just jumped to the top of my list of ongoings I’m looking forward to right now. My only complaint is that it’s missing Quicksilver. You made him such an enjoyable character back on your initial run that he’s desperately missed here. Ah, well – I’ll just have to wait until somebody sane comes along and reboots away this House of M crap.

  27. I saw the ending coming—2 panels before the page turn, which is where it was planned, I think. Probably about the best set-up in ages, as I usually figure them out halfway through the issue.

    As to the accent subject, it means little in the Marvel Universe these days where every detail of a character is subject to change per editorial whim.

    I am not familiar at all with Layla Miller, but shouldn’t she have been a character in a Superman comic?
    (For the one or two who don’t get that, almost every character introduced to the Superman stories in the 60s had ‘L’ in both their given name and their family name.)

  28. You gave us a tightly writtne story with a mysterious, falling, ending…yeah. I’m gonna complain to The House Of Ideas about that. BTW, a Star Trek series based on your New Frontier books got around of applause at PhilCon last weekend.

  29. I loved it! I especially appreciated the little shout – out in the fourth panel of the third page! Thank you! *SO* much better than all the times Darth Vader would go: “Hooooooo prrrrrrr, hoooooooo prrrrrrrr” (Really, LISTEN to his breathing machine next time! My ex pointed it to me right before the re – releases a few years back!) ;^)

    Hooper

  30. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s good to see one of the long-time background characters finally get the spotlight. 🙂

    Oh, and did anybody else catch Marvel’s launch of for digital comics?

    They’ve got FNSM #1 up, along with a couple of other titles. They’re viewable through a quick-to-load Flash program and it has a viewer and all for changing pages, etc.

    I’m toying around with the viewer a bit – the “Smart Panel mode” is a nice little feature, although a little disorienting to start out with (it takes a split second for the frame to focus after it moves to the panel).

    Still, it’s a start. 🙂

  32. I read it last night, and I was blown away by it. I really really enjoyed it! Seriously, I haven’t read a better first issue since Brubaker/Epting’s Captain America debuted a year ago. Outstanding.

    I love the mix of characters here, but I too wish that Quicksilver could have been included, though understandably, his character is being addressed elsewhere this week.

    Aside from that, I like this mix of characters. Madrox, Siryn, Rictor, M, Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, and Layla Miller. Yeah, I like it a lot. I actually like Layla Miller. She is one of things I really enjoyed about House of M, and I can really see how she’d be a fun character to write.

    As for the ending, fantastic cliffhanger.

    By the way, maybe my memory is faulty, but didn’t PAD’s start on the original X-Factor involve a scene where one of Jaime’s dupes was standing on a ledge contemplating suicide? It’s been a few years since I read it. If that’s the case, it’s a really cool homage/callback to the PAD’s original X-Factor, and very cool. 🙂

    X-Factor is on my pull list, and I can’t wait for Fallen Angel later this month! 🙂

  33. It would take you to do the stuff that you done in your doing. The book was sharp, even sharper than the last run on x-factor. The *surprise* ending was a bit used, as in we’ve had pseudo evil madrox at least 3 times now, but it still doesn’t feel quite as old as it should. Overall I think there was a solid mix of surprise twists and clever wit in this book to make it even better than I anticipated it being.
    Further, Ryan Sooks cover work had me scared that it would simply be the scratchy/sketchy art that is plaguing the other decimation books but it turned out remarkably smooth and sexy. I also liked the letterer getting all crazy with the fonts for jamie.
    I’m going back to my LCS tonight to pick up 4 or 5 more copies for my friends that get comics everynow and again but aren’t really big time into comics to see if i can bring them over to the darkside completely, that’s how much i enjoyed the book.

  34. About my last post:

    I checked, and I was remembering wrong. PAD’s first full issue featuring the “All New All Different” X-Factor didn’t end with Jaime Madrox contemplating suicide on a ledge. Instead, it featured a dupe of Jaime Madrox being shot and falling through a window down five stories and landing on the pavement below.

    So maybe the “homage” isn’t there, and I’m just seeing something unintentional on PAD’s part. 🙂

  35. So at this point, I’m picking up books because you write them. It started with Supergirl, went on to Fallen Angel and Captain Marvel, and now here. I missed Madrox when it first came out, but picked up the trade and loved it.

    I have been very excited about this book for a while. It was one of the few books (along with Next Wave) that sort of piqued my interest.

    I was not dissapointed. The art is gorgeous. I hope he stays around a long time. I loved the characters and their interaction. I picked up the first X-factor issue you did a while back when I was kid and laughed my ášš off and loved the banter between heroes.

    It’s still here, but its been tempered by a much more layered approach. Or maybe I can just see those now as I am older.

    In any case, to me this is the one really positive thing to come out of the House of Meh event.

  36. How could you change Syren’s powers! Curse you!

    Actually, I thought that was pretty clever…just figured someone was gonna bash you on it, so I jumped in:D

    Enjoyed the first issue a lot. Layla and the House of M stuff seemed a bit shoe-horned in…just like it does in Excalibur and the current Uncanny X-Men’s…gee wonder why that is…
    (oh and Iowa Jim…you can probably forget Quicksilver showing up…Go read Son Of M and remember that at least once, the character had a good writer).

    Two comments for your consideration…you have this singularity group, which you’ve mentioned in interviews is somewhat cosmic….As I recall from X-books and Deadpool, Marvel has another cosmic company of lawyers and operatives, in LLL&L (they may have been zapped though..can’t quite recall).
    Also, with Syren there..and Deadpool being mentioned just by me, hopefully you can bring your talent to bare on the quirky Deadpool/Syren relationship…which could lead to a cross-over with Cable/Deadpool..and then to Thunderbolts, where by you’d be writing Genis again.:)

  37. Wow. Excellent. Like others, I had high hopes, which you met and exceeded. I love the way you write Jamie. I love the tone, the humor, the way you threaded the “x-factor” theme through the book. The art is gorgeous.

    One thing – I liked the way Rahne had matured in Madrox, and now she’s more like her old self. But, I guess you want to differentiate her from the other women, right?

    Anyway, very much looking forward to more! X-Factor and Astonishing (when it resurfaces) are the only x-books I read.

  38. I liked it. It’s nice someone’s doing something with depowered mutants like Rictor rather than just using them in “Decimation” minis. I also like the new twist on Siryn’s powers. I think I will continue reading this series for the time being.

  40. I loved it. Only X-Factor i’ve ever read unless you count the Madrox mini, but I already love it. Can’t wait for issue 2.

  42. I have to say that I did not buy this book…as I have never been a big fan of X-Factor. However..I have heard such glowing reviews of it from here, there and everywhere..that I just called my comic shop to reserve me a copy for when I go in next week. As now it feels like a book i have to read 🙂

  44. 1Hey everyone! I loved the new X-Factor! I write weekly “Book of the Week” reviews for the local comic shop to highlight cool stuff that we think readers should try out. The reviews are sent out by e-mail to customers and the books have a money back guarantee. Thise week’s book was X-Factor. I have just started a blog with my weekly reviews so, if anyone cares, you can check it out here: http://adventurousink.blogspot.com/

    There are quite a few Peter David comics reviewed on the blog, so you may want to poke around a bit.

  45. I enjoyed the issue; I liked the “Madrox” mini-series, and I’ve read the recent “X-Factor Visionaries” TPB (but not the rest of PAD’s run on that title yet). One question – I didn’t really look at the cover until after I’d read the issue (since I’d pre-ordered it), but I’m now wondering who the woman is in the bottom right corner? It looks like Guido/Rictor in the back, Rahne/Jaime/Siryn in the middle, but I don’t recognise the other woman from the story.

  46. Nicely done.

    I hope the creative team stays together for the long haul. I really don’t read many Marvel titles, but I’ll stick with this one.

    ( I liked the name-dropping of your SF friends during the flashback to the TV game-show…)

  48. X-Factor was the first comic book series I ever read, and it’s what got me into comics. The characters felt so real, the jokes were actually funny, and the political subtext was surprisingly relevant and insightful. I became very attached to those characters – they showed faceted and complex personalities and it was always fun seeing how they related to each other. I loved the issue with Dr. Samson, and how you showed how much there was beneath the surface of each character.

    When you wrote “Madrox,” it was like meeting up again with old friends who I hadn’t seen in ten years. It was great that Rhane and Guido also came along with Jamie, because those characters only seemed to come to life when you wrote them. It is rare that a writer handles the characters with such wit and with such understanding. Guido is a tough character because on the surface he looks like just another big dumb guy, and to be honest, he is a big dumb guy, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t be an interesting or sympathetic character. I can’t wait to see how Rhane develops, now that she is no longer “just a kid.” In fact, with M on the team, she’s not even the youngest one. Since you have Rictor, who was Rhane’s ex-boyfriend, it may be interesting to see how she might deal with a similar situation to what Alex and Lorna had in the old X-Factor. Also, Syren is an odd choice, her being one of the Jamies’ ex-girlfriend. I wonder if she’ll have a different relationship with Jamie than with the rest of the team – or even a different relationship with one of the Jamies than with the others. Very few writers seem to pick up on the fact that Jamie’s duplicates aren’t completely subordinate to the “original” (if you could even ever accurately determine who the original is), and when you use Jamie, you really have a potential 40-man supporting cast to work with.

    Anyway, the first issue was a delight to read, the surprise ending was actually surprising (as opposed some other writers whose names rhyme with “Bant Corrison” decide to “surprise” us by bringing back Magneto again and making you want to stab someone in the face) and I am excited to see how the story unfolds. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

  49. but I’m now wondering who the woman is in the bottom right corner?

    That’s M, Monet St. Croix, from Generation X.

  50. PAD: Nice twist at the end of the story. I wonder how Jamie’s going to deal with his dupes’ lying to him?

    I know that it is unlikely (given the son of M series) but you can add my name to the list of people asking for Quicksilver’s return to X-Factor. I feel that you were the only writer who ever really “got” Pietro. Recently, Wizard used some flashbacks from your old X-Factor run to show ‘what makes him tick’.

    Thanks for a great first issue.

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