X-Factor #200
Written by Peter David
Art by Bing Casino with Marco Santucci
That was a painful month off. I mean, seriously, X-Factor is an incredible book and any month without it is just suffering. So November was rough. Thankfully though, I have this awesome boss named Manny who sometimes sends me little e-mail surprises. Advance copies of books for review, the best kinds of presents for a comic loving guy like me. Now at first he sent me X-Factor: Nation X, but that one I just couldn’t help with. It might have been that it was three in the morning, it might have been that I don’t think the book had even reached the inking stage yet, or it might have been both! Regardless, no dice.
But then I find this little beauty in my inbox, and I knew I had a job to do. So let me start by reviewing one of the most important elements of the book….the price. $4.99 nets you over a hundred pages of material, including a forty page main story, a twelve page Siryn backup story, a two page cover gallery featuring every X-Factor cover (except for the mini series everyone forgot), the usual assortment of Marvel Handbook entries, and then for a real treat at the end, they reprinted Madrox #1! Worth the money? Every single penny. I mean, yeah, they could have dropped a dollar on the price and left off the reprinted Madrox #1, but hey, at least they chose an issue that awesome to be the reprint issue out of every option they had.
Next up, the main story. When we last saw our favorite mutants investigators, Jamie had just been returned to the group in Detroit. When we now see them? Back in New York, Jamie back in charge, Siryn not among their number, and Guido sporting a look that crosses his most recent with his Age of Apocalypse look (read: bald).
Actually, I take that back, the book opens with Reed Richards murdering someone, and then his kids trying to hire X-Factor to find their mom who has gone missing. Yes, the Invisible Woman is missing. Anyway, back to X-Factor!
Jamie explains why they went to New York, and how it was only him and Guido at first, and then all of the sudden everyone but Terry showed up to join. When we do see Terry though? Ummm, I don’t want to spoil it, but I want to say “ew”. I’ve been saying “ew” at the thought since it was first entered my mind back in 1998.
Business, back to, PAD is brilliant. We’ve got Shatterstar watching Gladiator movies with Rictor while Guido makes fun of them. We’ve got Reed being uber dickish (has PAD ever written FF? He should), and to top it off? Guido vs The Thing! To be honest, if you’ve been reading X-Factor, then you know what to expect. PAD turns in the, by this point expected, amazing work. I can’t remember the last time this book had a bad issue, and PAD keeps it like that.
