All-New X-Factor #20 (Final Issue) Review
The final issue of the series is here, and here’s my All New X-Factor #20 review!
Okay, the issue opens with the team on the ship. It’ll be a couple of weeks before Polaris recovers, but she asks Warlock to try and comfort Danger after her realizing she has no soul, so to speak. While he and Cypher made up with one another, with a parting hit to seal the deal., it’s still a bit bitter. Warlock meets with her and tells her that he has a soul, or something inside of him that he cannot explain with words. Instead he shares it with her, and I think robot sex ensues.
While that’s going on, Polaris is instead dealing with a message from Quicksilver. He’s leaving the team for the Avengers Unity division and taking his daughter with him. Personally, I blame Scarlet Witch and would love to be there when he has words with her, but he states he’ll be there if she needs him.
On Serval side of things, Snow has a meeting with Ty Stone of Alchemax and continues to be a sort of corporate sleaze ball who wants his assistant in on the meeting to provide eye candy. This brings him into contact with Miguel O’hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, who recognize one another. As soon as Stone and his assistant are out of the room, secrets come out.
Harrison Snow, or Harry as Miguel calls him, came from the future in a Time Dilation accident with Barry, the man from the last issue. Naturally, an accident sent them both back. Harrison explains that the handgun he used last issue was a device to send him back to the future, however, Miguel explains that time is wonky because of Age of Ultron and thus he just killed the man and his wife as readily as if he had incinerated them.
Harrison then reveals he plans to take down Alchemax using mutants. He plans on recruiting them all, and then the Avengers, and then all the heroes under Serval’s banner. Then he’s going to sic them on Alchemax and obliterate it in five years. It’s ballsy, and he believes that it will lead to a golden age for mankind.
Given how cutthroat Alchemax is in the future, I’m kinda with him. That being said, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Anyway, the team returns just as Miguel leaves and the comic ends its run.
Okay, review time.
Well, it wraps up the series fairly well given the circumstances. While there are some inconsistencies, we can honestly say that X-Factor was probably the best X-Men series out at present. It has better pacing that Uncanny X-Men, the team actually accomplished something unlike the Uncanny Avengers, and it held more worth than All-New X-Men and all the damn Wolverine comics.
I’m still not a fan of the art work though, so the issue and series gets a 4 out of 5. I’d read a sequel.
All New X-Factor #17 Review
My review of All-New X-Factor #17 is out now! Read on!
The comic opens with Gambit remembering the time he, Sunfire, and Polaris were members of Apocalypse’s Four Housemen. It wasn’t a nice time, and now the three of them are in a fight over who gets the Nuclear Football. Sunfire and Longshot, inverted by AXIS, were sent here by the X-Men to take it, while the Serval crew would rather that not happen.
Sunfire then tries to set them on fire with a blast that Danger simply walked out of and slaps him before they have Warlock trap him in an airless sphere, meaning no flames. Round one to the Serval team….wait, didn’t he produce bio-oxygen or some BS to explain how he could breathe in space in Uncanny Avengers?
Anyway, Longshot tries to get past them but Quicksilver goes to stop him. That ends when he’s suddenly yanked into the sky by some invisible force, which is weird since he can’t fly. Oh yeah, and Sunfire escapes by burning up Warlock (so I was right on the bio-oxygen thing) and then melts Danger who was mad because she didn’t get a chance to bang him. It’s this type of thing the comic has devolved to.
Longshot gets in and takes out the guards, Dakota takes him out, and Sunfire stops her from finishing him off. After discussing how they plan on nuking the place after they get the Nuclear Football, Cypher leads them on a goose chase before using the teleporter to drop them off in Tokyo. As the comic ends we see that Pietro was being pulled up by Magneto who wants his help in stopping his insane sister again.
Okay, review time…
On the one hand, I believe this to be the last AXIS tie-in, which is a good thing. I’m tired of the event and Wanda already. Anyway, the art was… okay, no real complaints there, and it was the follow up to the tie-in. It gets a 3 out of 5 for not being too bad, but not really doing much.
All New X-Factor #16 Review (AXIS Tie-In)
Okay, we’re following up on the events of AXIS on the Serval Team in All-New X-Factor #16 and here’s my review!
The comic opens with the Sentinels attacking Serval fruitlessly in order to retrieve the nuclear football. Harrison entertains the thought of letting them into the barrier to prevent them from being affected by the Hate Plague but they’re on orders so it wouldn’t help. Lorna does point out that they will try to get in some way though, which is proven when they go and kidnap his wife.
Meanwhile Pietro is feeling bored watching with his daughter when Lorna comes up and asks him about what Wanda said about him spying on them. But asking I mean she slaps him hard enough to knock the speedster down and he points out they have bigger issues but explains why he quit the Avengers. She took more offense to that second-stringer line than the whole spying thing, but any further discussion is cut off when the Sentinel with Harrison wife gives him a minute to drop the shield before he crushes her, to which she tells the robot she’s screwed because he won’t do it.
He doesn’t as he can’t let them get the nuclear football so the team acts to bring the robots and/or the dome down. Doug gets it down before Pietro saves her but he gets hit and then Warlock gets taken out. Danger takes offense to this and turns their Sentinels onto one another until Longshot and Sunfire arrive as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Uh… we see some developments in regards to the team, like Danger going off when they hurt Warlock and Lorna confronting Pietro, but there’s something missing I feel. Maybe because they’re dragging it out longer than World War Hate.
Meh, a 4 out of 5.
All-New X-Factor #13 Review
What has come about due to Pietro’s admission of guilt last issue? Read this review of All-New X-Factor #13 to find out.
The comic opens with Harrison Snow more than a little displeased about what came out last issue at the press-conference. He wants Polaris to fire Quicksilver to save face, but she tells him if Quicksilver goes the team goes. It shows that, as messed up as the Magus family is, they do have strong family bonds. Unable to lose the entire team, Snow lets it go as long as they don’t hide anything else important, which prompts Gambit to say he runs the Thieves’ Guild, Doug is obsessed he might turn evil, Polaris may have been responsible for killing her mother, and Warlock might turns nuts. They leave out afterwards and Gambit reassures her she was a decent leader before kissing her and getting slapped, but to be fair he said he had it coming….somehow.
Luna, in the meantime, hangs out with Georgina in the middle of brooding when she suddenly decides to come with them on their visit to a historical site. Warlock tries hanging out with Danger and once the topic of sex between them comes up, somehow, he bolts. I’m as confused as Doug was, wasn’t that what he was going for?
Quicksilver is with his daughter and Georgina, who he notices is off and calls Luna out for using her powers on her. Luna says she wanted to help her because she was depressed and is actually happy he talks to her like a father since things with her mother are off since she left her last boyfriend, Ronan. It’s about here that another Inhuman, Gorgon, has come chasing after Luna since she ran away without telling anyone and proceeds to try and kill Quicksilver.
Georgina tries to make him go away, but he tries to stomp her and Quicksilver gets her and Luna out of there before laying on the hurt. He doesn’t do well since a thousand hits from him don’t pack enough punch. Polaris shows up and does much better with cannonballs until Quicksilver tries to say it’s his fight and gets hit from behind.
Luna’s mother, Crystal, shows up to end things here and take her daughter back. Despite her clearly being upset with him, he does apologize that things between her and her last boyfriend didn’t work out. She lets Luna stay with him until she returns as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
I found this issue sweet in we see family bonds, with sparse moments of comedy. It was okay for a filler issue to me and touching. So I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.
All New X-Factor #11 Review
Okay, our story picks up after Gambit was “accidentally” left behind with Snow welcoming the team back and sending Georgia to the infirmary to get some medical treatment, with Quicksilver going to the hospital to get her mother before she can be used as a hostage and Polaris only then noticing a member of her team was missing.
Gambit is being tortured while naked. I’m assuming this was done for the remy fangirls, because leaving him some boxers would have been more deserving. Anyway, Memento Mori wants answers, Gambit doesn’t break until his mind is fried and the bad guy floats the idea that maybe him being left behind wasn’t an accident. He lets Snow’s name slip and Memento packs his men and tells them to get to moving, intent on retrieving Georgia and leveling the place.
Polaris is less than thrilled to be missing a member and notices Snow doesn’t seem too upset before calling for Quicksilver to swing back to the Mall to find him. But he’s got other problems as Memento has an airship on the way and shooting at him. Snow reveals that he didn’t buy only the X-Factor name, since he’s seen the number of time the Jean Grey School has needed to be rebuilt (burn!), but he also bought Layla Miller’s force-field glove and uses it to make the building impenetrable.
Both the bad guy and I will admit that was clever, but it does nothing for Gambit, who’s under the gun. He states it reminds him of his place in the world and it doesn’t matter if the trigger gets pulled or not, as long as Georgia is safe. Danger then appears as Georgia and gets the drop on Memento before tossing Gambit his coat and the fighting kicks off once again until he reveals he’s a walking bomb and knock them all down.
Georgia’s mom, Dakota, steps in and reveals that she’s responsible for him ending up like this since she practiced magic and didn’t harness the power correctly. She then tells her daughter farewell and causes them both to explode in a column of light, leaving Georgia alone and without any of her parents as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
First off, I’m calling bullshit on the magic angle. Where was the foreshadowing? All this served to do was make the new girl even more of a woobie. Her adoptive father handed her over to Snow, he real father was a villain, and her mother was a sorceress who was killed off with her real father. It’s just all about hurting her as much as possible for the last two days, isn’t it?
Comic gets a 4 out of 5.
All-New X-Factor #10 Review
Well, after that fallout last issue I’m glad they’re addressing it a week later. So here’s my review of All New X-Factor 10!
The comic opens with Polaris dusting herself off along with her brother and Cypher. Somehow nobody, not even the middle-aged woman, was injured when Memento Mori basically dropped a house on them. Still, she calls Harrison Snow up and tells him to get the rest of their team over there so they can get to superheroing.
Georgina’s father proves himself to be a somewhat smart and reasonable villain in that he’s basically paid off her mother, after dropping a house on her and kidnapping her daughter, so she can buy a new house. He’s taken her to a mall and 5-star hotel he owns through legitimate means, which superheroes that care about collateral damage can’t simply run rampant through to get her back. Of course he picks up the idiot ball and becomes an asshole when he forces her to show him her power, which she uses to mummify his hand and escape.
Gambit, worried that Harrison learned about his little fling with his wife, is taken to the matter transporter room with Danger and Warlock. They join up with the rest and get to the mall just as the guards decide to tranquilize Georgina. Cypher and Warlock, who turns into a motorcycle, get her out of there just as Harrison learns from Linda about Gambit tapping his wife last night.
As the comic ends with them being teleported out while the rest of Memento Mori and his men close in, Gambit just so happens to get left behind and left to the villain’s mercy after talking trash.
Okay, review time…
Well, this issue was fun and informative. Although I have to say it’s kind of petty of Harrison to leave the man to die just because he inadvertently slept with his wife. He’s sleeping with Linda, so what’s the problem? You don’t throw away an asset like that…
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
All-New X-Factor #8 Review
Well, that was interesting last time. Now it’s time to see what’s going to happen to Doug after he was desiccated by the pie-loving young woman. This is my review of X-Factor #8.
The story picks up where it left off with Cypher a dried out husk of himself and the rest of the team stunned at how pie-girl is so disconnected from what she did it was like she didn’t know it was wrong. Danger breaks the tension by asking what sort of pie, which gets the ball rolling with Warlock ready to murder her as her father gets the door open with men and guns at the ready.
Polaris pretty much drags him inside, locks the rest out, and force him to admit he’s told his daughter a huge-ass lie. Turns out he’s kept her so locked out of the real world that she believes the majority of people in the world have powers and the few who didn’t worked with her father. Wow, I’m more amazed at the fact he managed to pull that sort of lie off for years than anything else.
Anyway , the police show up and they need her to fix Cypher, but like most mutants who didn’t get training she has very little idea on how to reverse her power but can try if she can get some water. Danger and Warlock clear a path while they make for the kitchen so she can try and reverse it while her father tells her he was just trying to protect her… to be fair, as far as bigots go he’s nowhere near the worst in having a mutant kid.
Rahne’s father straight-up beat and tried to kill her. Not saying its right, but it could have been worse.
In the kitchen she explains she normally drains moisture out of things, which she learned by killing her first kitten by accident, and her father started home-schooling her. She’s going to get as much moisture in her as she can and then put that into him the same way she took it out. Her father points out that it could possibly kill her and Gambit jacks him up and demands to know how could he rail against mutants knowing his daughter was one.
He states he didn’t know when she was born and that she was god’s punishment on him. Gambit points out that maybe the big man was trying to tell him something, but he reasons that maybe god was a dick and just wanted him to hate him as well. Mission accomplished there, but he doesn’t hate the girl since she’s his late wife’s legacy. Gambit must also be off his game, because he gets kicked off by Georgina’s dad and only his daughter telling him to let her try this and if it fails and she dies she’ll have a one-on-one talk with god about it gets him to settle down for a moment.
Once the moment passes Quicksilver takes him and sits him down elsewhere only for men with tracer bullets that would follow him to the ends of the earth to threaten opening fire on him. Never mind the fact that he could probably trap them in a steel box or knock their tracer mechanism out with a pipe or just hide behind a steel wall and let them shatter to pieces unless they’re made of adamantium. Fortunately Harrison Snow shows up out of nowhere to prevent even more ammo from being wasted and takes Scott to discuss this in private like they’re old friends. Quicksilver and the head bodyguard are just as confused as we are.
While Georgina succeeds in reviving Cypher, the police decide to try sniping them. Polaris hijacks their guns and gives them thirty seconds before she opens fire. Her father wouldn’t have given them even that, so they wisely decide to leave as Cypher offers to take Georgina to the JGS when Danger ruins the sales-pitch by pointing out they train to fight evil mutants, risk their lives, and die repeatedly.
She runs like any sane person would as Warlock basically confirm it. To be fair, Danger and Warlock aren’t lying. There are only a handful of X-Men who haven’t died and aren’t wallpaper yet. When her dad is in a meeting she uses her powers to bring the door crumbling down and we learn that he and Harrison Snow want her to go with him.
It’s damn heartbreaking as he tells her that he loved his daughter and when she became a mutant she was just some thing that replaced her. He can’t even face her as he says it while Snow is looking nonchalant about it. As the comic ends it’s made clear that Snow forced him to say it and he’s driven to near tears while alone….
Okay, review time.
Yeah… I’m starting to think Harrison might be evil. He’s taking the man’s daughter as a hostage (come on, even though they didn’t say it we all know that’s what it is). That being said, the fact that he knew where his team was and managed to get inside the locked-down building brings up questions.
Either way, he did bail them out of trouble that they had no business getting involved with. Like I said in my last review they broke a ton of laws that you can’t do when part of a corporate super-hero team and Harrison straight-up Mafia’d them out of trouble to probably save his own ass.
Other than that, I find myself somewhat sympathizing with the man. Don’t get me wrong, I hate bigots in Marvel and if he was a Purifier I would be rooting for someone to put him down. But he’s having his daughter taken away from him because of whatever dirt Snow has on him and the alternative would have somehow been worse. He gets some pity from me… only some, not a lot.
The fact that the comic could make me feel anything like that deserves a 4 out of 5 and only misses a perfect score because the artwork hurts my eyes.
All-New X-Factor #5 Review
Out of one murder attempt by a future member and into another as All-New X-Factor #5 picks up shortly after the end of the previous issue. This is my review of it.
This time around the story opens with Gambit waking up to find a woman in his room while he’s naked beneath the sheets. While this probably wouldn’t be uncommon for him, he didn’t invite Danger to bed last night so he’s confused as hell when he finds her there. She claims that his kiss reset some of her functions, but she needs more interaction to become whole. Better than nothing as an excuse to why kissing her worked I supposed.
It seems that Gambit isn’t the only one who woke with a pretty woman in his room. Harrison Snow, like all married but corrupt CEOs, is having an affair with Linda from his company. Their post-coitus talk is of a new player on the computer market that Harrison wants to buy out and he’s having a meeting with him later on. As he leaves out, he tells her to be out by the time his wife gets back from her business trip and then goes about his day with a swagger in his step.
Quicksilver and Polaris are already up, sharing breakfast and exchanging obscure trivia when Gambit tells them Danger is in his room. Polaris brings up the possibility that she wants him sexually, and Quicksilver sees nothing wrong with it. Then again, their sister married Vision and then magic’d up some kids so…
Anyway, Harrison pops by to tell them he wants them at the meeting and Quicksilver runs out to tell Havok, who somehow comes out acting like even more of a sell-out asshole than normal. He’s like one of those damn stalkers who have a PI following your every step. Quicksilver makes it back to Serval before they think he’s done in the bathroom, smooth as silk, only for Danger to sense his vitals and know he’s been running, but he gets out of it by lying. Same goes for Linda when Danger notes that she has Harrsion’s DNA on her in a way that only comes from being intimate with one another.
The meeting takes two turns, the first being the guy who Harrison planned to buy out turned to be The Magus, an enemy leader of an alien race. Danger discovers this by putting her hand through his chest, and Polaris gives its metallic butt a one-way trip out of the building. The second is when Warlock shows up defending his father, before the two of them split.
I’m sure they didn’t wake up planning to get into a brawl, but now that they were in it they were going to get some answers. And so, as the comic ends, Polaris suggests they pay a little visit to Doug Ramsey aka Cypher of the X-Men, aka the guy who can talk to anything and read any language.
A bit more crude humor-wise, but character development is always welcomed. I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.
Twilit Dreams Circle 