Comics Reviews: “X-Factor” #40, “The Outsiders” #15

“X-Factor” has proven to be a surprise hit.

As we hit the 40^th issue, the series continues to maintain its stride, taking a team of second tier X-Universe characters and putting them on their own team, and adding a splash of noir and mystery. This issue, we catch up with Madrox, having walked to see John Madrox, the one dupe he never absorbed. Madrox is having a bit of an existential crisis after the events of last issue, and now has come to speak with John to essentially give his last rites.

Last issue, Peter David asked that we not spoil the ending, and rightfully so. It was a bit of a shocker. And now, at the end of this issue, we see why he’s asked us to do it again.

(And no, I won’t spoil it here.)

So it goes without saying, this is a difficult review to write. Regardless, the story is fantastic, the art is gorgeous, and if you’ve been following X-Factor since the beginning (or, at the least, since Messiah CompleX), the pay off of this issue is in spades.

A+

“The Outsiders” hits a new stride with #15.

After a quick reboot that included a barely there Martian Manhunter and the ghosts of Ralph and Sue Dibney, “The Outsiders” are again rebooted. This time, the new team is Geo-Force, Black Lightning, Halo, Metamorpho, Katana, The Creeper and Owlman. Needless to say, a few surprises in the line-up, especially in that Owlman is revealed as a Golden Age legacy character. The series starts off with the team being informed of the new status quo: they will literally be “outsiders”, cut off from the world for months on end as they strive to complete missions.

The art comes across as passable, and the writing is decent, but this issue seems to serve only to introduce readers to the new team. It wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that we’ve just done this twice in the past 15 issues. Team shake-ups are one thing, but not when we don’t have enough time to actually get to know the team. I’ll probably be sticking this one out to see what happens, but the first issue certainly seems to be lacking a certain quality to it.

B-