All-New X-Factor #4 – Review

By:  Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist)            

The Story: Gambit faces his worst nightmare, an enemy who can’t be robbed, blown-up, or seduced. Can he pull off the impossible before Polaris kills a former X-Man?

The Review: Let’s get it out there: All-New X-Factor #4 is one giant battle sequence. If you’re looking for something else, you might be disappointed, but leave it to Peter David to remind us how much fun it can be to just watch our heroes struggle.

Of course in order to struggle X-Factor needs an adversary and one capable of taking on the fledgling team. Fear not on that score, Danger more than adequately fills the role. Possessed of all the powers of the Danger Room itself, the amnesiac android makes for a convincing threat. Her hard-light constructs, in particular, get put to good use.

Unfortunately, Danger isn’t all that much more charismatic than her namesake chamber this issue. Driven by blind anger and lacking memories, Danger is fairly one-note villain. The number of times she declares what she knows or proclaims the time of someone’s demise is simply too high. Like the Terminator or Jason Voorhees, Danger’s…well, danger comes from her slow inevitable crawl towards victory, but while her tactical cleverness makes for some great bits, her intelligence robs her of an elemental charm.

All-New X-Factor #3 – Review

By: Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist)

The Story: Gambit discovers that leading the Thieves’ Guild is as easy as herding cats as we discover that he’s actually pretty good at herding cats.

The Review: The first two issues of All-New X-Factor were somewhat surprising. I’ve always found Peter David to be a very talented writer with a knack for defining his characters and people swear by his second run on X-Factor. All the same, there was a distinct lack of identity in the opening story of this series.

This issue begins to address that concern and wastes absolutely no time doing it. From the first panel, David’s character-driven, old-Hollywood sensibility comes through clearly. In addition to a greater sense of David’s voice, this issue deals with many of the most interesting topics from the first two issues. Big subjects like Serval’s morality and Dr.Hoffman’s obsession with mutant powers get some time to grow, while David set the stage for the introduction of at least one of X-Factor’s missing crewmembers. Along the way, he also makes good on his NYCC promise that Gambit’s leadership of the Thieves’ Guild would come into play, which sets up our newest arc.

As you may have guessed, this issue is the best paced of the short run. The issue is packed with plot progression, but there’s plenty of room to play around. Quicksilver’s personality is still being defined as ‘hated by one and all with good reason’, but he’s much more human than he was last time. We also get some insight into Polaris that certainly frees her from the ‘generic team leader’ role that she seemed in danger of falling into. Though she has a ways to go, the weak link continues to be Gambit.