Tuesday, July 18, 2006

X-Factor #8

X-Factor #8
Finally it's good to see a book react to the consequences of Son of M (review forthcoming). It makes perfect sense to do so in the book where Layla Miller is a fixture, as she was instrumental in ending the House of M. Peter David's writing in this issue is excellent, especially in the following dialogue examples:
Guido to Doctor Modern: "I thought mutants and humans were different races./Never cottoned to that thinking. History's filled with too many cases of one type of human deciding another type weren't human, usually followed by hilarity and death".
This exchange between SHIELD Madrox and Layla: "Good heavens young lady. You look so serious. Like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders./I do./How do you deal with that?/I shrug."
Layla quoting from Ayn Rand "evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us."
Terrific stuff.
And I called this issue's major revelation, in which the two Tryps are revealed to be the same person. Of course, there's no way that Madrox could have known that, as he wasn't in the room when the hints were dropped.
Why does Rictor have to register under the Superhuman Registration Act? As he points out, he is no longer superhuman, so isn't his registration completely unneccesary?
Peter David shows once again that he has some continuity problems he's got to work out, one of which has a major ramification on the plot. Since it was previously established that Siryn's secondary mutation of persuasion doesn't work on non-mutants, and Spider-Man is decidedly non-mutant, how does she get it to work on him? (David's done this before with a cop, by the way.) Spider-Man falls sway to it, and reveals to Siryn everything that he knows about the House of M, which everyone involved in ending it has been hiding from everyone else. Oops. Maybe a retcon is in order? Or explaining the discrepancy with a tertiary mutation? At least the high and mighty Bendis admits when he's screwed up (see the letter column in the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man).
[Edit: It has been brought to my attention that the preceding paragraph is ass-backwards. Apparently, my brain wasn't working so I pulled it out of my ass. Sorry, Mr. David. Please excuse me.]
And still unresolved is my question from last issue...how can Jamie absorb things that his dupes are carrying?
Artwise, it's nice, if a bit stylized for my tastes. Except for one point: are Guido's glasses in the process of falling off of his face on page 11?
Still, it's one of the best of the recent Civil War crossover issues, and I'll admit, I did enjoy it, even with its flaws. So I'll rate it at VERY GOOD. I would rate it excellent, but this issue is the second in a row which has yet another major continuity flaw. Peter David really has to work on these flaws which keep managing to slip past his editors...oh how I miss the days of dedicated continuity editors.
[Edit: With the above edit in mind, this issue now rates at EXCELLENT.]
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