Snap Bad Decisions: X-Factor #245 Review
With God as my witness, I will never understand what possessed writer Peter David and artist Leonard Kirk to open an issue of purely talking head non-action with a giant splash page, complete with Kirby Krackle, of Jamie Madrox heroically calling Havok a fuckup douchebag. It is a big, overblown, bombastic start to an issue that focuses itself on human moments rather than action – even if some of those moments are particularly heated – and on running far more than action.
This issue is all about running. Most of the primary characters of X-Factor’s current incarnation are in the process of trying to run in this book, be it trying to run toward something or away from something. The book eschews basic action in favor of characterization, but that characterization shows characters in real pain, trying to find a way to alleviate the pain of the aftermaths of the X-Factor Breaking Points event that this issue concludes, as well as the Avengers Vs. X-Men event, and it shows it a way that is almost more satisfying than seeing Cyclops clapped in irons and abused and denigrated by all comers… and if you know how I feel about that sanctimonious ruby-lensed hipster shaded douchenozzle, you’d realize what high praise it is indeed to call X-Factor #245 as satisfying as seeing Cyclops beaten, chewed and fucked by prison gangs.
Even if the issue does open with an image that implies that the most important thing in the book is Madrox’s hippocampus apparently violently exploding from the back of his head.
We’re at the end of Breaking Points with this issue, and things have changed for X-Factor: Strong Guy has bolted. Banshee has become some kind of Irish goddess to help Polaris from going batshit nuts. Wolfsbane is off the team to raise her son with Jack Russell, Werewolf By Night, and I will let you add your own “doggie style” joke here, since I am one classy motherfucker. And all this happened while Havok was leader of the team, and Madrox is, understandably, pissed off, to the point his rage looking like his brainstem is going full Three Mile Island on the splash page. So the leadership of the team is most definitely in question, as Havok questions whether he should even be in X-Factor, let alone leading it, and Madrox, feeling the loss of such a huge part of his team, makes a… questionable decision about his future.
So again: there is next to no action in this issue; there’s an explosive argument between Havok and Madrox at the beginning that looks like it’s about to come to blows, but once that’s diffused, this issue is all talk. And the talk is relatively compelling, particularly the conversation between Havok and Polaris, which seems to make up the bulk of the book. Havok is in an interesting situation, having fought with the mutants on behalf of his broker Cyclops during Avengers Vs. X-Men, and now finding himself not only on the wrong side of history, but the leader of a disintegrating team. Now, there are practical needs for Havok to leave X-Factor at the editorial level – Marvel has decided that he will be the leader of Uncanny Avengers, and not being Wolverine, he can clearly only be on one team at a time – and it would have been very easy for David to just have Havok say, “Got a call from Captain America! So long, losers!”
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