X-FACTOR #14 REVIEW

[Adam Chapman]

Reviewer: Adam Chapman
Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: Re-X-Aminations

Madrox struggles to find a new direction, to pull himself and his team together.

Writer:Peter David
Artist: Pablo Raimondo
Color Art: Brian Reber
Letters:Virtual Calligraphy's Cory Petit
Production: Rich Ginter
Assistant Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor:Andy Schmidt
Publisher:Marvel Comics

Month in and month out, Peter David brings his top A game to this title, complete with humour, strong characterization, witticisms and an excellent grasp on narrative and style. I'm nearly running out of things to say about his writing on this title, which is a testament to his consistent high quality writing on this title. This is without a doubt the best X-book currently being published, which, considering the rising quality of the X-books right now, is saying quite a bit.

After last issue's focus on Leonard Samson and his psycho-analysis of the entire X-Factor team, this issue sends the characters in some new directions, as Strong Guy attempts to come clean to the woman whose husband he murdered a few issues ago, Madrox struggles to put his team back together, and M and Theresa try to conquer their sudden divide.

Much of this series has been spent towards cultivating the various personalities on this team, which is very dysfunctional yet its in this very dysfunction that they end up working together so well when the chips are down and there's a definite need to come together. David has an excellent handle on the various characters, and his use of Jamie Madrox, and the continued evolution of the character, is brilliant because although he's moved Madrox along so well, its all very organic and easy to see happen on the pages of this comic. These organic changes, and how they all manage to work with the respective characters, and also maintain the reader's interest, is an example of David's work at his best. Since starting up this new iteration of X-Factor, he hasn't strayed from his element, and the reader is the better for it.

The art by Raimondo is an excellent choice in this issue, serving up an appropriately moody atmosphere for David's script, which also proving adept at the subtle changes in nuance that are affected by the script. The facial expressions, the panel layouts, they show that Raimondo isn't merely a talented penciller, but also a skilled storyteller, which is more the feat.

This book is, month in and month out, on the top of the pull list for many people, and its easy to see why after reading any issue. The entire creative team manages to suck you in and make you care about the characters, and make it easy to understand why they act the way they do, and just what's going on as well. And the previously page is a stroke of comedic brilliance, a nice touch by David, to those fans who read the entirety of those pages. Highly Recommended!

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[Rockleefan]

This title is the comic equivalent of Battlestar Galactica for me. Each installment is so consistently great I worry I sometimes take it for granted.
I have to give Peter David full-credit for being able to give each and every character a moment to shine in each issue. The conversations feel so real, like Rictor asking madrox "who was the wilder ride". Priceless. Pablo Raimondi also deserves credit for the "acting" of these characters too. I'm glad he's the regular artist and hope he's around at least for a year's worth of issues.
It seems the new arc could be Madrox collecting his dupes, should be fun. The only extra thing i'd like to see is the other X-factor cast is investigating an actual case sometime soon, that's their job after-all.

[Ben Lehnsherr]

Almost always one of the first books I read when I get home from the shop..and this is one of the finest issues yet...The Madrox/Rictor bar convo def stood out...David's alsolutely rocks in his characterazations and the new artist is a fine choice...

Great stuffs!