X-Factor #4 Review

X-Factor #4 is a comic that has been re-started since the House of M (look no cheap shot about that mini-series). I picked it up because I like Peter David. I had stopped collecting X-factor since around 1999. I have really enjoyed the first three issues. What about #4? Let’s find out.

Creative Team:
Writer: Peter David
Penciller: Ryan Sook and Dennis Calero
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger and Dennis Calero

Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 5.

Synopsis: The issue starts with Madrox telling Monet to come to the police HQ to do a mind scan on their client. Monet arrives and performs the mind scan of their client who has been accused of murder.

Meanwhile, Rahne and Guido are in Mutant Town about to bust heads with riot police. Siryn flies over to help Guido and Rahne with the Riot Police and she ends p blasting the riot police away from Mutant Town.

We check in with the actor Jack Vaughn who is telling tells his Singularity representative that he is going to leave their custody and fly back to Hollywood. We see Jack get on his plane and Monet appears outside his window. Suddenly Jack sees the girl he killed and pinned on X-Factor’s client.

Jack is then taken into custody for the murder of the girl and X-Factor’s client is released. Madrox congratulates Monet on finding the truth from her mind scan of her client and then manipulating jack’s mind so he would snap and confess.

We then see Mr. Tryp back at Singularity opening a mysterious package that turns out to be the body of the assassin he sent to kill X-Factor. The dead body has a note saying “Stay out of Mutant Town xoxoxoxo X-Factor.

The issue ends with someone shooting Siryn in the neck to silence her voice. That someone is revealed to be Mr. Tryp from Singularity who lays down a severe beating on Siryn as a measure of revenge.

Comments: This issue was ok. The ending saved it from being rated worse. Overall, David’s pacing seems slow and unfocused. It doesn’t seem like he is going anywhere with this storyline. Hopefully, David can turn this story arc up a couple of notches. I really like David’s dialogue. If only he would get an interesting and compelling plot to go along with his great dialogue.

I like the characters that David has assembled. And, unlike Claremont, David manages to find time to explore all the characters rather than focus solely on one character to the detriment of the rest. Each character is nicely developed. The only two characters I’m not a real big fan of would be Rahne and Rictor. I just have never really gotten into Rahne no matter what title she has been in.

Rictor, now that he has no powers, is rather boring. He just pretty much just wallows in self-pity. I’m a huge Strong Guy fan, so I’m glad he is on the team. Monet is a great character. Annoying but very entertaining. Siryn is another good personality. Layla is a neat character with her uncanny ability to “know things.”

But, by far my favorite is Madrox. David is doing a kick-ass job with this character. Madrox has always been a character with wasted potential. David is doing an excellent job fleshing out Madrox into the delightfully complex character that he is with all of his Duplicates manifesting different parts of his psyche.

The art is all right. I have no real complaints or praises. My only real problem is that the switching of the artists gives the issue an overall inconsistent look. I really hope David gets this title going. If it doesn’t pick up over the next 5 issues, then I may end up dropping this title.