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I know I've been struggling to get material on this blog, but it, like me, is still a work in progress.  I apologize that my professional and personal lives haven't left a lot of time and energy for this blog, but I do appreciate those who still visit, and I am still trying to get a more regular writing schedule down.  Until then, I hope you enjoy what I do post, and thank you for visiting.

X-Factor #126

X-Factor #126

Writing: Howard Mackie

Art: Stefano Raffaele

What Went Down:  Forge starts of this issue repaying Mystique and Sabretooth for saving him by painfully reactivating their inhibitors with technology around him.  They regroup with the rest of X-Factor to find that Havok and Random have been captured.  Polaris and Shard are left to guard the prisoners while the rest break up to look for Beast.

Mystique and Wild Child trade banter while overcoming some traps within the building, while Creed fights off some metal tendrils with Forge.  Forge deactivates them, and they continue on while Forge contemplates the series of strange orders Washington has been giving him, the most recent of which has been to work with Sabretooth.  Creed discovers the Beast hooked to manacles that shock him with every step taken on the floor.  Above, Fatale ambushes the two agents, but she is ambushed by Wild Child and knocked out. 

Outside, Polaris lectures Random for lying to her.  Random explains that Dark Beast was helping him control his powers and keeping him from becoming just a pile of goo.  In fact Dark Beast created the Random identity.  He also admits Dark Beast has been messing with Havok’s head. 

Once freed, Beast is eager to rejoin the X-Men to fight Onslaught.  Sabretooth notices that this Beast is actually Dark Beast.  Forge threatens to put Creed down, even though he acknowledges that Creed’s collar should be stopping him, and Wild Child confirms that it’s the Dark Beast.  Meanwhile Alex tricks Lorna into setting him free.  Random breaks out of his restraints in an attempt to save her from Havok.  Havok blasts Random, turning him to a puddle that oozes into the sewer.  Shard leaves Polaris to guard Havok while she goes after Random.  This gives Havok the perfect opportunity to knock out Polaris and admit his treachery. 

Back inside, Forge is still pointing a gun, convinced Sabretooth is attacking the real Beast.  Creed knocks down a wall, revealing the real Beast restrained in a different room.  Dark Beast still tries to convince Forge that he is the good one, but the original Hank McCoy attacks him and knocks him out. 

Shard returns to find Polaris unconscious and dying.  She gives CPR and tells Forge they need to get to the hospital.  Forge orders Fatale to teleport them all, and Dark Beast tells them to do it so that they can bid their time as prisoners, exactly where he wanted to be.

How It Was:  I’ve already written about how bizarre it is that the Beast/Dark Beast plot resolution appeared in, of all places, X-Factor.  So let’s forget about the randomness and ineptitude that lead to that decision and instead focus on the pay off.  After months of being held captive and chained up in a small room—after having dozens…potentially hundreds of people from his life, as well as innocent bystanders, murdered—Beast finally gets his payback on the cruel, sadistic version of himself.  So he kicks the villain once…and then the fight and issue are both over.  What??!!  It’s one thing to shunt the focus of the majority of this story to X-Factor, and Sabretooth and Mystique in particular, but to offer absolutely no satisfaction in the triumph of our hero who has been put through the ringer the last few months is the worst.  The absolute worst!  The only reason X-Men readers were picking up X-Factor was to see how Beast was rescued, and the abrupt and anticlimactic end robs the story of any sense of closure or gratification.  In fact Dark McCoy is gleeful to be captured, in regards to another conspiracy theory with no payoff.

Aside from the lousy Beast thread, nobody else comes out looking too great in this issue.  The plot decisions just seem antithetical to telling an interesting story.  The villains without restraints…that’s pretty cool, but it gets undone by the first page this issue.  Random’s betrayal…apparently he’s been working with Dark Beast since the beginning, retroactively tainting all his previous appearances.  Oh, and the tough bounty hunter is actually a teenager, which is a little weird and disappointing. 

If not for the Beast letdown, the worst offense would be the obvious ruse Havok uses on Polaris to get free, making her look all kinds of awful.  All she had to do was be patient and wait for the authorities to pick up the bad guys, but she frees Havok because…?  Similarly Forge refuses to believe both Sabretooth and Wild Child about Dark Beast, even though they have no reason to lie, and Creed’s inhibitor is letting him hurt the Beast.  Everything is just too predictable…it’s no fun if the audience expects what is going to happen.  It’s fun to have the villains pulling the strings, but not if the heroes are so obviously dumb that there’s no challenge or sense of tension. 

Completists Only

X-Factor #125

X-Factor #125

Writing: Howard Mackie

Art: Jeff Matsuda and Stefano Raffaele

These two issues take place prior to X-Men #55

What Went Down:  Dark Beast has taken Onslaught to his lab, and Onslaught is conducting a painful looking probe on McCoy.  Fatale tries to free her master, but fails miserably.  Former hero, and Cyclops’ brother, Havok shows up too, and Onslaught says he has plans for him.

Over at the Fall’s Edge base, X-Factor is being attacked by a training Sentinel that has somehow been reprogrammed.  Random suggests calling in the X-Men, but Forge orders Mystique to go free their “heavy-hitter” Sabretooth.  Mystique threatens to kill Sabretooth, but frees him anyway.  Both discuss how they are biding their time in X-Factor to fulfill their own agendas.  Creed mentions that Mystique might have feelings for Forge.  Suddenly Fatale appears and abducts both of them.  She also teleports the Sentinel away. 

Forge seems convinced one rogue Sentinel is more dangerous than a missing Mystique and Sabretooth, so he sets X-Factor to finding it.  Random tries to warn Polaris not to go on this mission.  Back at their base, the emergency transmission from Jean Grey warning about Onslaught plays for the empty room. 

X-Factor tracks the Sentinel’s signal to the abandoned Brand Corporation.  Havok and Fatale attack the team; Polaris is heartbroken that Alex has turned villain, while Random again tries to warn her away.  While Polaris shields everyone from Havok’s power, Random reveals that he is a traitor as well. 

Inside the Brand facility, Forge discovers an army of Sentinels.  He is attacked by someone off panel.  Outside, Polaris tries to reach Havok.  Fatale and Havok are about to kill the team, but Random protests about killing them.  Dark Beat appears to tell him the bargain has changed.  Forge and Onslaught’s henchman Post bursts through the wall, interrupting the proceedings and giving Polaris a chance to take out Havok.  Random tries to help Polaris, but Havok shoots him, revealing that Random is really a teenager.  Polaris again tries to reach Alex, and it appears to work; however, instead of trusting him, Polaris decides to knock him out.  Post grows bored and escapes, having succeeded in his mission to distract X-Factor long enough for the Sentinels to launch.

What Else Went Down:  The second story deals with what happens to Sabretooth and Mystique after being teleported.  After surviving a steep drop, the pair is confronted by the Dark Beast.  McCoy explains everything about Onslaught and holding his other self hostage.  Dark Beast wants them to join Onslaught, and offers to deactivate their inhibitors and let them kill Forge.  Mystique and Sabretooth consider it, but decide if they weren’t sanctioned operatives, they couldn’t use their positions for their own purposes. 

Sabretooth attacks Dark Beast; McCoy gets the upper hand, but Mystique uses her shape-shifting abilities to create pointy armor for herself.  Dark Beast almost kills both her and Forge, but Sabretooth saves them both and continues to fight.  Creed is about to kill him, but Forge stops him because they need information.  Dark Beast activates a teleporter, explaining that the real Beast will be dead before they can find him. 

How It Was:  A double-sized Onslaught tie-in issue.  How did I get so lucky?  After Peter David left X-Factor, the book struggled to find an identity.  No longer the quirky, funny book with the C-list X-Characters, it tried to become the edgy, violent book with C-list X-characters.  Too bad nobody at the X-offices realized that title was already called X-Force.  X-Factor’s attempt to stay interesting and relevant to fans was to have Mystique and Sabretooth recruited by the team and forced to work with more traditional mutant heroes. 

As for its attempt at ecking out its own identity, Mackie seems to be going the conspiracy angle with multiple characters having different conflicting goals and motivations, from the villains to the government funding X-Factor itself.  This is all well and good considering they are the government based X-team—why not introduce some X-Files like government conspiracies and political intrigue.  The problem of course exists that none of these motivations or conspiracies feel planned ahead; Sabretooth, Mystique, and Dark Beast all insist that they have specific reasons for the things they are doing, with no substantial hint as to what they might be.  Forge recognizes there might be strange motivations for including villains on the team, but again nothing is done with this. 

As an Onslaught tie-in, this story offers a unique opportunity to bring in new readers by showing how great and interesting the team is.  Instead we see a team that struggles to take down one Sentinel.  One!  And it’s a Sentinel that Forge was rebuilding.  Right off the start the X-Factor team isn’t looking great, especially when over in books like X-Men and Uncanny, the X-Men, Avengers, and FF are taking out Sentinels left and right by themselves. 

Another problem is how telegraphed the twists are.  Random warns Polaris twice that she shouldn’t go on the mission, and then we’re supposed to be surprised when he says he’s working for the villain of the issue?  None of this feels laid out or natural to the character as established.  Havok being a bad guy is interesting, since he is the character that became synonymous with X-Factor after the original X-Men left.  The downside is that his defection (at this point the story was that he was being brainwashed by Dark Beast) reduces Polaris to a simpering and whiny character that gets tiring after a while. 

This issue should feel bigger than it does: Post shows up for like four panels (?!), the Sentinels that attack New York are activated here, and Sabretooth and Mystique get their inhibitors deactivated.  Of course failing to stop the Sentinels makes the team look incompetent, and the other two things are quickly brushed to the side.  It feels like the plot is trying to cram in as many Onslaught related concepts in it as possible without actually contributing to or moving the story along in any meaningful way; of course, this was the main problem with the majority of Onslaught tie-ins.

Finally, we pick up on the captive Beast subplot that has appeared in all three X-Men titles.  Why the X-offices would choose to resolve this months’ long story in X-Factor is beyond me. None of the characters have a close connection with Hank; it just feels like the team had nothing better to do than resolve this plot line that has nothing to do with them.  Just some baffling choices.

Completists Only