X-Factor #38

Overall- This was yet another good issue of X-Factor. I'll start with the main story then hit the back story. Makes sense doesn't it? The X-Factor team has been surrounded by a small army of guys who have been injected with samples of Darwin's DNA. So basically, they can continuously evolve out of any trouble they get into. The leader of the faux Darwins, Mr.Manu send his Darwin army to kill X-Factor for their interference in his plans, before he strolls away.

Jamie realizes fighting the faux Darwins is pointless and creates dupes to fight for him, while he goes after Manu. The dupes and the rest of X-Factor battle the Darwin army, but can't make any headway, since their opponents can evolve a defense for anything thrown at them. Luckily for X-Factor, the Darwins begin to die, since their bodies weren't meant to carry the true Darwin's DNA.

While this is happening, Jamie catches up to Manu, and instead of battling it out as you would expect, Jamie realizes that Manu is just a businessman, who isn't really looking for a fight. Manu offers to give Darwin over to Jamie, since the Karma Project already has everything they need from Darwin, and no longer require his body to continue their experimentation's. Jamie tells Manu to stay away from him and his team, and in return, tells Manu that he'll avoid Manu and the Karma Project. Manu agrees and leaves, and Jamie rescues Darwin from the stasis tank he was being kept in. Jamie brings Darwin back to the rest of his team and tells them he and Manu fought, and Manu managed to barely escape, blatantly lying to his teammates. The rest of the group buys the story, and along with Darwin, X-Factor leaves.

Back at X-Factor's home base, Siryn's water has broken, and Rictor helps her to the door, to go to the mid-wife. Val Cooper is also present, and is still very interested in the birth of Siryn's child. Upon going outside, Siryn and Rictor realize they are surrounded by a horde of Feds, who have been told by Val to watch Siryn. Rictor tells Siryn to fly to the hospital and tries to distract the Feds by shooting at them. The Feds return fire, but Siryn stays behind and screams at the bullets, preventing any of them from hitting Rictor or the Feds. Unfortunately, Val wasn't so lucky, and she is hit square in the chest by a stray bullet. Siryn grabs Val to take her to the hospital, even though since she is VERY pregnant and in labor, she shouldn't be carrying someone else while flying. The issue closes with Rictor being surrounded by a mob of EXTREMELY angry Feds.

This is by far the BEST X-comic book on the market right now, which isn't really that surprising since Peter David is at the helm. Jamie continues to lie to his team and continues to do some out of character things in order to defuse situations. It is really obvious that Jamie is still hurting over losing Layla Miller, and his colder, almost evil actions are proof of his guilt over Layla's fate. I truly can't wait to find out the fate of Siryn and the birth of her baby. Hopefully, the stress of carrying Val won't cause any complications in the birth of the child.

Peter could go SO many ways with this situation. Of course, the most pleasant route would be for Siryn to deliver a healthy baby, but, storywise, if something was to happen to the baby or Siryn, due to Rictor's foolish plan to have a shoot out with the Feds, I would imagine Jamie's already tenuous mental state would deteriorate even further. Wow, this is the first time in a good 2 years I'm really looking forward to the next issue of ANY X-comic. For a score, I'll give this comic a 9 out of 10. It's really great to have the old, spectacular Peter David back. Peter can still write one hell of a compelling story when he wants to.