X-Factor #214

Review: Having split with his X-Factor teammates, Darwin is wandering through a desert in Nevada. After getting thirsty, he drinks from a cactus and lays down to relax when a woman in a torn showgirl outfit runs over begging for help. Darwin gets up to see what her problem was, and he spots a dragon moving towards her. Darwin steps in to defend the woman, and defeats the dragon with the DEADLY powers of Evolution!!! Take THAT religious fanatics! The woman passes out and Darwin carries her to a nearby town, where he meets a bunch of weird characters. They all seem to be afraid of the sheriff of the town, who was hanging out at the saloon. Darwin heads into the saloon and sits down to speak with the sheriff, who responds by shooting Darwin a few times, but alas, Darwin survives thanks to the DEADLY powers of Evolution!!! That is a blast to type out... Realizing that Darwin was immortal, the Sheriff begins to talk about the upcoming apocalypse(not the guy Apocalypse, but the event apocalypse), and offers Darwin the chance to halt it if he could defeat the Sheriff in a duel. By this point, Darwin has chalked all of this up to a really bad dream, and agrees to the duel. The Sheriff produces three guns that would be able to harm even an immortal, and the two head outside to duel. The two stand apart from each other, and the Sheriff tells Darwin that Darwin actually knows the Sheriff's mother, Rahne Sinclair, Wolfsbane. This revelation shocks Darwin at which point the Sheriff draws and shoots Darwin. Darwin collapses in a bloody heap and the Sheriff tells him that the apocalypse was approaching and that Darwin had failed in his chance to stop it. With that, Darwin passes out and wakes up later on back where he started before running into the showgirl, trying to puzzle out what it all meant.

Thoughts: This was a strange one... It didn't really seem to serve any purpose, especially since I thought Darwin was off the team, and by that logic, out of this book. If this was simply a one and done type story, then it was a really disappointing one. If this actually leads to the next major X-Factor storyline, then I'll have to reevaluate what I thought of this issue in a few months. As it was now, it was a strange, story that didn't really do much to advance Darwin, or anything else... Weird.

Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.Who'd have thought evolution could be so powerful!?