X-Factor #226:
Summary: Madrox, Layla, Shatterstar and Longshot head to the old farmhouse Madrox used to live in to try to dig up some clues as to a) who murdered the woman who was living there, b) where her son disappeared off to, and c) who B.B. was. Longshot luckily happens across a SAG card belonging to Jason Roland, who also happens to be the Hangman(!!)... Wow, there's a villain I haven't heard from in a while! Anyway, Madrox learns that Hangman used to be married to the murdered woman, and as such Madrox figures Hangman killed her and absconded with the kid. Pip the Troll manages to get a lock on Hangman's position in Los Angeles, and Madrox realizes that he'd better bring the entire X-Factor team with him for this one since the Hangman would regularly battle the West Coast Avengers to standstills. So the team arrives in LA and Madrox splits them up into three separate squads, telling them to remain in constant contact with each other. Naturally everybody bickers with each other(because that's what this team does best!), and the Hangman attacks Madrox's group. The Hangman's mystical noose begins to strangle Madrox, so Wolfsbane tries to free him while Guido goes after the Hangman himself. Unfortunately, the noose is unbreakable, and the Hangman is as strong as Guido. During the fight, Guido mentions the Hangman's murdered wife, which stops the Hangman in his tracks since he had no idea she had been killed. The noose lets Madrox slip free, and Hangman reveals that somebody named Bloodbath(B. B. I'd guess) must have done it and that if Hangman didn't do as Bloodbath commanded he'd kill everybody.
Thoughts: Anytime a story causes me to think back to the West Coast Avengers, I'm a happy camper. This issue did a lot of little things right... It showed us that Hangman was one tough SOB, by having him take on Guido one-on-one, while strangling Madrox with his enchanted noose. After establishing that yes, the Hangman is no pushover, we were shown that he was afraid of whoever this Bloodbath character was, thus establishing Bloodbath as an even GREATER threat. Besides all of that nifty storyline advancement, we also got a mess of little character development scenes, which is something you can always rely on Peter David for. All in all, this was a pretty good issue that has me intrigued to see Bloodbath finally show up.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
How can't I love this series?
I absolutely love thise series, Peter David is a genius. I especially love the interactions between Layla and Shatterstar, they need more coverage of their friendship in my opinion. Can't wait for the next issue, it's definately going to be good based on the small spoiler Marvel have given us!
ReplyDeleteAgreed all the way around. That's one of the great things about Peter David, he has all of these characters in this series, and they all have different relationships with each other... Like Layla and Shatterstar. Or Monet and Banshee/Siryn. Or Madrox and everybody. Not many team books have that many rich relationships like this one does.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite scene was the one where Madrox called everyone for an update, and they told him about their personal problems. Awesome. Peter David rules.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was a great scene. It's little things like that that make PAD so much better than so many other comic book writers. That's just another reason he'd be listed in my top 3 all-time favorite comic writers.
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