X-Factor #229:
What Happened: We finally learn more about that weird scene where we find Madrox standing over the corpses of himself and Layla on their wedding day. It appears that the moment Madrox died at the hands of Bloodbath, he somehow was transported to another dimension, one where he married Layla and Banshee hadn't died. Madrox ends up learning that it wasn't Wolfsbane who committed the murders, but her daughter(remember, in the 616 Marvel U Wolfsbane had a son), who killed Madrox and Layla at the behest of Layla herself(?!?). Wolfsbane's daughter goes to kill Madrox, since she figured she didn't properly kill him back with Layla, but Madrox manages to get away from Wolfsbane's daughter... Only to get run down and killed by a drunken Valerie Cooper... HA!! This issue closes with Madrox waking up near the corpse of another dead Madrox, this time in a apocalyptic looking world.
The Good: As always, Peter David can tell a good story AND manage to throw a couple of legit laughs in there. Val drunkenly running poor Madrox down really made me laugh for some reason... It just made perfect sense in an idiotic way... I THINK I can see Madrox's way out of this and back to his proper dimension already... The Layla who was killed was adamant about Wolfsbane's daughter killing her... Obviously THAT Layla KNEW 616 Madrox would be dying at the same time in the 616, and would somehow end up in her dimension. Is that uber-confusing? God yes... Especially the way I worded it! But I do now kind of/sort of see how Madrox is getting out of this one. I enjoyed the wedding reception and enjoyed seeing Quicksilver, Banshee, and yes, even Shatterstar with his early 90's look.
The Bad: I kind of hope that my theory isn't the way this story winds up heading, because that would make the next few issues as Madrox heads back home kind of anti-climatic for me... Drinking and driving is BAD, Valerie!!
The Verdict: I enjoyed this issue. I really did. The story was strong, the art matched it and as always, the dialogue was top-notch. No real complaints here.
Score: 8 out of 10.
That panel with Madrox getting hit by the car and dupes flying everywhere was both horrible and hilarious!
OMG, I, too, thought drunken Val killing Madrox was funny, so I'm glad someone has the same sick sense of humor I do! I thought David did a really great job here. I mean, he could've "killed" Madrox to make room for Havok, and we'd all know that Madrox would be returning at some point. Instead, he gets him involved in some reality-hopping loop, something that (for comics, at least) is much more believable. Good stuff. I hope we don't totally lose Jamie in the coming months but I'm really excited to see where David goes with Havok taking over the team.
ReplyDelete"thought drunken Val killing Madrox was funny, so I'm glad someone has the same sick sense of humor I do!" PAD is definitely writing this series for people like you and I, JW! Looking back at the early PAD X-Factor stuff from the 90's, Val drunkenly killing Madrox just fit in a weird, bizarre, PAD sort of way!
ReplyDelete"Instead, he gets him involved in some reality-hopping loop, something that (for comics, at least) is much more believable" Exactly! We KNOW Madrox isn't going to stay dead FOREVER, so why bother with the illusion that he is really dead? Sure, his teammates think he's dead, but why try fooling the fans, most of whom have seen characters "die" a million times only to return. I'd be fine with PAD taking a page or two every issue and following Madrox's wacky, other-dimensional exploits. I don't know if you watched X-Men: The Animated Series(the awesome one from the 90's), but during the second season, Prof. X and Magneto got themselves trapped in the Savage Land, and a quick little 2-3 minute scene from those two would be shown after the main storyline played out. That's what I'd love to see here. Havok and Polaris return to the team and take over, the team runs a mission(or whatever) and then we close out with a page or two of Madrox... But honestly, whatever PAD does here I'm sure to love!