Monday, September 28, 2009

X-Factor #48

X-Factor #48: Writer- Peter David Pencils- Valentine De Landro

What Happened: We start in the future where Falcone, the man responsible for the Sentinel program, is speaking to his mystery benefactor, Damian Tryp(!!!). Falcone thinks all of their plans are shot after his confrontation with the President's staff at the White House, but Tryp assures Falcone that everything should still work out(meaning mutantkind would be eradicated in the past), provided Layla Miller doesn't screw everything up for the evildoers. Old Cyclops doesn't like the fact that Madrox brought old Dr. Doom back to the secret headquarters of the Summers Rebellion, and when Scott confronts Doom, Doom knocks Scott on his backside... Old Doom officially rules. From there we head back to the present where Cortex is battling Monet and Siryn. Both women are shocked that Cortex has Madrox's face and Cortex uses that momentary distraction to knock Monet several blocks away. Siryn attacks Cortex, but really can't manage to harm him. After toying with Siryn, Cortex throws her down an elevator shaft. By this point, Monet is back in the picture and she puts her fist straight through Cortex's chest(!) as revenge for Cortex taking over her mind for the past several issues. Back in the future, Madrox brings old Doom to a lab and asks him if he would be able to create a device that would return Cortex to the future, to which old Doom responds, "Easily". Going back to the present, Siryn is horrified when she climbs up the elevator shaft and finds Monet standing over the body of Cortex. Before the women can make a move, Cortex(obviously not dead)teleports away and heads back towards his original target, the mother of the unborn Hecat'e. Darwin(who is with the woman)stands between Cortex and the woman, but before Cortex can blast Darwin to smithereens, Cortex's hand is lopped off by Shatterstar, who along with Rictor and Guido have suddenly arrived on the scene, ending this issue.

What I thought: Do you even have to ask? I loved this issue! Where do I even begin? Old Tryp being revealed as the key baddie in the future came as a total unexpected shock to me. I honestly didn't see that one coming! I may have to dig out my old issues of X-Factor to give myself a refresher course on who Tryp was again, he's been gone for quite some time now. I know he ran Singularity Investigations(I think)and frequently ran afoul of Madrox and X-Factor. Besides that, I'm still really enjoying Cortex, and I hope he manages to survive this storyline and continue to menace X-Factor well into the future. Then there's old Doom... What can I even say about old Doom? Every panel he appears on puts a smile on my face. If there was an old Doom mini-series I'd buy three copies of every issue! Well, Peter is continuing to move all of the pieces expertly around this comic, and the the final confrontation between X-Factor and the Summers Rebellion against Tryp, Cortex, Falcone and his Sentinels should be epic to say the least. Needless to say I can't wait for the next issue.

Score: 9 out of 10.All hail his excellency, Victor Von Doom!

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