Madrox: Multiple Choice (Prelude to X-factor)

By Peter David and Pablo Raimondi

Collects: Madrox miniseries #1-5

The Lowdown: Who is Jamie Madrox? Stabbed staggering off the bus, one of his wayward duplicates brings a mystery that Jamie must solve.

Review:
What would you do if you could go every direction at once? How would you piece together who you are if you can be everything? This is what Peter David begins to explore as he returns to the characters he made famous in the 90s.

While this miniseries is mostly about Madrox, the Multiple Man, it also acts as a prelude and reemergence of the X-factor book by bring in supporting characters Wolfsbane and Strong Guy as well.

The mood and artistic style of the story takes many cues from the noir film style and follows the footsteps of the crime comic surge that has been taking place. It also parodies this noir style all the same. Peter David often satirizes the noir style to great comedic effect. Speaking of comedic, this book is very much in vein of that comedic style as it doesn't take itself too seriously. Even in the 90's series, Peter David had a great balance of the comedy and the serious themes he tries to portray.

In this miniseries and later in the X-factor series, Peter David emphasizes the theme of identity. It's most obvious with the title character, Madrox, who could also be considered the lead character in the main series, as he tries to discover who he really is and who he wants to be. Madrox's dupes often show conflict with each other and the real Madrox, and it's a show of understanding by David about the human mind. We often have multiple parts of ourselves, and argue within ourselves about what decision to make, what direction we should take, who we are, and who we want to be. It's a constant struggle within our mind. And Madrox represents that, Madrox is the character representation of our mind. Throughout this story, Madrox shows how strong our inner conflict can be, and how fluid our identities can be. All at the same time Madrox is trying to hide his insecurity, and sometimes outright depression by cracking wise (through jokes and humor).

There are two plots in this particular book, the A-plot sees Madrox, the real one, try to solve the mystery behind the murder of one of his dupes. This plot is where most of the fun is, where a lot of the noir cues take place, and there's a ton of momentum up to the ending. The ending itself and the final reveal is hackneyed and ridiculous but still plays up the theme of "identity," and who people really are. That's really the only issue I have with it, overall the story is quite clever, there's great twists, even at the end, and allows some development in Madrox, the man, as well as Madrox, the hero (I wouldn't say superhero as he's more of a Humphrey Bogart than a Clark Kent).

The B-plot has Madrox, a dupe, Wolfsbane, and Guido being hired by a woman who thinks her husband has been cheating on him and also dealing with Madrox being a target. The B-plot isn't nearly as fun as the A-plot, there's still all the fun dialogue, but most of it feels like a distraction. Guido and Wolfsbane are great characters, and this is just their way of trying to reintroduce those characters without taking too much time away from the main character. Not much development but more of a reintroduction of who Wolfsbane and Guido are, Guido is the dumb, loud muscle and Wolfbane is the morally and religiously conflicted because of her mutant powers and her mutant identity. It's still fun just not quite as fun.

Overall: This is an excellent reintroduction to the characters and a flash of what's to come. Definitely recommended for anybody who's interested in mutants, or crime novels with some pep. Later on though, the book becomes more superhero and less noir. So keep that in mind.