X-Factor vol. 1: The Longest Night

By Peter David, Ryan Sook, and Dennis Calero

Collects: X-Factor #1-6

Lowdown: Following the events of Madrox and the events of House of M, these issues catch up with the new team at X-factor detective agency and inclusion of new members M, Siryn, and Rictor along with old favorites Strong Guy, Wolfsbane (Rahne), and everyone's favorite detective, Madrox, the Multiple Man. The new team tries to find out the secret behind the decimation, dealing with violent fallouts in Mutant Town, and elite corporate crime.

Review:

Marvel has been getting a lot of slack lately for huge crossover events that eat away at every book for months and then letting the book go back to whatever they were doing before. Peter David took these cross-over events and instead of making his book weaker, it made it stronger. Case in point this book is one of the only books I've seen that deal with the events from House of M, M-day, "No More Mutants," and Decimation head-on all the while juggling his larger X-factor only plot. I always felt that Peter David's X-Factor has been the most new reader friendly and even though it has cross-over material, it explains pretty much everything you need to know in it's self-contained little corner. Ultimately it doesn't hinder this book, not in the least. It's a different method that really works for this book. I can't imagine it working for A-list or even B-list characters though.

As for this particular book, Peter David takes the technique he used in Madrox and improves upon it. There's multiple plotlines in this book: there's the fallout from M-day, the first couple of conflicts involving Singularity Investigations, the first case for X-factor, and the gathering of the new team. The biggest thing is that Peter David weaves all these plots and all the characters in and out so seamlessly, there's no distinct A Plot, B Plot, C Plot, it's all one big masterful weaving. Characters move from plot to plot and it feels much like real life, for example, Guido is involved in the Singularity plot in the beginning and later is dealing with riots in Mutant Town. Also the characters don't feel like they're fighting for page time, it's a 7 man team, and yet all the characters get their due.

As for the characters themselves, we've been over at how great of a character I think Madrox is in Peter David's hands. Yet Peter David works in this theme of identity that's so clear in Madrox's character with some of his new characters as well. Rictor, an ex-mutant, deals with the sudden loss of his powers and thus in a way his identity, his connection to the world, and his individuality. Layla Miller, a plot device in House of M, begins a journey to a full character in this series, although much of her identity is "that she knows stuff" but the consequences of this "knowing stuff" is explored here, making her a deeper character than first glance. She's a little girl with huge power in her hands and this has tremendous impact on her psyche. Layla Miller is still shrouded in mystery at this point, but it adds to her character, to the mystery of M-day that X-factor is trying to figure out, and to the plot. Plus it at times makes her downright scary.

Madrox is still at odds with himself and still takes the lead role in this book, mainly because any time there is narration, it's Madrox doing it. All the characters are great in this book and Peter David doesn't really have any trouble finding their voices. There's no real stumbles here and the dialogue is excellent and very clever, at times. All the new characters to the team are welcome editions and each one brings something new to the table.

As for the plot, Peter David doesn't seem to be writing this book for the Trade, while yes, the first major arc is contained in this trade in that it is "the longest night" and everything occurs with in 24 hours. The first major arc is that the first case involving a conflict with SI and SI's actor client as well as the riots in Mutant Town, yes these are resolved, but the larger plots of M-day consequences and Singularity Investigations conflict is still at large, making the entire series seem more fluid. There's a greater story at work here and Peter David reveals it in little steps at a time.

Along with the lots of themes of identity, there's the age-old racism theme in terms of the ex-mutants and how people react to them, there's a theme of consequences for actions in terms of Layla Miller, and there's also a lot of noir, mystery in this book that Peter David plays with but a lot more seriously than his parodied version in Madrox.

There's a stand-out issue only involving Rictor, Siryn, and an ex-mutant outcast. It's got great elements of horror throughout, and it can actually be terrifying to see how much damage M-day has done to certain people who don't know how to cope. There's various reactions, Madrox runs into a person that's happy about losing their powers, there's of course Rictor's reaction, and then there's this guy. It's an excellent issue that really puts the reader on edge. Also the final issue dealing with Layla Miller, who she is, where she's from, and what she can do is also rather great. Strong Guy has a great section where he stands up to Rictor who is bullying Layla with his accusations. Those are probably my two favorite issues of this trade.


Conclusion: This a really strong book, and even if you don't check out Madrox (which you should), this is also a good place to start. After this book, David begins to build his large story, and it could be easy to get lost. But this is a great introduction to all the characters.