Review: X-Factor #205

The members of X-Factor are hounded by the MRD all over the world as Bastion observes and plots.
 

The Good

There were more than couple notably cool parts in this issue. Shatterstar's surprise introduction, where he calmly skewers an MRD agent, was wonderfully macabre in its black humor. The part where Banshee flings some goons at the MRD's own tranq darts, only from them to fly around them to get at her, was a great series of surprises. I also liked Rictor's ruse and "hip" reveal, even though I'm not sure if an MRD agent would be that forthcoming to some random homeless guy on the street. David's always great at mixing at character and humor, running from sly jokes like Banshee getting told to "keep her voice down" to more lewd ones like Longshot's frank explanation of what he's usually up to Dazzler. You always get the goods of a mutant book, so to speak, with a wink.

The Bad

I wasn't feeling de Landro's art throughout this. It seemed really under-detailed, such that the colorist, Jeromy Cox, had to pick up a lot of the slack by filling in backgrounds with manipulated photos or texture patterns.  I don't know if he's reliant on references, but the action scenes looked a little flat, especially when some extreme angles would make the anatomy look awkward. While the dialogue is great in general, I was drawn out in a few parts, like when Darwin was describing exactly what his powers are. I realize that new readers need to be clued in, but it came off as kind of unnatural for him to describing that to his enemies, let alone himself. Also, Madrox addressed Longshot by name enough times, it started feeling like a dialogue redundancy that an editor might have missed.

The Verdict - 3.5/5

I don't think this is an essential tie-in to Second Coming, but it's a solid issue of a X-Factor. I had some issues with the art being kind of drab, but David brings enough zest in the script to balance it out. Seeing all these mutant bumping heads, even if it isn't over the most earth-shattering matters, is still some good fun.