Review in Brief: X-Factor: The Longest Night

I haven't done one of these in a while. Partly it's because I haven't had much crossing my desk that has generated a lot of enthusiasm, but mostly it's because writing has been really hard for me this winter. A little bit of burn-out, I think. But I've started a new comic series that looks interesting -- X-Factor.

The Darkest Night in the first compilation of Volume 3 of X-Factor, so the introductions are somewhat rudimentary. The basic set-up is that the team, which includes James Madrox, the Multiple Man; Guido, the Strong Guy; Wolfsbane, a shape-shifter with a religious bent; Siryn, whose voice can shatter just about anything; Rictor, a "living earthquake"; and Monet, who seems to be a multi-purpose witch, forms a detective agency, for lack of a better word. There's also something of a wild card included, Layla Miller, who "knows things" -- but no one knows what her allegiance is. This is post-Decimation, an event in which most of the world's mutants were stripped of their powers. Basically, the group works in Mutantown with what remains of the mutants, both with and without powers. And of course, someone is out to get them.

I had some reservations about this, because it was scripted by Peter David, and my previous run-ins with his work have been less than positive. As it happens, it's a good script -- he's not trying to be funny. It's sharp and tight, good dialogue, and good character development.

The art is kind of variable, although the volume doesn't really give you specifics on who did which chapters. Ryan Sook's drawing is appealing, sort of in the Jim Cheung/John Cassaday vein, but not as detailed. There are a couple of chapters that go very high-contrast that makes the images sometimes hard to read.

The main reason I started this series is that, eventually, Rictor and Shatterstar develop a relationship (which actually doesn't happen until volumes 7 and 8, which are on their way -- Shatterstar hasn't joined the team yet. There is, however, a very revealing frame in Avengers: The Chidren's Crusade, that establishes that they are a couple. I may review that one next.). It'll be interesting to see how David handles that one.