All-New X-Factor #15 – Review

This is a wonderfully action-packed issue with a little something for everyone to do, and it sets itself up as the middle chapter in a (likely) three-issue arc. It takes its set-up from the events in Avengers and X-Men: Axis story, or at least I think it does. There was no segue from the previous issue into this one, leaving the set-up to be just a reference in the “Previously” page and some lip-service by Polaris a couple of times. It’s also taking such a tangential angle that it’s almost a disservice. It’s possible for a regular series to have a good tie-in to a publishing event, like having your cake and eating it, too, but I can’t help but feel this comic is taking some cake, eating it, but making sure not to enjoy it with every slow, frowning bite.

A really nice thing is that this issue is very nicely balanced among all the characters. A key sequence features a Polaris versus Gambit moment, but all the members of the team get a moment, too. In P v. G, there’s some nice display of powers, and Gambit proves a smart fighter. Polaris is very forgiving, however, and nothing really comes out of it, which is surprising given that the two have been bouncing off of each other from the start.

The art for this sequence isn’t as strong, relying on large areas of empty space that get filled with effects and explosions. It makes it eye-popping and colorful, but the better panels also have some relationships of other characters and/or environment, to help with the scale and context. Warlock’s save, for example, could be more dramatic if the art capitalized on the fact that there were wires coming out of his mouth. As presented, it doesn’t “read” very well.   

I want to point out Georgia’s moment, too, since Cypher decided to shepherd two preteen girls into the heat of a riot for some reason. Georgia is the one who nearly wipes out the crowd, bordering on the pseudo-supervillain, while Luna and Cypher are relatively useless. Georgia declares she “wants a uniform” to my exasperation. What, exactly, can she bring to this team? Other than a constant reminder to Cypher how his idea for a mission seven or so issues ago went horribly wrong? There’s so much going on with other characters and so much to still establish about the team that Georgia’s is one more storyline dragging attention way from more interesting elements.

The art, again, is nice when characters are posing, often floating between panels. Some of the layout/sequencing just isn’t effective, though, such as when Luna is about to be shot. The angle of the layout shifts so dramatically that it doesn’t read as a continuous moment, when it would be more effective to visually be as similar as possible *before* the characters move. Luna is carried away in the space of a bullet by her father Quicksilver, a move that we have seen to good effect in movies (X-Men: Days of Future Past!) and on TV (yay, The Flash!) but comics are not film and what works visually on film can’t be expressed the same way in comics. I’ve looked at this page a lot, and I can see the layout working if the coloring between the panels were more consistent and if dialogue was clipped between them– as I said, perhaps to read as a continuous moment.       

-Danny Wall