While everyone else is still working in rigid story arcs, X-Factor continues to go its own way. 

The story in this issue doesn't have a title, but I'm going to assume that it's part 4 of "Multiple Issues", if only because next issue is apparently the start of "X-Cell."  This sort of thing isn't entirely unusual, because it avoids clumsy splash pages appearing near the end of the trade paperback. 

But more notably, this reads like a transitional issue between two overlapping storylines.  Around half of the issue involves Madrox meeting up with one final duplicate, who throws in a bit of foreshadowing for future stories before his thread is tied up.  The other half consists of build-up for the X-Cell storyline, about a terrorist group of ex-mutants who blame the loss of their powers on a government conspiracy.

This structure has been out of fashion for years, because it doesn't break down into discrete trade paperbacks.  As somebody who reads the comics in serial form, I'm very happy to see it making a comeback.  Besides, if you're going to market the trade paperbacks as volumes of a serial - which has always worked for manga - then I'm not convinced that it's necessary to have the hard and fast absolute division between storylines that seems to have become the norm.

Now, having said all that, this issue doesn't quite work for me when it comes to the Madrox storyline.  We've had four issues of him running around chasing down stray duplicates, and there doesn't seem to be much of a pay-off here.  He just gets a phone call summoning him back to New York.  The idea of Madrox trying to complete himself by reclaiming his wayward duplicates is an interesting one, and I was expecting a stronger resolution.  It doesn't help that the previous issue, with the priest duplicate, was actually a stronger one.

But the X-Cell are interesting villains, and a fresh angle on the under-explored Decimation storyline.  X-Factor seems to have drifted entirely from its original noir stylings by this point, in favour of becoming a more straightforward urban team book.  It works, though; Peter David's one of the best superhero writers around, and if the team are going to appear in stories about the global erasure of superhuman powers, noir isn't really the best tone.  I see it more as X-Factor broadening its palette.

Art comes from Khoi Pham, who's presumably a last-minute replacement - the solicitations had Pablo Raimondi drawing the issue.  Pham has worked with Peter David on a few projects before, and he seems a good fit for David's style.  He does a great version of Rahne, and his figures are nice and dynamic.

This is a perfectly good issue; not everything works, but the book continues to explore an interesting path.

Rating: B+

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