"Not Brand X" covers the first 6 issues of All-New X-Factor, the 2014 series by Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer), with Rachelle Rosenberg replacing Loughridge as colorist for issue 4.
X-Factor has, at various times, referred to a covert (in the sense they pretended to be mutant-hunters), corporate-funded attempt to find and train young mutants, a government-sponsored super-team, and a detective agency. This version is a bit of the first two, as the team (assembled haphazardly over the course of this tpb) works for Serval Industries, as their corporate spokepeople/mascot/troubleshooters.
So, the team comes together over the course of a few different missions. In one case, Serval has intel a noted researcher is experimenting on mutants for AIM, and so the team goes to make a rescue (and Serval's CEO gets to offer the scientist a job.) In another, someone manage to hack Serval's systems and swipe several million dollars. This leads them to a technomancer who's using Danger. As in, the sentient Danger Room that was yet another retconned piece of assholery added to Xavier's ever-growing list. One wonders when Chuck found the time to train any mutants.
David keeps each mission to 1 or 2 issues, while still allowing time to hint at other things going on where the heroes aren't looking. The CEO had some nanobot camera installed in Polaris' eye when she wasn't looking. He's also sleeping with his top assistant, but his wife knows about it. And there's the question of what he wants with the researcher the team captured.
The team is a peculiar mix of unstable personalities and loyalties. Polaris had apparently been acting unstable again recently, and seems to alternate between responsible adult and really aggressive and violent. Gambit decides this is more productive than pretending to be a teacher at Logan's school, and less restrictive on his thieving. He's still kind of a shitbag, but perceptive enough to realize Quicksilver's here to spy on them for the (Uncanny) Avengers, specifically, for Havok.
Alex Summers continuing to manage the impressive feat of being the worst Summers brother. How?! He's related to Cyclops! The bar to clear is so subterranean the Mole Man couldn't find it! And yet, still manages to be worse!
Danger's blunt, with limited respect for personal boundaries or discretion. In her defense, everyone keeps lying to her for various reasons. When it turns out a company Serval planned to acquire is actually run by Warlock's dad the Magus, and Warlock appears to be helping, the team goes to visit a suicidal Doug Ramsey, and that eventually brings Warlock (instantly smitten with Danger) into the fold.
Di Giandomenico's art is highly detailed. The individual wires, cables or metal plates that make up Danger or Warlock lovingly rendered. Or the creases in Gambit's leather jacket, or his stubble. Unfortunately, between there typically being a lot of panels on a given page, those details can get a bit muddled. It's not always easy to tell what's going on in panels with multiple characters or a lot of action. When there's more room, a broader shot, or a close-up focused on just one character, it's less of an issue, but there are times it's muddled. I don't really like the colored lenses Polaris and Gambit wear over their eyes, like sunglasses with no stem or connective pieces. At certain times, they almost seem like they are the characters' eyes, and it always feels wrong in a way that draws me up short.
Most of the time, Loughridge's colors run towards yellows and oranges - which seem to be Serval's company colors - which seems to work all right. But he seems to favor deeper or darker tones on his colors, to the point those yellows almost feel like a weight. And when he goes to darker colors, the purple he uses for Doug's nightmare, for example, it obscures the art to the point I can hardly tell what I'm looking at. (It doesn't help that Di Giandomenico's Evil Future Doug looks so little like his present day self, I would have never known who it was if Karma didn't say his name. He looks more like Trevor Fitzroy.)
David doesn't really explain whatever is going on in the characters recent history - I don't know why Doug's having dreams of an older version of himself turning evil and torturing his old New Mutants pals, or when Polaris got drunk and tried to kill Quicksilver - but those are apparently things that happened, and David uses them to create a roster that seems to be there either for lack of better options, or some misplaced sense of loyalty. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of unity among the cast, which is at least a way for potential future discord, or simply for them not to catch up to whatever Serval's really doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment