X-Factor #259 recap and feels
I haven't done a recap for ages but I got this issue nice and early and I thought I should make the effort, considering it's The One With Mojo And Stuff. Warning for long and rambling ;)
As per the preview, Rictor is out in Mojo's arena, having a voiceover, musing about these 'rebels' he keeps hearing about. The next warrior who comes out to fight him is masked, but there's... something... very familiar about his speed and agility. Well, that and the double swords and the fact that 'RARRRRRR!' is his opening argument ;) So Rictor dodges and then does some quake power stuff to knock the guy's helmet off and yeah, it's Shatterstar, except he doesn't recognise Rictor at all. Then a bunch of rebels break into the arena to rescue 'Star, including Longshot who also has no clue who Ric is. Ric helps them by opening up a huge crater between the rebels and Mojo's goons and they escape to a little ruined bunker that turns out to be, well, much bigger on the inside. First pop culture reference of the issue goes to Rictor with his Doctor Who comment.
Inside the bunker is a huge science-shenanigans lab and Arize is there. He explains that 'Star (who's now in a giant test tube) 'dropped out of the sky a long time ago' and Arize, being a good comic book scientist, has been dutifully studying and cloning him for rebellion purposes ever since. Ric yells at him about that, but Arize isn't having it, he knows Mojo is aware of his every move and resistance most probably futile but he continues to do what he can. It turns out that 'Star didn't recognise Ric in the arena because he'd gone off on his own to fight Mojo and got mind-wiped, and Arize is now rebooting him back to normal. Ric talks to Longshot and queries why Longshot doesn't know him, and one of the rebels tells him that Longshot is only a few days old, being one of Arize's most recent clones... of Shatterstar. Arize clarifies that Longshot's not an exact clone, or he'd be identical. 'I extracted the mechanics of what makes your friend tick, performed modifications and improvements. To put it another way... Shatterstar is Longshot's father.'
Yep.
'Star wakes up, and this time he recognises Ric. 'You look like hell...' There's a sweet moment (sadly underdrawn) of Ric touching his face and being all 'OMG are you okay?' From what Arize said about him dropping out of the sky a long time ago, they may have been apart for a while, so d'awww.
Then Mojo turns up and spoils everything. Fight! And now he's got Spiral with him, who he says is a new recruit. Ric (helping 'Star out of his pod) wonders about this and 'Star says, 'Mephisto threw us back in time. This Longshot... it's before he came to our world. We're not *when* we're supposed to be.' Ric gets ready to fight but 'Star teleports them instead, to the same location at a later time. 'Star says that's all he's got energy for (interesting idea that travelling in time is easier for him than travelling in space). Ric hears a woman scream and goes to investigate while 'Star rests. Outside he finds Dazzler, waiting for Longshot, and in labour. Timing, guys! So he helps her into the bunker, where 'Star isn't entirely shocked to see her.
'Star: Rictor, you have to understand something. I'm a time traveller. There are things I know, events I've been waiting for. I don't know when they'll happen, but I know they do. [Who does *that* remind you of?]
Ric: So you want to tell me what's happening now?
'tar: Alison's giving birth, obviously.
Ric: Yeah, I get that. To who?
'Star: To me.
Okayyyy. Dazzler gives birth and then falls asleep, and then 'Star fires up the lab's mind-wipe technology so he can restore the timeline by erasing his parents' memories of ever having him, and he and Ric can go forward in time to leave baby 'Star with the people who are meant to raise him. The issue closes with Ric cradling baby 'Star (which is as cute as it sounds) and saying 'Man, have you got a weird life ahead of you.' He also gets to namedrop Heinlein. Heh.
...
All in all, I thought this was pretty damn good. Minor whinging:
- The artwork was technically fine, but a bit lacking in facial detail and consistency, and most importantly Ric looked all wrong with long straight hair and a beard. I think the idea was to show the passage of time he'd been locked up and maybe to hark back to the days of X-Force when he and 'Star were Hair Incorporated. Didn't work for me, though.
- No kiss. Sue me, I'm shallow.
- So 'Star is suddenly a time-traveller as well as a teleporter, with a limited power of Knowing Stuff (what's supposed to happen, but not exactly when) that would've merited more than a nod to whatever his link is with Layla. I'm going to choose to take this omission as a sign that it's still to be dealt with in whatever PAD's new book is.
- I wasn't too keen on 'Star mind-wiping his parents as briskly as he does, but I'm aware that PAD was working in a very tightly controlled continuity box here so I have to give it a pass.
Stuff I really liked:
- The explanation of the 'Star-Longshot relationship was respectful, sensible and sustainable. I love that the relationship is this perfect Moebius strip of DNA where neither of them is the 'first' and they're equally responsible for and dependent on each other. Well played, PAD. (He also steered well clear of Ben Russell, and I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved).
- They didn't get left in limbo. It seems pretty obvious that they can teleport, and that after they drop off baby 'Star they can get back to wherever they need to be.
- The cover didn't lie, well not too much. Nearly everybody who was on that cover was in the story too.
- Rictor recognised 'Star from his fighting style/body language. D'aww.
- Rictor being the voice of the issue. It worked really well to have him observing all of the Mojo madness.
- Rictor using his powers a lot.
- Rictor sitting there with baby 'Star holding onto his finger was utterly goddamn adorable in a messed-up comic-book sort of way. Not only that, but it's now canon that Rictor most likely delivered him into the world :D
In other news, PAD is going to be at SDCC this week and he's on the Marvel X-Panel on the Sunday. I'm going to take that as perhaps a hopeful sign for at least some of the X-Factor crew...
As per the preview, Rictor is out in Mojo's arena, having a voiceover, musing about these 'rebels' he keeps hearing about. The next warrior who comes out to fight him is masked, but there's... something... very familiar about his speed and agility. Well, that and the double swords and the fact that 'RARRRRRR!' is his opening argument ;) So Rictor dodges and then does some quake power stuff to knock the guy's helmet off and yeah, it's Shatterstar, except he doesn't recognise Rictor at all. Then a bunch of rebels break into the arena to rescue 'Star, including Longshot who also has no clue who Ric is. Ric helps them by opening up a huge crater between the rebels and Mojo's goons and they escape to a little ruined bunker that turns out to be, well, much bigger on the inside. First pop culture reference of the issue goes to Rictor with his Doctor Who comment.
Inside the bunker is a huge science-shenanigans lab and Arize is there. He explains that 'Star (who's now in a giant test tube) 'dropped out of the sky a long time ago' and Arize, being a good comic book scientist, has been dutifully studying and cloning him for rebellion purposes ever since. Ric yells at him about that, but Arize isn't having it, he knows Mojo is aware of his every move and resistance most probably futile but he continues to do what he can. It turns out that 'Star didn't recognise Ric in the arena because he'd gone off on his own to fight Mojo and got mind-wiped, and Arize is now rebooting him back to normal. Ric talks to Longshot and queries why Longshot doesn't know him, and one of the rebels tells him that Longshot is only a few days old, being one of Arize's most recent clones... of Shatterstar. Arize clarifies that Longshot's not an exact clone, or he'd be identical. 'I extracted the mechanics of what makes your friend tick, performed modifications and improvements. To put it another way... Shatterstar is Longshot's father.'
Yep.
'Star wakes up, and this time he recognises Ric. 'You look like hell...' There's a sweet moment (sadly underdrawn) of Ric touching his face and being all 'OMG are you okay?' From what Arize said about him dropping out of the sky a long time ago, they may have been apart for a while, so d'awww.
Then Mojo turns up and spoils everything. Fight! And now he's got Spiral with him, who he says is a new recruit. Ric (helping 'Star out of his pod) wonders about this and 'Star says, 'Mephisto threw us back in time. This Longshot... it's before he came to our world. We're not *when* we're supposed to be.' Ric gets ready to fight but 'Star teleports them instead, to the same location at a later time. 'Star says that's all he's got energy for (interesting idea that travelling in time is easier for him than travelling in space). Ric hears a woman scream and goes to investigate while 'Star rests. Outside he finds Dazzler, waiting for Longshot, and in labour. Timing, guys! So he helps her into the bunker, where 'Star isn't entirely shocked to see her.
'Star: Rictor, you have to understand something. I'm a time traveller. There are things I know, events I've been waiting for. I don't know when they'll happen, but I know they do. [Who does *that* remind you of?]
Ric: So you want to tell me what's happening now?
'tar: Alison's giving birth, obviously.
Ric: Yeah, I get that. To who?
'Star: To me.
Okayyyy. Dazzler gives birth and then falls asleep, and then 'Star fires up the lab's mind-wipe technology so he can restore the timeline by erasing his parents' memories of ever having him, and he and Ric can go forward in time to leave baby 'Star with the people who are meant to raise him. The issue closes with Ric cradling baby 'Star (which is as cute as it sounds) and saying 'Man, have you got a weird life ahead of you.' He also gets to namedrop Heinlein. Heh.
...
All in all, I thought this was pretty damn good. Minor whinging:
- The artwork was technically fine, but a bit lacking in facial detail and consistency, and most importantly Ric looked all wrong with long straight hair and a beard. I think the idea was to show the passage of time he'd been locked up and maybe to hark back to the days of X-Force when he and 'Star were Hair Incorporated. Didn't work for me, though.
- No kiss. Sue me, I'm shallow.
- So 'Star is suddenly a time-traveller as well as a teleporter, with a limited power of Knowing Stuff (what's supposed to happen, but not exactly when) that would've merited more than a nod to whatever his link is with Layla. I'm going to choose to take this omission as a sign that it's still to be dealt with in whatever PAD's new book is.
- I wasn't too keen on 'Star mind-wiping his parents as briskly as he does, but I'm aware that PAD was working in a very tightly controlled continuity box here so I have to give it a pass.
Stuff I really liked:
- The explanation of the 'Star-Longshot relationship was respectful, sensible and sustainable. I love that the relationship is this perfect Moebius strip of DNA where neither of them is the 'first' and they're equally responsible for and dependent on each other. Well played, PAD. (He also steered well clear of Ben Russell, and I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or relieved).
- They didn't get left in limbo. It seems pretty obvious that they can teleport, and that after they drop off baby 'Star they can get back to wherever they need to be.
- The cover didn't lie, well not too much. Nearly everybody who was on that cover was in the story too.
- Rictor recognised 'Star from his fighting style/body language. D'aww.
- Rictor being the voice of the issue. It worked really well to have him observing all of the Mojo madness.
- Rictor using his powers a lot.
- Rictor sitting there with baby 'Star holding onto his finger was utterly goddamn adorable in a messed-up comic-book sort of way. Not only that, but it's now canon that Rictor most likely delivered him into the world :D
In other news, PAD is going to be at SDCC this week and he's on the Marvel X-Panel on the Sunday. I'm going to take that as perhaps a hopeful sign for at least some of the X-Factor crew...