This is a good comic, despite itself.
Because let’s face it… much of what’s happening is stuff we’ve seen before — warring Hell lords with “rules” about who gets dominance and we lowly humans stuck in the middle, a reluctant hero with the power to save it all if he would just embrace his destiny. It’s taken 5 issues already of this story arc, and much of it was getting a bit “spinning-the-wheels.” Thankfully, the characters remain true to their strong personalities, sharp wit, and camaraderie. It’s okay that we’ve seen this before, because we get to see what all this does to characters we like and want to see get through this.

Everything comes to head with some surprising results. I mean, sort of. We could all guess that something like this would be required to cap the storyline, but the “who” behind it all was a surprise and, like all good endings, sets up some interesting implications for the future. Although we know the title is ending soon, I’m just as excited to see what’s in store for our mutants as ever. Good writing with real characters, it shows what great talent can do with simple things.

The art has steadily improved over the issues, and I’m growing to like Leonard Kirk’s interpretations of these characters. It’s becoming hard to think of these characters in any way except through his depictions, like he’s really owning it now. One thing I always notice is Kirk’s penchant for having characters use their left hands for everything– and in the set up to the pivotal scene, the character picks up the weapon with, yes, his left hand. Usually it doesn’t distract me but for some reason Kirk seems to do this to a greater extent than other artists.

Overall, X-Factor has been a great comic and grown into a personal favorite, like a familiar friend I always like hanging out with.