“Voltaire said that God is a comedian playing to an audience thats too afraid to laugh”  I wonder if Peter David had this idea in mind throughout this darker incarnation of X-Factor.  I really enjoyed his earlier, sillier X-Factor arc, and after dropping comics for about 15 years, this was one of the titles that got me back into the medium (Thanks as always to my dear sister).  Of course, I could never have guessed back in the Shadow King on Muir Island story in 1990 (one of the first Marvel comics I ever read), that Madrox the Multiple Man would become one of the most complex and interesting characters around. 

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the art for this comic.  Sometimes it simply looks lazy, and its often pissed me off to the point of taking me out of the story.  There was a panel towards the end of issue 49 where the Sentinel’s head was just a circle. Still, the same team came up with terrific designs for future Doom and future Scott Summers.  Anyway, in issue 50, the art generally added to the story with a few moments of briliance.