X-Factor #9 annotations
X-FACTOR vol 5 #9
“Lost Causes”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Darren Shan
X-FACTOR
Archangel. He’s now being pushed as the star of the team. Back in issue #1, Broderick seemed to think that the whole point of X-Factor was to build around Archangel’s popularity, and told Warren that “they are your supporting cast. You don’t need competition.” Since he returned from hospital, Warren (and X-Factor’s military backers) seem to be acting according to that agenda. Obviously, Warren’s behaviour remains out of character.
He seems to be regarded as the most truly loyal team member, and is sent to personally deal with Polaris while most of X-Factor are packed off on a nicer mission to keep them out of the way.
His new wings are non-ferrous, so Polaris can’t affect them.
Xyber. He worries that one of his own electromagnetic pulses will kill him, a concern that he previously raised in issue #7 (and he seemed exhausted after using his power in issue #1). However, he heroically risks death in order to destroy the quantum computer for his team. It’s speed-running a subplot, basically.
Granny Smite. She distracts the Black Wolf military by drawing their fire, and it seems clear that she is indeed invulnerable and not just immortal. She tells Xyber that losing her family made her realise that she cares more about her loved ones than she does about life itself, and advises him to worry more about the people he loves than about the risk of death. She claims to be “80% sane”, and her conversation with Xyber feels like the first time we’ve seen her drop the act and talk candidly.
Cecilia Reyes. Like Xyber and Granny Smite, she opts for Alex’s mission. (Granny Smite implies that she got on the wrong plane, but she’s probably joking.)
Pyro. He goes with Archangel on the official mission, but seems to be left to pilot the j et.
Forget-me-Not. He also goes on the official mission, which is a bit odd given his nice-guy status. Because of his powers, Archangel and Pyro both forget that he’s there. Does he no longer have access to the devices that he used on Krakoa to avoid this problem? Or does he actually want to take advantage of it? We never did find out why he signed up for this team.
SUPPORTING CAST
Havok. I know he’s really still the main character, but he’s not a team member any more, so he goes here. He and Frenzy have either moved to New York since we last saw them, or they arrange to meet General Mills there for some reason.
By the end of the issue, Havok has basically come to agree with the line that Mark Russell has been taking throughout this series: the mutants needed to stick together rather than letting the humans play divide and conquer by taking advantage of their desire to make it in the human world. They’ve let the humans dictate terms to them.
Polaris. She’s holed up in Colombia at the moment.
VILLAINS
Dr Doom. One World Under Doom is still in progress. He’s on surprisingly good terms with…
Ethan Farthing. Farthing believes that Doom is launching a “new era of regulatory freedom… for me, anyway”, which may be an ambitious view of his relationship with the popular megalomaniac. He’s planning to launch Doom-themed implants, based on the mind-control implants worn by the population of Gigosha in issue #7. If General Mills is to be believed, Doom will use these to gain mind control over the entire planet, though quite why he needs it when he’s already running the world is unclear.
General Mills. She wants to stop Farthing from launching his Doom implants, and to that end she wants Havok and Frenzy to destroy the quantum computer that Black Wolf stole from Gigosha in issue #7. This might all be a red herring, since a major purpose of the mission is seemingly to keep most of X-Factor distracted while Archangel goes after Polaris. But if that was the only purpose of the mission then it’s not obvious why she’d bother tracking down Havok and Frenzy in the first place. And she did seem to genuinely want the computer destroyed in issue #7, so it makes sense that she’d have another go.
Black Wolf. The mutant strike-force of Trident, Strych9 and Ordo who were previously seen in issue #7, and who got away with the quantum computer at the end of the issue. Here, they also have a regular looking bunch of soldiers armed with conventional weapons. The weird missile-launcher things on Ordo’s arms are apparently not armour, but his actual hands; understandably, he would like to change this. Strych9 feels so strongly about not going back to Nevermor that he attempts to use his powers to kill everyone on X-Factor’s plane, including his own teammates.
FOOTNOTES:
- Mills says that she, Frenzy and Havok “did not part under the best circumstances.” Frenzy was fired in issue #6 and Havok quit at the end of the same issue.
- McCloud escaped from Nevermor in issue #5.
- Havok asked Mills to find Polaris and make sure she was safe between issues #2-3, presumably – in the opening scene of issue #3, he repeats the request to Broderick as if it’s been made before.
- X-Factor failed to destroy the Fartech quantum computer on their mission to Gigosha in issue #7.
- The Russian sign next to the red light in Black Wolf’s meeting room just says “Alert!”
- I imagine you all recognise “Copacabana” as the Barry Manilow song from 1978, but in case you don’t, that’s what it is.
- Granny Smite’s back story of losing her family comes from issue #3.
- Havok sarcastically tells Black Wolf that Nevermor is a great prison because it has a “smart fridge”. McCloud used the smart fridge in his cell to leak information to X-Term, as revealed in issue #5.
It’s not surprising when you realize that Marvel keeps trying to force this Dr. Doom into the unlikely role of Donald Trump, no matter how much this doesn’t match with other aspects of OWUD, and Farthing is an obvious stand-in for Elon Musk. I don’t blame Russell for working within a poor premise he was given.
I’m wondering if Marvel forgot to tell writers that “Dr. Doom is Trump now.” when Russell wrote the Gigosha story.
I found the Granny Smite scene to be funny.
“You. What’s your mutant power?”
“I can’t die.”
“OK. No one try to kill her, and her mutant power is neutralized.”
Non-ferrous objects are to Magneto and Polaris as the colour yellow is to Green Lantern. Never mind that they can make magnetic shields that deflect lead bullets and human fists, they are completely vulnerable to any metal object that’s been rendered non-ferrous.
Recently reading later ’70s Marvel comics, Doom already brainwashed the entire population of Earth, OFF-PANEL, in Super-Villain Team-Up (with, but really against Magneto) and Champions. Plus there was Emperor Doom. Doing that again would be dull – though I guess that doesn’t mean the characters in this story shouldn’t be wary of it.
Yes, that was a great story in Super-Villain Team-Up. Doom decides he’s just bored of the whole thing and gives it up. That’s how you write this story.
By now, the very concept, itself, is dull. Doom ruled all of existence in Hickman’s Secret Wars. There was Ellis’ Doom 2099, in a similar vein. Doom conquers the world every decade. It’s no longer interesting.
There’s a potentially interesting idea in the setup for “One World under Doom,” which is the “exact words” bit from Blood Hunt. Doom is Sorcerer Supreme to “save the world,” which means he keeps the powers until that’s done from his perspective.
There could have been a more interesting element than “Doom uses that as an excuse for world takeover,” something which we’ve seen before (and which would logically mean that he’d lose these boosted magical powers the second he actually wins).
Instead, they could hav played a bit more with the “exact words” thing and stuck Doom with Dr. Strange’s workload more directly, not letting him offload it onto Spider-Man or whatever.
It’s a bit odd that getting the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme is this much of a power-up for Doom, who’s had much greater magical power through other means in stories like “Unthinkable” and has gotten stuff like the Power Cosmic more than once. Does this mean that Doctor Strange could conquer the world any time he felt like it?
“If General Mills is to be believed, Doom will use these to gain mind control over the entire planet, though quite why he needs it when he’s already running the world is unclear.”
In One World Under Doom, the heroes believe that Doom has taken over the world leaders by magic and they’ve got Wanda, Maddie and Mordo trying to undo whatever spell Doom put over the world leaders. It makes sense for Doom to develop a backup scientific way of controlling the world in case they succeed.
I know this book is bad, but I can’t help but love Granny Smite. Her power is boring on paper and also now insanely physics-defining, but her longing for death just makes her fun. She could do a team-up with Mystique, Wolverine, Destiny and Apocalypse and they could ask why she’s the only mutant to remember the Roaring 20’s who actually aged. Hopefully they’ll bring her back next time they need someone to tank a threat that Colossus, Deadpool and Sebastian Shaw can’t take.
I gotta agree with John. While so much of this book remains … underwhelming, erratic, and downright weird in an offputting way, Granny Smite is a delightful character in her own way. Pair her with Deadpool and Mister Immortal and you’d really have a good team for… some reason.
For most of the rest of this, I just want the characters released from Russell’s control and sent back into the wild to roam free and recuperate until needed again. Maybe we could get Alex, Warren, Cecilia, Joanna, Xyber, Granny, and Polaris and set them up as an independent team instead.
@Chris V- Doom gives up because he gets bored in Emperor Doom. In Super Villain Team-Up he gets exposed to his mind-control gas and driven mad by the paradox. (“But Doom must be slave to no man. But Doom must be slave to Doom.”) I don’t blame you for getting them mixed up, considering how many “Doom takes over the world” stories there have been.
@Omar- Well so far all he’s done is create a dome around Latveria and seemingly mind control the leaders of every country in the world. Both of those are arguably within Strange’s power. And he’s turned the Thing back into Ben Grimm but Strange has done that temporarily before.
The really iffy part might come next week. Judging from the preview images, in next week’s One World under Doom. Doom fights Mordo. Wanda, Maddie and Thor simultaneously. Although Mordo has often needed help from outside sources like Dormammu to fight Strange on equal terms.Strange’s not supposed to be THAT much more powerful than Mordo. We can’t have Mordo get help from Wanda ,Maddie and Thor every time he fights Strange just to be a credible threat. But we’ll have to see how North handles it.
@Michael: Well, there *is* the Dormammu Invasion of Earth coming up.
@ John
What we really need is Granny Smite as written by Peter David. That guy has an incredible knack for exploring the psychology of C-list characters via novel uses of their powers.
And I guess in Granny Smite’s case, Z-list. What comes after ‘Z’?
Depends who you ask. “Ź” in my parts.
Ź-list superhero.
I’m just sad how underutilised and even worse, dull, Frenzy and Cecilia have been in this series. It’s really frustrating.
In Swedish Z is followed by Å Ä Ö. 🙂
I suppose Adam X is Ö list.
By this logic, Omega level mutants should be the ones with absolutely rubbish powers, like Tarbaby.