Sometimes you find a way to concur death, and wouldn’t cha know it? Someone died in a dimension obsessed with creating #content and you gotta find out if this is some ARG or a real murder. That’s where X-Factor comes in. They investigate the deaths so that mutants might once again live. Join Leah Williams, David Baldeón, and Israel Silva as they explore this new world order in X-Factor #2.
Cori McCreery: It’s my favorite week of the month! X-Factor weeks are always the highlight of my month! This time we have our regular line-up for Factor Fiction (you can still catch issue one substitute Dan and I over at It’s Morphin’ Time). Andrea I’ve been waiting to work with you for months and it’s finally here! Andrea, we’re both survivors of Fallen Angels coverage, doesn’t it feel great to talk about a book that’s enjoyable?
Andrea Ayres: I am so freakin’ excited Cori. I am incredi-stoked to hear about your takes on fashion, fights and friendship. I have many praises to laud on you Cori but being a preeminent scholar on all things dope AF, I’d love for you to give me your impressions on issue #2. So let me have it!
Don’t Let Him Eat That!
CM: Last issue was all team building and solving that first case, this issue opens with the reunion we’d been building towards. And what an absolutely heartwarming reunion it is, as Aurora and Northstar embrace. We also got to see some more of the team dynamics at work, especially with Daken introducing himself to Jeanne-Marie. What’d you think about the immediate flirtation?
AA: It’s definitely on brand. I agree with what you said about the team dynamics too! They come out even more when the package Jeanne-Marie picked out from outside the team lair explodes. You can see how excited everyone is to use their skill set to help solve a new mystery. One of my fav panels occurs when everyone is asking Jeanne-Marie questions and you can see her begin to shrink into herself. Unable to take it anymore, she screams “HUSH!”
It’s nice that we get to see what it is like for people who have been resurrected. Sure, not dying sounds great but there are a lot of costs to immortality and it feels good that we’re getting to see them. One thing I appreciate from the work of David Baldeón in this issue is his attention to facial expressions, particularly the moment pictured above with Jeanne-Marie. Overall, there’s an absolute feeling that Leah’s work doesn’t sing as fully without David. I feel they both have an awareness of that. What did you think?
CM: Yeah, this is definitely something I’m expecting to see played with more in this series. Before X-Factor most of our resurrection protocol stuff had come in the pages of X-Force. This is presented much differently, because it’s a much different situation. Frankly, I love all the little snippets we get with Jeanne-Marie this issue, including her bonding with my favorite new character Amazing Baby! What did you think of Amazing Baby’s little dinner time snack?
AA: Like I know we can imagine what the red goop is, but do we really know? On page 10 when Jean-Paul says the team needs uniforms followed by the panel on page 11… feels like a moment straight out of a 90’s blockbuster film. I am thinking specifically of that 1998 classic, Armageddon. Come to think of it, there’s a lot of the humor and pacing that feels like a throwback to that time. It might be the use of sarcasm as well. What do you think of their uniforms? Do you have a favorite?
CM: It probably comes as a shock to absolutely nobody that Lorna’s costume is my favorite. All of them are incredible, but Lorna’s meshes with her personality in a way that the rest haven’t caught up to yet. Hers truly seems like a combination of clothes she’d wear regularly and a traditional uniform. I love that they all (except Akihiro) have the jackets, but hers pairing with the crop top and skirt is just… chef’s kiss. And also of course her metal crown, because she’s a freaking princess. But really truly, absolute mad props for all of the costume AND fashion work in this comic by David Baldeón. He has caused me to completely rethink my wardrobe, and I can’t wait to keep adding to it. Which one is your favorite?
AA: I mean Lorna’s is next level and I love it. I don’t mind Rachel’s but I am averse to the balloon pants, but oh well. I know Baldeón was responsible for the conceptualization of these costumes and he deserves all the applause for them. The way they invoke and play up each character’s personalities in different ways is so nice. I also love the gentle incorporation of the team logo into each costume. So well done. I especially appreciate that these costumes have been created and designed with movement in mind. Thank you.
The Headshot TV reminded me very much of those commercials in Cowboy Bebop “Big Shot” commercials. I don’t even know why. I think I’m just having a thing where I’m filtering everything through a weird late ‘90s early Aughts lens. This is what pandemic living has done to me. Whatever, I get it. It’s a streaming service, move on Andrea. Point is, I wish people felt about me the way they seem to about Rachel. “I am frightened. yet. turned on.” As an aside, the Mojoworld App sounds terrifying, much like Parler. Also, Akihiro can’t seem to stop himself can he?
We DO Wanna See His Whole Tattoo
CM: Mojo stuff is really hard to get right, you see a lot of creators try to do it and fail, but I don’t think that’s the case here. I think Leah Williams is absolutely the perfect fit for Mojoverse shenanigans, because she’s evolving it in a natural way. Of course Mojo would have moved to interactive smartphone integration to entertain his masses, like a sadistic Big Brother. The idea that you can’t even cross the border if the public doesn’t like you is just wonderful, and I agree with XXXavierFiles that the rest of the voters were COWARDS to not let Akihiro bare it all. That is probably my favorite page of the whole series so far. Also the cut from Akihiro telling Jean Paul that he’s just going home to hit on Jeanne-Marie, to her sitting on the couch watching is just fantastic.
AA: “No entry without brand sponsorship.” This line got me thinking, I really want to pick Leah’s brains about commodification of fan spaces. Seriously, let me talk about user generated content because it is one of my favorite f*cking things to discuss. Most notably how brands determine which form of UGC is acceptable to them and which isn’t. Hint: If it can be quantified, measured, and re-distributed in a way that benefits the brand they tend to be for it. Point is, I’m excited to see where Leah takes this. [Ed. note: Just us here, whistling, not at all being guilty of exactly this]
Gotta talk about page 21, the page with Rachel is one of my favs of the issue. Okay, there I talked about it. What did you think about the latter half of the issue and what it is setting up?
That’s Not Safe You Dumbass!
CM: One thing I continue to love is that Lorna is truly stepping back. She’s got the experience, she’s got the tactical know-how, but it’s Northstar’s show, and she’s making sure that he knows it. Right before your favorite page is another of my favorite panels of the issue, with her sly smirk, beautifully drawn by David Baldeón , just calmly asking permission to WRECK MOJO’S S***. Lorna starts it, everyone else finishes it, and it’s just such good synergy! And then Northstar has gank it all up by flying headfirst into danger. This sets up where we’re going to start next issue, and does it brilliantly with Leah’s humor too. I lost it at “Why is my mouf numb?” Speaking of next issue, one of the data pages is a chart of the top streamers in the Mojoverse, a couple are pretty obvious, but who do you think we’re going to see?
AA: The ‘mouf numb’ bit is just kind of adorable? It’s just a great bit of characterization. With respect to who else we are going to see? LAWD I dunno fam! I’m afraid of what will come though. I’m afraid because there wasn’t a TON that happened in issue #2. We got some great foundational character and group dynamic building, which is great because we need that (Duh). But it makes me the nervous for what is coming in issue #3. Then, THEN! We have the heartwarming scene at the end of this issue which basically just indicates it’s all gunna go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks. MAYBE I’m wrong?
CM: God yes! Amazing Baby and Jeanne-Marie steal the show. Just cuddled up monching popcorn watching their friends get themselves into a lick of trouble, just great. And yeah, things are just going to get MESSY next month. We’re definitely going to see Spiral, and I THINK that’s Shatterstar’s logo? Who is MA though and why are they trending so low? HMMMMMM. Anyway, stan Amazing Baby, never stan Mojo.
X-Trenuous Thoughts
- Standard disclosure that Leah is a friend, but we’re being as objective as we can for a book where a perversion of the site’s Twitter account asks to see an X-Men character’s hog.
- The team looks like they are going to drop the hottest album of 2020.
- Okay but did nobody tell Trevor to look at the camera? What a sweet baby boy.
- argorilla_ correcting Sheldon88’s homophobic comment is a completely me move, and I approve.
- Interesting bit of lore about the Five there, and how they make backups for themselves? How does that work? I want to know.
- Krakoan reads: Spiral
Andrea Ayres is a freelance writer and pop culture journalist.
Yes, it's Cori McCreery—strange visitor from DC fandom who came to Xavier Files with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal critics. Cori, who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, race a speeding bullet to its target, bend steel in her bare hands, and who, also works as an editor for a great Eisner winning website, Women Write About Comics, fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice.
