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Every once in awhile, a series comes to an end, and it's a pretty big deal to me. The last one was probably Excalibur, and I rambled about that for a bit. Now, the end of X-Factor has come to pass. Again. But I'll get to that.
I've been reading X-Factor off and on since...well, since before there was even such a thing as a web browser. I remember when the book intrudoced this character called Apocalypse, I remember the Fall of the Mutants. I remember one of my all time favourite comic book stories EVER with the Judgment War, and I remember when they decided it was time to bring the original five X-Men back to the X-Men and give X-Factor to some random leftover characters, written by some guy called Peter David, with issue 71.
Now, PAD is more than 'some guy' and even back then he was more than that, but I had yet to hear of him, outside of knowing vaguely of his Hulk run which was going well by that time.
Peter shifted the tone of the book and made it quite funny, in much the same vein as Excalibur, although it was probably more grounded in reality than that book's craziness was. His run on the book would become critically accalimed, with one of the highlights being issue #87, which is rememebred by most everyone that reads it. In that issue he took a pause from all the action and managed to write one of the best talking head books ever, with the team being analyzed by comic psychologist and gamma-powered hero, Doc Samson. It became THE issue that defined Quicksilver's personality, and so much more.
Sadly, his run on the book ended up being rather short, in the grand scheme of things. He was off the book by issue 100, and many of his outstanding plots were either dropped, or mishandled by new writers.
With PAD's departure, the book also shifted in tone, and became more serious, despite having many of the same characters, and it became Just Another X-Book, with this one's hook being, "But they work for the government!"
After that, the book changed ideas and team members pretty regularly up until the book was squished under the weight of cancellation with issue 149. Havok went on to an alternate universe for a bit, but X-Factor didn't return for a number of years, with a four issue unrelated miniseries in between.
In the mid 2000s, PAD brought back the character of Jamie Madrox in an eponymous miniseries, and it was so well-received, that it almost immediately led into an X-Factor revival.
The new title was mostly well-received like its predescesor, but I also knew a lot of people personally that didn't like it, on the sole grounds that it wasn't exactly like Peter's original run. I'm sorry, but that just wasn't fair to the new book. Times had changed, sensibilities had changed, and it was still well-written, it was still Peter David, the humour WAS still there, but it also had more of a noir detective tone with the new setup for the book, so making it super goofy just wouldn't have been right either. I got at least one literally laugh out loud moment per issue, and more as the series went on and PAD refound his voice on the title.
It wasn't the same X-Factor, which was obvious by different characters, a different mission, and a different plot. But because there wasn't an unopenable mayo jar, the book was dismissed by some, which is a shame.
After 50 issues or so, already a longer run than PAD's original time on the original book, the title ended and renumbered itself combining all the previous runs of the book with issue #200. Counting just isn't Marvel's strong suit, but I digress.
Nothing much changed in the book with the renumbering, and it was more a celebration and acknowledgement of the past. The comic continued to straddle a weird line between mutant action, detective stories, and a growing supernatural trend, leading up to the Hell on Earth War, a storyline Peter had been hinting at since the time of his original run in the 90s.
But much likt that original run, all good things must come to an end. The title never blew away the sales charts in these later years, but it was an amazingly stable seller, which is no small feat these days. Most titles that sell high still fluctuate wildly. X-Factor maintained an almost rock solid sales level for years.
However, the stories had run their courses, and a fresh start for PAD somewhere else, with other characters, or maybe even some familiar faces, was called for. So, with issue #262, X-Factor came to an end once more. Surprisingly, Marvel allowed the book to wrap itself up, with six straight issues of epilogue, tying up most of the plotlines, and putting the title to bed in a respectable, and generally complete fashion. PAD's 100+ issues of this new title is an almost complete story, with a few leftover bits, because thoughts change and sometimes you just never find the time, but for the most part, it ended with a very decent wrap up.
Still, Peter does have something in the works, and he has left clues in these final issues that X-Factor will continue in some way, but only time will tell just what the future holds for him and these characters. Whether you take X-Factor as a whole, or just the book as it existed in the past decade, it's quite an accomplishment for any book to last over 100 issues.
It's been one of my favourite books for the longest time, in various forms, but yes. Most of the blame can be laid at Peter David's feet. I look forward to what he'll bring us next, so while the end of X-Factor is sad, there is at least some hope for what's coming up.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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