All-New X-Factor vol 3 – “Axis”
Don’t panic. Take deep breaths. This is the last Axis story we have to cover.
Actually, only three of these issues – #15-17 – are Axis tie-ins. Before that, we have a couple of issues in which Quicksilver rebuilds his relationship with Luna (which is basically Pietro taking a bit of responsibility and winning back some trust), and Lorna builds some bridges with Wanda (just in time for Axis to retcon away the relationship that makes that story worthwhile, so that’s odd). And after the tie-in, well, it’s cancellation time.
Which is ironic, really, because the whole point of doing Axis tie-ins on low-selling books is supposed to be to help boost sales. And it does, but 99% of the time it works only for the duration of the crossover, before sales go straight back where they came from. So yes, if the goal is to shift a few extra copies before the book turns blue and falls over, it works. If the goal is to extend the life of the series, it’s generally ineffective.
The Axis tie-in itself is mildly diverting. Peter David bypasses the inversion gimmick entirely – a wise move, but then it’s not as if it affected any of his regular cast, except arguably Havok. Instead, he goes with the initial hate wave, and has X-Factor (who are shielded by Serval’s technology) trying to stall the US government from starting a nuclear war until things calm down.
This is one of the few hate wave stories which isn’t entirely people running around yelling at one another. Perhaps that’s driven by the imperative of actually trying to squeeze three issues out of it, since god knows there’s some rioting going on too, but it’s nice to see at least some of the affected people still capable of engaging in a modicum of tactical thought. After all, the crossover does seem to be confusing hate with rage. There’s a lot of people out there in the world who are really big on hate, but that doesn’t mean they spend their days in a state of constant incoherent screeching. They’re still perfectly capable of practical planning. Mind you, it’s not like Axis was ever going for subtlety.
With that out of the way, we transition into the wrap-up arc. Or at least, the crash landing. There are various ways of ending an ongoing series, and in recent years the most popular has been to try for a sense of resolution. In the old days, cancellations were often so last-minute that they led to horrendously compressed final issues, but that doesn’t seem to happen as much any more (possibly because everything gets commissioned in collection-friendly blocks). So I’ve become used to cancelled series having some sort of ending.
All-New X-Factor takes a different route, one that’s rather less common. It devotes its last few issues to explaining the mystery about what Serval boss Harrison Snow is actually trying to achieve, at which point everyone piles into the narrative lifeboats and sets sail for the good ship Spider-Man 2099, where it seems the story will be continuing. Snow, in short, turns out to be a time traveller from the 2099 era who is using his future technology to build a company and recruit superheroes in a vaguely explained plan to avert the rise of Alchemax.
I’m guessing that this was indeed the original plan, and not merely a rewrite to justify exporting Snow (and X-Factor, who are still together at the end of the last issue) to David’s other book. Events in Spider-Man 2099 have already established that Snow’s plan is messed up because of the damage already caused to the timeline, but it seems like a natural twist to try and tie the books together and build on their respective audiences. Moreover, anything involving the 2099 timeline is presumably going to feed into Secret Wars at some point. Which means there’s a bigger agenda here and the Serval plot simply can’t be wrapped up now, just because All-New X-Factor happens to have died.
Perhaps inevitably, this feels like a series that never really got to grips with the full potential of the corporate superhero concept. In a sense, once you’ve decided that Snow isn’t simply an ethically dodgy profiteer but a time-traveller endeavouring to alter history, you’ve already deviated from the stated premise. And despite Serval being set up as some sort of Google analogue, it never really felt terribly like a corporation, as opposed to some sort of quasi-military techno-facility. What does Serval actually do to make a profit? It’s never been entirely clear. Maybe this was the joke – that real world internet companies have no intelligible business plan either so it’s very easy to pass yourself off as one.
Granted, if David had gone for the familiar tropes of the well-meaning heroes butting heads with their profiteer sponsor, that would have worn thin pretty quickly. But it feels like the eventual explanation of what Serval was up to has dragged us a bit too far in the other direction. This was always a fairly atomised book, with a bunch of individual subplots (many of them quite good) all being held together by Serval. As a motivation, “they’re trying to sort out a problem from a different book entirely” is less than satisfactory. And the individual team members get a bit lost in the shuffle, with the final issues seemingly giving up on trying to offer them any personal pay-off – Danger excepted, as a subplot about her pursuing humanity does get a pay-off.
The result is a rather strange read, which leaves most of its characters floating around hoping for their stories to be picked up in due course. If the intention is to steer readers towards David’s other book, then this lack of resolution may actually be a smart move commercially. But read on its own, All-New X-Factor winds up as a book that just peters out.
I´ll miss this series and PAD. It’s been a long and (mostly) fun reading. I’m sorry to see it end so abruptly.
So I guess the Serval-Apocalypse link never manifested, eh? Well, it was thin speculation, at best.
I gave up on this series after its first few half-baked issues. Did the Serval name end up meaning anything at all?
I wasn’t really sold on the use of Sunfire and Longshot in the Axis issues, though it was nice to see PAD writing the layer again, and utilizing the character redesign he received in the mini that took place between X-Factor volumes. And really quite good work with Quicksilver all around, though it seems, based on what little we’ve already seen in Uncanny Avngers v2 #1, that Remender will go his own way entirely. Shame.
I am not sure how I felt about the subplot alluding to Israel and the Occupied Territories. I’ll have to reread, but would be happy to hear others thoughts. I suppose it was subtle enough, yet somehow ended up coming off pretty heavy handed. Hopefully the conclusion of that issue will be picked up in SM2099 (not that I’m reading it). Serval is actually much more interesting than any of us expected, I think. I at least am much more intrigued by rational evil thinking it’s doing good, of the kind of stories that dramatize the way good intentions are meaningless in the face of terrible consequences.
Let’s hope they let PAD play in the x-box again soon.
I’m definitely sad to see this series go. I admit that after loving all of Peter’s prior endeavors on X-Factor, I was underwhelmed initially. It wasn’t until 8 or 9 months in that it finally began to feel like a Peter David book to me, and as it goes out the door, it’s finally the series that I wanted it to be from issue #1.
The best treatment of Quicksilver ever, IMO.
But very heavy-handed and one-sided Israel parallels, to the point of being irritating and distracting.
Also, Doug had hardly any role in the whole series.
That weirdest thing about this collection is the strange way Sunfire was dumped by the Avengers and absorbed into X-Factor… especially after the big deal made about his joining.
David does write an amazing, top tier Quicksilver though and his Lorna is amazingly 3-dimensional.
I’m not against the parentage change, as I remember the days when QS and SW were Wizzer’s kids, BUT, I’m still adjusting to all of those awesome amazing years of living specifically in Magneto’s shadow… here’s hoping the movie doesn’t change up much
Why bother changing details of the Marvel 616 to match the cinematic continuity, such as QS or SW father or “Nick Fury Jr”, when Marvel will (soft or hard) reboot publishing continuity this year? Surely that is the time to seamlessly integrate all the alterations to continuity. Until all the writers are onboard, it derails some of the stories in progress like X-Factor.
These aren’t the kind of decisions that exhibit the kind of long term planning the EiC is constantly banging on about on CBR.
“Marvel will (soft or hard) reboot publishing continuity this year?”
Because that’s not what they’re doing.
Sad to see the title go out like this. X-factor was one of the few X-books I followed month to month. Not everything PAD did was a home run, but it was one of the more enjoyable titles nonetheless. This volume hasn’t quite clicked the way the previous one did, but there was a lot of potential, and I always looked forward to seeing PAD write his nice ensemble casts of B/C/D listers. His version of Quicksilver is arguably the best version.
Ah well. Here’s hoping the characters don’t fall off into comic book limbo.
Why bother changing details of the Marvel 616 to match the cinematic continuity, such as QS or SW father or “Nick Fury Jr”, when Marvel will (soft or hard) reboot publishing continuity this year?
I don’t understand this question. It seems to say, “why do a soft reboot when they’re going to do a soft reboot?”
The changes we’ve seen are the bit-by-bit approach they’ve been taking to rebooting the MU to match up with the MCU more closely. Changes to SW, QS and Fury are part of the “soft reboot.”
I think the question was more along the line of “why are we doing the piecemeal revisions when there’s a larger scale one looming.”
To which of course we may reply, if they had taken that approach, we wouldn’t have had such classic crossover scenes such as those from Axis and Original Sin, and that would… be a shame… right?
Basically, what Person of Con said.
A lot of these alterations were executed poorly, especially considering ‘Secret Wars’ will be a blank cheque for them to cash in any continuity changes they like.
I think pretty much sums up where Marvel and DC are today.
http://www.letsbefriendsagain.com/comics/2010-03-10.jpg
Peter David is great at taking broken or underdeveloped characters and turning them into fan favourites without disrespecting what has gone before.
I’d love to see him on a line leading book.
The more I read about it, the less it seems like a reboot and the more like an event that will reshuffle the board. They seem to be planning to dismantle the ultimate universe, bring Ultimate Spider-Man to the main MU and maybe some characters who are dead or will die in the event from the MU will be replaced by their ultimate counterparts. This could simplify some characters with complex backstories in the MU but simpler ones in the Ultimate one.
Since I’m not reading ultimate comics, is Xavier alive there? How old is Magneto there, is his backstory the same as in the main MU? Those could be characters they might bring back like this. And ofc, once the O5 go back in their time, they could always use Ultimate Jean Gray to replace her. As for wolverine, he will either come back as the one from another universe, or as the redundant one who was left behind in Age of Ultron (considering that it was hinted but never shown that the other Wolverine killed him)
Magneto and Xavier are both dead. So is Wolverine. And Cyclops.
Jean Grey could be used but she has been far from angelic in the Ultimate Universe. If people have a problem with the Cyclops 616, they’d hate the Ultimate version.
“Magneto and Xavier are both dead. So is Wolverine. And Cyclops.”
Even better. You can create new ones that do exactly the same, but are women – or gay – or black. Or any combination of the above.
So with the benefit of hindsight, I guess it’s worth asking if this is something you guys would recommend. I liked Peter David’s previous run on X-Factor, but this sounds like it’s extremely different. Worth checking out?
I hate to do this, it’s so totally gauche, but-
Sarcastro, shut the fuck up. Seriously.
@Taibak: I liked it. The art is a bit hostile to me, and Doug is sort of lost in the shuffle, but Pietro, Warlock, Danger, Lorna and Gambit are very well written. Particularly Pietro.
Is there any possibility that you and Al might be able to throw down a podcast about Secret Wars and its associated creator shuffles? I’m curious on y’alls take on that noise.
There’s a way to go before Secret Wars.