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X-Factor (2020)

X-Factor, Vol. 2

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The fallout from X OF SWORDS continues! A dark force is manipulating the lives of X-Factor — and now Siryn is dead! Again. And again. And again… What’s going on? X-Factor must follow the screams to unravel a mystery and find out the truth! Plus, a striking revelation about one of their own deaths comes to light. Who’s that knocking?

COLLECTING: X-Factor (2020) 6-10

136 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2021

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About the author

Leah Williams

247 books211 followers
Leah Williams is an American writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi. She has written comics for Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and is working on more. Her debut novel was a YA Fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen and she is currently writing its sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen. Leah has nonfiction articles and essays published in The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, and Salon.

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5 stars
105 (20%)
4 stars
152 (30%)
3 stars
180 (35%)
2 stars
50 (9%)
1 star
14 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
Profile Image for Baba.
4,150 reviews1,599 followers
August 12, 2023
The X-Factor have a new mission in the Hickman X-Men-verse that is to investigates those mutants that won't or cannot resurrect! Prodigy has a solo off-the-books mission, investigating his own murder! The teams' mission is brought close to home when someone or something keeps killing Siryn!

Although having a core theme and great art, the book like many in the Hickman era doesn't have enough character development and/or interrelated character history, and it came as no surprise to see this become one of the first unplanned cancelled books of this post-COVID pandemic X-Men era. A soft 6 out of 12, Three Star read rating for this one from me.

2023 read
Profile Image for Chad.
10.6k reviews1,079 followers
May 6, 2022
Most of this volume revolves around what's the deal with Siryn? She keeps dying so X-Factor is on the case. It hearkens back to some things that happened back in the 2nd series of X-Factor. Then the series gets tied up in the Hellfire Gala issue. This series was fine. I don't think it lived up to its potential. I don't like how things would occur off-panel. All of the interesting side plots got short shrift as the series ended. I thought the stuff with Prodigy exploring his powers was interesting, but like everything else in the series was canceled before it could come to fruition.
Profile Image for Jesús De la Jara.
832 reviews102 followers
April 28, 2022
Como mencioné en el primer volumen esta serie tiene mucho de lo políticamente correcto entendido en los momentos actuales que vivimos y mucha de esa ideología se vierte en sus páginas haciendo por momentos las cosas forzadas o sacando situaciones para verterlas donde aparentemente no caben.
En sí en este volumen se descubre que algo va mal con Syrin quien aparece muerta. El equipo de investigación nuevamente va a la caza. Me gustan algunos personajes como Rachel, Daken (y su relación con Ana Marie) y Polaris. Luego aparece Morrigan, la diosa de la muerte quien causa algunos problemas. Termina con la Gala del Hellfire donde Prodigy investiga cómo fue muerto antes que empiece el número. Luego de que todo es felicidad pasa un evento que se desarrollará en su propio volumen.
Profile Image for Robert.
2,232 reviews148 followers
October 27, 2021
Fun! though all of the The Morrigan stuff felt out of left field. Spending more time on Prodigy's self-investigation could have been more interesting.



Daken is still pretty cringe for me, but it must be said that he was well written and utilized here.
Profile Image for TJ.
767 reviews65 followers
June 30, 2021
I will miss this series! While I loved it, this volume wasn't perfect. The ending was rushed because of cancellation, so many plotlines weren't given the space they needed. The handling of a plotline concerning Black and queer issues specifically deserved better. I wish we'd had more time to explore these themes. 4.5/5 stars.
Profile Image for Sem.
613 reviews31 followers
July 2, 2021
To put it in terms a Twitter user would: "what crossover and premature cancellation do to a mf". All the hope I had for this series was lost in poor pacing, disjointed storytelling and an awful twist with Prodigy at the end.
Profile Image for Clint.
1,186 reviews13 followers
October 3, 2021
I’m glad this series got cancelled if this is the best it can do with such a promising premise. The roster of mostly non-combat-focused mutants is perfect for a team that investigates and confirms mutant deaths prior to reincarnation. Bringing back the media-sickened world of the Mojoverse seemed really interesting in early issues, but then gets ignored here until an abrupt 3-page whirlwind of “oh yeah, we have to tie up this plot huh?” mess at the very end. The story is poorly paced overall and ignores the team’s premise too often, and the characterizations (via dialogue and art) are largely insufferable.

Dialogue shifts between three modes: mostly it’s statements…written as unconfident uptalk questions…with too many…ellipses? Otherwise it’s suddenly overconfident claims of domination, or else weirdly neutered flirting. Threaded through all that are really tedious exchanges of surface-level therapy words, which could be an interesting focus if it were explored further than the level of someone tweeting “having a sad about my trauma :(“ and someone responding “I validate your experience BB.” The humor is also not at all to my taste; if you think someone describing themselves as a “chaotic disaster bi” is clever and funny then you might appreciate it, but I just found that tone annoying in its false self-deprecation and myopic self-regard. What’s less funny than jokes that are really just odd humblebrags?

If the writing feels descended from the particular neuroses of Tumblr, Baldeon’s art similarly looks like a talented fan artist who enjoys drawing fashionable outfits but can only draw one face, and that face probably has a hugely arched skeptical eyebrow or the SQUEE excitement face in every panel. There are a handful of spectacular pages when he breaks out of those habits, though, like the Morrigan’s hair flowing out to form several panels organically. The covers are also generally nice looking.
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 7 books123 followers
September 3, 2021
X-Factor have one final mystery to solve - what's going on with Siryn? But in order to find out, they'll face off with a literal goddess of death, as well as a racist scumbag, and the death of one of their own. Plus, the Hellfire Gala is here! So why are X-Factor investigating another murder?

Leah Williams' X-Factor is so much fun. It throws in as much as it can, packing each page with plot and character work. It might take a little longer to read, but it's very worth digging into each issue to see what Williams does with this eclectic cast of characters.

The main issue with this volume is that it has to wrap up a lot of stuff all at once, and it doesn't really have time. The Siryn plot takes up most of the page space, and then even though the final issue is extra-sized, it's just not enough room to wrap up all that Williams wanted to do as well as set the stage for the Trial of Magneto spin-off. It does its best, but something has to give.

It's a shame - as per usual, the best books get the short thrift, and X-Factor falls by the wayside. Thankfully it will continue in a different form, but it's ending here feels truncated to hell, which stops it being as excellent as we knew it could be.
Profile Image for Joe Adams.
68 reviews
February 8, 2022
Nowhere near as good as the first volume but the creative team are solid and some characters arcs (Daken/Aurora, Eye Boy) were worth the read. Seemed like there was too much in here that relied on the reader knowing the other books activities, less self-contained, and a lot of the climactic events either didn't feel that climactic or were not very clear in their depiction.

As ever though, this remains a book I will always look out for.
Profile Image for Jason.
5,033 reviews
November 3, 2021
3.5
Second volume seemed to gain its stride some. But only some. Been trying to figure out what it is about the characterization that just doesn't work. There are moments I liked. But a lot seems a bit forced and overly dramatic and "edgy."
Profile Image for Frédéric.
2,103 reviews86 followers
March 19, 2022
These wannabe new writers really should take "How to write comics 101" courses.

Boring and pretentious from beginning to end. Narration (?) all over the place and barely understandable.
The good news is it’s over.

Cartoony street art style didn’t go well with me either.
Profile Image for Ross.
1,589 reviews
January 23, 2022
This one scores so high because it has characters I've always loved and the callbacks to old series is a nice touch.
*I like having Prodigy back in the X-titles and repowered. I think (currently), with the X-titles having the ability to revive most X characters, we're seeing a whole chunk of continuity getting rewritten. Most of the deaths of Emma Frost's Hellions..in the Academy X(?) era are undone. Which is ....weird, but fun.
*Prestige (the dumbest name for Rachel Summers, ever) has a pet Warwolf?!
*Speed fanboy'ing at Northstar's maximum velocity
*Lorna drunk dialing Alex
*making Daken ...likeable? A character who is usually ripping people apart, but in Krakoa is now whining about how his powers are misunderstood. (whaddup witdat?)

Bonus: Shatterstar and Adam-X? Shut up and take my money.
Profile Image for Alex Sarll.
7,184 reviews371 followers
Read
August 26, 2022
I really enjoyed the first volume of this, Krakoa's quirky death detectives, but this is a mess. A mess with some good elements still in place, to be sure - at one point it manages to make a horror movie set-up work even when none of the characters can die. But what previously felt like oddball characters sparring now often reads like everyone is working from different drafts of the script, and I got the impression loads of different artists must be to blame for the inconsistent visuals before looking at the credits and realising almost all of it was the same guy. The rumours of heavy editorial meddling are easy to believe.
Profile Image for Irene.
213 reviews
July 2, 2021
This volume suffers from its early cancellation leads to that story threads were cut short and making the ending feel rushed and clumsy. I still enjoy the cast the the general interactions, but it was sorely hurt by its premature ending.
Profile Image for Christian Zamora-Dahmen.
Author 1 book31 followers
August 15, 2021
This was a strange book for me. Not only this second set, but the entire run. It had all of the elements I love in a series: deep characterization, contrasting personalities, mysteries… Yet I never entirely clicked with it. Maybe I had too much background on the characters and felt most of them were a bit off. For example, Northstar never rang as Northstar to me… Maybe some new characters would have worked much better for me… Anyway, I don’t mean the book was badly written, just that I had problems connecting with the characters as they were portrayed.
That being said, this book really had potential but it got cut short with its early cancellation. The way things got wrapped in the last three issues felt rushed and was also a bit non-sensical.
Anyway, I think the book was aimed in the right direction and, if it had had the chance to mature, it could have become a classic.
So, yes, the potential was there, still a lot of mixed feelings. Just as Daken became an interesting character for the very first time, I got annoyed to no end by the interaction between Northstar and his husband. Just as Eyeboy became real fun to follow, Polaris was unrecognizable to me. The list goes on and on. But still sad the book got cancelled.
Profile Image for Adam Williams.
355 reviews
December 16, 2021
X-Factor was my least-favorite X-series post-House of X, and I think sadly this volume suffers extra for feeling incredibly rushed -- probably due to the title's cancellation? I'm not sure, but there's so much that happens here, so quickly, that most of it feels unearned, not to mention downright confusing.

The writing was just really not for me. I know that it has its fans so I don't want to trash it, but there's a very Twitter-y aesthetic to the whole thing that felt artificial. The characters all seemed to be on the same script and it makes them all feel more like activist-y talking points than real characters.

There are times Baldeón's art is a little cartoony for my personal taste, but there are other places where I think he does really gorgeous work, especially during the climax of the Morrigan arc. That said, I had no idea what was actually happening through a lot of it. Similarly, there's like a full issue's worth of plot in the Mojoverse crammed onto one double-page spread that is impressive but really trying to carry too much story, unsuccessfully. But I'll bring it up to 2 stars for the art, still. Baldeón made me hot for Daken, and that is no small feat. But I hope I never see Eye Boy again.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books168 followers
October 28, 2021
Williams' X-Factor continues to be a bright spot amidst the great stories of the Krakoan X-Men, with great characterization and a fun team, only a few of which I really cared about before this story.

This second volume, unfortunately has some pacing problems. First the story about Siryn drags, and then everything gets wrapped up super quick as the comic got canceled pretty much before Williams knew that was happening. Alas, but at least in the modern-day she got to (very quickly!) finish up her stories.
Profile Image for Adam.
259 reviews5 followers
November 5, 2021
I'm sad to have see this series end.

It certainly took a moment for this series to get I to it's stride. But it did a great job in presenting its characters, showing their various skills and powers.

The art was an acquired taste, however, it certainly worked with stories that were being told in this run.
Profile Image for Nate Deprey.
1,308 reviews8 followers
October 4, 2021
3.5 Stars. Another good x series comes to an end. Williams does solid work balancing a number of story lines and relationships while moving a plot along that brings this title to a close sooner than I wanted even if Siryn's story arch hurt my heart while it unfolded the team chemistry of this series carried the day.
Profile Image for Joshua.
583 reviews16 followers
Read
September 10, 2021
I have a little more than no idea what’s going on here but everyone is nice and being nice to each other, which I like.
Profile Image for Chantaal.
1,329 reviews278 followers
May 17, 2022
X-Men 2021 Dawn of X project continues!

Ratings and links to previous reviews under the spoiler:

Here's the thing. Siryn is my all time favorite Marvel character. Period. I have read literally every single appearance she's ever made. I tracked down a physical copy of her first appearance ever. I. Love. Her. So, I admit that there's no way this could live up to all my hopes and dreams for her finally being pulled out of Marvel production limbo.

But holy shit, LOL.

This basically wasn't Siryn. The moment, the MOMENT Leah Williams had Siryn acting all weird and utter the words "I'd been drinking" (she's been sober since the 90s!!) and nobody except Polaris (with a hidden "drinking?!") reacted to it, I was done. There was no coming back for me. Why was there's ONLY ONE PAGE of X-Factor "investigating" Siryn's mysterious deaths by going to her father Banshee and one of her oldest friends/former baby daddy Jamie Madrox and THEY DO NOTHING? HER FATHER?? DOES NOTHING??? HE HAS ONE PANEL REACTING TO THE NEWS AND THAT'S IT? AFTER ALL THE CASSIDYS HAVE BEEN THROUGH? BLACK TOM? DOES NOTHING? EVEN THOUGH HE RAISED HER?

(Ohhhhh bitch, Madrox saying he and Siryn were a one time thing gets my blood going. THEY HAD A BABY! THAT THEY LOST!! A ONE TIME THING?! A ONE TIME THING?????)

Sure, we can go with the plot beat that as a reason for why Polaris wasn't pushing further, but to not have any of her friends/family do more after talking to them? Make it make sense.

Being so intimately familiar with every character beat Siryn has ever had made for a frustrating read. I know I can't expect an author to know every single thing about every single character that has happened over decades of comics, but ugh. Ugh!!

I couldn't in good conscience give this 1 star despite my personal rage, because there IS some really fun interpersonal character stuff that happens in this volume. There were lots of spreads of the team living and interacting and being friends that were nice to see in this Hickman era. Can I trust that any of that character work was really true? I don't know. But it was nice.

Also nice to see Tommy Shepherd pop in, I love to see my Young Avengers thriving.

The climax for this volume made no sense, in the end. Siryn was just a puppet, as anyone could have guessed, and knowing her backstory I knew what her whole deal would end up being.

Congrats, X-Factor. You were disappointing, but not entirely terrible.
963 reviews11 followers
December 31, 2023
X-Factor Volume Two has some decent ideas that feel like they were rushed to a premature conclusion.

Williams has a good feel for her ensemble, and the connections between the characters feel authentic, even if the different personalities end up being over-homogenized. (Even on Krakoa, Daken really shouldn't be one degree of chill away from Eye-boy.)

Plot-wise, the majority of this volume is dedicated to a "haunting" tale with Siryn/Theresa Cassidy. Unfortunately, this story picks up a thread from Peter David's second X-Factor run that really could have been retconned away. Williams tries to use Krakoa's resurrection protocols to build a murder mystery, but the reasoning never makes much sense, and the possibility of resurrection robs the showdown with a ghost/goddess of any real stakes. That said, the art by David Baldeon is generally solid, and Williams does the best she can with a strained set-up.

From there, the story runs through a rushed Mojo-verse interlude not worth recapping before wrapping with a look at the Hellfire Gala. Williams explores an interesting idea by teasing that Eye-Boy is more powerful than anyone imagines, but it's all wrapped in a bunch of pseudo-science that barely makes sense, especially when Prodigy's power-set offers more of the same.

There's also some gender-bending that the story seems very proud of incorporating. Sure, it's cool for the X-Men to eschew rigid stereotypes, but the dudes in dresses seems more inspired by the author's desire to look cool than anything intrinsic to the characters. I guess the vibe here feels very "Gen X X-Men," and while that's interesting territory to explore, this series didn't do more than a superficial take.
Profile Image for Mike.
1,594 reviews151 followers
April 28, 2024
Morrigan? No idea who that was (guess I missed some juicy drama in the…90’s?), didn’t love the story now. Alluding to a long history, but nothing more than diligent innuendo? Really hard to connect with it.

Kinda love the way Williams explores the kids’ powers, and softens Daken down to an only-slightly-arrogant death machine.

But going back to Mojoverse? I feel like X-men writers love the *idea* of Mojoverse more than they pull off a story the rest of us would love. It’s all so boring to me, like reading most of the Marvel Cosmic nonsense, just a bunch of made-up word babble about characters that are so one-dimensional (Kree Guardians anyone?) I would only enjoy them if they showed up in a Robot Chicken episode.

Oh, ha-ha, look at what happens when twitch streamers have only one motivation - like and subscribe! (Yeah, there’s no parody there, just flat imitation.)

Give me the early Warren Ellis treatment - the seething angry writing of terrible people, lots of weak egos and villains who don’t even know why they suck, but are still somewhat proud of it.

While the melodramas and sexual politics of these X-Factor are interesting enough, it just made this yet-another-teen-angst X-comic, and there’s been a lot of those over the years.

Will I read more Leah Williams? You bet. Will it worry if the book is more social than action? …Maybe?
Profile Image for Rick.
3,224 reviews
April 25, 2022
This definitely felt a bit more … coherent (?) … cohesive, let’s go with cohesive, than the previous volume. And I think this could just pull me back into the various X-Men titles. Except … is this the end of the story? Did the book get canceled? That would certainly be my luck. Marvel finally gives Northstar a book to shine in, and they give it less than a year to find an audience. Typical.
3 reviews
April 26, 2024
The art was decent, but the story was all over the place, and was hard to follow at times. Feels like a missed opportunity, definitely the weakest of the Krakoa era titles.
Profile Image for Billy.
23 reviews11 followers
July 2, 2021
I can’t quite call this book great, but it convinced me that Williams is a great writer. Mark my words: in the next couple years, she’s going to be on a run that we all can’t stop talking about.
Profile Image for Thomas.
792 reviews
October 23, 2021
Read as single issues.

A rushed, disjointed winddown to a promising series. I'm sad to see it go because I really enjoyed the characters and their relationships. The overall plots felt a bit of a mess in this volume, likely due to being sandwiched with X of Swords fallout and then straight towards the Hellfire Gala.
Profile Image for Matthew Ward.
1,048 reviews26 followers
August 5, 2023
This one jumped around a bit for me. I really liked the story and characters, I just think the composition of the different plot points kept me darting in my brain from one side to another.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews