Down And Outside The 616 – X-Factor #229 Review

Ed. Note: Look, I’m just going to warn you up front that there’s spoilers in this. Starting immediately. Merry fucking Christmas!

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
-T. Heads

Madrox, The Multiple Man, is dead. Long live Madrox, The Multiple Man.

And, if you’re Madrox, you may find yourself in a parallel universe. With a beautiful rented tux. And a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here”? Especially if said wife is dead and you seem to be standing over your own corpse as well. Cue “MY GOD!…WHAT HAVE I DONE?”

More on what Madrox did or didn’t do after the jump. Also, there’s water at the bottom of the ocean.

In writer Peter David’s continuing tale of Jamie Madrox and his compatriots at X-Factor Investigations, The Multiple Man has crossed a threshold he’s not encountered before. Although he’s survived the deaths of duplicates of himself that he’s created, for the first time, he himself has been killed while he’s had duplicates out and about in the world. There’s no telling exactly what bearing that may have at present in the storyline, however Jamie wakes up from his death in a parallel universe only to discover that his counterpart in this universe has been killed as well. In this arc titled, They Keep Killing Madrox, our ace crack well-meaning detective sets out to solve the mystery of who killed this Jamie and why, and on his wedding night, no less. The answer may shock and surprise you. It certainly suprises Jamie #1. However, he doesn’t have long to puzzle over it. Read the book to find out why. Just when you think Peter David couldn’t possibly have anymore X-Factor stories in him, he comes up with a fresh twist to the somewhat soap operatic saga of X-Factor.

Pencils in this issue are handled by Emanuela Lupacchino, as they have been since issue #208 (with a couple months off here and there). Her work in this issue is all about clean lines and contrast shading, with just enough of a cartoon-y touch to remind you that you’re reading a comic book:

Jeez, Shatterstar. When did you start fronting a Motley Crüe tribute band?

This art is a straight foward pleasure to look at. Characters are fluid and expressive; action and emotion are clear. Her work in this issue will continue into January. Solicits for #230 indicate a roster shake up for X-Factor, which teases Wolverine possibly joining the team in some capacity…because he’s not in enough books already. Can Wolverine possibly be in more friggin’ titles in the Marvel Universe? Wait, I don’t think he’s in John Carter: A Princess Of Mars. Yet. In any case though, I hope that doesn’t mean that Jamie Madrox is dead permanently. He’s a fun and compelling character as Peter David has been writing him.

Still, even if he is dead “for realz”, I’m not going to count on it actually sticking. The only Marvel canon character that’s been killed who actually stays dead is Uncle Ben. Same as it ever was.