Writer: Leah Williams
Art: David Baldeon and Ivan Shavrin
Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 9th, 2020
As X-Factor pursues some answers as to who killed a mutant on Mojoworld, we’ve got some unpacking to do just to figure out what this book is, or at least hopes to be. So, let’s try and make some sense of a book that I had such high hopes for, but am pretty disappointed in thus far.
The premise of X-Factor is a very unique one. At least it was in 1986 when the series premiered. This current version of X-Factor is nothing like the original, at least in its first three issues. So if you’re expecting a team book like the original series, don’t hold your breath.
With Kitty being resurrected, killing a mutant now is completely and utterly meaningless. These facts force the actual premise of X-Factor was to now be a team of so-called investigators that sort out resurrection protocols and prioritize who gets resurrected when once they solve their cases or come up with a body. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong. That is if I stick it out long enough to find out.
I believe Leah Williams is still trying to figure out what she wants this book to be. I think this book is aimed at a younger audience. It has a very Hunger Games type feel. 
Battles being broadcast on live feeds, leaderboards, etc…. However, it just doesn’t work very well. The dialogue seems forced, you’ve got bad jokes that don’t hit, and mutants that compare themselves to a maxed-out Pokémon. Really?!
Going by the fact that I know one person that likes this book, plus the fact that no one else on our site even wants to review this book, it makes me feel that X-Factor may not be long for this world. Williams has been given a raw deal with the meaningless deaths though. I would think it’d be really hard to write anything that will have any sort of lasting effect in the ongoing X-Men continuity when you have a mutant death but it’s meaningless. I like the character lineup. I even like Amazing Baby well enough. But these first three issues were a real chore to get through. Multiple checks of the page count and needing multiple read-throughs to attempt to figure out what I’ve read. All that and a sense of relief when I actually finished reading the book.
We do get some answers about who left the bloody shoes in issue two. So that’s good, right? Or not… No investigation or detective work was done. At all. We also find out what is really going on in Mojoworld. Again, not through any investigation. So don’t let our fine cover of issue three fool you. There’s no detective work going on here.
There are some aspects of the story that show promise. But if the story isn’t told in a good way, I won’t read it. The art is above average. The story is well below average. And for this reviewer, if there is no story or the story isn’t written well, then I’m out.
However, my favorite part is the bonus page after the three pages of nonsense data dumps. Make sure you check that out! Perhaps this will only be in the floppies and not in trades like Wolverine #5, making it a collector’s item of sorts. Not sure if it’ll even end up mattering, but it certainly piqued my interest.
Let’s face it, we’ve got a plethora of X books with even more on the horizon. They can’t all be top tier books. The most die-hard of X-Men fan is spending quite a bit of money if they are buying all the books. I just can’t in my right mind recommend picking this up unless you’re a completist or have an affinity to any of these characters.
Final Thoughts:
There’s a whole lot going on here. Unfortunately not much is all that good. I’ll stick with this through the first arc, and hope that once this Mojoworld story ends that the nonsense will end too. But if I don’t see a big improvement, very soon, X-Factor will be the first X-book I drop.