X-Factor, Vol. 6: Secret Invasion

X-Factor (2005) (Collected Editions)

by Peter David, Larry Stroman (Illustrator), Vincenzo Cucca (Illustrator)

A SECRET INVASION TIE-IN X-Factor is in pursuit of Darwin, whose father is looking for him. She-Hulk and Jazinda are in pursuit of Longshot, who may hold the key to defeating the Skrull invasion. With Darwin and Longshot on the run, neither of them wanting to be found, you'd just assume that X-Factor and She-Hulk will work together smoothly to accomplish both their goals. But what fun would that be?

Collects X-Factor #33-38 and She-Hulk #31.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

168 pages, Hardcover

First published May 13, 2009

About the author

Peter Allen David (aka David Peters), often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.

His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.

David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.

David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award, and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story arc's weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. But the artwork was awful. I'm kind of hoping that sometime soon they will figure out a way to bring Layla Miller back, when she knew stuff it seemed like this was a better series.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is really uneven. I mean, the story is fine. The secret invasion tie in is stupid but fun and she-hulk comes to play. Next arc builds up nice and the ending with the baby coming is a big oh shit moment. The art though was pretty awful half the time. A 2.5 out of 5. I'll go with 3 cause love the characters.

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

"In society where mutants and former mutants alike feel threatened by the world around them. They turn to their first, best line of defence whenever trouble arises: X-Factor, the private detective agency found by Madrox, the Multiple Man."
I didn't like he art work, it really was not my style and seemed dated to me and too 'busy', 1 🌟
The story in relation to Secret Invasion was thin and seemed rather pointless, it could have just been in the She-hulk arc and had the X-Force guest star, 1 🌟
Relevance to SI, 1 🌟 So overall for this TPB 1 🌟

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to the usual X-Factor standard, unfortunately, probably because of the crossover tie-in aspects and the creative team changes mid-story.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Updated During 2025 X-Reread:

I've never penalized a story two stars for art before but Larry Stroman ay well be the worst Marvel artist of all-time. Rob Liefeld may not understand anatomy or how to draw feet, Greg Land may ba a porn-tracing hack but Larry Stroman's "style" is being completely unable to draw faces. It's not just that the faces are ugly. They're also inconsistent from page-to-page, panel-to-panel. He also tends to draw normal people with improbably large butts. Like a mildly obese person above the torso dragging an XXL bean bag chair behind them anywhere they go.

I'm not saying that there aren't some people in the world that have this body shape but Stroman draws them everywhere.

In the final issue he hands over pencils to an artist I'm otherwise unfamiliar with and, in another book, might criticize their own unfamiliarity with anatomy but they were a Jack F-ing Kirby improvement over Stroman.

The story is ok. David balances his having to write into the Secret Invasion storyline by including his characters from She-Hulk by Peter David Omnibus and introducing Darwin back into the X-Canon.

I recommend seeing if there's an audiobook version of this story available.

***

David nearly pulls off another decent story from the depths of Mandated Company Wide Crossover Hell. Unfortunately, he's saddled with Larry Stroman's art, which is in serious contention for The Ugliest Marvel Comic Art Of All Time. It makes the story virtually unreadable. If not for the portions drawn by Valentine De Landro and the She-Hulk section by Vincenzo Cucca, I wouldn't have continued to read this. Stroman gets negative five stars for this book. I'd have rather seen this drawn in crayon by a manic kid on the day after Halloween.

In addition to the Who Iz Skrullz portion of the story, we also see Longshot and Darwin join the X-Factor story.

I can't recommend this to anyone. It looks like it was drawn by someone who'd never seen a human before but heard vague things about them, and was then forced to draw them with his non-dominant foot.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume was... fine. I'm not a fan of Stroman's art (full respect to all his achievements, it's just *really* not to my taste) and as event crossovers go, the Skrull Need To Find Their Prophet element is kinda especially... /waggles hand (especially since they already are doing some small things with Hulkling The Chosen One in other parts of the event so it feels extraneous). The "Jamie is lying to Theresa while she's pregnant" is cringey, and everyone's writing just feels slightly...off. The She-hulk stuff was fun. Kinda starting to feel real bad for how everyone treats Strong Guy.

Also I deducted a star for "when they were carrying away the bleeding, dying woman to get her help, we decided to draw it that she was being carried in the way most likely to kill her just so you could see her thong". I'm tired.

[TJ, the Librarian. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art was not good for the most part, but the writing is overall good. The crossover stuff is always the weakest too. David did the best he could here, and I can’t wait to see where it leads! 4/5 Stars

[guanaeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry Stroman's art inked by Jon Sibal and colored by Jeremy Cox isn't for everybody, but Peter David's style and humor manage to shine through anyway.

Props to Larry Stroman for his unique-if-strange art. She-hulk and Monet St. Croix have never looked more terrifying.

[Arturo · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the She-Hulk/ Secret Invasion tie-in, which was pointless. And a story where Darwin gets captured. I would've also complained about the art but I remember Stroman doing art for X-Factor back in Peter Davids first run, and that was ok. But still.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/2018...

I suppose every great series has to occasionally have a true dud... But wow, what a dud.

First of all, it is a Secret Invasion tie-in and I may be the only one, but I couldn't possibly care less about Skrulls. Nothing in this story convinces me that I am wrong, that there is anything interesting about them. So we have parts one and three of a three part crossover with She-Hulk. (Why not part two? Oh wait, there it is sandwiched in at the end of the trade rather than where it would come in the story. Why?)

Secondly, this has to have the absolute worst Comics art that I have ever seen. I loathe to say that any art is objectively bad but oof, the proportions of literally every character on the page are terrible. At points, I had a hard time telling characters apart or telling what is going on. It is more than a bit of a mess.

After the Secret Invasion ends, it starts to get back to the quality level of the earlier trades (though they introduce Darwin into this series who is one of my least favorite X-characters...) but by this point, it is too little too late.

I am still looking forward to the next trade (especially since it is a different artist), but this one was definitely a disappointment.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading New Avengers for some reason and got up to the Secret Invasion storyline and said, “Hey, I have the Mavel Unlimited app, why don’t I just read the entire Secret Invasion storyline? I’d be really interested because I know that the MCU is going to come out with a movie pretty soon.” Great idea, right?

Ugh, that thing is 99 issues long and just starts to d r a g in the middle as Marvel tried to cash in by incorporating as many titles as possible. But I was committed, and I read every single issue. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Am I glad I read it? I’m not sad, but I wish that Marvel had done a better job writing with concise storytelling. Or that I had not made the decision to read the whole blamed thing.

But, you know, in for a penny, and for a pound. And it’s red and I will never have to read it again and I can enjoy the movie when it comes out. So I’m just going to copy and paste this review in every single trade paperback that contains the secret invasion, storyline and call it a day.

if anyone reads this review, I recommend you just read the essential story itself without all of the side issues.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty weak volume, probably due to the entirely unnecessary Secret Invasion tie-in issues. Didn't even bother to read the She-Hulk issue, which says a lot.

The story does improve after the Skrull stuff, and the characters from the Skrull part of the book are relevant for the next story, so the first half of the book isn't entirely pointless. Also this volume has some big developments with the actual interesting plots, such as the move to Detroit and Siryn's pregnancy.

Humour was good and I really loved the mention of Ben 10 in one of the recap pages. Not a bad volume overall, just a bit unnecessarily stretched out with the Invasion tie-in.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strong example of how important it is for writer and artist to match up. After all, a comic book story is not just the words on the page, but the tone, direction, and framing - that's where the art comes in. Even when X-Factor has deviated from its usual artist, they've always found someone who fits the noir-ish tone of the series.

That's not the case here. Instead we get some sub-Liefeld messy gritty stuff, with no sense of propulsion or mood, and it really affects the story here. It might actually be a good one, but it's hard to tell when the art is distractingly ugly. It makes you realize just how much Peter David relies on his artists to make his work sing, and how quickly it falls apart when it has to carry a lot of the storytelling weight alone.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret invasion bits felt really forced, especially the She-Hulk crossover. When Monet St. Croix is functioning as your voice of reason in an overheated superhero encounter you've definitely lost the reins on your characters.

The most interesting bits all occur in the latter half of the volume, which merits more of 3.5-4 as David gets full control of his book back from the series invading company event tie-in. Watch Jamie and what he says about himself and about X-Factor in these issues. It's legitimately different from what most superhero books are doing, and demonstrates fully how far out in front David puts character over action.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair distraction from the main storyline of Secret Invasion, but the tie-in is a strained one. The artwork is playful and suits David's storytelling quite well. Unfortunately, David seems to be putting aling on fumes of his habitual speedy pace, and the arc devolves into fiticuffs and empty rhetoric far too often to be memorable. Not bad, but not quite good either.

[Michael T. Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an X-Factor story, it’s fine - it gets bogged down by a She-Hulk/Secret Invasion double-crossover, and some rotating artists (most of the artists are good, but rotating artists within the same arc always bothers me). However, we also meet Darwin, who maybe has the best/most interesting mutant powers, and I hope he’s in every issue of every comic from now until forever. He’s great.

[P R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the most eye-gaugingly bad art I’ve ever seen in a graphic novel. I hope to never come across that artist again. Made a decent story torturous to get through. The single issue reprieve where someone else took over, just really highlighted how bad it was because everything read better and felt more dramatic again. The jokes landed and no longer felt like some grotesque satire.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff by Peter David and company. The artwork is done by a rotating crew and is inconsistent but competent. I appreciate the fact that this series takes place in Detroit. Marvel should let Peter David take tour of the 'real' Detroit. I'm sure he could write some insane stories if he saw what the residents see.

[Judith Groen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were fine, but felt a bit as fillers. I like Darwin a lot though, ever since Deadly Genesis I hoped to read more about him.
The artwork though, it was really terrible! Did not like it at all, so I hope upcoming volumes have better artwork...
Also... Start saving Layla already!!!!

[Rob Marney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This eminently forgettable Secret Invasion / She-Hulk tie-in features the worst parts of Peter David's run - convoluted storylines, interminable narration, characters introduced solely for a splash page - and none of the character development that makes the rest of it worthwhile.

[Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
this was a totally unnecessary tie in with this series, i really hope the next one is better
the artwork is terrible

[Ryan Ackerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bah crossover and paused the overall story in Xfactor

[Jovanie Santos]

God awful artwork could not get into the story with everyone ugly skip skip this crap

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Panini publicó esta saga del número 30 al 35, incluyendo el issue de She-Hulk (traduce en total X-Factor USA #33-38 y She-Hulk USA #31).

[Ondra Král · Rating 3 out of 5]

Příběh dobrý, ale kresba je v tomhle booku fakt hnusná.

[Julián "Mystletain" Rodríguez]

Increíble la bajona que ha pegado esto, que entre que este arco es crossover con el evento de turno y que el dibujo es bastante malorro casi lo dejo a medias. Esperemos que remonte

[Odo · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually much better than some of the other Secret Invasion tie-ins that I have read, and I liked the cameo by She-Hulk (although her personality is going in a very downward trend. . . I think it was the Mighty Avengers that I was reading with her that her personality was going in a negative trend also. I remember her sleeping with Hercules and thinking that was odd and random).

So most of this story follows the 'team' trying to chase down this dude Darwin, who is hanging out with a Skrull-Pretending-To-Be-Longshot. Almost nothing is talked about with Longshot and Richter's history - Richtor doesn't even see him or know this is going on, as far as I could tell.

Syrn is about to have Maddox's baby (and it making him feel extra super guilty about it, which is actually kind of bitchy. It takes two, baby.) and the government is STILL trying to push them around. So other than the story with Darwin, nothing really got resolved or even moved forward in terms of the main X-Factor plot.

[Munsi Parker-Munroe · Rating 2 out of 5]

...massive crossover events destroy the ability of a casual comic reader to pick up a few titles a month. I do not want to know about Secret Invasion, if I did I'd pick up a Secret Invasion trade paperback. I am, however, deeply enjoying the X-Factor mythology that Peter David's done a fine job of building in this series, and being sidetracked by every single crossover event that comes down the pipe in a heavy-handed, editorially mandated way does nothing to enhance my appreciation of the characters and storylines I've grown invested in over the course of my re-reading of the series.

This has been a chronic problem with the X-Factor series, and of mainstream comics in general over the course of the last eight or nine years, but until this point David's managed to either blend the crossover event into his storyline (House of M) or deal with it quickly and non-intrusively (Civil War) with minimal damage, and with his Secret Invasion tie in the seams show more clearly, and in a way that really does detract from what he's trying to do in his own stories. Which is a shame, but that's the state of modern, mainstream hero-books now, i guess. Crossovers are pushed on the writers, who then have to figure out something to do with them. Understandable, and forgivable, and I'll absolutely continue reading X-Factor, but disappointing nonetheless...

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume of X-Factor took a huge dip in quality from the previous ones. The art was superdeformed and hideous. The story is also not nearly as good. The first half of the book ties in to Secret Invasion, while crossing over with She-Hulk. At least the issue of She Hulk in this volume looks better than the X-Factor issues, though the story is frankly ridiculous. Once the Secret Invasion that doesn't actually appear to affect the main event anyway, despite billing itself as a really important part of it, the other half of this book is rather dull until the end where Siryn is about to have her baby (though you'll have to wait until next time to see that... and hopefully the art will be a bit better).