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X-Factor Epic Collection
X-Factor Epic Collection, Vol. 9: Afterlives
Collects X-Factor (1986) #101-111, X-Factor Annual (1986) #9, Spider-Man & X-Factor: Shadowgames (1994) #1-3, X-Force (1991) #38, Excalibur (1988) #82.
Jamie Madrox is dead! As X-Factor struggles to cope with their first major loss, Alex Summers questions his role as leader. Will Havok quit just when the team needs him the most? Meanwhile, Polaris seeks vengeance on the person who hired Random to kill her - even as the bounty hunter joins Strong Guy and Wolfsbane on a road trip! Lorna follows Alex to Hawaii, but the island paradise soon becomes a nightmare - courtesy of Malice, Mister Sinister and the Nasty Boys! The techno-organic threat of the Phalanx unites X-Factor, X-Force and Excalibur! Strong Guy battles the Blob! Legion awakens from his coma! But when Lila Cheney is targeted, Guido puts his life on the line. Will X-Factor lose another member?
Jamie Madrox is dead! As X-Factor struggles to cope with their first major loss, Alex Summers questions his role as leader. Will Havok quit just when the team needs him the most? Meanwhile, Polaris seeks vengeance on the person who hired Random to kill her - even as the bounty hunter joins Strong Guy and Wolfsbane on a road trip! Lorna follows Alex to Hawaii, but the island paradise soon becomes a nightmare - courtesy of Malice, Mister Sinister and the Nasty Boys! The techno-organic threat of the Phalanx unites X-Factor, X-Force and Excalibur! Strong Guy battles the Blob! Legion awakens from his coma! But when Lila Cheney is targeted, Guido puts his life on the line. Will X-Factor lose another member?
457 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 21, 2021
6 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
J.M. DeMatteis
1,912 books233 followersAlso Credited As:
DeMatteis, John Marc
Ellis, Michael
Lombego, Wally
Bio:
J.M. DeMatteis was a professional musician/singer and rock music journalist before entering comics in the late 70's.
Credits include Spider-Man, Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, Justice League, Abadazad, Hero Squared, the Life and Times of Savior 28.
Created I, Vampire , Creature Commandos, Moonshadow, Hero Squared (co-creator), Abadazad, Stardust Kid, Savior 28 and more.
DeMatteis, John Marc
Ellis, Michael
Lombego, Wally
Bio:
J.M. DeMatteis was a professional musician/singer and rock music journalist before entering comics in the late 70's.
Credits include Spider-Man, Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, Justice League, Abadazad, Hero Squared, the Life and Times of Savior 28.
Created I, Vampire , Creature Commandos, Moonshadow, Hero Squared (co-creator), Abadazad, Stardust Kid, Savior 28 and more.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 9, 2023
Great story, HORRIBLE art.
November 7, 2023
This was my first introduction to X-Factor (and to 90s Marvel comics in general); some stories were quite good, others fairly shallow. My biggest complaints were 1) the lack of overall continuity (the included arcs are mostly self-contained and don't even necessarily resolve) and 2) the tendency to build up a big threat only to resolve it fairly quickly and easily with some kind of deus ex. That said, I did come to appreciate the team; Stong Guy and Wolfsbane are the heart, with Havoc and Polaris playing mature leadership roles akin to Cyclops and Storm from the X-Men. Multiple Man(?) is mostly MIA so I can't speak to his character, and Forge is more in the background, sort of like a Nick Fury character. Professor X is integral to several stories, which was neat to see as an X-Men fan. Overall I felt that this gave me a decent snapshot of 90s Marvel, considering all the crossovers included in this collection. Fairly pulpy for the most part, which perhaps is par for the course given the medium and the era.
August 26, 2022
The incessant crossovers do this book no favors, but the handful of issues with the actual team (mostly Strong Guy) are quite good. This is mid 90s, so expect ridiculous levels of male gaze and "saved by my fabulous girlfriend" tropes. Even the werewolf girl wears shoulder pads, presumably so she can put on a business suit?
March 18, 2024
Rounding up from a 3.5. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected. I don't think of this post-Peter David era of X-Factor being very good, but JM DeMatteis (who is an excellent writer) does very compelling character work with the X-Factor cast and Jan Duursema's art is excellent (taking 90s sensibilities current at the time, but making them a bit more abstract). In particular, there's a lot of strong characterization for Polaris, Strong Guy, and Havok here.
In the interest of full transparency, I skipped the Phalanx Covenant issues because I'd read them before (and did not enjoy them). Rereading them might have rounded this down to a 3.
In the interest of full transparency, I skipped the Phalanx Covenant issues because I'd read them before (and did not enjoy them). Rereading them might have rounded this down to a 3.
June 27, 2022
Collects Spiderman and X-Factor: Shadowgames #1-3 (May - July 1994), X-Factor #101-111 (April 1994 - February 1995), X-Factor Annual #9 (May 1994), X-Force #38 (September 1994) and Excalibur #82 (October 1994).
X-Factor, as a team, was in an interesting spot during these years, but this collection really shows how the crossovers and X-Saturation of the 1990s kept any decent storylines from really gathering momentum. The Spiderman miniseries here is a pretty lame and cliché excuse for a miniseries and feels a little short and useless. There are a couple of other X-books here to help make sense of the X-Factor issue in the Phalanx Covenant storyline, but it leaves out a ton of other related material from the other X-books which really help fill out the whole story. You have the beginning of Legionquest but then a few issues later, without any warning or set-up, the world ends mid-story (as a result of the Legoinquest storyline). I am sort of surprised that X-Factor wasn't more involved in the lead-up to Age of Apocalypse and the way it just cuts off what's happening (or the beginning of Legoinquest not going anywhere in this book) shows how the constant crossovers where really hampering all the X-books (as does the Phalanx Covenant interlude mentioned earlier). The books and characters and stories just don't have room to breathe on their own and most of the time you need to be reading at least half a dozen books to know what is going on.
And you have to just ignore most of the artwork. It's all pretty crappy and full of ALL the problems of 1990s Marvel comic book art.
X-Factor, as a team, was in an interesting spot during these years, but this collection really shows how the crossovers and X-Saturation of the 1990s kept any decent storylines from really gathering momentum. The Spiderman miniseries here is a pretty lame and cliché excuse for a miniseries and feels a little short and useless. There are a couple of other X-books here to help make sense of the X-Factor issue in the Phalanx Covenant storyline, but it leaves out a ton of other related material from the other X-books which really help fill out the whole story. You have the beginning of Legionquest but then a few issues later, without any warning or set-up, the world ends mid-story (as a result of the Legoinquest storyline). I am sort of surprised that X-Factor wasn't more involved in the lead-up to Age of Apocalypse and the way it just cuts off what's happening (or the beginning of Legoinquest not going anywhere in this book) shows how the constant crossovers where really hampering all the X-books (as does the Phalanx Covenant interlude mentioned earlier). The books and characters and stories just don't have room to breathe on their own and most of the time you need to be reading at least half a dozen books to know what is going on.
And you have to just ignore most of the artwork. It's all pretty crappy and full of ALL the problems of 1990s Marvel comic book art.
September 18, 2024
There's a typical Marvel editorial snafu where this book is supposed to focus on what happens after Jamie Madrox died in the previous volume but this story begins with a Spider-Man crossover where Jamie Madrox is very much alive, even though he contributes very little to the story.
The Spider-Man crossover is not super pertinent to X-Factor fans. It mainly reminds you that they work for the government, and it involves some inconsequential villains who I don't think we ever see again.
Once we get to the main X-Factor title, it's mainly about how they are all very sad that Madrox is dead, which is appropriate and makes sense for the title. It then sees a long-term member decide to leave, has Storm and Forge resolve their love storyline from X-Men, tosses in a good old government conspiracy that ends up involving Malice and Mr. Sinister, and even gives us Professor X trying to determine Haven's intentions in the last collection. It's decent continuity but not an exciting set of stories. Professor Power being one of the dumbest characters and character names since Reignfire was introduced in X-Force. From there, we dive back into the Phalanx storyline (which I feel like I've read seventy times now), and then a battle with the former Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants/Freedom Force tangles the reader into Legion Quest, which will kick off Age Of Apocalypse. Whew. That's a lot of plot description for some fairly boring stories.
I enjoyed David's run on X-Factor but it is definitely falling victim to the law of diminishing returns at this point. The villains are forgettable, the grief and self-examination gets tiresome as it continues to dominate the story long after its expiration date, and the jokes get flatter and flatter as the title is passed to other writers.
If you're not an X-Factor superfan or completist collector, I think this story is going to bore you away, even though it's technically not terrible.
The Spider-Man crossover is not super pertinent to X-Factor fans. It mainly reminds you that they work for the government, and it involves some inconsequential villains who I don't think we ever see again.
Once we get to the main X-Factor title, it's mainly about how they are all very sad that Madrox is dead, which is appropriate and makes sense for the title. It then sees a long-term member decide to leave, has Storm and Forge resolve their love storyline from X-Men, tosses in a good old government conspiracy that ends up involving Malice and Mr. Sinister, and even gives us Professor X trying to determine Haven's intentions in the last collection. It's decent continuity but not an exciting set of stories. Professor Power being one of the dumbest characters and character names since Reignfire was introduced in X-Force. From there, we dive back into the Phalanx storyline (which I feel like I've read seventy times now), and then a battle with the former Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants/Freedom Force tangles the reader into Legion Quest, which will kick off Age Of Apocalypse. Whew. That's a lot of plot description for some fairly boring stories.
I enjoyed David's run on X-Factor but it is definitely falling victim to the law of diminishing returns at this point. The villains are forgettable, the grief and self-examination gets tiresome as it continues to dominate the story long after its expiration date, and the jokes get flatter and flatter as the title is passed to other writers.
If you're not an X-Factor superfan or completist collector, I think this story is going to bore you away, even though it's technically not terrible.
July 27, 2022
A lot of fun with a little nostalgia.
April 13, 2025
Crazy super hero comic fun with absurd plots and wilder art here! Just pure pulp!
March 27, 2025
This honestly isn't very good. After Peter David left this book was floundering. It begins with a miniseries by Kurt Busiek containing a crossover between Spider-Man and X-Factor. It surprisingly stinks. Then in the main book they are dealing with the Multiple Man's death from the Legacy virus. There's 3 different writers and the writing is all over the place. Jan Duursema and Al Milgrom handle most of the art. I typically like Duursema but this was the time of superhero excess and these pages are so overly busy. There's a Phalanx Covenant crossover and then only part one of Legion Quest. I'm assuming that has its own collection since that was the lead in to how the Age of Apocalypse happened. It's like this book is just limping along until it can get to the next mega event.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews