5. X-Factor vol 1 #4 ... Marvel ...

It had to happen, eh? A Marvel Mutant title review. Hey! I was a Marvel "zombie" fanatic call it whatever you want when I was growing up in the 80s. There was no Image or Dark Horse then and as for the alternative/ undergrounds, where the heck do you find them on those spinner racks by the drugstores and what-nots? None, that's what. It's either DC or Marvel and somehow, Marvel heroes are more relatable ... to me, that is

So X-Factor ... the original run staring the original X-Men ... somehow they are never that popular. The original X-Men run hit a sales snag and with them as X-Factor, same shit was going to happen. I don't know why ... like is it because the characters are lame? Or because of writers? Or artists? But whatever the cause, even this run of the original X-Men came to its end around 70 before a new crew comes onboard and so far, subsequent to this, whenever you have them 5 reassembled, they do not last

Still ... the first 2 years worth and the final few issues were great. And issue 4 is an example. We have decent, workable artwork - no wow factors or beautiful splash pages here but it's fine. The story continues to develop subplot showing us how the public reacts to the creation of X-Factor Inc, the mutant hunting group that the X-Men is posing as. Then we see Angel's buddy, Cameron Hodge who is advising them (waaaay before he was revealed to be a psychotic nutjob) ... and we get glimpses of something bigger (Apocalypse in his introduction story arc) in the background

Now amidst all these there are still enough pages for us to get to know a new group of villains ... except that they met Ms Frenzy who is ... super strong (whoa like we haven't seen this before) ... but again it works. I actually enjoyed this and have read it several times over the years. It's one of those told-in-one that is a nice comic to flip through

And Frenzy is hunting for someone inside X-Factor Inc. As the cover shows, she basically thumps them ... HARD! So if you have the opportunity, go buy this on the back issue bins or download somewhere (not illegally of course) and read it

Our ratings? A 7