Review by Frank Plowright

Over the past several books a considerable amount of horror has been injected into X-Factor, yet Peter David has saved his most horrific sequence for the opening chapter of this coda to recent events. You’ll know it when you get there, and it works on a physical and emotional level.

The events of the Hell on Earth War left the assorted members of X-Factor scattered, and here we drop in on all of them except Pip, sometimes solo, sometimes in small teams, to discover where they went and what they’ll do next. These are superhero comics, so nothing is ever final, but if you choose to consider the end of this series as a form of closure, then you’re unlikely to be disappointed with what happens to most of the cast you’ve come to love and know.

Since their introduction to the title, for instance, David has teased regarding a link between Longshot and Shatterstar and he reveals exactly what that is. As we’ve been patient, however, he also provides a whole lot more, and not a single reader is likely to guess the truth. Nor would they expect where Polaris ends up and how she deals with her situation, or indeed Monet’s fate. This entire selection of endings is charming, entertaining and well-worked within the established frameworks. David saves the best for last. Madrox has been the soul of X-Factor since day one, and David is again in teasing mode as he features in the opening chapter, but we have to wait until the closing chapter to discover his eventual fate.

The quality of artwork throughout the series has been high, and that continues here with Neil Edwards and Carmen Carnero, with Edwards slightly more decorative and accomplished. The solid art is large contributory factor to this being the best of Peter David’s three stints on X-Factor, bettering both his 1980s run and the subsequent 2014 series by some considerable distance.