Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics | Tagged: hellions, marvel, x-factor, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

In X-Factor #5… a Mutant Will DIE! [XH]

Published Mon, 07 Dec 2020 18:30:30 -0600

by Jude Terror

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Who ends up a victim of mutant murder most foul this time in X-Factor #5? Plus: what happened to Rockslide, anyway? No discourse this time… just a gif I made from last night's wrestling shows.

Now it's recap time!

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities. Still, thanks to a corporate merger, a line-wide relaunch, and Jonathan Hickman's giant ego, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics for lovers of soap opera drama.

[MULTINAV]

X-FACTOR #5
OCT200562
(W) Leah Williams (A) David Baldeon (CA) Ivan Shavrin
CAN RESURRECTION SURVIVE?
The events of X OF SWORDS have put the resurrection protocols in jeopardy! As the Five deals with the fallout, X-Factor investigates those affected by the tragedy…
Rated T+
In Shops: Dec 02, 2020
SRP: $3.99

X-Factor #5 Recap

Before X-Factor was so rudely interrupted by a crossover, there was this whole Mojoworld storyline going on, and X-Factor #5 finally gets back to that as the team presents a video from Adam X's Hot Seat, a popular Mojoworld podcast, which shows the (willing) execution of Wind Dancer. They accept this as proof of Wind Dancer's death so they can begin resurrecting her, now that X of Swords is over and such things are ready to resume. But first, X-Factor needs to make sure it's safe.

That's mainly an excuse to explain what's going on with Rockslide as the gang gathers at the Hatchery again the next day to perform tests on him. Rachel uses her powers to determine the problem with Rockslide is all of his memories are gone. His timeline starts at the moment he was resurrected, and his mind is like that of an infant. This tells nobody anything about whether or not resurrection is safe, but they proceed anyway and bring back Wind Dancer, with many of her teammates from the New Mutants vol. 2/New X-Men: Academy X days present.

Wind Dancer explains that she allowed herself to be killed because it was the only way to escape Mojoworld. She says all of the streamers are being held there against their will, and X-Factor should rescue them. Unfortunately, the team is banned from Mojoworld after absconding with Wind Dancer's remains. Everyone leaves except Emma Frost and Dani Moonstar, who commiserate on the sadness of being a teacher in the X-Men comics and agree to grab a drink at the bar.

At The Boneyard (by the way, we get a blueprint graphic showing us what's inside the giant phallic-shaped X-Factor base), time passes for X-Factor in the form of a montage of team bonding and general "life goes on" kinda stuff that ends with Aurora showing up in Daken's room for some implied hanky panky. We see a troubling email sent anonymously to X-Factor from someone in clear need of help that will presumably come up later. Northstar and Aurora then share a moment on the roof, where it turns out they can safely hold hands again. She lights up the sky, and the team enjoys watching it.

Of course, you can't end a comic on a peaceful scene like that, so there's a scream in the night. The Wonder Twins rush over to a nearby cliff where they find Syryn dead. It looks like she fell to her death, but she can fly, so it must be MURDER!

This was a nice epilogue to X of Swords, showing life continuing on Krakoa and even getting back to normal, as far as normal is concerned for mutants. This book is killing it with the character work and the relationship-building between characters. Hopefully, this new murder mystery has more than three issues to unravel before the book gets sucked into another crossover event.