X-Factor (2006) #1-4

X-Factor #1-4

Originally released in 2006

Written by Peter David

Art by Ryan Sook

This series was recommended as a starting point on Marvel Unlimited, with the description saying that it didn't require any background knowledge of the X-Men to get into. That's good because, despite me being somewhat familiar with the X-Men, I know either nothing or next to nothing about these characters. I'm loosely aware of Multiple Man, and I recall Wolfsbane from the New Mutants, but that's the extent of it.

The rest of the group consists of Rictor (who has been depowered ever since Scarlet Witch removed the powers of 90% of mutants during M-Day), Siryn (daughter of Banshee, who was a member of the X-Men during the early days of the Claremont run), Monet St. Croix (who is incredibly smug and whose powers involve flight and mind-reading), Strong Guy (who, as the name suggests, is a strong guy), and Layla Miller, who (as she'll repeatedly remind everyone) "knows things", like what's going to happen in the near future.

In this series, X-Factor is a detective agency that Multiple Man opened up after using his powers to cheat on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and winning a million dollars.  Fittingly, the series has something of a film noir feel to it, or at least it seems that way based on my relatively limited experience with the genre.  A woman named Gloria Santiago turns up at the agency, having noticed that her sister is acting differently and thinking that a mutant might have brainwashed her into acting that way.

As it turns out, the reason for the change is much more mundane than that; Gloria's sister is having an affair with an actor.  However, when they get a phone call from Gloria after she's been arrested for having allegedly killed her sister, they decide to look deeper into it, getting wrapped up in an organization called Singularity Investigations.

Multiple Man, or Jamie Madrox, is the main character, with the nature of his powers being played as unsettlingly as possible.  His duplicates amplify certain aspects of his personality, including the part that lies to himself. (that one is chosen to help talk someone out of committing suicide, only for the Madrox in question to shove the jumper off instead - thankfully, they're saved)  He's not even completely sure which memories are his and which belong to his copies.

Speaking of unsettling, Layla Miller quickly heads in that direction as the series goes on.  Singularity Investigations is trying to prevent a distant future from happening, and Layla working with the team seems to be the cause of it.  Her knowing seemingly everything is already creepy, but her manipulating events to bring about an unknown future (and knowing exactly how to murder someone in a way that makes it seem like an accident) compounds that.

The initial mystery is solved by the end of issue 4, though that serves as an introduction to what seems to be the overarching plot, a conflict between X-Factor and Singularity Investigations.  The series has something of a dark, gritty tone to it, as most evident in the art, but it still manages to balance things out with some humour. I haven't read much of Peter David's work, but this seemed to work well as an introduction, and it shows a side of the X-Men corner of Marvel's universe that I wasn't really familiar with.