In recent issues, Layla and Rahne have left the team. Guido was also offered the job of Mutant Town sheriff by Valerie Cooper. Madrox starts to get abandonment issues, so Guido tells him he turned Cooper down but…
Madrox can tell he’s lying.
Also early in this story, Rictor quits and Siryn reveals that she is falling in love with Madrox, whose dupe is the father of her gestating child.
For the main story, an ex-Purifier named Mr. Taylor hires Arcade to booby trap Mutant Town. Turns out, the gentrification of the area that we saw in the last issue was really just Arcade creating traps and holograms.
Arcade kidnaps Rictor and hangs him on an X-cross as bait. The team goes to rescue him and there’s the usual fun and mayhem that comes with an Arcade story.
In the end, Arcade has rigged Mutant Town with bombs that will detonate if Taylor dies. To get his ultimate revenge, he kills himself.
And Mutant Town explodes.
Issue #31 is the aftermath, with the team trying to rescue people from a town on fire. In the last panel, Val Cooper hints that she’ll be putting Mutant Town under her control now.
(Remember, the idea of this series, back in issue #1, was that the government agreed to leave X-Factor alone as long as they stayed in Mutant Town and kept any mutant “threats” under control.
Looks like we’re headed for a bit of a series reboot. But Peter David is staying, so I’m not worried.
English (US) · 