Last issue, Madrox absorbed his own baby (who was a dupe, it turned out). Now he’s depressed and suicidal. He goes to a church, ready to blow his own brains out, when a nun shows up…
…Only it’s actually Layla Miller, all grown up and returned from her adventure in a possible future timeline.
The X-Men Universe is renowned for its time-travel stories. Alternate futures often throw characters back in time, with future-based figures becoming mainstays on the team (like Cable, Hope, Rachel Summers, etc.). I’m generally not a fan of these stories because I just get confused about who is actually who they are and who is an alternate version of themselves and how the hell they still exist in the future if they’re back here and on and on. But this is Peter David’s X-Factor, so even if he’s going there, I’m in.
Much of this story takes place in that non-616 future where Layla convinces Old Man Cyclops to rebel against human purging of mutants (via concentration camps staffed by sentinels), alongside his daughter (conceived with Emma Frost), Ruby Summers. They lead the “Summers Rebellion.”
She brings Madrox with her, and they have a truly fabulous adventure in a future that will never happen with characters who are not getting tags because they’re not Earth-616. Still, very fun read.
While that’s going on, the XF Investigations Team have their own adventures. Rictor and Guido look into the doings of Father John Madrox, a dupe with independent free will and the preacher from the same church where “Prime Madrox” was going to kill himself. Siryn and Monet continue to bicker with Valerie Cooper and passive-aggressively fail to support Cooper’s agenda. And eventually all the present-day members end up fighting a Madrox dupe from the future who calls himself Cortex and who was sent back in time to kill people who would support the Summers Rebellion in the future.
It’s causing time anomalies that make characters in the Summer Rebellion timeline blink in and out of existence.
During the future timeline, this happens:
Ever since Layla’s first appearance as a little girl, there’s been a tension between her and Madrox. It was never gross or anything, but now that she’s grown they can act on it.
Oh, and they’re not the only ones that kiss…
Turns out that Peter David decided to canonize the long-running fan-fantasies about Rictor and Shatterstar being gay for each other. Of course, Shatterstar also kisses Val Cooper in this story so…He’s kind of a slut.
Also revealed in these issues is how Layla “knows stuff.” She was visited as a child by her future self who “injected” her with a bunch of knowledge.
It happened on the steps of X-Factor HQ–where we first were introduced to Layla in issue #1
Older Layla then walks away, past a wall with the graffiti of every creator who participated in creating this amazing, wonderful comic.
This is kinda the ending but also kinda not. It’s immediately followed by issue #200.
English (US) · 