X-Factor #200-202

X-Factor #200 (2009)
written by Peter David
pencils by Bing Cansino & Marco Santucci
cover by Esad Ribić

Doctor Doom himself doesn’t show up in this issue, but this is where the plot concerning him begins.
Because Peter David is one of my favorite writers, it’s going to be VERY hard for me to cut any scenes!

Case in point: we start with Franklin and Valeria Richards asking X-Factor for help, with this gem of an interaction.

Madrox, current leader of X-Factor Investigations, brings up a good point: why would the Fantastic Four even need a private investigator when they have Reed Richards?

It’s a real pity that Peter David has never written a Fantastic Four run. Whenever he gets the chance to write them he really nails them, and that includes Valeria.

Seriously, I would read an entire series just with Peter David writing Valeria.

This being issue 200 means there’s A TON of X-Factor subplots, but we then return to the investigation when X-Factor goes to the Baxter Building.

Madrox knows Reed (he debuted in a Fantastic Four story, of all places) so he can immediately tell that something is off about him.

It doesn’t take much before a fight breaks loose, between the Thing and X-Factor’s strong guy… the imaginatively named Strong Guy.

It’s a fun fight, in no small part thanks to Peter David’s dialogues.

Ben… I love you man, and “Shatterstar” is indeed a dumb name, but you can’t criticize codenames when yours is “the Thing”.

Reed eventually stops the fight, and Valeria has figured out the whole thing was just a distraction.

Specifically, since Madrox is Multiple Man, he used the confusion to create a duplicate body of himself to continue the investigation behind Reed’s back.

This was all to get one of Invisible Woman’s bobby pins (complete with pun), to be used by Longshot to get a vision of her location.

The vision allows Longshot to talk with X-Factor associate Layla Miller, who is in Latveria.
She knows stuff.

---

X-Factor #201 (2010)
by Peter David & Bing Cansino
cover by David Yardin

Doom always knows how to make an entrance on the cover. Even when he’s not in the story!

We already knew from the previous issue that something was off with Reed, but this issue opens with him talking with Doctor Doom on a friendly basis.

Reed also tries to capture Valeria, who showcases she can be freaking TERRIFYING thanks to her electrified teddy bear!!!

Back to Layla Miller… it’s complicated, like everything connected to her storyline.
Explaining Layla would take waaaaaaay too long, but what you REALLY need to know about her for this story is that this version of Layla comes from the future and that she knows stuff she really shouldn’t know.
(we will eventually look at that future, though, because it has an interesting version of Doom)

Still, Layla was SORT OF a member of X-Factor. So this is further incentive to go to Latveria, to rescue her and solve the Invisible Woman case.

They’re going to Latveria thanks to Shatterstar, who can cut portals through dimensions now.

However this is when the Thing catches up with X-Factor, still angry at Strong Guy and Shatterstar for never finishing the fight… and this ends up screwing up with the portal, bringing the Thing along for the ride.

Ben is not worried about Susan disappearing, thinking she’s just had a fight with Reed.
Kind of weird that he’s not the one to see through Reed not acting by himself, although Susan HAS left several times.

Of course he would believe that Doom has kidnapped Susan, but there’s a small wrinkle.
This is basically the ONLY reference I can think of to Fantastic Four #569, in which Doom declared his feud with the team was over.

The portal has picked up another member of X-Factor, Monet… who you might remember as M from Generation X… and she’s VERY direct, deciding to go straight to Castle Doom.

Poor Madrox can’t catch a break in this series.

Working off a clue left by Layla Miller, however, Madrox investigates a local graveyard…

… where Reed Richards has been buried alive!

---

X-Factor #202 (2010)
by Peter David & Bing Cansino
cover by David Yardin

Okay, for real this time: Doctor Doom IS in this story.

We begin with a flashback, when Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were roommates in college.

However this is an alternate timeline, one where Doom’s experiment transported his mind into Reed’s body and made him completely insane.

This is all pretty surprising for Madrox, since he hangs around the X-Men who don’t have this kind of problem this often. For the Fantastic Four, this is basically a Friday.

Strong Guy was left behind when the Thing disrupted the portal, so he’s stuck babysitting…

…and dealing with an extra creepy Reed (who, as we just discovered, is actually an alternate Doom).

The priority for the real Reed and for X-Factor is naturally Castle Doom… if the first part of the attack didn’t already screw them over.

Monet, Shatterstar and the Thing are storming the castle, and we get to see this from Doctor Doom’s perspective!
Have you ever wondered why he doesn’t send his heavy hitters first, but instead tends to prolong these fights? Apparently, it’s to help him design robotic duplicates of heroes.

Then again, thinking ahead has always been one of Doctor Doom’s strengths. No wonder he’s been working with Layla Millar, who has knowledge of possible futures.

That’s OUR Doom, anyway. Because the alternate Doom possessing Reed’s body doesn’t have much of a plan for anything.

Meanwhile, Susan is… having an affair with Namor!?

Nah, this is just a telepathic illusion courtesy of Alternate Doom’s technology. Which Monet is able to break (she’s a minor telepath).

But that’s not the only surprise they find in the castle: Layla Miller is indeed with Doom… as he’s painting.

So if Alternate Doom was the one keeping Susan in that weird telepathic illusion, why is she being held in Latveria?
Because Doctor Doom found the plans of Alternate Doom “distasteful” and took her away from him.

Kind of weird to see Doctor Doom SAVING THE FANTASTIC FOUR, isn’t it?

We also learn that Layla Miller worked as Doom’s advisor for “a year” following her previous time travel adventure.
Which is interesting considering Marvel Time… from Doom’s perspective, exactly in what year did she arrive? Was she working for him during the Marquis of Death attack, or when he faced Morgana?

It’s a pity we’ll never get too much insight into their work relationship; we will learn that Doom taught her some magic, but that’s it. Even with very few panels to work with, they had great chemistry.

As for Alternate Doom… he gets punched into the portal back home opened by Shatterstar, CUTTING HIS HEAD OFF.

And in case you need further proof of what kind of person Layla Miller is, or what Doctor Doom saw in her… SHE PLANNED THIS, including the fact that the malfunctioning portal would strand both her and Shatterstar in Latveria for a little while longer.

---

Doom significance: 2/10
Very slightly bumped by the only acknowledgement of Doom’s supposed changes after the Marquis of Death story.

Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Alternate Doom is just a deranged psycho, but the fact that the experiment randombly swapped his mind with his version of Reed is a bit Silver Age-y.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I’m a Peter David superfan and this is an AMAZING run; as a whole I would even put it above his groundbreaking first run. There are, however, a few hiccups.
The first one is probably not apparent from the review, but he’s juggling A LOT of plots simultaneusly and most of them get lost in the shuffle.
Like I said Peter David has a great handle on Valeria and to a lesser extent on Reed. However he BARELY uses Susan, and his Ben comes off as much dumber than he actually is. I know Peter David can write a perfect Ben Grimm because I’ve seen him do it, and this was underwhelming from him.
Speaking of underwhelming: while the mystery was perfectly fine, Alternate Doom felt really flat and generic. Especially when compared to the real Doom, who is great!
The final twist, that Doom was actually helping the FF the entire time, was a neat idea but it’s relegated to the very last pages, making it feel a little rushed.
And what were the “distasteful” plans Alternate Doom had for Susan? Did he just want to brainwash her to sleep with him? If that is the case, I don’t really buy the real Doom being so courteus with an alternate version of himself. Saving Susan while abandoning the rest of the team WOULD be in-character for him, but would he REALLY accept to have such a deranged alternate Alternate Doom running around?
That being said… BUY THIS RUN, it’s Peter David at his best!

It was a Doombot all along
Nothing directly contradicts the possibility that this is a Doombot.

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 101
We did it! We actually went over 100 superheroes! But how, specifically?
As a reminder, my rules for counting superheroes are that they have to fight either Doom or his robots. Only three superheroes fight the robots, IN THIS ORDER: Monet, Shatterstar and the Thing. Nobody else fights the robots, and considering Doom is actually HELPING X-Factor here, they don’t get added to the list.
So Monet is the 100th superhero, based on her being the first shown to fight, followed by Shatterstar.

Crazy tech
Nothing really stands out. Future X-Factor stories will show that he gives Layla a glove that can do all sorts of crazy stuff, but she doesn’t use it here.