X-Factor #227: This issue continues the "X-Factor in Hollywood" arc, with the team finally coming face to face with Bloodbath, who's been lurking in the shadows since issue #224.1. He's as mentally unhinged as you'd expect a "freelance demon" to be, though his constant references to Hollywood make me wonder if he's actually possessing a former actor, rather appearing in demon form in and of himself. If he's not a possessed human but actually in demon form, it seems weird that he would use Hollywood jargon to the extent that he does here. At any rate, most of this issue is pretty unremarkable, with the team engaging in a standard battle with Bloodbath. Even the resolution -- Guido being able to take down Bloodbath because he doesn't have a soul for Bloodbath to consume -- felt fairly predictable. But, everything goes crazy at the end, with a Bloodbath-possessed dupe driving an axe through Madrox's chest and Madrox awakening seemingly in a dream, with a dead Layla lying on a bed and a dying dupe lying on the floor and telling Madrox not to let Rahne escape. Bloodbath seems to have transported Madrox to some sort of pocket dimension, but I guess we're going to have to wait until next issue to see. David, as usual, takes even a standard story and makes it a memorable one.
X-Men Legacy #258: I'm not a huge Carey fan, but I find that every arc he delivers an issue I really enjoy, like issue #252 of the Legion arc. The reveal that Sorel had slipped Rogue a two-way teleportation device was great, since it had seemed uncharacteristically concerned of him to have given Rogue a "stun baton" in the first place. I actually followed the fairly complicated plot about turning the sun into a black hole to save the station, a sign that Carey took the time to make sure it was explained well. (I'm still not sure, though, how Rogue got the idea of pushing the station through the black hole. If I'm not mistaken, she had just intended to repair the gravity generator. Did she absorb from the scientist the idea of pushing the station through the black hole as a back-up plan? Rogue doesn't generally gain the ability to think like someone else when she absorbs them, so it would be weird if Carey is arguing that she "used" the scientist's smarts to arrive at that solution.) I also liked how Carey didn't wrap up everything nicely, with Sorel and his crew -- in addition to the billion people living on the Gul Damar station -- finding themselves stranded in Earth's orbit. It's a great ending to an OK arc, particularly since it results in Havok, Marvel Girl, and Polaris arriving home. I need to do some research about who's going to be on this team after "Regenesis." Given that I don't really enjoy Carey, I think I might be able to lose this title if no one I really like is going to be on it, the reality of Marvel pushing out WAY too many X-Men titles.
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