SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings once again from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld].  Welcome to my comic book review blog - where you’ll always get recommendations on what to read but you’ll never get any spoilers.

Today’s Special: X-Factor: Layla Miller.  Written by good ol’ X-Factor scribe Peter David.  This little one-shot is the type of story I personally really enjoy.  It takes a detailed look at the current life of a single character.  And by putting the story out as a one-shot, Peter is free to explore the adventures of one his characters without having to tie it all in to the arc of the current X-Factor stories.

In general I really enjoyed this quick little jaunt into a dystopian future.  I had fun meeting future Cyclops and future Cyclops’ kid and future Sentinels and all that fun stuff.  However, if you’re not a fan of dystopian futures or a reader of X-Factor, I’d say this issue doesn’t stand up by itself.  First of all, I doubt the issue would be appealing to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the Layla Miller character.  It’s not that it wouldn’t be understandable.  It’s just… well frankly… if you don’t know who the main character is… then who cares?  Then it’s just the story of some random girl in a future timeline that probably won’t have any relevance to the 616 (the designation given to the “real” Marvel Universe.)  And if you don’t enjoy the basic plots of dystopian futures - the government hasn’t learned the lessons of the past and is putting mutants into internment camps just like we did the Japanese, that sort of thing - then, well, that’s what this issue is about, so I wouldn’t recommend it.  The political message is pretty blunt, but it’s not preachy.  And Peter stays true to his comical style.

So a good read if you’re already following X-Factor.  But if not… well… why aren’t you?  It’s REALLY good.  I love Peter David.  Perhaps more of that to come.  But if you aren’t already following it, don’t start here.  Though, if you haven’t been reading it, you probably weren’t thinking about picking this issue up anyways.  So perhaps the entire point is moot.

Though I do want to say this.  Because I’ve noticed a trend.  For all of the talk of alternate universes and altering timelines that happens in the X-Men, and for all the alternate versions of the Marvel Universe that are out there, the Marvel creators have done a good job of making sure that none of the universes are mutually exclusive.  Let’s look at four of the best known “possible” futures: Days of Future Past, Days of Future Now, Bishop’s timeline, Cable’s timeline.  There’s no reason why ALL 4 of these can’t be the future of the 616.  That’s what I mean when I say they aren’t mutually exclusive.  And despite all of the time travel and alternate dimension stuff that has happened, nothing has changed that would lead me to believe that any of these four futures aren’t destined to happen, no matter how hard Cable, Bishop, Rachel Grey, and now Layla Miller try.  Okay, that was probably confusing (as most conversations about time travel are.)  But I thought I’d throw my two cents in there because I am a huge fan of time travel.

Alright, that’s it for X-Factor: Layla Miller.  As always, thanks for reading (and for indulging my time travel ramblings.)  See you next time.
-Searnold

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