Warning: mild spoilers for X-Factor #7!
One of the joys of the X-Men’s ambitious new direction is seeing how heady sci-fi ideas branch off to inspire new stories as writers and artists gather together and explore the practicalities of what the mutant’s new status quo actually means for individual characters. Now a nation situated on a living island, and able to resurrect the dead through a complex cloning process, Marvel’s mutants have a whole new raft of concerns, and the new X-Factor was founded to solve one of the coolest – in a world where characters often seemingly “die” only to return with some overblown explanation for their actions, how do you resurrect them anew without risking creating duplicates of your citizens?
X-Factor is the answer: a CSI-style detective agency employed not to solve mutant murders (though they do), but to obtain proof of death so that deceased citizens of Krakoa can be recreated without the moral and practical issues of replacing a person who’s actually still alive and doesn’t want a doppelganger stealing their life while they’re away. One of the best wrinkles in X-Factor’s work is that while Charles Xavier backs-up every citizens’ memories, that only happens on Krakoa, meaning that if you die off the island, you won’t remember your own cause of death once you’re resurrected.
That wrinkle is front and center in Marvel Comics’ preview of X-Factor #7, which sees one of the Scarlet Witch’s twin sons, Speed, aka Thomas Shepherd, bring boyfriend Prodigy some strange news. A young mutant whose powers allow him to absorb and mimic the skills of others, Prodigy was recently resurrected after dying in an attack on the former Xavier Institute. The thing is, Speed has evidence the two were actually together that night… so how did Prodigy really die?
In a picture shared by a mysterious account – and in which Prodigy apparently tagged the couple – it’s clear that neither of them were near the Xavier Institute, meaning that X-Factor’s resident expert-of-all-trades is wrong about how he was taken out. With a bubbling mystery surrounding Siryn, who keeps being found dead from a fall despite being able to fly, there’s the terrifying possibility that X-Factor may be dealing with a serial killer who is offing mutants in the knowledge they won’t remember enough to identify who did the deed.
With a range of investigative experts who can literally see through walls and smell guilt, X-Factor are the best team to have on the case, and it’s nice to see Prodigy and Speed reunited after their Young Avengers days to enjoy the simple pleasure of being together again and making out. Speed and his brother Wiccan had a bumpy arrival into the world as the Scarlet Witch’s children – an event that only just happened in the MCU’s WandaVision – but each has found his place as a hero in the Marvel Universe, and fans are looking forward to seeing the speedster hero caught up in X-Factor‘s latest case when the issue releases in stores and online on February 3.
