Welcome, my friends, to the lettercol that never ends. Peter David here, on behalf of Andy Schmidt—the Schmidternator, as we call him—welcoming Pablo “Picasso” Raimondi. Yes, we’re together again for the first time: The creative team that gave you MADROX, the limited series that garnered more “What a great book, why the hell isn’t it selling more?!?” reviews than any other title in Marvel history, has reunited for a new run of greatness. This issue is intended to be a good jumping on point, so if you’re a newbie, welcome. If you’re a long-standing fan, shove it into the hands of the uninitiated and urge them to come on board for the ride. Letters, as always, may be edited for length but not content:

Dear X-Central,

I would like to congratulate you on a wonderful cast of characters in X-FACTOR! I love the title and the writing and really love the new artist Renato Arlem. Please keep him around. I know as a second rate ”X”-book this title will always get second-rate writers, artist, inkers, and colorists. The sad thing is if you ever placed a first rate team on this title you would have incredible sales as well as a number #1 title.

Rafael Soto

(Via E-mail)

Well, Rafael, I think I speak on behalf of every second-rate creator on this book when I say…thanks…I guess…


Dear X-Factor Cronies,

Love your noir-ishness and other X-goodness that goes into making X-FACTOR a very interesting, funny and enlightening book. However, I have a bone to pick with you and it is to do with the scene setting of 1347 South Wales.

Mr David, you seem to have my fellow countrymen confused with another populous of the British Isles in that we Taff’s never, ever say “Aye”. For any reason. Whatsoever. It’s nice to have nasty bad guys with little moral fortitude come from my homeland, and the proliferation of Wales is in general a very positive thing. But to confuse Wales with Scotland is just plain old nasty. We’ve got the Rugby World Cup coming in 2007 for God’s sake! You trying to hex us? They wear blue, we wear red! ARGH!

John Meredit

Pontypridd, Wales

Well, John, while I do a considerable bit of research for each issue, little things are sometimes going to slip through. Then again, that’s what happens when you have a second-rate writer on the book, alas.

Dear X-Central,

I have recently gotten into the new X-FACTOR comics. I was wandering if it would be possible, to see an appearance by Havok and Lorna in the near future. Maybe in a case or something of the sort. I have a few more questions. Would it be possible to have Madrox and Rahne at least have a one night stand ? I think that it would be funny, if he did this before Monet and Terry find out about issue #11. Now for my final question. Is it possible to see Jamie and Guido joking around like in the good ol' days ?

Lance J. M.

(Via E-Mail)

Well, as you can see, Lance, Jamie is already busy dealing with the (literal) fall out of his involvement with Siryn and Monet. Something tells me now wouldn’t be the time to try and get it on with Rahne…whom I think he really sees more as a sister-type anyway. As for Jamie and Guido joking around, well…maybe once the dust settles. And Havok and Lorna won’t be showing up anytime soon; tragically, they’re too busy appearing in first rate X-Books.

Dear X-Central,
Several points I wanna comment on. First, There was a letter, by Christopher Goodnight. He said, and I quote "You took a throwaway character and made her the star of a series," talking of course about Layla Miller. Uh--hello? Don't you have that a little backwards there, Chris? Layla Miller played a ginormous role in HOUSE OF M! Furthermore she plays significantly a lesser role here with X-Factor. Peter, you
don't think of Layla as a throwaway character do you?

M is becoming a favorite character of mine recently, whereas I hated her in GENERATION X.

Rictor, well... let me put it thisway: X-FACTOR needs more A-list characters if it's gonna work even in the current incarnation. Rictor has always been a secondary b-list character--and that was when he had powers! I hate his hair. Really I do. Remember when he had black hair and a mohawk? Ah the good old days. And of course mohawks are back the last few years, huh? Hmmm. I have to admit, Strong Guy killing that guy Buchanan--I really thought it was because of the phone call, so that was pretty predictable. Back to Rictor! As far as I'm concerned, Pietro can have him!! Maybe make an all new team of his own or whatever. I'd much rather have Ric's old buddy Shatterstar on this team! Not really too much of a fan of Shatterstar, but he doesn't really have Earth (or star)-shattering powers, so he fits the criteria, right? Angel/ Archangel, Moonstar and maybe Shatterstar are some of the more-A-list characters I'd like to see in this series! I know there's a new artist coming on after next month's story-arc Finale, and I thank you for that. But Pablo Raimondi?!? What, Carlo Pagulayan was busy?? I know you wanna set a mood for the noir of this book(which I could frankly do without altogether) but that's mainly done with the inking and coloring anyway, isn't it? This series deserves a better, more A-list artist!

Andrew J. Shaw

(Via E-mail)

Sorry, Andrew, but sadly enough, Rafael Soto has already made clear to us what a bunch of second-rate creators are running the show. For consistency’s sake, one would almost have to require that we’ve got B-list characters to match our lack of status. Personally, I happen to think Pablo is as good as artists get, and I’m hoping this issue proves that.

As for Layla Miller, I have to admit, I’m bewildered over any negative fan reaction to her debut in HOUSE OF M. The knock on her seemed to be that the series wouldn’t have worked without her, and therefore her presence was somehow weak, forced, or a deus ex machina. Curiously, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” hinged on the character Tia Dalma, the voodoo priestess, who was nowhere to be found in the first film. For that matter, Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” absolutely needed the character Mr. Universe in order to work, and he was nowhere in the previous thirteen episodes of “Firefly.” So I fail to understand why fans have singled out her introduction in HOM as somehow an indication of a weak story or contrived character. In any event, I’m glad you like what we’ve done with her. She’s developing quite a fan base. If this keeps up, she’ll be promoted to A-level and be removed from the book entirely, since we only have second rate characters and creators around these parts.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to curl up in a corner and go fetal until the next lettercol, where we’ll no doubt have even more compliments that make me want to hit myself in the face with a baseball bat.

-PAD