X-Factor #4 Review: ‘X of Swords’ Proves Death Has Meaning

Writer: Leah Williams / Artist: Carlos Gomez / Marvel Comics Dawn of X is in the midst of its first big event and it’s … overwhelming. The first part of the X of Swords event, X of Swords: Creation, introduces a lot of elements to readers and if you haven’t kept up with Excalibur and the other X books, you might be a little lost. Jonathan Hickman is an ambitious man when it comes to storytelling. However, even his events suffer from the most aggravating aspects of modern comics, continuing the trend of having to follow several different books to keep up with the complete story. I digress though. Our story continues in X-Factor #4, where the team sent to Outerworld returns after facing betrayal from Apocalypse’s original Horsemen and Summoner. The fallout leads to Rockslide dying in Outerworld, while both Rictor and Apocalypse are gravely injured. The first half of this issue isn’t my favorite as it dives heavy into exposition and the complexity of the coming war. It’s a lot for readers to wrap their head around and gets a bit confusing as you’re trying to follow exactly how the upcoming tournament against the Horsemen is going to work.

It’s in the second half that writer Leah Williams does excellent work with a mid-issue twist that completely grabs you. Since the beginning of Hickman’s run on X-Men, he’s completely flipped the script on death. Death in comics can be tricky and when you completely take death off of the table, it feels like nothing matters. For the first tim…