Tuesday, May 13, 2008

X-FACTOR #107 – October 1994



Punch-O-Rama
Credits: Todd Dezago (writer), Paul Borges (penciler), Al Milgrom (inks), Starkings/Comicraft (lettering), Glynis Oliver (colors)

Summary
While on his way to visit Lila Cheney, Guido runs into the Blob at Dulles International Airport. The two fight throughout the airport, but the Blob is eventually able to escape and force his way into an airplane. After discovering that the plane doesn’t have enough fuel to take him to St. Croix, he demands that the pilot land and refuel. When he sees Guido on the tarmac, .the Blob takes over the controls and tries to use the plane to run over him. Guido grabs the front tire of the plane and uses his mutant power to absorb the impact. The two fight on the runway, as leaking jet fuel is ignited by exposed wires. The resulting explosion knocks out the Blob. Guido maintains consciousness until he’s interviewed by a local reporter.

I Love the ‘90s
Guido calls an airport employee “Beavis” when he steers his truck towards a gasoline tanker. He later refers to his fight with the Blob as “doin’ the Achey-Breaky”.

Review
It’s self-contained filler that reads like something that would normally be in an annual. The art isn’t bad, but it’s a very thin story that tries to rely on Guido’s humor to get by. Unfortunately, pretty much all of Dezago’s jokes just aren’t funny, and the excessive narration on every single page gets old quickly. The quality of some of the spin-offs really seems to be deteriorating around this time.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's an exchange in this issue (I think it's this issue) that I remember to this day:

Villain (on why he's attacking): "Why do men climb mountains?"

Strong Guy: "Masochism?"

G. Kendall said...

I don't think that's in this issue. I think it's in the Guido/Slab fight in issue #74.

Anonymous said...

Bad filler, marking time before the mini X-line revamp the next month. Dezago wrote some fun, light-hearted Spider-Man stories, but I agree that the jokes tank here.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this also the issue where Guido suddenly has an over-the-top stupid accent?

Anonymous said...

I've never read this issue, but if you're referring to a sort of Brooklyn/New York accent, he had that when Chris Claremont created him, and in every appearance Claremont wrote him in. Peter David eliminated it when he took charge of the character.

Anonymous said...

Ah, I wasn't very familiar with Guido's appearances prior to X-Factor, so to me he never had the accent. That being said, my memories of this issue are that the accent was really over-the-top, like a late stage Gambit accent.

Luke said...

This was the last issue of X-Factor I bought for many years right here. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but nothing particularly good, either. "The Phalanx Covenant" had driven me away from the two main books, and my opinion of the idiocy over in Excalibur is well documented. By this point my initial X-Obsession had worn off, and my interest was being pulled elsewhere, so this was the swan song of mutant collecting for me.

Anonymous said...

You know, G., I think you're right--that line DOES sound suspiciously Peter David-y, doesn't it? But then, you've read these issues way more recently than I have.

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