X-Factor is always a bit off of the mainstream of mutant-kind that get mixed up in a lot of weird problems and the current story line is no different. Wolfsbane’s son, Tier, is apparently the key to winning the Hell on Earth War between all of the demons in Hell. As the original Satan apparently has been absent for ages (yes Mephisto is not the devil) whoever kills Tier becomes the one true Lord of Hell.

We open the story with Jezebel (Mephisto’s daughter) trying to get through Layla’s defense to get to Tier. She swears it’s not to win the war but to prevent anyone else from winning. At the same time we watch as Longshot, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Shatterstar, and Rictor are kept busy killing Madrox clones. Wait, what? Maybe I should rephrase that as demon Madrox clones as if you haven’t been following Mephisto infected him with a demon recently. While all of this is going on Monet and Guido are in Hell beating the… well.. hell (pun not intended) out of each other in a fight to the death.

Too messy? No problem. Let’s take this moment to have Jezebel and the horde of Madrox Demons just stop attacking. X-Factor took too long.

Mephisto has found a way to trap and defeat all of the other demon lords and now has truly put Hell on Earth as he is the big demon who runs the show now. X-Factor took too long to believe that Jezebel wasn’t screwing with them and it took until this very moment where she had to give up on the offensive for them to see it.

At this moment Tier decides to step up. If he’s the only one that can defeat Mephisto he’s going to take this opportunity and make the choice to do the right thing. He won’t let the world suffer for his inability to take action.

The entire team says they will join in and Jezebel begrudgingly says she’ll teleport them into Mephisto’s new castle so they can give it a shot. The one condition they throw out is that the team wants to pickup Monet first. Jezebel ports them to hell right as Guido and Monet’s fight comes to a close with what looks to be Monet’s death. Even without a soul Guido is clearly crushed from apparently killing the woman he loves thinking it was impossible for her to die.

Next issue. Is Monet dead for good? Will Guido have a chance at redemption? Will Tier be able to stop Mephisto? (Well I’m going to assume that last one is going to happen.)

While I’ve enjoyed it for the most part and the art has been fantastic. X-Factor is coming to an end this September and I’m very eager to see what plot line is going to lead them to bringing this series to a close. Hopefully we’ll see the team members, assuming they live, show up in the other titles out there. Even if they only pop up as cameos in other titles I’d love to see the team from X-Factor not just fade into obscurity.

Writer: Peter David
Artist: Leonard Kirk