Now this is more like it! The last issue of X-Factor was a weird, context-less adventure in Marrakesh that didn’t seem to really have anything to do with X-Factor as a comic or as a superhero team. This issue, starring Wolfsbane, is a proper farewell. It tells a great Wolfsbane story, deals with her personal fallout in the wake of the Hell on Earth War, and sets her up with a new, post-series life. This is exactly what I want to see from the final issues of X-Factor.

X-Factor #258

Rahne gets the help of Father John Maddox to say goodbye, and once again, an appearance by Multiple Man’s religious dupe makes for a good issue.

Comic Rating: 4/5 – Good.

It’s sad to see X-Factor go, but it’s fun to watch writer Peter David say his goodbyes. I didn’t like the last issue whatsoever. It wasn’t a goodbye. It wasn’t a character story. It had nothing to do with anything. But this is very different. Father Maddox is one of the best creations to come out of X-Factor, and he’s a great narrator. Nothing has been as good as Maddox’s first ever appearance, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Maddox works well as a foil for Wolfsbane, given their religious connection, and he gives her a suitable outlet to wrap up her story. This issue definitely feels like a goodbye to Wolfsbane. I knew PAD could pull it off.

This issue also definitely feels like a farewell to X-Factor. As Rahne’s story wrapped up, as she shared a final scene with Guido, it really felt like an end of everything. Rahne and Guido used to be best friends, but in this issue I could really see how far they’ve come – and how far they are from friends anymore. Guido killed her son, after all. Rahne gets a very nice send-off. There’s a flash of Wolfsbane action, a heartfelt reunion with an old love, and some counseling with Father Maddox.

In the end, Rahne gets a chance to see the light. I hope we all get that chance when X-Factor comes to an end this fall.

The issue opens in John Maddox’s church in New England. He’s in the middle of a sermon about  humanity, and he tells us that this is the last day of the rest of his life. That doesn’t sound good. And it might have something to do with the drunken rednecks who slip in the front door of the church brandishing machine guns.

Not very Christian of them

The bald one is Bobby Shumacher, an abusive husband. Maddox counseled his wife to leave him, and it seems she did, and now Bobby wants revenge. He and his pal open fire and start indiscriminately killing parishioners. Maddox’s kindly deacon falls dead and bloody at his feet, and Maddox is sure that he’s next. He falls to his knees as the gunman approaches, and his last thoughts are of his wife and son…

Which is when Wolfsbane smashes through the window and saves the day!

In the bloodiest way possible!

Wolfsbane tears through the one gunman and knocks him the hell out. Then she grabs his gun and opens fire on Shumacher, blowing him away in a hail of gunfire. Maddox tries to talk to her and calm her down, but Rahne just drops the gun and takes off, jumping back through the window. He thinks to himself that she didn’t seem like the Rahne he knows.

Maddox meets with the police to discuss the shooting and remains vague on how it ended. He says he doesn’t give a damn about the health of the gunmen, especially with Shumacher dead, and he asks God to forgive him this lapse in judgement. Though he also says he doesn’t give a damn if God does or not.

When he returns to his church to call his wife, Maddox is greeted by Wolfsbane, who leaps in and takes him by surprise. Rahne is quiet and lets him do most of the talking as he thanks her for saving his life. The look on her face is impassive. She seems broken and cut off from the world. Maddox asks her what’s wrong, and she says that her son is dead, killed by Guido. Rahne recounts what happened at the end of the Hell on Earth War, and it’s very well done. It really feels like PAD is describing the biggest, most climactic moment of X-Factor’s history, and now here’s Rahne, wallowing in the aftermath. The moment is very well written.

Immediately after Guido changed the world, Rahne found herself alone in a frozen wasteland.

We’ve all been there

She walked for what seemed like days, just trudging through the ice and snow, lost and alone. Eventually Rahne could’t go on and she fell into the snow, which is when she was greeted by her former lover, Hrim the wolf-god. He explained that she was in Niflheim, one of the lands of the dead. He told her that their son Tier had joined him in Valhalla, and the two were having a great afterlife. Rahne and Hrim embraced and he told her that he could take her to see Tier, and they could be a family at long lost.

But guess what! It wasn’t really Hrim!

No touching!

Freakin’ polar bears, man!

The bear smacks Rahne away and is about to eat her when Guido shows up and explodes the bear. Rahne isn’t happy to see him, and she wolfs out to attack, but Guido just smacks her away as he explains why he did what he did. Though Guido still doesn’t have a soul, so he’s rather rude and jerkly about it. And it’s here that I could really feel their long friendship being totally over. It actually made me sad. They’re no longer the characters I loved implicitly back at the start of the series.

Guido is one cold motha

So Guido doesn’t want to kill her, but he also can’t just bring Tier back to life. So he uses his powers to send her somewhere he thinks she’ll be happy: he sends her to John Maddox. That’s how Rahne arrived just in time to stop those gunmen – though Maddox wonders if maybe Guido sent them as well. Whatever the case may be, Rahne figures it’s time she leave. But before she can take off, Maddox asks if she’d like to become his new deacon.

Rahne accepts.

Hugs are always nice

And so the issue ends with Rahne accepting Father John Maddox’s offer to work in his church.

And that’s how you say a proper goodbye.

This is the kind of storytelling I want to see from The End of X-Factor. It’s heartfelt, it matters to the characters and it truly deals with the aftermath of the Hell on Earth War. PAD really made it feel like Rahne’s life has been forever changed by that event, and this is her truly saying goodbye to X-Factor. Why couldn’t the last issue be more like this one? And I hope all of the rest of the issues are more like this one. I would love to see farewells of this caliber with all of the characters. And the art by Neil Edwards and Carmen Carnero is just fantastic. It’s clean, it’s detailed, and it’s kind of stylish in certain parts. They definitely have the wolfwoman part down pat.

Rahne has had a very disjointed time with X-Factor. She came, she went, she got misused by another series, she got pregnant; it’s been a wild roller coaster ride. This is a good ending for her. She’s been through a lot, and through the help of her faith and her friend, she finds new meaning to her life. I dig it.