Madrox

Madrox: Multiple Choice is a trade paperback by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi, about Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man of the X-Men universe. I'd been meaning to check this out for awhile, because I loved the art whenever I'd flip through the book at the store. Upon closer examination, that inital response holds true: the art is great. Every once in awhile legs looked a little disproportioned with the rest of the bodies, but that's a minor gripe, as I only really noticed it in one panel before I started watching for it. The trade collects the complete five-issue run of the mini-series, following Madrox as he starts up his private eye agency and gets into crime noir trouble. The series reminded me vaguely of Alias, just because of the atmosphere and the private eye bit, but any further similarities really end there. Alias is obviously a superior work. That's not to say this wasn't great though, because it really is! I think they did some really neat things with a man that can make clones of himself and reabsorb them. For example, Jamie made duplicates just to send out around the world to learn things, so when he reabsorbed them, he'd acquire their knowledge. This whole mini-series began out of one such duplicate who stumbled back to the original man, bleeding to death. Madrox goes on a quest from there to find out what happened to his duplicate, and whether he wasn't the intended target, after all. And amid this, some of the duplicates are appearing with distinct traits of Jamie's personalities, and seeming minds of their own, stubbornly refusing to follow orders and such. There are plenty of surprises throughout the story, and it's an engaging mystery overall. Rahne Sinclair (aka Wolfsbane) has a side adventure throughout the trade, as she goes out on a mission for the agency. Strong Guy is in the story as well, as he is Jamie Madrox's best bud. If anyone's thinking of picking up the X-Factor series that Marvel announced, they should certainly read this book, since I'm sure a lot of what that series is going to be like begins in this volume. With all that said, I'm going to be checking out the new X-series when it debuts, hoping for something that resembles what I read in this story (Plus Siryn and M!). And I know it's kind of weird, but Raimondi drew Jamie really sexy in this story and I think I may have developed a semi-crush.