While the first issue of X-Factor dealt with parallels to the Matthew Shepard murder, this second issue explores the issue of mutants and sports by means of a parallel to Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. Jensen is exploring mutant racism with a more rounded approach than we've previously seen, all the while fleshing out his FBI agents as point-of-view characters, and Ranson's realistic artwork is a perfect match for the grounded and thoughtful script. It's actually a shame that X-Factor is just a mini-series, because the various aspects of mutants and society has enough potential for an ongoing, and Jensen and Ranson are exploring this interesting concept in a very entertaining way.
I have seen the notion of super-powers and sports referenced in various super-hero gaming materials, but in general it's not something that has been explored in the pages of comics. I'm a little surprised, given the style of his approach, that Jensen didn't compare drug testing to mutant gene testing, but he instead skips over that question to focus more on a particular athlete who is a mutant, and to show how his mutant powers have affected him personally, rather than how they affect sports or public perception of mutants.
Although Jensen is focusing on mutant issues, his work is definitely character-driven. The story arc of Agent Kearse, struggling with his own anti-mutant beliefs while doing a pro-mutant job, gets a little bit of interesting exposure this issue through a believable link between Kearse's son and the mutant baseball player. The introduction of Agent Gray's mother, a part of a civil rights group, gives her some interesting depth in this story as well, and the slow burn subplot of her pregnancy continues as well. And the whole focus of the issue is on Tony Robb, exploring not just his relationship to baseball and mutant politics but to his father and his powers. In the space of an issue, we get an entire story of Robb, getting to know him better than we get to know some characters in thirty issues of a comic.
Mind you, I did think that Jensen's work sometimes assigns the story a bit more gravitas than it actually needs, bordering on the melodramatic. The omniscient narrator sometimes gets a bit overbearing, as if the reader needs to be told of how important and weighty all these things are. In general, the weariness of regular life, and the moral compromises each of us must make, are conveyed far better by the dialogue and by the artwork.
Ranson's artwork is absolutely terrific, realistic and gritty and perfect for depicting the "real" world where Jensen's story is set. The attention to detail, and the very expressive faces and strong anatomy that define the work, is highlighted by Paul Mounts's colors, which are as nuanced and effective as Matt Hollingsworth's similar work on Alias.
