May
26
Whedon stakes his claim
Astonishing X-Men #1
Creators: Joss Whedon (w), John Cassaday (a)
Marvel, $2.99
So?: "Angel's" gone. "Buffy's" been gone. "Firefly" adaptation "Serenity" will blast off on the bigscreen. But until then, what's Joss Whedon going to do? Why not take over the most popular comic book franchise and reshape it however you want?
This is essentially what Whedon wants to do with X-Men. Through Scott Summers, he has chosen a team that hopes to bring the 'outed' X-Men back into the public eye as heroes. Seems that Whedon wants to re-introduce the X-Men through Kitty Pryde's eyes once again as he reinvents them. You'll remember the X-Men book did this same thing in the early 80s, and they were great stories.
Putting Wolverine and Cyclops on the same team, with Emma Frost no less, is throwing a lot of kindling on the Phoenix-less fire. And I suppose they need a level head, which is where Beast comes in.
They are all rendered with great style; Cassaday's visuals are clean with an almost classic look.
The first couple of pages fills the reader with anticipation. We know it's Joss, so the words are not unexpected, but the tone is. The book loses that tone as Kitty is reintroduced and relationships established. With the school now filled to the brim and the X-Men trying to be not only heroes, but ambassadors and teachers, the dynamics of the mutant universe has changed. In all, not an astonishing debut, but you can see there are some definite wheels in motion here.
Grade: B+
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