Astonishing X-Men

[TheBigSwigg 0]

And I have to say that I understand the non-love for Joss Whedon. I didn't think it was that bad when I started it, but by the time I was done I was extremely disappointed. He's got decent dialogue, but he over exaggerates certain aspects of the characters personalities (i.e.- Wolverines' beer drinking.) He also used every cliched Marvel story in the book. I mean, come on ALIENS? An X-Man destroying a planet? Someone not being dead?

 

Though I admit that the idea of a mutant cure isn't too bad, it's not that original. Has the guy read any of the series before now? Does he not realize he's chopping up old stories and putting them together?

 

And my last question: Was there anything about the kid who got cured later on in the series? If no, then that's bullshit. There's a good story there waiting to be told.

[pochorenella 0]

Here's what happened to the kid:

 

He got frustrated because he couldn't fly no more, so he basically commited suicide by jumping off a cliff in a Danger Room exercise trying to fly again

 

I enjoyed Whedon's first storyarc, even the return of Colossus that I was so against, but I'll have to wait for further character development with him. I found his dialogue to be on the mark, specially Kitty's, and if you read issue #7 I think you'll enjoy the terrific interaction between Wolverine and the Fantastic Four (specially The Thing).

And what can I say about the art? Cassaday is absolutely fantastic and I hope he stays on board for a long while.

This is the best current X-Men series out there, IMO.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

I agree that Cassady's work is great. It was the high point of my read.

 

And Whedon's dialogue is good. Though I think he uses a bit too much humor for my tastes.

[starvenger 0]

Sorry you didn't like it. I have to say that I'm not a Whedon fan (still don't understand the love for Firefly, but that's another thread in another forum), but he did win me over with his writing on Astonishing. I agree about the overuse of humour, and yeah he did use some of the standard X-Cliches, but in the end I thought he was able to make it work.

[Vyce 0]

Wait, someone is complaining about Whedon's writing mistakes?

 

Welcome to Marvel 2005, where all mistakes and editorial fuckups will be forgiven (if not outright ignored) by a management team that is far more concerned with being starstruck over their writers than actually putting out quality books.

[starvenger 0]

Welcome to Marvel 2005, where all mistakes and editorial fuckups will be forgiven (if not outright ignored) by a management team that is far more concerned with being starstruck over their writers than actually putting out quality books.

Good point. It wouldn't hurt to give District X, Madrox (and presumably an X-Factor followup) and Nightcrawler some more love...

[tbondrage99 0]

I havent read it yet myself but I would like to Wizard cant seem to say how great it is and Wizard has very rarely, if ever, lead me wrong. Still though before I pick up this one I have other graphic novels and trades I should catch up on first, Battle Royale, Shaman King, Teen Titans and some others. I would also like to get a Spider-Man Tangled Web trade but dont know just how good they are.

[Sass 0]

Whedon dangled the carrot (mutant disorder) that can never drop in front of the rabbit (fans) since it would end the race right there (X-Men comics).

 

Dumb and ignorant concept to write about. It's been done already.

[tbondrage99 0]

I agree, I wonder how long it will take him to dust off that old cheastnut of actually bringing Jean Grey back....ya know that whole Phenoix rises from the ashes crap. Well the rising from the ashes is one thing by why not just rise on its own and pocess someone else? Has that been done before? Im not the biggest X-Fan afterall I wouldnt know.

[Vyce 0]

I don't know if he will bring her back, I don't know what his plans are.

 

But I can say this: if Whedon were to go to Quesada today, and say, "I want to bring Jean Grey back.", it would be done. Before the end of the year. Despite the fact that she was only killed off like......maybe two years ago, TOPS.

 

Marvel will give Whedon (and a lot of their other 'celebrity' writers) just about anything they fucking want.

[tbondrage99 0]

I think its about time Qusada be replaced as EIC anyways. He was great at first but since then hes gone downhill. HOw Wizard says Mavel had a better year then DC goes over my head....and Im quite the biased Marvel fan.

[JasonX 0]

I don't know if he will bring her back, I don't know what his plans are.

 

But I can say this:  if Whedon were to go to Quesada today, and say, "I want to bring Jean Grey back.", it would be done.  Before the end of the year.  Despite the fact that she was only killed off like......maybe two years ago, TOPS.

 

Marvel will give Whedon (and a lot of their other 'celebrity' writers) just about anything they fucking want.

Whedon won't bring Jean Grey back. He's stated for the record that he sees Emma and Scott as the main couple for the franchise and basically had to literally get on his knees and suck Joe Quesada off in order to get him to agree to this since JQ had basically given Chuck Austen the order to break Emma and Scott up in New X-Men #155-156 (which is why the two parter is horribly nonsensical since JQ changed his mind and let Whedon have his way after Whedon debased himself to the extent that JQ was willing to give Whedon said request after giving him the proverbial creative ass raping by way of telling him that Joss was going to have to be Marvel editorial's hand puppet if he wanted the job)..........

 

That being said, Joss Whedon and Astonishing X-Men is basically the poster child for big name celebrity writers whoring their names out to comic companies, lubing their asshole nice and wet so that editorial can ram their hand so far up people like Whedon's asshole and turn him into their personal handpuppet.....

[JasonX 0]

I think its about time Qusada be replaced as EIC anyways. He was great at first but since then hes gone downhill. HOw Wizard says Mavel had a better year then DC goes over my head....and Im quite the biased Marvel fan.

Even though JQ is an asshole of the highest order, if he went that would mean Brian Bendis would be the man most likely to take over running Marvel as EIC. Which would mean taking the worst aspects of the Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco, and Bob Harras runs as EIC and magnify them by an apocalypse factor of about a million.....

[pochorenella 0]

I agree, I wonder how long it will take him to dust off that old cheastnut of actually bringing Jean Grey back....ya know that whole Phenoix rises from the ashes crap. Well the rising from the ashes is one thing by why not just rise on its own and pocess someone else? Has that been done before? Im not the biggest X-Fan afterall I wouldnt know.

There's a new Phoenix mini-series out now that I would suppose brings her back. I say suppose because I haven't read it. From what I understand, it's drawn by Greg Land (I forget who writes), and the first issue has gone to a second print, the first one sold out.

 

I don't mind Jean Grey/Phoenix coming back, since it seems that's her gimmick with the reborn-from-the-ashes legend, and it would be quite interesting to see how she reacts to the Cyclops/Emma relationship. But I DO mind the return of Psylocke, a totally worthless character then and now. I read somewhere on Newsarama that that person is indeed coming back.

[starvenger 0]

I think its about time Qusada be replaced as EIC anyways. He was great at first but since then hes gone downhill. HOw Wizard says Mavel had a better year then DC goes over my head....and Im quite the biased Marvel fan.

Marvel's still a public company, so while the EiC has some control over the direction of the company, he can be overruled by the powers that be (I think that The Life of Reilly mentions that as a reason for why the Clone Saga was so fucking long).

 

However, if the Painkiller Jane movie/backdoor pilot leads to something, I wouldn't be surprised to see Quesada go back to freelancing.

[JasonX 0]

There's a new Phoenix mini-series out now that I would suppose brings her back.

Actually, the current rumor is that the Phoenix Endsong will not feature Jean coming back, just raise her from the dead and return her to the grave as a cheap sales ploy. The rumor goes that Jean's resurrection is being saved until X-Men 3 comes out and that the mini-series is being done simply to keep Jean in the public eye despite being dead....

[tbondrage99 0]

Bla I always found Jean Grey a very over rated characther.

[Special K 0]

I recently picked it up. Fun book. Looking forward to picking up the next. Gorgeous art.

[Vyce 0]

Bla I always found Jean Grey a very over rated characther.

MOST of the X-Men are extremely (no pun intended) overrated characters.

 

I don't mind Jean Grey/Phoenix coming back, since it seems that's her gimmick with the reborn-from-the-ashes legend, and it would be quite interesting to see how she reacts to the Cyclops/Emma relationship. But I DO mind the return of Psylocke, a totally worthless character then and now. I read somewhere on Newsarama that that person is indeed coming back.

 

Oh God, whom do we have to thank for THAT pointless resurrection?

[starvenger 0]

I don't mind Jean Grey/Phoenix coming back, since it seems that's her gimmick with the reborn-from-the-ashes legend, and it would be quite interesting to see how she reacts to the Cyclops/Emma relationship. But I DO mind the return of Psylocke, a totally worthless character then and now. I read somewhere on Newsarama that that person is indeed coming back.

 

Oh God, whom do we have to thank for THAT pointless resurrection?

Um, who do you think?

 

Hint: It's not Whedon, Austen, Milligan, Hines, Bedard, Weir, DeFillipis, David, Nicieza, Lobdell, Calafiore or any other X-writer on a "minor" title.

Edited February 10, 2005 by starvenger

[JasonX 0]

Oh God, whom do we have to thank for THAT pointless resurrection?

 

Claremont, though to be fair the whole "death" thing was supposed to just be a temp thing done so as to allow Claremont to reboot Betsy back to her British body within a matter of months (to coincide with the whole Invasion storyline in XXM). But Joe Quesada had to be a cuntface ass-sucker and refused to let Claremont bring Betsy back so as to finish the storyline (which then had to be totally rewritten from scratch since Betsy's return was the lynchpen of the entire story).

[Sass 0]

Comics are slowly going to let movies dictate what stories are told instead of micro managing sub divisions and front office heads who know nothing about comics.

 

I don't like the trends that I've seen in comics since the big Marvel Reboot in '97. TPB's, online comics, fanboy editors, mainstream EIC's, etc. I don't see things boding well for the comic book shelfs in shops in a couple years.