SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Hullo hullo.  My name is Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld] - welcome to my blog.

It’s finally here!  Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3) was Joss Whedon’s take on the X-Men.  It started off back in July ‘04 as part of an X-Men relaunch.  Grant Morrison was done writing New X-Men and he finished with a bang!  Jean was dead.  The mansion was destroyed.  Xavier was off to Genosha.  And Scott Summers and Emma Frost were the new headmasters of the Xavier Institute.  Brand new teams were formed in the pages of X-Men and Uncanny X-Men.  A new class of student joined the school in the pages of New X-Men (not the new X-Men Grant Morrison was writing though - how confusing can you guys be with these titles and the renamings of everything?)

And a new team was formed by Joss Whedon in the pages of Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3).  (Nobody calls it volume three, but it is the third series titled Astonishing X-Men - the first was part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover in 1995 and the second a three issue mini back in 1999.)  This team was Cyclops, Beast, Emma, Wolverine, Kitty, and joining up in issue 4 - the no longer dead Colossus.  (That doesn’t count as a spoiler because if you didn’t know that Colossus is alive in the current Marvel U, then I’d bet major dollars you didn’t know he was ever dead.)

So that’s my first praise of the series.  Joss brought Colossus back to life right in the beginning in a way that I felt was believable and didn’t deny his death the power it held when he sacrificed himself to cure the Legacy Virus.

In general, I was a big fan of the series.  The entire arc takes place quickly - all 24 issues happening BEFORE Decimation - which allowed Joss to slow down and go into detail about how these characters were feeling.  Joss has always been great with character - but that has never (and doesn’t in this arc) detract from some excellent action sequences.  Joss even introduced a few new characters that I liked (including Agent Brand - who is now busy fighting Skrulls in the pages of Secret Invasion.)  I like the arcs that he took with the characters - Kitty dealing with Colossus’ return, Beast dealing with his… beastiness… and Cyclops dealing with the death of Jean and his love for Emma.  They did some GREAT stuff with Emma’s character and her ties to the Hellfire Club.

But there were a few parts that strain credulity.  The Danger Room became sentient, which was a bit… weird.  Especially since they still have a Danger Room in the other titles.  They dealt with Cassandra Nova who is a character I have never liked (Xavier’s twin that he killed in the womb but somehow managed to live on?  What was Grant Morrison thinking?)  The slow pace occasionally made things difficult to place in continuity.  And after the first year, the publishing became erratic (only coming out every few months) which made following the store more difficult - I suppose that won’t be an issue for you.  But in general I liked it.

Until the conclusion.  I feel like Joss didn’t really put a lot of effort into his final issue, Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men.  Sure he finally wraps up his arc - and it’s always fun to have a conclusion.  But… well… the issue was just bad.  I did not enjoy reading.  I kept looking for explanations for things that weren’t there.  Almost nothing is explained.  I don’t want to ruin it by saying WHAT isn’t explained, but know that finishing the issue will NOT answer your questions about WTF is going on.  I also felt that there were some major secrets revealed that didn’t really work for me.  Like… if THIS was the secret you’d been keeping I feel like this character would have been acting differently.

[MAJOR SPOILER ALERT]

And then the ending… was just… bad.  Kitty “dies”.  Okay - I can agree that there is nice emotional power in her death - and some great symmetry since she saved Colossus at the beginning of the arc.  But she “died” by “fusing” with a giant planet sized bullet that she phases through the Earth.  And… well… that’s kind of stupid.  No explanation was given about how she had “fused” with it.  They just said she was fused.  And the worst part is - this was all taking place in the past (before Decimation) and Kitty is QUITE alive in Decimation.  She’s even at the Mansion during Messiah Complex.  So they either need to release some sort of mini-series that brings her back or… I don’t know… pretty messed up.

[END SPOILER ALERT]

And that is my review.  Overall, definitely worth reading.  Just remember that the ending is going to be disappointing.

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