SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold.  Welcome to my comic book review blog.

Today: Astonishing X-Men #25.  Following up on the great run from the all-star team of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (check out an earlier entry for my review of their run) is the new all-star team - Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi.  So how did they do carrying the mantle?

Certainly better than Whedon and Cassaday ended the run.  (If you read the previous entry, you’ll see just how much I dispised the final issue of the Whedon/ Cassaday run, Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men).  But is it as good as core issues of Astonishing have been?

Yes.  Yes it is.  Astonishing X-Men #25 (having been released before Uncanny X-Men #500) is the first issue we saw with the X-Men living in their new digs in San Francisco.  I was a little worried that the transition wouldn’t be handled well, but it was.  The way that Ellis handles the reaction of the residents of the bay area when the X-Men are added to their lives is incredibly realistic.  He also takes the X-Men into a new direction that I enjoyed as they become consultants for the police on super human matters.

The other aspect that Ellis handled brilliantly is the dialogue.  You get a good sense of the relationships that exist between these characters and the fact that they’ve been friends now for a long time.  There are some great lines in here as Armor considers changing her code name.  Yes, she’s back - which in my opinion is an asset to the book.

Oh - and the art is beautiful, too.  Being a comic book writer myself, I think you’ll find that most of my reviews will be about the writing.  I believe art is a matter of taste unless somehow it is bad enough that it seriously detracts from the storytelling.  I enjoy Simone Bianchi’s art.  I have a friend who doesn’t.  But I don’t believe that I’m qualified to review it - so I’ll tend to stay away from that sort of thing (unless there is a particular point I feel needs to be made.)

So I definitely recommend this book.  It was a fun read and I look forward to continuing to watch this new chapter in the X-Men’s life unfold.  Shall I start rating each comic on a scale?  I’m not sure I feel up to the challenge of giving arbitrary numerical values to the amount of enjoyment I derived from a comic book… but let’s say 8.5.

Thanks for reading.  See you next time.
-Searnold

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