Collects Astonishing X-Men #19-24 and Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 written by Josh Whedon and drawn by John Cassaday.
The X-Men find themselves on the way to the Breakworld, the alien world about which it has been prophesied that it will be destroyed by Colossus. They've been hijacked by the mysterious agent Brand to thwart the Breakworldian's plan of destroying the Earth to save their own planet. On Breakworld the X-Men get caught up in a civil war between the totalitarian establishment and an underground group of rebels, and they must race against time to save not just one but two worlds. Along the way the reader gets heart pounding action, warm emotions and a story that at it's core is about human nature taken to the extreme. This book draws together all the plot threads that Whedon and Cassaday has been sprinkling throughout their run, and it all ends with a magnificent finale.
Whedon and Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men has been receiving tons of praise, and even a couple of awards, so I may just be piling more on top of that by saying that this is a damn good book. It won't just leave you gasping for more, you'll be, yes, i believe the expression is 'flabbergasted'.
When Whedon writes dialogue, it reads like real super heroes talking. When Cassaday draws characters they don't just pose and flex their muscles, they stand and move like real super heroes. The cast is mostly made up of characters from the X-Men's golden age (think Claremont/Byrne) and they even feel as if they were taken straight out of those stories. Each character has an important role to play in the story, and they all get panel space enough to play their part. Even Cyclops is pretty cool here, and doesn't feel as if he were just put in there to whine and argue with Wolverine.
On top of handling the characters perfectly, Whedon also delivers something which I think is rare in super hero comics: a really good story. Mind you, once in a while a good story pops up, but really good stories are rare. Whedon actually has something interesting to say here, and his story will make you think if you're receptive to such impulses. But that doesn't stop the two creators from packaging the story in a blast of an action packed and thrilling tale, and thus the book, as well as the whole run, serves as a perfect example of how great super hero comics can be. Whedon and Cassaday give here a powerful display of that rare and miraculous skill it is to be able to combine a magnificent story with subtle characterization. This is as good as Millar and Hitch's Ultimates, maybe even up there with classics like the Phoenix Saga.
When the chapters in this book came out as single issues, the book was criticized for it's massive delays. With this book as my exhibit A, I will argue that it was all worth it. And if people are tired of delays between single issues, they should just wait for the trades... I will recommend this book to anyone, just remember that you should read the three books that come before it. But don't worry, they're just as good. If you want to read X-Men, this is the best book you can get. In fact, it's probably the best book that Marvel has put in a long while. The only bad thing about it is that it's also the end of Whedon and Cassaday's run on Astonishing X-Men...
10/10
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1 comment:
I totally agree. I waited and waited between single issues, but I didn't mind so much as the story was worth the wait. Whedon is apparently a slow comic book writer (Runaways was hopelessly late... and not nearly as good as AXM, so...), but usually he is worth the wait. The things he is doing with Buffy at the moment are truly great and probably my favorite monthly at the moment. Then again, I AM a big Buffy-fan, so I might be a bit biased. But the new Buffy comic is really rather similar in tone to his work on X-Men. I guess Buffy always was... (dammit, I love Buffy!!!!)
But about this book: I think it kind of reads like a superhero version of old school science fiction. You get a group of people visiting a planet due to circumstances on Earth, they get tangled up in a local conflict and so on and so forth. It's John Carter. It's Flash Gordon. It's bloody good!
I won't spoil it, but the ending is (as always with Whedon) quite emotional and devestating and even though you know that Marvel will undo the damage in a few months, Whedon still writes the story in a way that makes it feel like it matters. A truly great ending. Also, the title of this story-arc couldn't have been more perfect.
Whedon's big strenght as a writer is that he is a master at boiling things down to the essentials. What is this book REALLY about? What makes X-Men great? He did it in both the Buffy and the Angel finale on television which both had endings that summed up the entire run. Buffy was about female empowerment, Angel was about the fight that can never be won, but still needs to be fought, and in this trade he seems to tell us: Yes, X-Men is about being feared and hated... but it is also a superhero-book. These guys are big damn heroes. Also Whedon is a sucker for a final stand and thus we also get one in this issue. It's all or nothing and sacrifices need to be made in order for good to prevail. Epic stuff.
I've got the single issues of this and I will be buying the hardcover in December. Whedon makes me double dip. Constantly.
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