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Underground > Comic Books >

Astonishing X-Men #2

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Haus of Mystery

17:05 / 08.06.04

Gosh that would be novel.

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:11 / 08.06.04

Yes.. I think "fits in with the X-Men's recurring motifs" is more accurate there. After all, Buffy only properly came back from the dead once (once was CPR)...

It would be nice to have Jean G-S *not* around for a bit - I'm not expecting her to become the Rita Farr of the Marvel Universe, but the endless charging back into life to restore the status quo strikes me as the least interesting thing one could do here.

17:38 / 16.06.04

Man, this thread is a mess. Have some previews.

17:45 / 16.06.04

Thanks for the preview link!!

17:55 / 16.06.04

Looks good - too hard to tell much from just the 4 pages, but they're beautifully drawn. Interesting concept in that the mutant strain could theoretically be safely eliminated from someone...

23:10 / 16.06.04

So the fourth page goes from being nicely colored to entirely red. Um, eww. *still hopes #2 is drastically better than #1... c'mon, don't make me dislike a Joss production*

13:48 / 23.06.04

This is out today! And the general consensus among reviews is that it's a tiny bit better than the first, or so I've heard...

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:09 / 23.06.04

It's actually about seven thousand times better. All positives from the first issue are amplified: art, dialogue, character, drama, pathos, comedy, dragons.

With this and Ex-Machina, my nose is starting to bleed.

15:12 / 23.06.04

Cool. Lockheed is really back??!?!? (shudders with anticipation)

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

15:59 / 23.06.04

His return was speculated upon quite exactly, as you'll soon see.

Hot damn, that was good.

Cowboy Scientist

16:07 / 23.06.04

I don't mind the new Cyclops costume at all, since it is basically a variation on the original costume that I vastly prefer to the Jim Lee version with his hair flopping out over the visor.

Yeah, that's true, I always wondered how he avoided setting is own hair on fire.

BTW I'm starting to hate widescreen panels...

17:41 / 23.06.04

Yeah, the "every panel is widescreen" thing can get a little old after a while.

John Cassaday himself weighs in on the costume thing, from a recent interview at The Pulse:

>> THE PULSE: What kind of new designs or elements are you incorporating into the Astonishing X-Men?

CASSADAY: Actually, at the first meeting Joe and I had, I told him that if I agreed to do the book, I'd want to put them back in costumes and shake it up. And without me knowing it, that's exactly what Joe and Marvel were wanting. To that end, some of Joss' story deals with the "why?" of the costume argument. I won't go into it here, but the team has very specific reasons for suiting up in costumes. Costumes, not uniforms. I like the leather look of the movies as well as Grant's run, but for the comic, it's time for change. My designs deal with the costumes looking less like painted-on spandex, and more realistic. More like thicker protective material that a hero might truly wear. Still tight, but not paper thin. Then I start with the detail elements and patterns. Some of which, I'm sure you'll recognize. I'm keeping it as simple as possible. Early on, certain parties involved were looking to have the characters loaded up with all sorts of pouches and extra belts and ... stuff. Pointless stuff. I did away with practically all of that and did my best to streamline the outfits. These people are about what they can do, themselves. They don't need pouches and five armbands and headbands and six buckles on their head ... You get the idea. All along I wanted to bring the designs back to what they were in the first place. I think we've gotten too far away from the simplistic beauty of the original designs.

He also hints that maybe, just maybe, some other familiar members of the X-Men will show up and drop in during Joss' 12-issue arc. You heard it here first! Let the speculation begin!

It is funny (and spot-on) how points out how stupid the whole 'let's add buckles and pouches galore for the hell of it' movement was, like Jim Lee's old Cyclops costume...

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

17:44 / 23.06.04

Actually, [FATBEARD NITPICK]since Scott actually fires optic force blasts from his eyes and not lasers, they would simply brush his hair back, as if he were driving leisurely in a convertible, smiling against the light summer breeze.[/FATBEARD NITPICK]

19:11 / 23.06.04

Very true, wise fatbeard nitpicker, very true indeed...

Matthew Fluxington

20:37 / 23.06.04

I'm starting to think that Joss' mini-run will be just as good, if not better than Morrison's.

I loved this issue. After having been immersed in Buffy lately, I can see how his familiar writing rhythms are in effect here. Buffy episodes were always written in four acts, and this is working in more or less the same way. Essentially, he's not writing two six-episode arcs - he's writing two tv episodes.

I like where he's taking Henry in particular - it seems like a natural progression from Grant's stories, a conclusion to an arc that Grant began but never finished.

13:03 / 24.06.04

Grant began an arc where Henry hated his mutant form enough to want to be "cured" of it and go back to being human? Where was that? I'm not trying to be snide -- I just didn't see that in Grant's arc. I was wondering about this myself. But then again, Hank is blue and hairy, which can sometimes be a detriment to having a love life, normal life, etc. Didn't Hank have a steady girlfriend for a while - a reporter named Trish Tilby or something - who eventually dumped him?

This issue was pretty good - a little better than last issue, in my opinion. But it didn't blow me away, I just found it very good (like a 7 or 8 out of 10). I don't feel that Whedon is at Morrison-quality levels just yet, but I sense the potential is there. However, I can't imagine anyone better suited to take over from Morrison than Whedon, really. The scene with Kitty and Emma was good stuff. Nice to hear Emma say out for the second time that she's really in love with Scott (the first time being in Grant's run).

"Ord of the Breakworld"? Definitely a Buffy villain.

I realized one thing about why I don't like Cyke's new costume. His visor doesn't have the little circles-over-the-ears thing it always used to have. It makes his head look more like a condom, I think.

Anyone else notice the coloring in the first panel of the preview pages in this thread was different than the coloring in the final comic? Subtly, but still different. The preview version had more lighting differences on Emma & Kitty's face (as light played on their faces from the monitors in the jet). The final version had a pretty straight, same-color red on at least Emma's face.

Scott's "I don't know what to do....gosh...the professor would have been better at this" seemed a little abrupt and like "Look! I, the writer, am showing you that the leader is feeling indecisive!"

A nice, solid second issue. And loved the Galactus name-drop.

Oh, and Lockheed's big entrance was not only a surprise to me (even though I knew he would show up at some point in the issue), but a real delight and lots of fun! Logan's line "Hell, I think we should make him team leader" was really good. And Cassaday's Kitty looks a lot better this issue (I thought her face looked slightly bland or off in the first issue).

Matthew Fluxington

13:17 / 24.06.04

Grant began an arc where Henry hated his mutant form enough to want to be "cured" of it and go back to being human? Where was that? I'm not trying to be snide -- I just didn't see that in Grant's arc

The cure thing is obviously a part of Joss' story, but it comes as a natural progression from how Grant wrote Henry - as a very, very depressive and insecure guy. In terms of Grant's characterization of Henry, it stands to reason that he'd take the chance on the cure if he was sure that it would work. He does his best to cope with the changes he's gone through, but he's not happy with it - he yearns to have fingers again, he's afraid that he's devolving, he can't be with human women, etc. Henry's depression was an arc that Grant never really completed, other than to suggest that it would eventually lead to him giving up and being taken over by Sublime.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

13:26 / 24.06.04

Can somebody tell me about Lockheed? I don't know much about him.

I think I could end up liking this more than GM's run (at least large sections of it) it feels very compact, concise... and very X-men to me in a good good way.

"You can see by our outfits... that we are all he-eeroes...."

14:46 / 24.06.04

Lockheed the dragon

19:05 / 24.06.04

overall, i liked this better than last issue. i loved the Emma/Kitty thing, even though i seem to be in the minority in that i walked away from it feeling like Kitty was a total cunt.

Ord of the Breakworld looks really cool, but character-wise is dull and generic. we'll see where he goes.

i hate Lockheed with a passion, and i hate the "you are like totally the bestest X-dragon evar!" bullshit, and i hate that Generic Villain Man whomped on the X-Men for a while before jobbing to the goofy pet/sidekick. way to make the protagonists and the villain look like chumps, Joss.

the dialogue was strong, Joss has a good handle on balancing out the ensemble-ness of the cast, and the mutant cure plot is promising, especially Hank's reaction. i'm with Emma and Logan on the solution to the Kavita Rao problem, however. you'd just have to destroy all her records and wipe the brains of everyone involved, too - probably blowing up the whole lab and pinning it on someone else would be the best approach. does Xavier still have Mystique on call for black ops?

19:16 / 24.06.04

>> "You can see by our outfits... that we are all he-eeroes...."

Is that to the tune of David Bowie's "Heroes"? If not, what?

19:17 / 24.06.04

And good call to Flux, I think you're spot on with the Hank perspective.

21:31 / 24.06.04

Anyone but me getting the idea that Henry's probable flirtation with the "cure" will end up serving as a convenient plot device to return him to his pre-feline look? It would be entirely in keeping with the rest of the Reload as relates to Morrison's run...

22:36 / 24.06.04

> even though i seem to be in the minority in that i walked
> away from it feeling like Kitty was a total cunt.

I felt the same thing about that scene. I suspect that there will be a follow up later on with Kitty admitting that she was wrong about Emma.

One of the things that I enjoyed about Grant's run was that it moved Emma Frost's character forward in leaps and bounds and placed her in a belivable relationship with Scott. Thankfully Whedon seems to be carrying that thread forward logically.

I am hoping that other writers won't screw up this development, but I'm not too hopeful on this given the pace that the retcons have been coming.

23:35 / 24.06.04

Wow. They were right. It was much better than the first issue--- enough for me to put it on my pull list. Okay, the "Lockheed defeats the villain" sequence was a bit lame, but maybe the guy just doesn't like fire.

My favorite sequence had to be the two pages where Kitt's phasing the hostages down into the floor while the one guy shoots at his "swim coach." Kinda Morrisonian, that bit.

And really, the action bits were great, but I enjoyed the characters, too. Joss's dialogue really shines through in this issue moreso than the first. I got to the last page and, not noticing it was the last page, tried to turn to see what happened next, and found it was the back cover. I was dying for more. This is a good sign.

And the art's still very pretty. It almost made me think that their costumes aren't that godawful. Kitty still looks different every panel, though.

01:31 / 25.06.04

Hunter/FinderWolf:
I believe it's to the tune of 'Streets of Laredo':

I can see by your outfit /
That you are a cowboy

It's an old country standard, most recently popularized by Johnny Cash's fourth American record w/ Rick Rubin. I think both Mr. Whedon and Mr. McCoy would have heard it, though I fear I may tread too closely to the all-too-familiar 'X-Men Music Taste Fanfic'.

Kitty Pryde listens to old Liz Phair.
Emma still owns KMFDM records from when she was under 21.

08:11 / 25.06.04

Well, that was pretty good - as BillR noted, the 'phasing out the hostages' bit was well done, though I felt the bursting in through the window panels looked slightly stiff. Minor gripe, I think Cassaday's a great artist.
Story moved forward rather well, and I thought it was a nice touch for Emma to actually say out loud that she was in love with Scott, I don't know if we've seen such an overt expression of her feelings so far, I seem to recall most of the stuff she said on this theme during Morrison's run tended to be a bit more mannered or flirty.

Matthew Fluxington

08:42 / 25.06.04

I would say that the most touching scene in Grant's entire run is when Emma breaks down after her confrontation with Jean and sobs "why did I have to fall in love with Scott bloody Summers?"

Matthew Fluxington

08:47 / 25.06.04

Anyone but me getting the idea that Henry's probable flirtation with the "cure" will end up serving as a convenient plot device to return him to his pre-feline look? It would be entirely in keeping with the rest of the Reload as relates to Morrison's run

But who cares if they do that, but continue on with the contribution to Henry's character which was more important, ie, the portrayal of Henry as a deeply insecure guy who has to deal with the ways in which his mutation has fucked with his life? So long as that characterization is there, it doesn't matter what beast form he takes on, so long as he has the body of animal.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

09:53 / 25.06.04

It does to me.

I fucking hate wacky ape beast. Fucking cartoonish cunt.

Best thing Frank Quitely every did was the cat form - it DOES suit him better.

I get the feeling he'll be going back to his non-furred form though. Hmmm.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

11:07 / 25.06.04

Well reasoned.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

11:37 / 25.06.04

Always reminds me of how gimped-up he was in the cartoon, see.

12:25 / 25.06.04

Anyone but me getting the idea that Henry's probable flirtation with the "cure" will end up serving as a convenient plot device to return him to his pre-feline look? It would be entirely in keeping with the rest of the Reload as relates to Morrison's run

I would hope that they allow him to go from human, to humanoid, to gorilloid, to leonid, and back, as he needs to.

14:10 / 25.06.04

>> My favorite sequence had to be the two pages where Kitt's phasing the hostages down into the floor while the one guy shoots at his "swim coach." Kinda Morrisonian, that bit.

I thought the same thing.

And yeah, Kitty does look a little different panel to panel. Although she looks better than she did in the first issue.

14:57 / 25.06.04

I get the feeling he'll be going back to his non-furred form though. Hmmm.

Cassady's almost done that already. Hank's nose/jaw has been shortened and he's lost his cat-like lower legs. He's basically as he was only shaggier and vaguely cat-esque.

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