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Astonishing X-Men #8

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Matthew Fluxington

14:34 / 17.02.05

Was I the only person who was a bit confused by this issue? I've only read it once, but I'm not clear on how Emma is suddenly back to normal at the end, or what's up with those guys who resurrected a sentinel in the building - that seemed to come out of nowhere.

FinderWolf

14:44 / 17.02.05

It did seem a bit jarring with the scene transitions in the beginning -- I agree.

Cassaday's art is beginning to show signs of getting a bit simpler and strained with his workload of doing this book and Planetary (some panels also made me think he's got someone else helping him ink, maybe a ghost inker) but the art is still very good.

I think we're not meant to know what suddenly wakes up Emma at the end -- just a moment where she's strong enough to break through for a minute to scream out a climactic warning, I think...

Please note that the sentinel calls it's "Lord" a "she" and that the "she" being talks about not ever wanting Scott Summers in her/its bed.

So we're dealing with a female psychic villain here who has taken over the Danger Room, or the DR developing a sentient entity which views itself as female.

FinderWolf

14:47 / 17.02.05

I'd like to think that Joss wanted the beginning to feel intentionally scattered, to create disorientation in the reader as to what was happening where...he's a better writer than to make that opening scene so sloppy and unclear, so hopefully it was an intentional effect on his part.

Matthew Fluxington

15:28 / 17.02.05

Yeah, I agree that it seemed to be intentionally scattered and rapid for effect. I totally trust Whedon as a writer, he's very professional and doesn't fuck around. I was just surprised by a few elements that seemed to come out of nowhere, ie, not foreshadowed or referenced earlier in the story.

I kinda disagree about the art. I think the art looks a bit better in the more recent issues of AXM than the first few issues. A slightly simpler design is a plus for me.

Matthew Fluxington

15:35 / 17.02.05

Reading this issue, I figured out why Cassaday makes so much sense for this title - he's like Igor Kordey with the style and grace of Frank Quitely, making him a logical step in the progression of Grant's series.

Spaniel

08:09 / 19.02.05

I'm with Flux. I loved the art this ish. In, fact I loved this ish full stop.

Such a joycore comic.

Finder, doesn't Emma explicitly state that no one is "using the room"? To my mind, that precludes the possibility that someone has taken it over, or at least taken it over in any kind of straight forward way. Rather, I think the room has actually become sentient, the question is how.

Haus of Mystery

17:02 / 19.02.05

I loved the sequence with the sentinel dragging itself through the forest - very 'Iron Man' (Ted Hughes, not Tony Stark). I agree with Flux on the confusing aspects of the book - i wondered at first if I'd missed an issue. The frame with the mangled Wing ressurrected was unpleasant. In a good way.

BrianFitzgerald

21:07 / 21.02.05

Any thoughts on Agent Brand's tattoos ("Grace" on one arm, "Anna" on the other)? I'm wondering if this was some sort of weird tribute to the final issue of Promethea, which was out the same day as AXM #8.

The Falcon

00:06 / 22.02.05

Hmm. Din't think of that.

I thought she was just some supercool lesbian secret agent who needed two serious girlfriends.

diz

00:15 / 22.02.05

i assumed they were the names of fellow agents who had fallen in the line of duty, or something like that.

after the delays, and after packing my comics into boxes to be held by a friend of mine for a bit while i am without a permanent abode, i was really floudering at the beginning, but i agree with Flux and the others: Whedon has totally earned enough trust that i will hang on for the ride until i catch up with what's going on.

Spaniel

06:18 / 22.02.05

Those names almost certainly have a history, which Whedon will reveal at some point.

Haus of Mystery

09:26 / 22.02.05

If he doesn't reveal what Duncan predicted i'll be a bit dissappointed.

The Falcon

09:53 / 22.02.05

I'm totally serious, though. It'd be so Claremont.

Did you know he wanted Mystique to be Rogue's dad, and Destiny her mum?

Triplets

10:57 / 22.02.05

That's... so... brilliant? No, so Claremont.

Shut up, Duncan, you lie! You've been in my slash folder and you lie!

The Natural Way

14:37 / 22.02.05

Hermy, the comics world isn't one big fuck-pit, you know.

I'm sure when Whedon was writing the script he had no idea that the book would be released at the same time as Promethea. Not only but also: Whedon prolly digs Moore's stuff, but I'm not sure Promethea would be amoung his faves - Joss is pretty much Mr. Anti-Magic.

Aertho

14:43 / 22.02.05

Anti-Magic is greater than, or equal to: Vampire Slayers?

_Boboss

14:54 / 22.02.05

antimagic? you could get a book on chaos out of that probably. sentient dangerroom? religious sentinels? willow? i don't think messer wee'd-on is antimagic as such.

Spaniel

16:42 / 22.02.05

Pappuce didn't make that up guys, and he didn't just infer it from watching Buffy - which, as far as I'm concerned, wouldn't be unreasonable - Whedon has said as much in about a bazillion interviews.

The Natural Way

20:24 / 22.02.05

Yes, Chad, because Vampire Slayers and Alan Moore's brand of occultism are always interchangable.

You thought for all of 2 seconds before posting, didn't you?

Spaniel

20:43 / 22.02.05

i don't think messer wee'd-on is antimagic as such.

I don't think he's anti using it as a narrative device, that would be absurd.

matsya

21:11 / 22.02.05

I wouldn't be too interested in magic subtexts in this context. For me the X-Men is about biological science fiction and that kind of stuff. Even a sentient Danger Room (should have seen that coming from the arc's title, really...) can be situated within an evolutionary context.

At the risk of threadrot, wasn't Colossus's sister a magic-wielding mutant? Ilyana? What was her name? Magick or something like that? How did they play her magic/mutant interface? Was magic her mutant power? Or was it some gobbledygook like what they use to explain the Scarlet Witch's powers?

Bringing it back to the comic, I really liked the bit where Cyclops took off his visor. Very cool.

And also, isn't that just the coolest name? Danger Room? We're so shit hot we train to fight in the DANGER ROOM.

heh.

m.

Mr Tricks

21:27 / 22.02.05

Magik (Pete's currently dead sister) was a teleporter. As she was raised in the magical realm of limbo she developed the ability to teleport through both space & time using a sort of "stepping disk."

She LEARNED magic from the demon Balasko, who corrupted her sould in return for years of tutelage.

matsya

23:12 / 22.02.05

ah, yeah - the dude with the black vest and the cigar, right? That's ringing bells.

how'd she die?

m.

Mr Tricks

23:16 / 22.02.05

um.. the guy was bright pink and had one arm. the black vest & Cigar GUY was his demon servent.

well at one point she became utterly corrupt and demonic. Afterwards she reverted to her younger more innocent self only to catch the mutant A.I.D.S./legacy virus and die sick and in bed.

getting back on subject, interesting that the older Cerebro achieved sentience at one point and now the danger room seems to have done the same.

Aertho

00:17 / 23.02.05

God Pappuce. And here I was just trying to be funny. Now I'm all set up to say how I read your post and thought Wrongness..., but I'm just here to have fun. Are you really that sensitive?

Nobody cares either way, and I'm only a Byrne-stealing reader on Astonishing anyway.

Matthew Fluxington

01:00 / 23.02.05

I hope that explanation for the Danger Room's sentience is that it was corrupted and mutated/evolved into sentience. That would be lovely.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

01:02 / 23.02.05

um.. the guy was bright pink and had one arm. the black vest & Cigar GUY was his demon servent.

That would be S'ym. Claremont's answer to Cerebus' Wolveroach and the worst character design in the history of the Marvel Universe.

But, I'm sorry. You were saying?

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

02:05 / 23.02.05

This would be a new danger room, yeah?

Maybe it's a magnetic virus left my Magneto to scupper rebuilding. We do have house of M comming up, after all.

matsya

03:58 / 23.02.05

I LIKED S'ym. Don't remember Belasco... oh hang on, did he get about in kind of a miltary-style cape and epaulets number, with wee yellow horns on his forehead? Wasn't there some shtick about the way he lost his arm?

m.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

09:06 / 23.02.05

Wow, that was well fucking creepy.

This is the most mature thing Wedon's written in ages, there's none of the shit dialouge or sentimentality that torpedoed later seasons of buffy.

Loved how they handled that optic blast.

Quantum

14:37 / 23.02.05

But what am I supposed to say, Chad? Just laugh heartily and agree w/ you? There is just sod all chance Whedon was referencing Promethea. It's that kind of dull-ass speculation that makes old posters grump as much as we do.

GRUMP!

The Natural Way

14:40 / 23.02.05

That was me, BTW.

Spaniel

14:41 / 23.02.05

You are not Quantum.

Spaniel

14:44 / 23.02.05

I miss Quantum. I've reread the Breeding Exam. He was fantastically tenacious.

Tell him to post more brother Pappuce.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

02:59 / 02.03.05

Wolerines reply to the optic blast was so Joss i could hardly stand it.

I liked the issue very much, and I'm pulling for Angry Jean is possesing the danger room somehow. Madeline Pryor maybe. In that hot Inferno outfit, ohhhh yeah.

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