Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

Astonishing X-Men

Page: 1 2(3)4

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:18 / 20.06.08

It really didn't feel like a well-drawn alien planet, did it? I mean, sure, thank god he didn't end on another iteration of "Magneto is Angry! Grr!" but I would have liked something a little more terrestrial; I've never been a big fan of the X-Men space opera routine, even with the Shi'Ar.

20:55 / 20.06.08

I like it when they appear to accomplish something, though, and Astonishing was a wheel-spinning excercise inside itself. It's one thing to begin and end on the SQ, but... yeah.

And I would have liked the Brand/Beast thing to go somewhere other than being simply introduced. All this series was, in retrospect was introductions, suggestions, and Breakworld. With some cute character moments and the return of the big Russian Terminator.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:24 / 20.06.08

Oh, yeah, spare me Colossus. Other than pounding home some blaise "Kitty's One True Love" thing, I could do without his return altogether. Though I did enjoy the scene where she calls him on always leaving her when it stops being convenient.

23:31 / 20.06.08

Colossus & Kitty's always unnerved me, primarily because it's always read forced to me as a relationship (and not just crushing, flirting, et cet.) and the big metal feller always seems to exude naivete and childish changing directions at a whim. And it's sacrosanct for reasons I will never understand, so I'm against them with the full strength of my hypocrisy.

But I'll probably be the last 'lither who still enjoyed the Pryde/Wisdom deal for the mileage it had.

Fun comics, though, when taken in large doses.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:40 / 21.06.08

I actually liked the Pryde/Wisdom thing, if for no other reason than it allowed Pryde to age and grow up like a normal person for a second.

Colossus and Kitty...yeah, that always struck me as screwed up.

18:11 / 26.06.08

maybe we should switch the title of thread to plain ol' Astonishing X-Men, since Ellis is about to take over -

and here's a preview of just that!

Ellis, you're pretty great as a writer, but your jokes about 'need coffee or there is no God/will die/will kill someone' are a bit played out by now...

18:30 / 26.06.08

Could Warren be pushing Hisako as "Wolvie's next sidekick" any harder? She even has Kitty's "I need a new name/costume" schtick.

18:47 / 26.06.08

Naff art/direction. Looks like someone's high school art GCSE (no offense everyone who did art at GCSE, I'm sure your stuff was ace). Also, Beast's singing not coming from a speech bubble but appearing across the panel. Is Hank able to generate music now? Is this his secret tertiary mutation?

Finally, Hank McCoy as posturing hardass/Wolverine? "I'll snick your little head off"?

Urgh.

Phex: Dorset Doom

19:05 / 26.06.08

I thought Megan 'Pixie' Gwynn was being groomed to be the next Kitty/Jubilee? This yet more anti-Welsh discrimination from the 'House of Ideas' (about being racist to the Welsh).

20:33 / 26.06.08

Finally, Hank McCoy as posturing hardass/Wolverine?

I think I read that differently than you.

Coffee coffee coffee was overdone, but the Brain/Claw/Suck thing was both funny and also weird in a superhero atmo and from a guy who called himself "Patch" on account of an eyepatch.

A "stop listening to Wolverine" only elevates any comic.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:51 / 26.06.08

Whedon pretty clearly set up Hisako as Logan's next gal pal when they ended up on Breakworld and had to work together -- although she seems to be starting from a position of being more capable of combat-ready than his previous proteges. Mind, I have not read much which has included Pixie, but I'm happy with Hisako in the role.

Actually, now that I think about it -- regenerating near-immortal who's seen and done it all, travelling with and teaching a younger female companion, a companion who goes off on her own adventures after a while to be replaced with a newer girl? Huh. Wonder if Logan's a bloody Timelord.

12:13 / 27.06.08

Do Beast's lyrics herald a lightening-up? Will the boombastic bouncing "avengers" Beast return to us?

Seems like they split the "welcome to the x-men, pre-teen girl, hope you survive the experience" character and the logan's protege character into two between Pixie and Needs A Name. Jubilee and Kitty bisected.

Dazzler is in the Astonishing X-Men sketchbook. Cannon fodder?

19:52 / 03.07.08

I enjoyed this. I'm beginning to think Ellis works better when he has to moderate the extreme tics (the "need coffee" lines, the UFO breaker's yard) of his writing style as he does when writing company owned works. They're still there, but they're not quite as obvious as in something like Doktor Sleepless.
I've not seen that much of Bianchi's work but I thought it worked quite well. I wasn't sure about the muted palette at first but I think it worked well with the tone of the story. I also liked the way the panels are irregular, sometimes leaving white spaces on the page, sometimes bleeding into those spaces or other panels.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:49 / 09.07.08

Picked this up today and agree--it's a good opener that calls back to GM's New X-Men and Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and builds something out of the two. It feels like it's (almost) allowed to operate in its own micro-continuity while the trashy event-addled stuff goes on elsewhere.

I like the jabs at House of M and Civil War and how the status quo now has to work that much harder to get around the plot-devices those events set up. The "costumes sometimes" approach is a good way of going about it, particularly given I was happy to see some of the old Quitely jackets.

I like Hisako. Whedon set her up well and we're now seeing the opening up of her potential to lead a future X-Men team, as suggested by Runaways. I like that she's quickly set-up with a dynamic with each of the senior X-People, and that Emma, in particular, is continuing her "educate a young lady in how to control image" trend -- does anyone else feel like they're setting up (particularly after Angel back in NXM) Emma is the reverse-Logan, the two of them battling over protege girls? The thought isn't entirely articulate in my head yet, but I like it.

So Scott still doesn't need the glasses any longer?

People seem a little too-okay with Beast seeing Brand off-screen. She's not exactly their favourite person...

Storm and Emma amuse me, so they can battle it out. Storm annoys me less in her interactions with Emma than Kitty did, and there's more potential for nuance.

19:51 / 09.07.08

cats sleep more, not less. superheroes with coffebreath = yuck. you are annoying, warren.

01:28 / 20.08.08

Ellis issue #2 - kind of underwhelming. I thought Ellis' Thunderbolts were all quite better-written than his Astonishing run thus far. In issue 2, the team arrives, gets Wolverine up to a high-up place, a small fight ensues, and we are treated to a 3-page discussion about why Scott will kill nowadays. Something feels off here... and the art is at times ponderous and not well-paced/not very visually smooth with the storytelling. And sometimes Scott's visor looks like a ViewMaster (TM).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:18 / 20.08.08

Viewmaster Cyclops is cool. Otherwise -- it underwhelms, but so did Whedon prior to collection. I think I'll quit buying and waiting for the trade, to be honest.

13:30 / 20.08.08

Emma Frost now wears army fatigues. Storm looks like Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Wolverine's claws have grown to the length of a full-grown adult femur and in their first mission they're tasked with putting out a flaming man with giant nipples. This is not going to be a pleasant ride, is it?

You'd have thought that Warren Ellis would be the perfect fit for AXM. He's the type of writer that would come out if Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon had a baby. This isn't the case. He spends most of the 1st issue, just constantly referencing character moments created by Whedon and Morrison (like Emma and Beast's love of exotic coffee blends, Logan's taunting of Armour's choice of codename and Cyclops telling Wolverine to switch to codenames in the X-Jet scene from New X-Men #117, for example) and uncomfortably tries to convince the reader that he's familiar with these characters.

The art is awful. It's muddy, wonky, amateurish and plain rubbish. Simone Bianchi should fuck-off and go paint a mural for Metal Hurlant in 1979. This is a super-hero comic, not some brown Frank Frazetta wetdream. I want Steve McNiven or Bryan Hitch (yeah Millar, let's see how far you get without the great art to hide behind) on this book. They should just have reunited the Authority team of Bryan Hitch and Ellis (circa 1999, though). That would have been perfect. If it continues on the path it's on right now I think this creative team is going to do to AXM what Robert Kirkman did to Ultimate X-men (yes, I'm that pessimistic).

I want Warren Ellis to up his game and get his head right. Subject X? Storm talking about credit cards? Beast and Cyclops and everyone else regurgitating their stale Joss Whedon dialogue? No, I want The Authority (with little X belt-buckles...not those giant X-hubcaps Bianchi has them in) taking on the world and I want it like so (character-wise at least):

Jenny = Emma
Hawksmoor = Cyclops
Midnighter = Wolverine
Engineer = Storm
Swift = Armour
Thorndike = Beast

Oh and PS Warren Ellis, please do something with Cassandra Nova. Joss Whedon fell asleep in the middle of her specific plot hole.

13:50 / 20.08.08

surely beast = doctor. but i like your thinking... also:

angel = apollo
gross old jack kirby guy (kriegstein?) = prof x if they bring him back

06:23 / 27.08.08

There!

Now, if anyone else ever utters the phrase "Simone Bianchi's art isn't that bad" or any variation thereof, I will personally drive round to your house to give you a smack right in your mouth.

Let's never speak of this again.

Haus of Mystery

07:54 / 27.08.08

What's Wolverine doing? Is he stretching?

12:55 / 27.08.08

He's doing his bloody Tai Chi exercises, dontcha know? The once feared and often reviled White Queen, now dressed as an off-white saloon "painted lady", is either basking in some sort of external heat source or she's just summoning a pee. One can never really tell with this Bianchi person.

Haus of Mystery

13:48 / 27.08.08

Actually, looking at it again, I think Logan needs a wee, but can't manage it due to the old 'snikt' issue. He's obviously asking Emma for a hand, much to her exasperation.

02:00 / 28.08.08

Bianchi will not be illustrating the 2-issue "Ghost Box" spinoff/mini that apparently expands on the history of the baddie in Ellis' first few issues, by the way.

06:24 / 28.08.08

Bianchi will not be illustrating the 2-issue "Ghost Box" spinoff/mini that apparently expands on the history of the baddie in Ellis' first few issues, by the way.

Yes, but he is doing the covers and that, dear FinderWolf, is enough to turn my stomach. Ugh, just thinking about him doing AXM for the next two years is terribly upsetting. Ah well, there's always the hope of CTS, right?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:54 / 28.08.08

That's supposed to be Emma? Jesus Crusty, I thought it was Storm...

Haus of Mystery

07:28 / 28.08.08

Ugh, just thinking about him doing AXM for the next two years is terribly upsetting

It'll be more like 4 years though won't it? We're talking about Ellis here. Plus this book has a bit of previous in the late department.

13:52 / 28.08.08

That's supposed to be Emma? Jesus Crusty, I thought it was Storm...

And she's a cowpoke now. It probably has to do with the next daring instalment of AXM, in which the X-Men have to travel to West World to save Professor X from the nefarious robotic clutches of...bum-bum-buuuuuuum...Yul Brynner.

It'll be more like 4 years though won't it?

Maybe he'll pull a JG Jones and request a backup artist after only two issues. That could happen, right?

14:08 / 28.08.08

Medallion, when it comes time to edit your name, could you change it to something less page distorty, please?

05:54 / 29.08.08

Medallion, when it comes time to edit your name, could you change it to something less page distorty, please?

For you Boboss, anything.

07:29 / 29.08.08

So kind

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:37 / 16.10.08

Wait, why did I pick this up, this week?

On the one hand, Ellis has done an admirable job of following up Joss Whedon's run with a love letter to it, specifically the parts relating to nothing happening and everyone being sarcastic with each other. Three or four pages were devoted to the fact that Cyclops swore at someone.

This probably means that I should wait for trade if I'm even going to bother. Ellis could be writing more Apparat books or Fell -- why is he making me picture Hank McCoy's sex life?

Art-wise, spluh. I liked Bianchi on Shining Knight well-enough when he wasn't being weirdly non-anatomical, but he probably shouldn't ever be allowed to draw Storm again without giving her a costume that he can make work in his style.

And poor, poor Hisako -- a genuinely fun addition to the X-mythos -- is given the wondrous character arc of trying to decide on a codename. I'm sorry, I thought Claremont wasn't writing this, we'd broken through to the 21st Century, and Kitty Pryde wasn't around anymore.

21:47 / 16.10.08

Wait, why did I pick this up, this week?

I picked it up in the shop, and then quickly put it down again, as if it was a dead mouse I'd mistaken for a chocolate truffle, during a dinner party with my fiance's parents. It was for the best, I think.

Why is Warren Ellis bothering with the X-Men? If he wants a regular gig at Marvel fair enough, but if that's the case, shouldn't he have stuck with 'Thunderbolts'? Or, if he was tired of that, seen about a job on 'Moon Knight', or something?

Because isn't he almost bound to struggle, sitting there seething in his seaside local, drinking Red Bull, bemoaning the twinge du jour, if the characters he's writing about are supposed to be likeable?

Really, how many times can you type in

'double page spread: explosion/fight/rocket into space - you deal with it, love W' without beginning to feel a bit lonely and misunderstood, however good the money is?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:11 / 16.10.08

I think I'd actually appreciate a two-page spread, because there wouldn't be any content but possibly some action.

23:55 / 16.10.08

I'm not sure about action in comics, to be honest. Obviously there's a need for violence, every now and again, but I'd much rather (and I appreciate it's a matter of taste) that the characters sit around agonising about the morality of their options, and then go nuclear over a couple of pages, tops, when there's no other choice. When Dr Rabies, say, opens a pit of Hell under Greenwich Village, because his wife has been ill, and he needs the money.

Everyone knows who's going to win, after all.

Your sympathies and mine might be with Dr Rabies, but it doesn't shake out like that, I fear.

Page: 1 2(3)4