Astonishing X-Men #25
It's no secret to those few folks who read this LJ that I was, all in all, not a fan of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. It had its good moments. The dialog was snappy. John Cassaday and Laura Martin's art was gorgeous (although I still prefer Quitely's design for Beast). But the pacing was dreadful, some of the plots were dodgy, the big villains were uninteresting, and the tone was fanboy adulation. As the series degenerated from a monthly into a quarterly, all claims at being the franchise-driving flagship book became laughable. It didn't ship often enough, and wasn't really invigorating the franchise with new ideas the way Morrison's New X-Men did even when it did come out.
Enter writer Warren Ellis and artist Simone Bianchi. I was a bit nervous about this team when they were announced. Bianchi's a great choice to follow up Casaday- his artwork looks almost painted with great detail and realism. A strong enough visual presence to follow Cassaday, but a different enough style to make the book his own. On the writing side, Ellis is capable of doing brilliant work, but he has at times made it clear that straight-up superheroes are not his first love. I was a little worried this would turn out to be purely a paycheck job for him, or that he wouldn't be interested in being too faithful to the history. Fortunately, the indications are good so far.
As is usual with me, the characterization is what I was most looking for. Well, and something resembling a decent pace, but that seems to be not a problem- the ending point is a little abrupt, but reasonable and a nice change from the overdone zOMG! plot twists Whedon constantly favored.
As for the characterization, let's start with the not-so-good. Under Whedon, these characters sounded very much like Joss Whedon characters. Now they sound very much like Warren Ellis characters. Neither is necessarily a bad thing, but Ellis's voice matches some charcters better than others. Emma was a little too... coarse... in one comment about Logan, but otherwise she's as delightfully bitchy as she should be. Logan didn't say too much, which suits me just fine. Scott and Beast worked well. I like what he's doing with Armor, showing us more of her interactions with the rest of the team and not just Logan. And showing her settling into her place on the main team (although exactly why she's still there is something that will need to be addressed, although perhaps UXM #500 will cover it). The only real problem with the voice is Storm. There are moments where she sounds absolutely right (her brief interaction with Hisako). But there are times where she is just too breezy and almost cynical. Very Warren Ellis, not so much the regal Storm.
But this is not a fatal problem, and perhaps will smooth out in time. What was great was Ellis highlighting the interactions between various characters. The current state of Scott and Emma's relationship. Hank's worries about Scott's brooding tendencies. Hisako's uncertainties and growing familiarity with the rest of the team. And the acknowledgment of the difficult history between Emma and Ororo. Far too many writers just gloss over that sort of thing.
So, overall a good start on the characters. Now what about the plot? Well, releasing this book before Uncanny X-Men #500 is a bit odd since I assume that book explains the status quo in San Francisco that we're working with here. But the idea of the X-Men as hiding in plain sight in a corner of the country that's happy to welcome them is an interesting one. The "street clothes" concept is also interesting, and one I look forward to seeing explored. It could be great. It could get silly. But one problem with Whedon's run is that he started off setting his team up as the traditional super-heroes but lost that somewhere along the line (between diverting them off into space and Civil War happening in the meantime, I imagine). Ellis is taking another approach and one that might work well with the current state of the Marvel universe.
As for the whole "look it's a new type of sort-of mutant", well, we'll just have to see. No problem so far. But the last time someone went for that "new type of mutant" angle we got the Neo. And the Neo were crap.
Overall I'm hopefull. The plot's looking fine so far. The characters are great, despite a bit too much distinctly Warren Ellis banter in a few places. And the art is beautiful (although the coloring is too dark in some places- I'm not entirely clear what their street clothes actually *look* like, for instance). We'll see if the book keeps this up. And keeps up a schedule.
Enter writer Warren Ellis and artist Simone Bianchi. I was a bit nervous about this team when they were announced. Bianchi's a great choice to follow up Casaday- his artwork looks almost painted with great detail and realism. A strong enough visual presence to follow Cassaday, but a different enough style to make the book his own. On the writing side, Ellis is capable of doing brilliant work, but he has at times made it clear that straight-up superheroes are not his first love. I was a little worried this would turn out to be purely a paycheck job for him, or that he wouldn't be interested in being too faithful to the history. Fortunately, the indications are good so far.
As is usual with me, the characterization is what I was most looking for. Well, and something resembling a decent pace, but that seems to be not a problem- the ending point is a little abrupt, but reasonable and a nice change from the overdone zOMG! plot twists Whedon constantly favored.
As for the characterization, let's start with the not-so-good. Under Whedon, these characters sounded very much like Joss Whedon characters. Now they sound very much like Warren Ellis characters. Neither is necessarily a bad thing, but Ellis's voice matches some charcters better than others. Emma was a little too... coarse... in one comment about Logan, but otherwise she's as delightfully bitchy as she should be. Logan didn't say too much, which suits me just fine. Scott and Beast worked well. I like what he's doing with Armor, showing us more of her interactions with the rest of the team and not just Logan. And showing her settling into her place on the main team (although exactly why she's still there is something that will need to be addressed, although perhaps UXM #500 will cover it). The only real problem with the voice is Storm. There are moments where she sounds absolutely right (her brief interaction with Hisako). But there are times where she is just too breezy and almost cynical. Very Warren Ellis, not so much the regal Storm.
But this is not a fatal problem, and perhaps will smooth out in time. What was great was Ellis highlighting the interactions between various characters. The current state of Scott and Emma's relationship. Hank's worries about Scott's brooding tendencies. Hisako's uncertainties and growing familiarity with the rest of the team. And the acknowledgment of the difficult history between Emma and Ororo. Far too many writers just gloss over that sort of thing.
So, overall a good start on the characters. Now what about the plot? Well, releasing this book before Uncanny X-Men #500 is a bit odd since I assume that book explains the status quo in San Francisco that we're working with here. But the idea of the X-Men as hiding in plain sight in a corner of the country that's happy to welcome them is an interesting one. The "street clothes" concept is also interesting, and one I look forward to seeing explored. It could be great. It could get silly. But one problem with Whedon's run is that he started off setting his team up as the traditional super-heroes but lost that somewhere along the line (between diverting them off into space and Civil War happening in the meantime, I imagine). Ellis is taking another approach and one that might work well with the current state of the Marvel universe.
As for the whole "look it's a new type of sort-of mutant", well, we'll just have to see. No problem so far. But the last time someone went for that "new type of mutant" angle we got the Neo. And the Neo were crap.
Overall I'm hopefull. The plot's looking fine so far. The characters are great, despite a bit too much distinctly Warren Ellis banter in a few places. And the art is beautiful (although the coloring is too dark in some places- I'm not entirely clear what their street clothes actually *look* like, for instance). We'll see if the book keeps this up. And keeps up a schedule.