So I was looking at the cover of "Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes" #2 trying to decide if that was supposed to be Emma or Storm (and really, should that ever be a question one has to give thought to?) when I decided that despite looking relatively white and blonde, the big hoop earrings meant she must be Ororo. The facial structure actually looks a ( Read more... )

OMG Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1 gives us steampunk X-Men in an alternate San Francisco (Emma, Scott, Hank and Logan, led by Emma). It is absolutely glorious with painted artwork, and I want want want MORE of this. Sadly it is only 8 pages (and the whole issue has only 16 pages of story for $3.99- WTF?) but all four characters are *perfect ( Read more... )

I did not ever expect to encounter the term "sex club" in an issue of Uncanny X-Men.

That is all.

Well, actually Lady Mastermind's costume is pretty noticeable, since you find yourself wondering how she keeps her boobs from falling out. Only Emma Frost's Frank Quitely-designed negative-X costume was more obvious about requiring adhesive to function ( Read more... )

( credits, lineups, etc. )

This week we came to the long-awaited Uncanny X-Men #500. Long awaited not just because it's a very impressive anniversary number (despite issues 67-93 being reprints), but because this issue finally delivers the new setup we've been waiting for since Messiah CompleX. The timing was a bit odd, there, but I guess they felt like they needed the ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

In which Joss Whedon's much delayed (and overly prolonged) storyline comes to an end. Looking at this issue purely on its own merits, this is really quite good. Snappy dialog (of course) and, within the framework of Whedon's own viewpoint, good character work as well. The beginning does feel a bit indulgent in a "let's have Joss Whedon write ( Read more... )

So this week the 13-issue "Messiah Complex" storyline that finally set about pulling together the aimlessly wandering x-books and imposing some direction on the franchise, not to mention finally doing something about that whole Decimation mess, came to a close. It started off very strongly, with a real sense of Something Happening and an immediate ( Read more... )

On the whole, I'm thrilled with the effect the "Messiah Complex" crossover is having on this book. It's forced the writers to allow the cast to deal with the effects of the last several storylines, and they've been doing a pretty good job of it. They've integrated their recurring bad guys, the Church of Humanity, into the story well, although ( Read more... )