Warren Ellis has a great handle on about half the characters in this comic. His White Queen is snooty and smug, Beast is earnest and clever. I liked his take on Armor as a new member getting over her nervousness about working with the A-team. Storm is tough and regal, while retaining some of her old nurturing ways. But Cyclops is WAAAAY to bloodthirsty and comes across as a villain. Speaking of villains, Forge comes off like a nut here, totally out of character too. I don't think this type of character progression is necessary, and in fact, is kind of pointless. Forge wanted to attack a parallel Earth through a Ghost Box, and the X-Men immediately attack him and try to stop him. Then Beast has his girlfriend Agent Brand of SWORD zap a laser through the Ghost Box anyway, and Cyclops says it was the right move. What? I really don't like where this story arc left a bunch of characters.I think the easiest thing for me (and hopefully Marvel editorial) is to just pretend this story never happened.
Simone Bianchi's art is as beatiful and weird-looking as always. His take on the X-Men is ok, but I was almost jarred out of the story at the weird Pan's Labyrinth-y "New Mutants" we see in this issue.
Poor
2 comments:
I definitely agree with you on this one. If the terrible ending hadn't killed the arc, the ridiculous delays would have.
I don't know that I understand what the point of Astonishing X-Men is anymore. Wasn't one of Joe Q's decrees when he took over at Marvel that there shouldn't be superfluous X-Men books anymore? This one feels pretty unnecessary to me.
I also think Ellis is quickly showing that he's a writer who's better days are behind him. His projects always end up running ridiculously behind schedule. Not only that, but fewer and fewer of his projects feel like they are worth the wait anymore.
I felt the same way until I read his Thunderbolts run. I think that holds up well against his all-time best work. In fact, that run may have been my favorite comic of 2008.
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