Astonishing was good, this being the first time in over a year I bought the book. It would be nice to see it ship on time though. But by #27 it will fall off the tracks.
And what is wrong with Marvel not checking the coloring on their books (as in, the print run, not looking at it on a computer screen)? Every panel I had to move it in the light to see the picture.
I'm tempted to pick up Astonishing, just zipped through Ellis Thunderbolts and wow if he can make Norman Orborn that compelling than I trust him.
I'm glad the X-Men are in a setting that accepts them again. I tink the best part of Morrison's run was the concepts of mutant culture and acceptance.
As Ken B. was talking about in last week's comments thread, the sort of bigotry the X-Men usually experience just doesn't tow the line anymore. Sure racism and homophobia still exist but there's less of an acceptance of it, or it's less blatant.
Somewhere I mind connects to a line from the Ghost World film.
Instead I'd like to see ... well not stories but brief one liners about mutants suing for discrimination in the workplace etc. Or that favourite of the Daily Mail where the evil Labour promotes other cultures/faiths above good old middle class white Britain.
Hell I'd love a throwaway about Midlands Football hooligans accepting mutants and going up north to take it to the mutant hating northern hooligans in Wigan and Leeds.
But no, I'm sure Marvel will press the reset button. 'No more mutant acceptance. It doesn't sell'
can somebody tell me who cables mutant baby is hinted at being? (was that correct english?) i dont read the series but id still like to know. thanks!
The baby is female, has red hair and green eyes. In this issue, a fire is reflected in her eyes as a Phoenix, I think you can guess the rest from there.
Ahhh... That's pretty cool.
"And what is wrong with Marvel not checking the coloring on their books (as in, the print run, not looking at it on a computer screen)? Every panel I had to move it in the light to see the picture."
I had to do the same thing with the Russia parts of Uncanny #499.
According to a Manifest Destiny flyer (which has to be the least promoted "event" I've ever seen), Astonishing X-Men will have a skip month in October, after a grand total of three issues.
the baby is being hinted as... her? oh no. they didn't. come on. why does absolutely everything have to be so completely incestuous and convoluted? i mean, i knew they'd get there eventually, but so soon? is there some reason why this baby has to be her or connected to her at this point? (i haven't been reading the book.)
Well, there's an aspect of symmetry involved if it is indeed her that Cable's off raising in the future.
It's also about time Jean/Phoenix finally got to be actually reborn rather than simply resurrected; it's not the same thing, after all. Of course, when you look closely at Marvel canon, Jean's only properly died the once, when Morrison did it, so it makes sense she'd only now get around to rising from the ashes. Every time before was either not her or a fake-out (it doesn't count when the Neo or the Sentinels "kill" her only for her to be fine the issue after). Is this the longest she's been absent from the books, by the way? It's been over four years now, right? Wasn't it less between UXM #137 and the Avengers/FF/X-Factor #1 storyline?
Astonishing actually reminded me a lot of some of the more "setting" aspects of Morrison's New X-Men. Scott's bit about costumes, and how the X-Men have to wear appropriate costumes for the situations there in makes a lot of sense, and seems to operate as a metaphor for the larger context of how X-Men stories work. Black leather is associated with Morrison. Bright colorful costumes are (in this context) associated with the Technicolor stories Whedon is concerned with. Here, the police garb seems to function as a representation of the kinds of stories that Ellis is moving towards: a somewhat left of center interpretation of crime procedural in a world filled with freaks of nature, crashed alien spacecrafts and people who talk a mile a minute. In a sense, it is just as ridiculous as either of the previous "costuming" choices, but also carries itself with a sense of reality and truth to itself that I'm intrigued to get played out more fully. Definitely on board for the moment.
As much as I loved the Ellis run on Thunderbolts, I just felt that his first issue of Astonishing was a tad awkward. I agree that too many characters just spoke in Ellisish (Ellisese? Ellisch?), which was a bit jarring - not so much for Beast but definitely for Cyclops & Storm. The same applied to Grant Morrison's run, but that started with a lot more ooomph. I enjoyed Excalibur back in the day, so he can do an X-book if he puts his mind to it. I'll reserve judgment for a few issues...
Oh, bloody hell. I haven't been following Cable at all, but right when someone mentioned the baby had green eyes and red hair during Messiah Complex, I had a bad feeling about this plot. With the baby's identity seemingly being revealed, now I'm sure the story is becoming dumber and dumber by the issue.
Ah, and Ellis... I usually love his work, and I've been eagerly expecting his run on Astonishing, but Super-hero police is not the kind of the direction I'd expect to work with the X-Men. There were other problems with the issue, such as the already mentioned "Ellis-speak", or the fact it was -- let's face it -- pretty boring. I expected better from him.
They did a "Cyclops-talks-about-the-costumes" scene again? Is this becoming a tradition now?
So if the X-Men are San Francisco's "official" superteam, does that mean they're in the Initiative now? And what about that other Californian lot that were supposed to be The Champions but weren't?
***Possible Spoilers***
So it seems its either Rachel or Jean? Any indication its one rather than the other?
You know, I'm quite liking all this. Especially since we get to see the Summers rebellion. I have to say I'd love it the Summers' Rebellion involved many, many members of the clan. It'd be cool if Scott, Nathan, Alex, Nate, Rachel and Gabriel were all involved and fighting alongside each other.
Wait, did Rachel die ?
As far as I know she's off forgotten as a prisoner of Vulcan in Shi'ar space.
That reminds me...when is someone going to get around to writing about what happened to those characters?
Yup, Rachel's a prisoner of the Shi'ar. Not sure what they're doing with that storyline; the EMPEROR VULCAN miniseries didn't exactly set the charts alight, but they can't just abandon the characters there.
okay so I'm a big nerd, and I haven't yet read Astonishing 25... but I have to admit to being jazzed to bits about having a superhero team in SF and it being the X-Men no less. Living in/growing up in Oakland (poor brother right across the bay) it gives me great joy to think SF getting destoryed every other Thursday. And who knows maybe they'll go across the bridge and blow up a few buildings in Oaktown. It'd be sort of funny (in a tongue in cheek sort of way) if they took out Image Comics, which has an office in Berkeley (next to Oakland, just in case anybody was wondering).
Seriously, can't wait to start reading Astonishing and Uncanny again, hopefully this change will stick for a bit.
BTW I don't read the Initiative (or really much from the fallout of Civil War), but is there a superhero or team in California already?
Kelvin,
In the last panel of Uncanny #499 it shows a front page of a newspaper stating that San Francisco has rejected the Initiative.
This obviously stems from issues 6 & 7 of The Order where San Franciso was held to ransom by Namor and the so far unnamed Mayor of San Francisco (the one Angel saved in UXM #499) first appeared.
This also leads me to believe that the idea of relocating the X-Men to San Francisco originated with Matt Fraction.
Now I wonder where this all fits in with the appearance of The Order in Eternals?
> Yup, Rachel's a prisoner of the Shi'ar.
I thought she got away with Lilandra, and it was Havok & Polaris that got caught?
I was really disappointed with Astonishing.. the artwork was dull and crappy and claustrophobic (bianci needs to stick to covers)
There was way too much over explaining things and some of the things just didn't make a lot of sense (did the detectives not even think of looking in the bag or where they just too lazy to even do something that simple?)
Storms reason for coming back to the team feels trite, she hasn't even had time to sit on a throne with all the cross-overs and events in BP of course one could say she was just making that up.
If Emma and Storm aren't going to be catty with each other this book may get even more boring.
I am happy to see the X-men in a place that doesn't fear them or hate them but of course this is going to be a hard sell if they try to tie this in with the other x-books.
And really Bianchi's artwork is not really made for a place like San Francisco it would be much better in a more bleak and futuristic surrounding.
The uniforms they wore to police station were butt ugly and its hard to imagine Emma would ever agree to wear dungaree's or camo's
Also how on earth can that futuristic car be a charitable donation from the community?
that thing looks more expensive than the x-jet and looks like it belongs in a flash gordon book.
I'm not sure how they get a hi tech underground base so quickly since it hasn't even been a month since the mayor invited them to stay.
Not sure why we need two teams that are set in the same place doing the same thing, its going to mean that this book is tied into continuity more.
I always thought Astonishing was good because it wasn't tied into the other books and would be more new reader friendly.
but i guess thats gone out the window.
With Joss Whedon gone this book doesn't really have a reason to exist cept maybe to get high profile talent.
I don't remember being this letdown since all star batman and robin.
although Final Crisis has come close.
"This also leads me to believe that the idea of relocating the X-Men to San Francisco originated with Matt Fraction."
In this podcast interview with Ed Brubaker and Matt Frction:
http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/...ubaker-
and.html
Brubaker says he was the one who first threw out the idea to move the team to San Francisco (around 16 minutes in).
It's a nice interview in general - worth listening to. It goes off into a few tangents and may be a bit long for some, but it gives a good sense of how Bru and Fraction are approaching the book (and their other projects, as well).
Curefreak: I don't see how Astonishing #25 is any less new reader friendly or any more tied to continuity than #1. It establishes the current setup for the team, then goes and does it's thing. The structure is pretty similar to #1, as I recall (establish homebase, begin mystery, set out on adventure), only with more talky-talky and less hitting things.
Wasn't it four teams (Astonishing, Uncanny, adjectiveless, and New) operating out of Westchester before Messiah Complex? Regardless, it's been two teams more often than one team since they added the second X-Men book back in '91 or whatever. Is that a good thing? I dunno. I think it's better than trying to mash them all into one book. Plus, it does make it so that the only one I buy "monthly" is Astonishing and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
I had the same reaction to the "car." Which was maybe the point? It doesn't sit right with me though; I don't buy that any community would be able to get together and get a superteam a superjet. And Emma should always dress fabulously, regardless of the situation.
Glen, thanks for that explanation. It now all makes sense, and thanks also for reming me of the name of The Order, as it had completely disappeared from my mind.
Regarding Colossus' disappearance, is he not a member of the new Initiative-based New Jersey Defenders?
Colossus in the Defenders ? That lasted two issues tops. The point of the book is that none of the "new" random lineups works.
Yeah..colossus will be in uncanny now
I picked up Water Baby last week. Loved the art and the dream sequences, but I think Ross made a mistake in writing his cast of teens a bit too realistically. They were obnoxious to the point that if they had driven their car off of a cliff, I don't think I'd have cared.
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