Joss Whedon

Astonishing X-Men #5 - Gifted pt. 5 - Published By: Marvel Comics - Written by: Joss Whedon - Art by: John Cassaday - Colored by: Laura Martin - Lettered by: Chris Elliopoulos

What you should know : Let’s just get the spoiler out of the way up front.

Colossus is back.

The X-Men have stormed Dr. Kavita Rao’s research facility and found out that dead mutants are being experimented on. Meanwhile, in a bunker far below ground, Kitty finds Peter, her first love, alive.

What happened: Joss Whedon must be having a fun time playing around with the X-Men. Five issues into his run and he’s not straying too far from some standard X-Men story types. He’s already had people trying to get rid of their mutations, Cyclops and Wolverine fighting over Jean Grey (who’s still dead,) Emma and Kitty sparring verbally and a deceased character brought back to life. If I didn’t know any better, this sounds almost like everything that’s happened in X-MEN comics over the last twenty years.

Whedon isn’t straying too far from what made Chris Claremont’s X-Men popular many years ago. As a fan of Claremont’s stories, Whedon knows what made them great and is looking at those stories for the basis of what he’s trying to do with the book. While not repeating the stories, he’s managed to bring back a lot of the elements that made the X-Men fun and exciting. And he’s not just limiting himself to only looking back at the Claremont days. He brings in elements of the Legacy virus and Peter’s death to show that he knows all of X-Men history, both the good and the bad.

The problem is Colossus just isn’t that interesting of a character. Peter Rasputin is one of those characters who became more popular in death than he ever was in life. No one paid any attention to him until he was killed by the Legacy Virus cure. In fact, no one really knew what to do with him before that. They made him an acolyte of Magneto, throwing out all of what he learned and believed of Xavier’s dream. Going back a long way, Claremont even wrote him out of UNCANNY X-MEN during an early crossover. There’s not much that can be done with a big Russian farm boy.

While Peter being back isn’t that exciting, it’s great to see everyone’s reaction to him. Last issue, we saw Kitty’s stunned gaze when she ran into Peter. In this issue, towards the end, we get to see slack-jaw gazes from Beast, Wolverine and Emma. For characters that are so used to people coming back from the dead, it’s refreshing to see surprise on their faces as another character returns. Emma is even waiting for Cyclops’ wife to return but Colossus is the one character that they never thought would or could return.

While nothing new is really happening in this series, Whedon is doing some fantastic work on characterization. Each of the main characters has a unique voice and attitude that really shows through in this issue. From Cyclops explaining “my girlfriend is very weird” to Kitty’s disbelief that she’s really looking at Peter, the characters actually sound real. While none of these characters were created by Whedon, he has given them a personality that hasn’t been seen in a long time. It’s even touching to see how much Emma and Cyclops are in love. While Grant Morrison started this, he had to concentrate on Scott’s guilt. Whedon has been able to move beyond this and show two people learning how to love each other. Between Scott and Emma learning how to love to Wolverine and the Beast’s fighting over the use of the mutation cure, Whedon has let everyone’s true character shine through.

As this issue opens, Scott Summers, who was shot last issue, dreams/hallucinates about his insecurities and past failures. Whether it’s a lack of individuality in his teammates (Iceman, Fireman, Clothing Man, Ability-To-Hop Man who could be all the same person) to a silly costume with many little pockets and flair boots, we get a great brief encapsulation of Scott Summers and the acceptance and love that he’s really searching for. And through it all, Emma watches over and worries about her man. Morrison may have started the relationship of these two but it feels real under Whedon’s writing.

Cassaday does his usual job on the artwork, meaning he does an excellent job. Where a lot of artists have trouble with faces, this issue shows how well Cassaday can draw faces to show what’s going through the character’s heads in any given panel. In one page, Wolverine is shocked to see Colossus while Ord hopes that Lockheed isn’t behind him ready for a rematch.

The biggest problem with this series so far has been the covers. Two covers now have been fists. There’s not too much exciting about that. Cassaday goes back and forth in his execution and design. The second issue with Emma and Cyclops is an excellent illustration representing the possibility of how Emma may be directing Cyclops. The third issue features Beast holding a photograph of how he used to appear, of when he actually looked human. While not scenes in the book, both of these covers do a great job of reflecting a mood or element of the story. Colossus’s fist breaking through the logo does nothing except give away who’s back.

Joss Whedon’s run on ASTONISHING X-MEN is far from revolutionary and that’s o.k. He’s not out to reinvent the X-Men or revitalize them. He’s using the elements that have been there all along and crafting an intriguing story.

Full article here : http://www.mediasharx.com/index.php/comics/3458