Joss Whedon

ASTONISHING X-MEN # 15
Written by: Joss Whedon
Art by: John Cassaday
Published by: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by: superhero
I have a confession to make.

I hate the X-Men. I mean, I really hate the X-Men.

Yes, there once was a time, long ago, that I thrilled to the adventures of Marvel’s Merry Mutant Brigade. There was a time when there was only one X-Book. There was a time when the continuity of X-History wasn’t a jumbled mess. And, yes, there was a time when the X-men’s popularity didn’t outshine that of Marvel stalwarts such as Captain America and the Fantastic Four. In a Marvel Universe much less convoluted than the one we have today the UNCANNY X-MEN was a book that starred the outsiders of the Marvel U. Not many people knew about them then, it’s hard to believe I know, but those of us who did felt like we were onto something special...that the X-MEN was a book that was made for us and only us. There was a time when the X-MEN felt like an independent comic in a mainstream superhero universe. It was the time of John Byrne and of Paul Smith. Yes, of course, it was especially a time of Chris Claremont as well but more importantly it was a time of Claremont before he had even thought of the term “psychic knife”.

Yes, those were great times to be sure but times like those must always end and unfortunately the end times for my beloved X-Men were just around the corner. Before you could say the word “Sentinel” Marvel whored out the X-Men universe by adding X-book on top of X-Book. With that change more plots and subplots were introduced and dropped without resolution, which helped make the Marvel universe a mess of almost DC Comics Silver-Age proportions. What’s worse is that the X-Books ended up essentially becoming the focus for the Marvel Universe, overshadowing all of the other heroes and books that Marvel published. Suddenly, Namor was “Marvel’s first Mutant!” and you couldn’t have a book on the stands that didn’t guest star Wolverine or at least one of the X-Whores. Where the X-MEN had once been the little team book that could, that had a heart and spirit of adventure as big as the blue area of the moon, by the mid ‘90’s it had become a bloated corporate franchise. Gone were the X-Men that I truly loved. They were replaced with silly mutant after silly mutant with names like “Cable” or “Marrow” or “Maggot” hoping to cash in on any success that X-Books had left to offer.

As the dawn of the 21st century arrived there were some flickers of hope in the shape of Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-FORCW/X-STATIX run. Or some great flashes of inspired storytelling in Grant Morrison’s NEW X-MEN. But in the end the X-Men that I loved were long gone, never to return again.

That is, until now.

With the current issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN I can truly, finally say that an X-Men book has arrived that truly captures the spirit of the X-Men that I knew and loved once upon a time. Finally, someone who gets the X-Men the way they should be got. This book is straightforward X-Men the way it was done in the glory days. The way Claremont and Byrne did back in the day when superhero comics were written as superhero comics and not in glossed over Mamet-speak. Whedon has done the impossible. He has brought the living, breathing heart back to the X-Men in a way no one, not even Chris Claremont, has been able to do since Colossus and the Juggernaut duked it out in a bar after the former broke up with Kitty Pryde after returning from the Secret War world. The X-men is a truly great read again, boys and girls, and I am thrilled.

And boy does Whedon know how to write! It’s all here: the devious villains, the X-Men in peril, the school under attack, the young mutant fighting for her life and the no-win situation that was a hallmark of the old X-Men tales. This is the way the X-Men should be written! With drama and humor and action! This is the X-Men I’ve been waiting years for! This issue fires on all thrusters and gives us a Hellfire Club that’s finally a threat again. Not only that but it pays homage to, in more ways than one, the bygone days that Whedon has recaptured so well. Hell, if the last panel alone isn’t worth the price of admission to long time X-Men fans then I just don’t know what to say. With this book Whedon seems to be reveling in giving us a taste of the old along with inspired bits of the new. Take a look at what happens to Wolverine in this issue and you’ll see what I’m talking about. As far as I know it’s something that’s never been done to Wolvie but it’s such an obvious tactic that I’m surprised that it took a writer this long to come up with this ultimate way to humiliate Wolverine. It’s inspired and it’s hysterical and it’s just one of the many reasons why I loved this book.

John Cassaday continues to bring his “A” game here as well. The storytelling in this book is so fantastically straightforward that there were times that I felt I didn’t even need the word balloons to see what was going on. It’s to Cassaday’s credit that the book moves so quickly and at times the progression of the book just felt downright filmic. I felt like I was almost reading storyboards while I was flipping through this comic book. Cassaday is a master sequential storyteller and he’s another huge reason why this book works as well as it does.

So, yes, it’s official: a minor miracle has occurred. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday have me buying an X-Men book on a regular basis. Not only that but they have an X-Men book being one of the first I read off of my weekly pull list. That’s a big statement coming from someone like me who’s hated the X-Men comics for as long as I have. Maybe, just maybe, if these two are on this book long enough I may just learn to love Marvel’s Mutants once again. At least the ones in this book, anyway.