It's another of those weeks when plenty of X-books are out, but all of them are in mid-storyline.  Strictly speaking that means I could get away with just not reviewing them, but instead let's pick a couple of the more important ones.

Astonishing X-Men is still the highest-selling X-Men title and, in theory, ought to be very important indeed.  In practice, it comes out so rarely that its significance is largely theoretical.  It's a book that would matter if it existed often enough to get anywhere - which it doesn't.  Issue #20 is part two of "The Unstoppable", a six-parter which is itself just a continuation of the six-parter that preceded. 

And if you were hoping that the schedule might pick up pace, well, think again.  Issue #21 has just been rescheduled for May, while issue #22 has been pushed back to July.  Considering that Marvel haven't even published the solicitations for June yet, that speaks volumes about the rate of progress with this title.  Yes, yes, I know I always complain about the schedule when I write about this book, but the reality is that most readers will experience this book in serial form.  Serials are paced in time as well as in page count.  And the pacing of this serial is glacial in both respects, which makes it significantly worse than it should be.  That's the reality.

But what about the content?  Well, this arc sees the X-Men (plus a couple of supporting characters) finally travelling to the Breakworld.  We've previously established that the aliens of the Breakworld believe that Colossus is going to destroy their world, for some unknown reason, and so they're going to launch a pre-emptive strike on Earth.  The X-Men have to stop it, presumably by disproving the prophecy.

It's not a bad concept, and there's some intrigue in the question of why this unrelated alien planet has got a big temple devoted to Colossus.  As usual, though, the real strength lies in the details and the subtleties of character interaction.  Whedon elevates his story with the delivery, and neat little pieces of misdirection such as the scene with the X-Men's escape craft.  John Cassaday doesn't get many opportunities for big striking images this month, but everything he draws looks good.

And yet the whole is decidedly less than the sum of its parts, because however brilliantly it's delivered, it's still essentially a rather mundane story.  The Breakworld just isn't very interesting, and comes across as a selection of stock elements, rather than a real, believable place.  It's even run by a guy called Powerlord Kruun, a name that sounds like it could have been generated by a computer program. 

There's still plenty to enjoy here in the details, but the big picture falls short of expectations.  We're left with beautiful art and snappy writing polishing up a story that isn't in the same league. The delivery is great, slow pacing aside, but the concept is merely okay. This book really should be better.

Rating: B

back | continue