Thanks to Marvel's ridiculously lopsided scheduling, no X-books at all were solicited for this week.  But never mind, because Astonishing X-Men is running horribly late again, and manages to fill the gap. 

It's been almost three months since the last issue.  There is a tendency to blame Hollywood types for failing to get their scripts in on time, and heaven knows that as a class they seem to find it remarkably difficult.  But Joss Whedon is also writing Runaways and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, both of which are coming out just fine.  It seems a fair inference that Whedon isn't the stumbling block here.

Last issue, the X-Men arrived on the Breakworld and got separated.  This issue, they run around it a bit, and fight some people.  Colossus and Kitty get to meet the token resistance, who reject their world's macho culture and think compassion is just great.

Now, the art is as beautiful as you'd expect.  The opening double page spread is a wonderful example of Cassaday's talents, as the two unfamiliar floating objects have a real sense of weight and physicality.  The action sequences are lovely.  And as usual, Whedon is at his best with the small character moments.  The highlight of the issue is Scott and Emma arguing about their relationship in mid-fight.  It's a great sequence.

But the overall story isn't doing much for me.  The Breakworld is coming across as a hoary old cliche - yet another of those alien worlds with a one-dimensional culture.  Even on a metaphorical level, I just don't buy alien races who've made it to interstellar travel without inventing the hospital.  A society so fundamentally incapable of co-operation doesn't make it much beyond the wheel.  It's just silly, and the obligatory meeting-the-resistance sequence is sentimental. 

It was in May 2004 that Whedon and Cassaday began their run on Astonishing X-Men, and their supposed two-year arc still isn't finished.  I've observed before that this title seems to be a hangover from a day when six-issue storylines were the norm, and it's certainly notable that both Runaways and Buffy display a far better, and tighter, sense of pacing.  Astonishing still has more to offer than most books of that period, but compared to Whedon's current work - and I'm rather assuming that the scripts for this have been backed up for a while - it's sluggish.  The ridiculous scheduling delays don't help; and whatever publishers may like to pretend, the pacing of a serial is a function of both time and page count.

When this book is good, it's often very good indeed.  But those come in moments, and the bigger picture is an uninspiring story about alien prophecies.

Rating: B

back | continue