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I'm hopelessly busy with other work at the
moment, so I'm going to try and keep it fairly short this
week. Which is a shame, actually, as there's a lot of
really good new titles this week. I reserve the right to
come back to them all at a later date. But first...
Astonishing X-Men leads us off this
week. The solicitations for issue #12 describe it as the
end of Whedon and Cassaday's "first year" on the title.
Does that imply that there's a second year? I'll be more
than happy if there is, and no doubt so will Marvel.
Just a shame it's running two months late, really.
Anyhow, this is the second part of
"Dangerous", and it's good solid meat-and-potatoes stuff.
Something is attacking the Mansion. The psychics are
knocked out, a broken-down Sentinel is blundering around,
and... well, there's just something out there. But
nobody's quite sure what. Cue running around and
fighting the broken Sentinel.
It's all a bit mysterious, and perhaps
isn't quite as creepy as it might like to be. It's just
a little too... bright. But there's something
intriguingly enigmatic about it nonetheless. There's
genuine mystery about who's behind all this. And Whedon
does a better job of handling this sort of story than most
writers today; if the mystery is meant to be the focus of the
story, then dammit, the characters will continue to discuss
the mystery and make clear that they're baffled too.
A depressing number of writers these days
fail to make clear which bits are intentionally mysterious,
not least because their characters don't react properly to the
situation, leaving readers hopelessly confused as they wonder
whether they're missing something. (Don't get me started
on Captain America & The Falcon.) Whedon leads
the audience in the right direction without hammering the
point.
Of course, it goes without saying that it's
beautiful. John Cassaday can do little wrong, and his
wrecked Sentinel is perfectly judged - hopelessly battered,
yet still just threatening enough for the scene to work.
Minor niggle: Colossus is given almost
nothing to do in this issue. When he's only just been
brought back, it feels like he ought to have something more
significant to do in this story. I mean, he was
brought back for a reason, right?
That's trivial, though. This is
another strong entry for Whedon and Cassaday.
Rating: A
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