Who's read Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men?

[Viking Bastard]

I've actually never been too impressed with Morrison. He's got some cool ideas, but I rarely like his characters, or how his big ideas wind up playing out. I dug his Batman in JLA quite a bit, though.

That's pretty much what everyone that doesn't like Morrison says.
Exact words, really. At least he's consistant.

With that said, though, I'd have to say that that's exactly how I'd
describe Claremont. I like his plots but he often screws up with the
climax and he couldn't write good characterization to save his life.
All his characters act and sound exactly the same, which hasn't
stopped him from trying to fill everything with soap opera.

I still like Claremont's classic X-Men, but despite his shortcomings
as a writer.

Gotta agree with you about the X-Men from early 90s on. Ugh. We had nearly a solid decade of good comics before that, at least. Just picked up the new Essential X-Men trade (#5, I think? It's got the X-Men vs Kulan Gath, Colossus vs Juggernaut, and the Lifedeath stories) and got to re-visit some of the old school goodness.

I own all the Essential trades. The stories therein vary in quality,
but overall I like 'em.

 

[CrusaderX]

Whedon's first X-Men issue is getting rather lukewarm reviews from most comic reviewers.

Out of all the X-Men titles in the reboot (or reload, or relaunch, or whatever the heck it's called), Chris Claremont's title is getting the best reviews so far.

 

[Silver Moon]

Out of all the X-Men titles in the reboot (or reload, or relaunch, or whatever the heck it's called), Chris Claremont's title is getting the best reviews so far.

Why is it called Excalabur? I hear it has no relation to the previous book with that title.

 

[Mog Elffoe]

With that said, though, I'd have to say that that's exactly how I'd describe Claremont. I like his plots but he often screws up with the climax and he couldn't write good characterization to save his life.
All his characters act and sound exactly the same, which hasn't stopped him from trying to fill everything with soap opera.

Hmm, I don't know about that... I think that Claremont's done pretty much the definitive versions of the core X-Men characters. I will agree that when his characters get preachy, THEN they all sound alike...

I still like Claremont's classic X-Men, but despite his shortcomings as a writer. I own all the Essential trades. The stories therein vary in quality, but overall I like 'em.

Aside from the last two issues of Uncanny X-Men, these are the only issues of X-Men of Claremont's that I've read--his run from the late seventies on to the early nineties. Not every single issue is a winner (and plenty just plain stink--Inferno? Ugh.) but I do think all of the best X-Men stories fall within this run.

 

[Viking Bastard]

...his run from the late seventies on to the early nineties. Not every single issue is a winner (and plenty just plain stink--Inferno? Ugh.) but I do think all of the best X-Men stories fall within this run.

Agreed. Although the later parts of his run were starting to get poor.
The Jim Lee era and beyond. This can largely be contributed to growing
editorial interferance.

 

[Mog Elffoe]

Agreed. Although the later parts of his run were starting to get poor.
The Jim Lee era and beyond. This can largely be contributed to growing
editorial interferance.

Sounds about right. I think that when all of the summer crossovers started becoming madatory (Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, Inferno, etc., etc., that was when I started to tune out. You could see how the rest of the year's storylines completely went to the wayside to for these, so I'm sure that wasn't really Claremont's doing. My favorites are the Claremont/Cockrum-Byrne-Cockrum-Smith-Romita, Jr. issues.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Alright, picked up the book yesterday. Liked it a good deal (it's got Joss's stamp all over it), except for the art which I found a bit too painterly for an action comic.

I've got a few backstory questions though, so bear with me...

1. What happened to Jean Grey?

2. Logan mentions that he's been going off a lot lately since...and is cut off by Kitty. What was he talking about? I assumed it was Jean's death(?) but was it something else?

3. The bad guy mutants that the X-Men go off to fight and that geneticist - are they new?

Spoiler

Did anyone else see her and read her speech and think of Mr. Sinister?

4. Has Beast looked like a cat for awhile now (and why?), or is that just the artist's rendition? Really didn't like that.

5. What exactly happened to the X-Men? I got the feeling these friends hadn't seen each other for a while. How long have they been apart? If Wolvie, Beast and Cyke haven't been around then who've been calling themselves X-Men for the last few years? Where's Prof. X?

I don't expect you guys to answer ever question, although the first two would help me a lot.

I'll probably be picking up the next issue. I won't commit until I've read a couple more.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Well, I'm in a hurry, so I can't explain in detail, but here are some short answers:

Alright, picked up the book yesterday. Liked it a good deal (it's got Joss's stamp all over it), except for the art which I found a bit too painterly for an action comic.

I've got a few backstory questions though, so bear with me...

1. What happened to Jean Grey?

She evolved. Kinda. Basically she died, but with a *huge* backdoor for
return. Think Daniel Jackson, just replace the cloud of white light with
The Phoenix.

4. Has Beast looked like a cat for awhile now (and why?), or is that just the artist's rendition? Really didn't like that.

Secondary Mutation. Beast had a near death experience and the trauma
jump started his mutation somehow, making him more non-human. Emma
Frost also gained a sceondary mutation, but it gave her diamond hard skin.

5. What exactly happened to the X-Men? I got the feeling these friends hadn't seen each other for a while. How long have they been apart? If Wolvie, Beast and Cyke haven't been around then who've been calling themselves X-Men for the last few years? Where's Prof. X?

They went public and tried a more proactive fight for mutant rights. The
reason being that Beast discovered that mutant would become the dominant
species in five generations. Basically, Humanity is dying out.

It failed, horribly. Magneto used the X-Men and went completely psycho
on New York city. Jean died saving the universe from a sentinent virus
that had infected reality. The 'Extinction of Humanity Theory' went public
and now Mutant mistrust is at a all-time high. Years of work demolished.

Scott, who was against the idea of going public from the start, decided it
was time to go back to basics, hench the Super-Hero Team of Astonishing
X-Men. Meanwhile, Prof. X is over in X-Men and Uncanny X-Men trying to
rebuild the Academy and his ideals.

Oh, and Emma and Scott started seeing each other.

 

[Mog Elffoe]

Secondary Mutation. Beast had a near death experience and the trauma jump started his mutation somehow, making him more non-human.

Shouldn't this be a tertiary mutation? I thought the Beast becoming grey and furry (and then blue) was a secondary mutation that Hank induced himself. I'm not a big fan of this new cat-man look either. It doesn't seem like the Beast actually got any sort of power boost or new powers. They just started drawing him cat-like.

I like the X-Men going back to wearing costuumes again. Hopefully, it'll lead to some stories with a little more fun in them. Does anyone else think that Wolverine wearing yellow and blue is just plain silly? I always hated that color scheme on him. The new costume design is fine, but why not go with the old brown color scheme? Black and brown would look good on him, I think, but not bright primary colors. Ah, well... Take the bad with the good, and all that...

 

[LostSoul]

Gotta agree with you about the X-Men from early 90s on. Ugh. We had nearly a solid decade of good comics before that, at least. Just picked up the new Essential X-Men trade (#5, I think? It's got the X-Men vs Kulan Gath, Colossus vs Juggernaut, and the Lifedeath stories) and got to re-visit some of the old school goodness.

That's about when I started collecting, but I quit after (or shortly after) Inferno. Years later I picked up those Essential X-Men. Not bad.

So, for a fan of the X-Men who hasn't had a look at them in over a decade, is it worth going back to? I'm kinda on the fence about Joss & his style. I loved the first few season of Buffy, and was really disappointed with the rest.