Astonishing X-Men #13 (Variant)

From the random stack of unread comics. This is the second of two (close, but not consecutive) issues of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men that found their way into the unread comics stack. I reviewed #10 here. Not sure where I got these. This one is marked as a variant cover.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Issue: 13
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: April, 2006
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts, Sean Ryan, Nick Lowe

Black-and-white variant cover on this issue.

This is something of a catch-up issue, that manages to be a lot more satisfying a read than #10 was, in spite of #10's emphasis on plot and action.

The focus here is on character development, particularly on the romance between Kitty and Colossus, and the conflicting forces influencing Emma Frost.

There is also a very amusing reveal of the new low-tech version of the Danger Room (after the room ran amuck over several issues around the previously-reviewed #10). Now that Ms. Room has been officially "future-endeavored" (or whatever happened to her), the new plan for combat training is simpler, more elegant, and far more dangerous: The trainees are simply put into a darkened room in which Wolverine kicks their asses. Why did they not think of this in the first place? It seems like it would have saved everybody a lot of grief, and the quality of training would not have suffered.

In addition to that amusing bit, there is lots of Emma-intrigue, some seeds planted for future storylines involving SHIELD, some dream sequences, and a very shock-value final scene.

This is moving in the right direction.

Rating: 6/10

Astonishing X-Men #10

From the random stack of unread comics, as chosen by the Kiddo. This is the first of two issues from this title that I've got in the to-read stack.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Issue: 10
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2005
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts, Sean Ryan, Nick Lowe

So, the Danger Room AI has become not just self-aware, but also righteously pissed off, and she (she appears in a vaguely female shapeshifting robotic form) proceeds to mop the (Danger Room) floor with the X-Men.

The team in this case consists of Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Beast. Joss Whedon (you know, that guy from Buffy and firefly; the director of the film version of The Avengers) is writing, and in a moment-by-moment sense, this is all good. Danger Room knows all of the X-Men's tactics and weaknesses, and so she takes them apart with relative ease, only having a couple moments of trouble when they make some attempts at breaking their normal patterns.

Unfortunately, as well executed as it is, it just didn't feel all that original or interesting, and Danger Room's constant talking about how she's fought  the X-Men thousands or times and knows them better than they know themselves and whatnot does not help the cause. By the time I was half way through this, I wanted the X-Men to win, not because Danger Room was such a horrible threat, but just because of how annoying she was.

Also, would someone please give Danger Room a name so that I don't have to keep referring to her as Danger Room?

A couple of the characters are apparently killed by the time it's all said and done, but this is the Marvel Universe (and as we have said many times, there is dead, and then there is dead-in-the-marvel-universe, and those two things are not particularly related), so there isn't a whole lot of emotional punch to those scenes.

I did like the ending line. Joss Whedon has always been great with the one-liners, and this one works nicely. I wish it had been saved for a better story.

Rating: 4.5/10