by Warren Ellis (writer), Kaare Andrews (artist)
The Story: When a rash of possible mutant births begin occurring in Africa, the Black Panther calls in the X-Men to investigate.
What’s Good: Andrews proves himself a master of distilling a character down to their chief visual attributes with this comic book. If you were to simply ignore the text and only pay attention to the visuals, I’d say you would find it quite easy to figure out these character’s personalities. There’s a particular shot of the X-Men sitting at breakfast that conveys this perfectly. Storm looks regal and strong, Emma is the seductive devil whispering in Cyclops’ ear, Beast is warm and civilized (even when standing on a countertop), Hisako is a child, Wolverine is doing his own thing, and Scott is solid as a rock. One glance and you know all there is to know about your protagonists. Nicely done. The artist also does an admirable job of making everyone actually look different. A common complaint of even the best of artists is that, were you to take away things like hairstyle or clothing, most characters would look identical. No worries on that count here. Everyone has distinctive facial and body characteristics that push along the idea that these are real people. Special props to him for bringing back Storm’s mohawk. It adds a level of badassery to her royal grace that really does remind the reader that she is one queen you do not want to screw with.
What’ Not Good: This issue is full of distractions. Distractions that took me out of the story over and over again until I eventually stopped paying attention to the narrative and started paying attention to those little bits that were diverting my focus. Some of these are the fault of the creative team and some are simply side effects of playing in a shared universe, but they’re distractions all the same. Let’s start with the continuity issues, shall we? Now, I fully accept that I’m treading in nitpickery territory here, but considering that when Marvel announced this miniseries, they made a point of informing us that it was “firmly set in Marvel continuity”, I feel justified in doing so. So, when is this story taking place exactly? Beast quit the X-Men recently, but he’s here as if nothing happened. Storm has a mohawk and her husband, the Black Panther, is implied to once again be the ruler of Wakanda, which doesn’t jibe with current events. The Astonishing team seem to be based out of Graymalkin Industries in San Francisco, but aren’t the X-Men living on Utopia now? And most glaringly, Beast makes a note of saying that the supposed “mutant” births can’t possibly be mutants because the x-gene powers up at puberty, not birth. Yet, there is a huge crossover in the other X-titles currently going on that hinges on the fact that there was a mutant birth recently! You’d think he’d at least mention that it’s in the realm of possibility, since, you know, it’s actually happened before.
Yet another distraction, this one a production issue, is that this Astonishing X-Men adventure has started before the last one has even concluded. The last issue of AXM, #33, was released in December of last year and ended on a cliffhanger. The next issue isn’t slated to be published until June. So, we couldn’t get that issue out the door in a timely manner, but we can with this one? It’s hardly inspiring any confidence on the reader’s part. And then there’s Kaare Andrews’ art. As explained above, I’m a fan and I actually enjoyed quite a lot of his pencils in this issue. However, there are some concerns. Armor, the young Asian member of the team, doesn’t look very, well, Asian. And she, quite frankly, looks like a child. From previous issues, I’d place her in her mid-teens, yet there are panels here where I’d be charitable if I said she looked ten years old. And Emma Frost. I actually get the gag that Andrews is going for here with his depiction of the White Queen. He’s pushed the character to her inevitable extreme, depicting her as a caricature of herself. It’s funny and biting. I’m just not sure that this is the forum for it. Another point that Marvel made about this new line of comics was that it was also designed for the new reader, yet when I consider any new reader (male or female, but especially female) opening this up and seeing a panel where Emma has her softball-shaped breasts propped up on a seatback, I cringe. It may have worked in a more humorous story, but here it simply proves to be a liability.
Conclusion: Far from solid, but definitely full of potential. Worth a look, if only for Andrews’ art, but I have a feeling that Ellis’ script will provoke your curiosity enough to check out the next issue.
Grade: B
-Joe Lopez
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Astonishing X-Men, ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS, ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS # 1, ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS # 1 review, ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS review, Comic Book Reviews, Kaare Andrews, Storm, storm with mohawk, Warren Ellis, Weekly Comic Book Review, X-Men
regarding the mutant births, Hope was the super-special messiah, hence the current storyline. the stance is still there was no mutant births at all since M-Day, except for her. and there was still none after her.
This was a mess. I never stopped reading a comic midway through before. I’m surprised you gave it a B..but I agree with most of what you said.
Yeah, I guess I was feeling charitable since I did actually finish it and wasn’t totally opposed to picking up the next chapter, though I think that has more to do with the art than the script. Shame, too, because I used to really enjoy Ellis’ work.