"Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            The X-Men had been going through some highs and lows. Emma Frost/White Queen had been secretly meeting with the Hellfire Club (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Perfection) while serving as co-leader of the X-Men and headmistress of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The X-Men’s training gym, the Danger Room, had recently broken its programming and become the Artificial Intelligent being Danger. Peter Rasputin/Colossus, who had been thought dead, had been discovered alive and rejoined the team and began to rekindle his romantic relationship with fellow teammate Kitty Pryde. The organization S.W.O.R.D. had been revealed and taken the alien Ord, who had been a nemesis to the X-Men, into their custody. Emma Frost had fallen in love with co-leader of the X-Men and headmaster of the Xavier Institute Scott Summers/Cyclops. Emma began to act erratically and psychically broke Scott down, causing him to lose his connection with his optic blasts, his constant curse which he had no control over. Meanwhile, S.W.O.R.D. discovered the identity of the mutant who was prophesied to destroy Ord’s homeworld, the Breakworld, the reason he had come to Earth in the first place: Colossus. Cassandra Nova used her psychic powers on both Henry “Hank” McCoy/Beast, causing him to lose touch with his humanity and truly become a beast, and James “Logan” Howlett /Wolverine, causing him to revert to childlike mentality. Sebastian Shaw tricked Colossus into attacking him so that Shaw could take Colossus down. Negasonic Teenage Warhead caused Kitty to lose control of her phasing powers. Just like that, the X-Men were all taken out of the picture. Meanwhile, Danger broke Ord out of S.W.O.R.D. custody. Kitty managed to regain control of her powers and returned to the Institute. The Hellfire Club tried to break into a locked box in the Xavier Institute but found themselves unable to, needing Kitty to break into it for them. Kitty confronted Emma, and was psychically manipulated into breaking into the box, which contained Cassandra Nova’s consciousness, which she planned on implanting into Kitty’s body. Ord and Danger returned to Earth and arrived at the Xavier Institute, where they fought student Hisako Ichiki. The X-Men all managed to regroup and learned the truth about the Hellfire Club’s assault on them. They were then attacked by Ord and Danger, but then the X-Men, Ord, Danger, and Hisako were all teleported onto the S.W.O.R.D. spaceship.

            S.W.O.R.D. was heading for the Breakworld, which had a weapon pointed at Earth. The Breakworld armada intercepted S.W.O.R.D. and shot them out of space. Abigail Brand (Director of S.W.O.R.D., Cyclops, Beast, and Emma Frost landed in one location, Kitty Pryde and Colossus in another, and Wolverine and Hisako (now called Armor) in yet another and the other S.W.O.R.D. agents also in another. Brand, Cyclops, Beast, Emma, Wolverine and Armor were able to reunite, while Kitty and Colossus were found by Aghanne, a Breakworld Auger, who believed the prophesy of Colossus destroying the Breakworld may have been misinterpreted and wished for it to occur. Brand and Beast went looking for a way to stop the weapon, Wolverine and Armor went to look for Kitty and Colossus, and Cyclops and Emma went out to look for the other S.W.O.R.D. agents. Cyclops and Emma were shot down by Danger, but Emma managed to break Danger’s programming and make Danger subservient. The X-Men and Brand were able to reunite, but to cover their escape, Cyclops had to be captured by Powerlord Kruun, ruler of the Breakworld. Wolverine and Armor were also defeated and captured. Brand and Beast were able to decipher how the Breakworld could be destroyed. Colossus and Kitty found Aghanne. During torture, Cyclops’ powers returned, and he was able to free himself, Wolverine and Armor. Once all united, the X-Men had to decide just how far they were willing to go to stop the threat the Breakworld posed to Earth and stop the Breakworld weapon from destroying Earth.

            Okay, we’ve got the synopsis out of the way, now it’s time for my personal opinion on this book. I apologize if my synopsis doesn’t seem quite thorough, I tried to avoid spoilers and not give points in the story that seemed too irrelevant. Anyway, I will say that I thoroughly loved this book. I know that Joss Whedon caused problems with Disney/Marvel when he did the movies, but his work on the comics was undeniably brilliant. His run on “Astonishing X-Men (2004)” is actually one of my all-time favorite comic book runs, along with Grant Morrison’s run on “New X-Men (2001),” Joe Casey’s run on “Uncanny X-Men (1963),” Peter David’s run on “X-Factor (2005)” and Brian Michael Bendis’ run on “Ultimate Spider-Man (2000).” His stories just absolutely blew me away. Emma Frost is a character I have always loved, whether she’s a villain or a hero, so seeing her doing both roles in one book was just fantastic. I loved the whole reasoning behind her schism, but I just can’t go into it here without giving you spoilers, and it really stinks that I can’t, because I really do want to. But the truth behind the Hellfire Club’s attack and the identity of Perfection were just such surprises I didn’t see coming, and I honestly think that Whedon did a fantastic job with that. And I loved the irony of the Breakworld prophesy; Ord came to Earth to prevent a mutant from destroying his planet and inadvertently saved the life of the mutant who was predestined to destroy his planet. I just thought that was dramatic irony to the highest extent. There was one moment I thought was hysterical where Brand asked Colossus if he was as mystified as everyone else that he was destined to destroy the Breakworld and he replied “No. I’m not. I have been planning to destroy the Breakworld since I was a child.” And everyone looked at him, and he shrugged and said “This is why I don’t make so many jokes. I never know when is good.” I laughed out loud at that part. There were also a few other funny moments, but they’re not appropriate for my all-ages blog, so I can’t talk about them, but some of them really made me laugh. And there was a moment that I didn’t talk about in the synopsis that I would like to bring up because I thought it was so well-written; at one point, the X-Men talked about their secret weapon “Leviathan.” This was actually just a ploy to trick Powerlord Kruun’s spies to spare Cyclops’ life during torture and interrogation. I know that plot devices like this have been used before, but I thought Whedon did this so perfectly. The scene where Emma broke Cyclops by using Jean Grey/Phoenix and preying on his insecurities was so brilliantly done as well. And I enjoyed the scenes between feral Beast and childish James Howlett, I thought they were hysterical, especially the ways they were able to revert back to their normal selves, but I don’t want to give the details, I’ll leave that up to you to find out if you decide to read this book. And next, let’s talk about the art. John Cassaday (R.I.P.) was a brilliant artist. I loved his work, and it is such a shame he passed at such a young age. I just thought his artwork in this book was exceptional, top class comic book art. I just thought this was an all-around amazing book.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this over thirty times by now, but I know I have to say it again for you new readers to my blog because I know some of you have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. When I use the word “accessibility,” what I mean is, can you read this book and understand it, even if you know nothing about X-Men or Marvel Comics prior to picking up this graphic novel? This book is a direct continuation of two previous story arcs, and I do feel it is imperative to read those stories prior to reading this graphic novel if you truly hope to fully understand the content of this graphic novel. Now, as far as the question of can you read this book, which is marketed as Vol. 2 without reading Vol. 1? I would definitely not recommend that course of action since so much of what happened in Vol.1 is continued in Vol. 2 and missing Vol. 1 is a lot of content missed, and it will be extremely hard to follow. Now, I won’t say it’s impossible, but I would not recommend that. That said, there are no crossovers, events, or other series contained in this book, so if you have read the previous two story arcs before this book, then you will have no problem with reading this book at all.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while, I think it’s time we went on to the main reason why we’re here: my numeric score. I mean, let’s face it, you read a book review, you want to know how good a book is. So, my scoring system is extremely basic: one to ten. One means that this book is absolute trash and should never be read. Ten means that this book is sheer perfection and should be read by everyone. I think that you’re probably figuring that this is going to get a really good score. Now, I’m not in the business of giving out tens very often, a book has to be absolutely perfect to get a ten. But the question is, was this a perfect book? Well, let’s throw in everything into a big old blender, the amazing story, the exceptional art, turn it on, and pour out a score, then look into the cup and it’s… a nine! I’m sorry, but there’s just something holding me back from giving this book a perfect score. It was an excellent book, but I just don’t quite believe it to be perfection.

            Finally, I’m going to tell you if this book gets my personal recommendation, and regardless of that, to whom do I recommend this book? So, of course, this book gets my personal recommendation. As for to whom I recommend this book to, I’d recommend it to any X-Men comics fan from any point after 2004. If you’re a fan of X-Men from other media like the Fox “X-Men” movies of animated series like “X-Men ’97,” I would recommend reading “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” Modern Era Epic Collection first, then reading this book and I think you will find this book highly enjoyable.

            Okay, so we’re at the point where we’re going to wrap things up. I do have just a few more things to say before I go, though. First, this blog has over 150 posts, including “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” in both prose and graphic novel formats, so feel free to check those out if you found this post interesting. Second, I do a lot of reviews and have literally done dozens of them and have another one which should be upcoming in the next three weeks. Third, I have also written short stories, poetry, editorials, essays, and articles, so there’s more than just book reviews on this blog, so there’s plenty more to like. Fourth, I post very frequently, so you can always expect plenty more content, and I buy every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection when I can and review them when I can, so you can expect plenty of reviews of those upcoming. Well, I guess I’ve said all that really needs to be said at the moment, I honestly can’t think of much more. If you’ve read up to this point, you are THE BEST, and I really appreciate your support. Feel free to like, comment, retweet, do whatever you can on the site you’re on, that would be great. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!