"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!

"Astonishing X-Men: Gifted"

 

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

            Mutants are humans born with a genetic quirk that give them abilities that ordinary humans do not. Because of this, regular humans fear and even hate mutants. Charles Xavier formed the X-Men on the hope that one day, humans and mutants will one day live together in peace and harmony. He founded the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning as a home for the X-Men and as a school to teach mutants how to use their gifts properly. However, he left the school to reside on the devastated mutant island nation of Genosha to help rebuild and left the Xavier Institute and the X-Men in the hands of Scott Summers/Cyclops and Emma Frost.

Cyclops assembled a team of X-Men consisting of himself, his lover Emma Frost, James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, Henry “Hank” McCoy, and Katherine “Kitty” Pryde as a public face for mutants aiding humanity. However, the team had not been gelling right away. Kitty met Emma Frost the day she first met the X-Men, Emma having formerly been the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, an organization that the X-Men clashed with for many years, and Kitty was apprehensive about a former villain now leading the X-Men. Logan had been unaccepting of Scott and Emma’s new relationship, Scott having just lost his wife Jean Grey, the woman both Scott and Logan loved.

The day for the X-Men to go public arrived when an alien named Ord led a team of mercenaries to an art preservation gala. They came wielding stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. (S.H.I.E.L.D. is a world peacekeeping organization led by Colonel Nick Fury.) Scott led the team against Ord and the mercenaries. Though the X-Men were able to safely evacuate all the hostages and take out the mercenaries, they were unable to defeat Ord. It took Kitty’s alien dragon companion Lockheed to drive Ord away. While the X-Men were on their first mission, a scientist named Doctor Kavita Rao dropped a major bombshell at a press conference. She had been working with a young mutant subject named Tildie Soames, who was able to physically manifest her nightmares. She announced to the world that the laboratory Benetech had developed a “cure” for mutation, a vaccine that would permanently turn a mutant into a normal human being.

The students at the Xavier Institute were highly divided. Some wanted the cure, wanted normal lives. The X-Men were tasked with holding the students together. Wanting to know if this cure was legitimate, Hank broke into the main Benetech laboratory in New York in an attempt to steal the cure. He was caught by Doctor Rao, who agreed that Hank should, in fact, test the cure and gave him a sample. This led to a conflict between him and Logan that Emma had to resolve telepathically. While testing the cure, Hank noticed that the cure had traces of DNA from a mutant in the Xavier Institute files, and he went to Scott, who gathered the X-Men to break into the Benetech laboratory to investigate. Scott and Hank were under the assumption that the was being done on a corpse, as the mutant on file was believed deceased. While investigating, Kitty used her phasing powers to pass through a metal that gave her difficulty. Upon arriving in a subbasement, Kitty discovered Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus, the mutant who was the test subject, who was believed to be deceased, and was Kitty’s former lover.

While the X-Men were investigating Benetech, Ord went to the Xavier Institute, looking for the X-Men. Upon learning that the X-Men were not at home, he decided to “leave a message” by using the cure on a student who called himself Wing, a young mutant whose wish upon graduating the Xavier Institute was to join the X-Men.

The X-Men encountered the government organization Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department, led by Special Agent Abigail Brand, who informed the X-Men that Ord’s people were actually the ones behind the cure and not Benetech. A mutant, probably an X-Man, was destined to destroy the Breakworld, Ord’s home, sometime within the following three years, and the cure was a preventative measure to avoid a war between Earth and the Breakworld. Ord returned to Benetech and attempted to escape with the cure and Tildie, and it was up to the X-Men to prevent Ord’s escape and rescue Tildie.

The X-Men then teamed up with the Fantastic Four to drive a giant monster out of Manhattan. The Xavier Institute had a training facility called the Danger Room. It was equipped with alien Shi’ar technology that could replicate enemies and environments. It also had sentience. Its artificial intelligence tricked the depowered Wing into helping it break its programming. It then used a frequency pulse that incapacitated all the psychics in the Xavier Institute and took over all the electronics in the school. It also brought a Sentinel (a robot programmed to hunt and destroy mutants) to the school to attack the X-Men. The X-Men herded all the students into the Danger Room where they thought the students would be safe, but Kitty discovered that the Danger Room was now attempting to gain form. She was unable to prevent the other X-Men from destroying the Danger Room’s power core, which inadvertently freed the Danger Room’s programming and created a new threat: Danger. The X-Men then confronted Danger but were all taken down quickly. Danger knew all the X-Men’s moves, powers, and strategies, having trained with them for years. But defeating the X-Men wasn’t enough for her. She decided that to attain fulfillment, she had to take out her “father” and captor: Charles Xavier. She then set off for Genosha to complete her mission. Scott revealed to the other X-Men Xavier’s location, which had been kept secret from them, and the X-Men then set off for Genosha to save their mentor.

Okay, so some of you may remember from way back when that I did a review of the prose novelization version of “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted,” right when I started this blog. The book in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format just came out last week. So some of you may already know some of this story if you’ve read that review, and this current review does have spoilers to the previous review, having a second story arc contained in it, so sorry if you’ve been with me an still haven’t read either version of this story. Anyway, you probably want to know my thoughts. I opted not to go into detail about all of the individual X-Men’s powers and histories, I thought that might take too long and really would have no true impact on this particular review, so if you couldn’t follow this review because you had no idea who the heck I was talking about, I apologize. If this were just an individual character, I would have gone into more detail, but seeing as how this is a team, I felt that just explaining the point of the team itself should suffice as background information. Besides, it gets boring when I yammer on forever, which I am doing right now, so let’s just move on. Now, the issues in this book were released between 2004-2005. I remember it from back then. I remember getting “Astonishing X-Men” #1 in 2004 and reading “And now, at last… we have found a cure.” And thinking “HOLY (word I’m not using; this blog is G-rated)!” It was a HUGE shocker. Joss Whedon handled this series so well. He had so many good twists and turns in his narratives. Bringing Colossus back wasn’t my favorite choice at the time. Colossus died curing the Legacy Virus, which was basically Marvel’s allegory for superhuman AIDS, and I did feel like it was an affront to both the character and the writer who made the choice to kill him off to bring him back this way, but I did eventually get over it as he proved useful in future storylines. Grant Morrison was the one who decided to ship Scott Summers and Emma Frost, which, at the time, I thought was bizarre, but Joss Whedon made it work. “Dangerous,” the second story arc, also had its surprises. The Danger Room becoming sentient was actually an interesting concept, especially making this a villain who knew everything the X-Men were going to do before they did it, having studied them for years, the only one she didn’t know was Charles Xavier. I know some AI stories can come across as rather cheesy, but I have to say I didn’t feel like this was one of those. I also have to give great praise to the artist, John Cassaday. His artwork, to me at least, was BRILLIANT! I know a lot of my regular readers hear me moan about the artwork a lot in my reviews, especially my reviews from this year, 2024. I don’t think I’ve yet been able to say I consistently liked the artwork in any of the Modern Era Epic Collections I’ve reviewed, so me saying that is a big deal. Also, this has been the only one with only one artist, so that’s another reason, but kudos to Cassaday, both to his talent and to his dedication to the series, ultimately penciling twenty-five consecutive issues of the series, so if Marvel releases a second consecutive Modern Era Epic Collection of “Astonishing X-Men,” you can expect to see my praise for him again. I just thought he had such amazing talent, I loved his style, his details, it was just so appealing to me, and I really appreciated it. Hopefully Marvel does release a second Modern Era Epic Collection of the series, I would love to review it.

Anyway, if you know my reviews, you always see me write about accessibility. For those of you who are new and have no idea what I mean, let me explain. My use of accessibility means how easy it is for casual or new readers to be able to pick up this book and understand it. I have to say, if you’ve never even HEARD of the X-Men but saw this book on the shelf in a bookstore or found it browsing online or if someone told you about it and you still want to read it, I wouldn’t say it’s a PERFECT jumping on point, but it’s a GOOD one. What I mean by that is, to me, it feels like I think you should have SOME background knowledge of the X-Men, but I don’t 100% feel like it’s a necessity. It helps to know about it, sure, especially since this follows the works of forty years, but this book is very self-contained and doesn’t crossover with any other series or storylines from the time period like many other Epic Collections and Modern Era Epic Collections do. I felt like the main characters were all adequately explained, their names and powers established. There are also a bunch of characters that debut in this volume, so they have no prior backstories. I feel like if you want to start reading X-Men comics, this is a good place to start. Again, not perfect, but good. There are other points you could start at that would be better for sure, but this is also the first X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection published, so if you’re planning on starting there, you really have no other choice at the moment of my posting this review.

Okay, I’ve probably bored you long enough, you just want to know my numeric score. It’s very simple, all my prior readers know it, but I have to say it again for the newbs, so bear with me. I score on a scale of one to ten. One means it’s such a failure it didn’t even deserve to be published; ten means sheer perfection. Now, since this is a graphic novel, I have to take EVERYTHING into consideration, story AND art. Some of my prior readers know that artwork has actually knocked points off some of my reviews and added points to others. John Cassaday’s artwork deserves a ten, but there was just something about “Dangerous” that detracts from me calling Joss Whedon’s story perfection. So, you can probably guess that that means that this book is receiving a… NINE! Hey, that’s still pretty darn good! I’m a hard scorer, I don’t just go around handing out perfect scores.

Now, I’m obligated to tell you if I recommend this book to you or not. If you’re reading this review and have ANY interest in reading this book whatsoever, then I TOTALLY feel like you should go for it! I’ve always thought this was stellar work for twenty years now and still holds up to this day. If you’re an X-Men fan, this is, in my opinion, a must-read, and I honestly DO NOT say that often, so if I say it, then there must be SOME meaning to it.

Well, I feel like I’ve rambled on long enough. There’s plenty of other content on this blog, I’ve posted literally dozens of other book reviews, I’ve posted short stories, poetry, editorials, articles, all kinds of content, so please, feel free to continue browsing. And you can expect another post from me within the next couple of weeks, so be sure to be back for that if you liked this review. And I leave you now and say until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Astonishing X-Men: Gifted" by Peter David

            This is a review of the “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” prose novel written by Peter David, not the graphic novel of the same title.

            To start off, Scott Summers/Cyclops had reformed the X-Men to establish mutants as a positive force of good to the general public, to “astonish” the world. He recruited Emma Frost, Hank McCoy/Beast, Logan/Wolverine, and Kitty Pryde as his main team and as teachers at Professor Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters to educate the new generation of mutants. The team started off at odds, Kitty having a hard time accepting Emma over her criminal past and Logan having a hard time accepting Scott moving on with a romantic relationship with Emma after the death of Jean Grey whom both Scott and Logan loved.

            The team was called off on a mission where they encountered the mysterious Ord, claiming to hail from the Breakworld. But this was a distraction. While the X-Men were busy battling Ord, geneticist Doctor Kavita Rao held a press conference that turned the X-Men’s humanitarian efforts upside down: she revealed that she had developed a cure for the “disease” of being a mutant. In truth, the cure had been developed by Ord’s people.

            Hank was then placed in a difficult situation; his prior attempt to cure his mutation had given him blue fur and a catlike appearance. This new cure could give him a chance at a “normal” life. This put him at odds with Logan, who couldn’t accept Hank’s desire to be a normal human.

            The students of Xavier’s School were also divided, feeling the same conflict as Hank. Students Edward Tancredi and Jay Guthrie started a feud over their shared mutation of flight, Jay wanting to lose his wings and be a musician and Eddie wanting to someday graduate to the rank of X-Man.

            The X-Men feared the government’s reaction to the cure, the potential enforcement of the cure on all mutants rather than using the cure on a peaceful voluntary basis.

            Hank acquired a sample of the cure from Doctor Rao, and during analysis discovered that a former member of the X-Men believed deceased was a guinea pig in creating the cure, causing the X-Men to go on a scouting mission to Benetech, Doctor Rao’s place of employment. While the team was busy, Ord paid a visit to Xavier’s School and cured a student as way of making a statement to the X-Men who now sought to learn more about the cure and put a stop to it.

            As far as accessibility to casual readers, it’s relatively simple enough to pick up on with limited prior knowledge of the X-Men as the primary team have been established in other X-Men media such as the films or cartoons. For fans of the X-Men comics, it’s highly enjoyable as most of the history of the comics has not been rewritten, and for those who are fans of the “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” graphic novel, it was really an enhancement to the original story and will definitely be enjoyed. On a rating scale of 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I rank it at a 9. As a fan of the comic, I enjoyed the retelling and the low amount of changes to a story that was already almost perfect was a definite benefit. One of my favorite lines was edited slightly, another cut out, and certain scenes were rewritten in a way that weren’t exactly to my taste, but that said, this was very effectively written, and any fans of the “Astonishing X-Men” storylines written by Joss Whedon would most assuredly find this book entertaining.