Comics / Comic Reviews / Marvel Comics

Astonishing X-Men #21

By Hervé St-Louis
September 8, 2007 - 23:51

Astonishing X-Men #21

The X-Men and the SWORD humans split up to better achieve whatever complicated task they have. It’s not very clear or even worth remembering. It seems that Whedon only wants to split them up to do character studies with them. Well, Colossus is still set to destroy the alien planet they are all stranded on but there are clues that the interpretation he has may be different from that of the natives of Breakworld.

I have really not been enjoying myself on this series until this issue. Whedon has finally added more contents in his stories and made them captivating at once. There are so many good dialogues between the various characters.  It’s hard to pick. Another thing I enjoyed the most was the reaction of the little alien kid when he saw Colossus. Now that’s what I call hatred on a massive planet-wide scale.

There is not much that happens this issue as Whedon seems to be assembling all parts for a grand finale of his story. Solid plots are less a focus of his work as he prefers to inject interests with characterization. However, the story seems to be heading is a sort of dead end where he won’t be able to return all the X-Men toys in one piece. I wonder how that figures with the rest of the X-Men universe. With Whedon isolating himself so much from other series, but at the same time introducing drastic changes, like the return of Colossus, the removal of Cyclops’ glasses and visor, it’s hard to understand where his story fits in the grand scheme of things. Both of the changes, I mentioned were picked up by other X-Men writers, but it’s not clear to me how it all works. Perhaps the Whedon experiment has drawn to a conclusion.

Cassaday takes months to draw one issue. It shows. It’s good-looking. It’s like watching a movie.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12