Movies / Animé and Toons

Marvel Knights - Astonishing X-Men on Blu-Ray

By Hervé St-Louis
November 13, 2012 - 22:52

This collection collects the entire run of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s run from the Astonishing X-Men comic book series adapted as a motion comics and released by Marvel Comics over several years. The stories start with the introduction of the X-Men as a super hero team fighting an alien opponent who has come to Earth to stop an X-Men from destroying his world.

This story has parallels with the Phoenix Saga where Jean Grey destroyed an entire universe when she became Phoenix. But Whedon takes another take with this story and now that it’s available for viewing in one go, it makes the series seem way more epic than the comic book series it’s based on. I can see the magic weaved by Whedon and Cassaday being reused for years by less imaginative X-Men creators. First Whedon creates strong female lead characters. Sure Wolverine is featured a lot in the comic book. But the real stars are Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde. Kitty Pryde in particular serves as viewer’s point of view and almost like a narrator in the story. We see much of the story through her own eyes. She is he major heroine in this series. I don’t recall seeing Pryde as such a strong and multidimensional character before. Emma Frost is cunning and a bitch, but noteworthy and someone viewers have to pay attention at all times. Here, the male characters in random order each become bumbling fools or catatonic. Colossus is a big oaf. Beast regressed into animal rage. Wolverine becomes an idiot. Cyclops loses his powers and is fraught with self doubts. Even Professor X is revealed to be a careless schemer. It is the ladies, including new characters that drive this story. Since the original series was constantly delayed, this is the best way to catch this epic in one sitting.

Like I mentioned in a previous review, after a while, one ignores that the animation is cheaply made and stretches the possibilities of a comic book to its limits. But the story is so good that it doesn’t matter, I had no choice but to watch everything all at once. The two-disc sets do have extras; interviews with Joe Quesada and Neal Adams. This story is more complex and engaging than most recent X-Men material in comics, animation and print. This is a good way to catch it.

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12