Buffy the Mutant Slayer...wait...that's wrong. (Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 - Joss Whedon)

Member Name: LastLine

Product:	Astonishing X-Men Volume 1 - Joss Whedon
Date:	22/06/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great writing, art work and storyline.

Disadvantages: None!

Astonishing X-Men follows on from Grant Morrison's New X-Men series and features many of the same characters. The key writer in this series is Joss Wheadon of Buff the Vampire Slayer fame and he definitely brings his own flavour to the X-Men saga.

The first trade paper back tends to focus on introducing a number of new characters as well as setting up the appearance of several previously known characters. Emma Frost and Scott Summers lead up the team which makes for an interesting dynamic, and sadly puts a slightly emo feel to the team which soon gets old. Hopefully the dynamic will prove to have some rational behind it as the series develops.

The series returns several long missing characters from the X-Universe including one who has long been thought dead. This also ties into a storyline introducing a 'Mutant Cure'
Overall this arc has won awards for it's story telling.

The art style is quite simplistic and moves away from some of those used in recent years and can make the comic book loom quite dated, but it appears that Joss is looking to go back to some of the X-Men's origins both in characters and in story telling style. The outfits for the team if nothing else are a good indicator of this and are very 'retro' styled with only Emma Frost keeping anything that resembles recent generations of the X-Men's outfits.

Overall it's a great read, X-Men fans and Comic book fans in general will enjoy this story immensely, and I'd honestly suggest that fans of Whedon's other work pick it up for at least a skim too.

Summary: A great read for comic book fans of all kinds.