Grant Morrison and Jim Lee's Wildcats has been pushed back to October 4th, which is quite disappointing. On the plus side Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men is out today -- a book that has seen big improvements in recent issues. Overall the book is too conservative -- this makes sense because Whedon was brought on to "fix" Morrison's audacious but ultimately failed run. I remember when it was announced that Whedon and Cassaday's run would only be 12 issues. When they went for 24, I think some of the story got thrown together quickly -- much of the Danger Room plot was below par for Whedon. This is not a guy who lifts weak ideas from Terminator 3 (killer lady robot with a shape shifting hand) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (the holodeck goes crazy) on a regular basis; and we already had a much better done "darker"' Xavier in Millar's Ultimate X-Men. Not that those issues didn't have their moments, but, as I said, under par for Whedon. With this Hellfire club stuff he seems to be firing on all cylinders again, and John Cassaday -- thank god -- has returned to drawing backgrounds as well, which is nice to see.
Testament is also out today, and Marvel and DC's December solicits are up at Newsarama. Review. Recommend. Discuss.
I agree with you about Whedon's run on X-Men but take issue with you over Grant Morrison's "ultimately failed run". When I was reading the issues I felt it had the kind of life that the Claremont/Byrne run had when I read them in junior high.
ReplyDeleteAs for Mark Millar's version, as much as I enjoy his work on the Ultimates and the refreshing Wanted, I felt most of the work was done for him as these characters and the core X-Men team have already seen many interpretations through different writers. To me the reinvention of The Avengers as The Ultimates had more resonance.
I don't love everything Grant Morrison has written and had mixed feelings about his Jean Grey/Phoenix resolve, but I will sooner go back and re-read his take on the X-Men rather than my trade edition of Millar's Ultimate X-Men.
Couldn't agree more about Whedon. The current arc is great... the newest cover, too. Also, it seems like the books monthly schedule has kicked in.
ReplyDeleteAlso coming out this week... "X-Men: First Class"... I interviewed the writer, Jeff Parker-also writer of "Agents of Atlas"- for Silver Bullet. I'll post a link when it goes live.
Also, not a comic out, but a TV show: Aaron Sorkin's new series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" premiered this Monday. Sorkin brings his usual calibre of dialogue writing, casting and pacing. Sorkin also manages to get a lot of his soapboxing about the television industry out of the way before the credits roll, in the form of a wonderful monologue delivered by Judd Hirsch.
Backgrounds...really? That's unexpected. I'll end up waiting to see it in a trade, but I'm happy to hear that it's not the sexy robot business anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't see much this week for me, but I might convince myself to pick up one of the Godland trades.
oh don't worry, we saw Studio 60.
ReplyDeletesorkin is religion in this house...
Studio 60 is religion in this house. Call me when it's on and I won't answer the phone. I will be blogging about the pilot teaser very shortly.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would like to say that I wrote this post before I read Astonishing X-Men. No screwing around. Best issue of Whedon's run thus far, Cassaday is doing great. With the exception of Morrison's introduction of Casandra Nova and the Assault on Weapon Plus plot, the best X-Men issue I have read in years.
ctznken: It't not that there are not lots of things I enjoy about the Morrison run; it's just that I think he failed to do what he wanted to do -- make the X-Men pop cool, and persuade people his version of the X-Men was how the X-Men should be.
er, that last one, that was geoff not me. he... was a little confused sorry folks ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting how many things Whedon is pulling from Morrison's run... especially with Cassandra Nova and the last page of this issue. (Trying not to spoil anything)
ReplyDeleteBut yes, great issue. The Wolverine scene with the refridgerator is perhaps one of my new most favorite comic book pages.
The last couple of issues have been what I've been waiting for from Whedon on Astonishing. There have been nice character moments in the first 12 issues but nothing felt "astonishing" or even really that new.
ReplyDeleteWith this issue, even though you know it's all in Kitty's head, the first 6 or so pages are just heart wrenching.
And now I think that we haven't really seen the true threat of this book. I want Danger and Cassandra Nova to team up.
And Lockheed. That was a "Hell Yeah" moment if ever there was one.
My friend Alex Su sends me these random e mails about comics. I told him to post here in the future. For now, here are the last three I got:
ReplyDelete1
At the tail end (101-106) of this one discussing the "Fell Format" Fraction goes on a bit on Casanova.
But you might've seen this anyway.
http://the-engine.net/forum/index.php?webtag=ENGINE&msg=4351.1
2
Hey, did you see the Toth critiques Steve Rude thing?
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1024328#post10%2024328
3
>Pardon this email of me complaining about a comic I haven't even read
>myself, but I just wanted to say that the Thor idea is the dumbest since
>Superboy punched the universe. Which is very strange that I care (but not
>unexpected), since I haven't picked up a general marvel universe comicc
>other than the odd Bachalo or JRJR drawn bit, or written by Brubaker, but I
>care enough to follow.
>
>Um, spoilers and stuff. Anyway, ye olde recap of issue #4 of Civil War:
> http://yeoldecomicblogge.blogspot.com/2006/09/has-mark-millar-ever-even-read-marvel.html
>
>It can all be redeemed with an appearance by Cap Wolf.
Let me add one addendum: Civil War lacks the subtlety of Kingdom Come [this is Alex again].
I realized 34,000 feet over the Atlantic that Civil War is (finally) the comic book adaptation of a Captain America Vs Iron Man bout in Marvel Vs Capcom II without the depth. #4 turned my disappointment into disgust.
ReplyDeleteNBC finally shows Heroes tonight, the pilot was great and I look forward to the show. Studio 60 is downloading on Emule.