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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 15, 2017 23:56:17 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #8 "Dangerous (Part 2)"Cover Date: February, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Danger (Behind the Scenes) & a Damaged Sentinel Guest Stars: Agent Brand, Wing (Reanimated Corpse), Armor, Blindfold, and the Stepford Cuckoos Official Plot: Just moments after Blindfold’s enigmatic warning, all of the telepaths and psychics in the Institute suffer a simultaneous attack, which knocks them out leaving them unable to reawaken. While the team moves them to the infirmary, miles away, a Sentinel which had been found by a local comes online, bursting forth from the barn where it had been kept. Lacking all limbs but its left arm, the Sentinel begins to drags itself toward the Institute… and its “Lord.” At the Institute, the X-Men are taking stock of their situation – the psychic attack and the still-missing student, Wing, and the inexplicable total communications blackout – when Lockheed arrives, warning them of an intrusion. When the X-Men go to investigate, they find the arriving Sentinel, who attacks both them and the school. Cyclops is able to eliminate its threat with a powerful optic blast and then order Wolverine to finish it off, while he and Colossus check on the students, whom he told Kitty to take to the Danger Room for safety. Wolverine makes short work but, before delivering the final blow, hears the unusually talkative Sentinel speak of its “Lord” and that the “children will pay for the father’s sins.” Racing back to the school, Wolverine finds that the other X-Men cannot gain entrance to the Danger Room and the children inside. As they theorize that their enemy is inside, Emma arrives with the Beast, explaining that the Danger Room itself is their enemy and that it is angry. Inside, the Danger Room has reanimated the corpse of Wing, shocking the rest of the students. Elsewhere, Special Agent Brand is awaiting the decision of the S.W.O.R.D. committee when she is visited by another agent, who informs here of the complete loss of all monitoring devices in the school. Brodie's View:The shit officially hits the fan in the second part of the "Dangerous" story arc, as the X-Men's long time training center, the Danger Room, goes nuts, and starts to attack both the team and the students. First off, by taking out all the telepaths and psychics, and at the same time, reawakening a long dormant Sentinel, and having it attack the mansion. Obviously, this is to keep the rest of the team (Barring Emma, who is unconscious, and Kitty, who is trying to calm the obviously panicked student body in the Danger Room, unaware that the room itself is the threat) hopping, so, they can act in the way the room wants them to act, thereby officially freeing the AI entity trapped within. Wolverine and Cyclops are able to quickly dispatch of the already damaged Sentinel (Which seems to regard the Danger Room as an almost religious figure); Cyclops in a most spectacular fashion. However, by the time the rest of the team assembles, they find themselves unable to enter the Room, and as Emma finally comes to, she reveals that they can't enter the Danger Room because the Room itself is responsible for all this. Now, while this is an interesting idea, and I'm sure Joss thought it would be a slam bag storyline, the main criticism with this storyline is that it seemed like a retread of another idea, which it kind of was. Back in 1998, the writers at the time, Joe Kelly and Steven Seagel, did a similar storyline involving Cerebro becoming self aware, and trying to take out Xaiver's students (Actually taking Xaiver's form and assembling his own team of X-Men to do so). Now, had Joss known about this storyline before hand (Which, was really a major ball dropping by Marvel's editors to fail to mention to him), he probably could have linked the two stories, as both events happening were kind of due to the Shi'ar enhancement of the X-Men's computer system back after the original Brood saga. As it is, it's definitely the reasoning hinted at to why this happen, but a simple mention of the past storyline might have saved this arc from being as hated as it is. That all being said, I'm not going to get hung up on this fact throughout my reviews of this arc, so, consider the above part of this paragraph my major statement on the manner, as I will try to stay on the events actually happening in the forthcoming issues. In the next one, Danger makes its next major moves, and leads the team into unconsciously helping to make it.....even more Dangerous. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 16, 2017 22:37:32 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #9"Dangerous (Part 3)"Cover Date: March, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Danger Guest Stars: Wing (Reanimated Corpse) & Armor Official Plot: Though the X-Men can hardly believe it, Emma informs them that the Danger Room has mutated – becoming a sentient being… and is angry. Immediately, they take steps remove its computer functions by having Colossus tear through it’s “brain,” but the Danger Room defends itself by activating the X-wing jet, using it to crash through the mansion and then fire upon the team with its ordinance. Inside the Danger Room, the room continues to communicate through the animated corpse of Wing. First, it creates a hellish world to frighten the students, then changing it to a desert, which is then filled with skulls instead of sand. All the while, the Danger Room entity speaks with Kitty, explaining its actions through cryptic riddles as to its origin, purpose and transcendence. Kitty realizes too late that her teammates actions outside to destroy the entity is actually freeing it, which was its plan all along. Moments after Wolverine succeeds in destroying the sphere housing its command core, the Danger Room entity uses the wreckage of the Institute to create a robotic body – and then asks the X-Men if they “shall begin.” Brodie's View:Danger finally gets what it/she (As at the end, the entity takes a female form) wants in this issue, as it/she spends the entire issue playing with not only most of the X-Men, who are locked out of the Danger Room, and destroying stuff trying to stop it, but also Kitty and the student body, who are trapped within it. With Kitty, it's/she's giving clues as to why it/she is doing all of this, at the same time frightening the student body by speaking through what seems to be the reanimated corpse of Wing (Which, in a cool sequence, slowly twists itself back into perfect health as it/she/he is speaking), while tossing and turning through various hellish Danger Room simulations that it/she is putting them through. On the other end of things, Danger uses its ability to control machines to take control of the X-Wing jet, and unleashes it on the team, keeping them hopping and unable to put together what is fully happening until it's too late to. Finally, Kitty puts that together, but is too late from stopping the rest of the team from doing exactly what Danger wants, undoing the various restraints Xaiver put on her/it, so, she/it can get the revenge it/she craves; both on Xaiver and his students. This sets up a very, well, dangerous battle in the next few issues, as in addition to being able to attack the team with various machines, Danger will be able to anticipate the team's every move, as who else has faced them in practice battle more? We will see the first part of that battle in the next issue, but the only question is whether the team will survive a seemingly to the death battle with a pissed off Danger Room given form? GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 17, 2017 23:39:35 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #10"Dangerous (Part 4)"Cover Date: May, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Danger, Ord Guest Stars: Professor X, S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, & Agent Deems---1st Appearance of the last two) Official Plot: The X-Men and the Danger Room entity briefly converse, but it is only allowed by the entity to let them know its only desire: to beat them to death. The battle is ferocious, however the entity is able to use its memory banks from the Danger Room to counter every strategy, as it has seem them all in battle countless times. Eventually, the X-Men fall. Some fall victim to their compassion for their own teammates’ well being, and others to just brute force. As this transpires, Special Agent Brand and her allies at SWORD, notice the destruction at the Institute. An extraterrestrial advisor is able to sense that the events are from a non-human presence, which Brand hopes will deal with their problem for them. After the battle, the entity uses the X-wing to travel to Genosha to complete its self-assigned mission, which is to kill Xavier. Xavier, however, having been in communication with the entity for a short while, tells it that it has miscalculated. While it had already fought the X-Men an untold number of times in both the Danger Room and its mind… it has never fought him! Brodie's View:Danger's true target, and the focus of her/it's hate makes his return (And his first actual appearance in Joss' run) in this issue, Charles Xaiver, who since the end of Morrison's run, has been chilling in the rubble that used to be Genoshia with Magneto and several other characters (As, previous to his return to UNCANNY, Chris Claremont was writing a book called EXCALIBUR, no relation to the team, focusing on the exploits of these characters). That is, until sensing what has happened with his former Danger Room gaining it's freedom (and a body), and turning its powers and knowledge against Xaiver's former students. Xaiver and Danger are in some sort of psychic rapport, as the robot quickly uses the knowledge of hundreds of battles fought to completely own the team; severely injuring some of them (Don't worry, they get healed, which does set up a question that does get answered later), before stealing the X Jet and flying to Genoshia to kill her/it's father. This is all somewhat observed (As even they have lost surveillance ability, save for a mole at the Mansion, who is reporting back to them. We also will find out the identity of that mole later) by Agent Brand and S.W.O.R.D, who we reveal also has Ord (The Big Bad from the last arc) prisoner. Of course, that all will end badly, but we won't see that until the next arc, which will force Brand and S.W.O.R.D into direct action to try and prevent a war with the Breakworld. This issue is mostly the lead up to the last two parts of this arc, which will, of course, be the battle between Danger and Professor X, and then the X-Men as a whole against Danger and some surprises that the robot has up it's/her (non) sleeves. This battle will end up causing some rifts to form within the team; some being dealt with shortly after in the rest of Joss' run, some that end up leading to fatal finales way down the road. I will say that this is also the issue where the book starts to fall behind, publishing-wise. It starts to become a Bi-Monthly book for the rest of this run, and then falls even more behind by the end of it. The only reasoning I can think of for this is that artist John Cassaday must take quite a bit of time to do his art (as great as it is), as the same problems would occur for his previous regular title, PLANETARY, forcing writer Warren Ellis to end the story he had been building a lot sooner than I think he was originally planning for. That doesn't happen here, but unfortunately, the end comes a good year or so after I think it was originally intended, making the book even more a stand alone story in many ways, as both the X and Marvel Universe had diverged off of the paths both had been on at the point Joss wrote the scripts for the final issues. However, I won't get too caught up with that, other than mentioning it here. For now, we still have our final two parts of "Dangerous" to get through, which will put us halfway through this run. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 19, 2017 0:16:04 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #11"Dangerous (Part 5)"Cover Date: July, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Danger, Giant Wild Setinel Guest Stars: Professor X & Elixir Official Plot: Left behind in the Institute, the X-Men are brought back from the brink of death through the healing powers of several of their students, not the least of which is Elixir. Upon recovery, Kitty recalls the scene of the devastated nation of Genosha “she” showed her and theorizes that that is where the Danger Room entity – which Kitty dubs Danger for expediency – has gone. She theorizes that she has gone there in search of the Professor. Knowing that their former t. eacher will need help, Cyclops grants the team ten minutes to prepare and rushes to contact Reed Richards for a ride. As they prepare, Kitty and Piotr take a moment to speak about their unease with each other, which leads Piotr to let Kitty know that she’s not bothering him… nearly enough. In Genosha, Danger arrives via the stolen X-jet and leaps from the still-moving craft, to impact in front of Xavier’s all-terrain chair. However, she finds the person in the chair is not Xavier, but a corpse – which was a trap. Xavier quickly makes his presence known driving a truck through an adjacent building, hitting Danger and driving her into an electrical station, which wreaks havoc with her robot body. By the time she recovers, however, Xavier has used a hatchet to decapitate her. When the X-Men arrive, it seems to them that the Professor was never in need of their help. However, Xavier’s request of Magneto to incapacitate all electronic devices which Danger could manipulate was not thorough enough. Danger’s still-functioning brain discovers the second of the two Mega-Sentinels, which ravaged the island, forgotten beneath the waves of the sea. As the reprogrammed Wild Sentinel looms over the team, the Beast asks the group if they have any ideas. Brodie's View:As the X-Men recover from their massive ass kicking from last issue, we get the main event fight that has been building since the start of this arc; Danger vs. Professor X, and although Danger would seem to have the advantage through her/its ridiculous power over machines and knowledge from years of running Xaiver's training scenarios, the Professor has quite a few tricks up his sleeves, and holds his own in the battle. He talks Magneto into shutting off most of the electricity on the former island (Well, most of it, we find out as he drives a semi into the robot, ramming it/her into an electrical station. He then is able to distract the robot on a psychic plane, while he dismantles Danger's body with a hatchet ( ). This is about the point where the X-Men show up (After spending most of the issue being healed/putting together where Danger went to, and then trying to get their ASAP), but Danger pulls the ace card by reanimating one of the Wild Giant Sentinels Cassandra Nova used to destroy Genoshia in the first place in the first issue of Grant Morrison's run. Obviously, this "Oh Shit!" ending leads to next issues' grand finale,' at least where this arc is concerned. However, I will say it ends in most unexpected ways, and as I said in the last review, creates a few rifts within the team. One rift really kind of coincides with another storyline that was unraveling at the time, which kind of sets the stage for what Charles Xaiver's role is going to be in this new era of the X-Books (Which Joss would kind of help further, before the rest of the writers kind of passed him by, continuity wise....definitely not Quality wise). I'll talk a little more about that in the next review, as well as mention what the other rift, which will lead directly into the third arc of this run. This next arc is actually my favorite of the four, and I'll explain why as it begins a few reviews from now. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 19, 2017 23:36:27 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #12"Dangerous (Part 6)"Cover Date: August, 2005 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Lockheed, and Beast Villain/s: Danger, Giant Wild Setinel, & "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection---1st appearance of the last, and the 1st appearance as the four as a group) Guest Stars: Professor X Official Plot: The Mega-Sentinel attempts to cut the fight short with a single, massive energy blast. However, the X-Men emerge unscathed, thanks to the phasing ability of Shadowcat. Seeing that its first method of extermination was unsuccessful, the Mega-Sentinel unleashes a swarm of mechanical insects to do the job. Following the orders of Cyclops, the Beast attempts to get the Professor to safety, but is intercepted by a new airborne avatar of Danger. The Beast, however, manages to use instinct against Danger’s record of his fighting style, attacking with the ferocity of his nom de guerre, and emerging victorious. Back in the city, Emma Frost suddenly and without explanation departs the battle and enters an underground chamber, where she converses with someone who informs her that the need for her charade is almost up. Emma replies that she’s happy about that, and then rejoins the battle. Finally, as the team is not making much headway, Kitty has a new idea. She instructs Colossus give her a Fastball Special, throwing her into the Mega-Sentinel’s skull, where she begins to disrupt some of its circuits. Eventually, she finds a manual override terminal and discovers a blocked memory pathway, which he surmises Danger locked away. She convinces the Sentinel to access the memory, causing it to remember its role in the destruction of Genosha and the massacre of its 16 million inhabitants. Overcome with sorrow, sorrow which Danger had attempted to lock away, it allows Kitty to return to the X-Men, and then takes off for parts unknown. Xavier is ecstatic that his team has triumphed again, until he learns that Danger, before uploading into the Mega-Sentinel, had informed Colossus of her true history. Colossus informs the rest of the team that Danger had become self-aware the moment Xavier had used Shi’ar technology to upgrade the Danger Room. The Professor had been aware from the beginning but had kept the new lifeform imprisoned in order to use it as a training facility. Xavier tries to defend his actions but even Cyclops is uninterested in excuses. As the team departs, they and Xavier are watched by Emma’s cohorts. They are a cloaked figure, a formerly-deceased citizen of Genosha, Sebastian Shaw… and Cassandra Nova Xavier. Brodie's View:We come to the end of the "Dangerous" arc, as the X-Men and their former teacher, Professor X, fight Danger and the Giant Wild Sentinel (From, of course, the beginning of Grant Morrison's "E is For Extinction" storyline, which was also the beginning of his run) she/it resurrected at the end of last issue. In essence, it becomes a brand new entity by this act, as it was being controlled entirely by Cassandra Nova during that arc (We'll get back to Xaiver's estranged twin later), which basically plants the seed for Danger's undoing by the end of this issue. Of course, in many ways, Danger does achieve somewhat of her/it's goal by the end of this issue, but I'll also get to that later. After trying to physically fight the Giant Sentinel (As Beast goes full feral on Danger), Kitty realizes that brains might overcome brawn, and has Colossus "Fastball" her (Tempted to make a joke about what happens in the next arc here, but I'll refrain ) up into the Sentinel. Once inside, Kitty confronts the Sentinel with its participation in the annihilation of Genosha, which causes the robot to actually turn face, abandoning the battle, and winning the X-Men the day. However, the "victory" is a hollow one, as things that happen both during and after the battle cause, in some cases, irreparable rifts both within the team, and with the team and Xaiver. For Xaiver, it happens after the battle, as Colossus reveals that Danger had been in psychic rapport with him at one point; long enough to tell him that Xaiver had known the Danger Room was self aware for some time, but had ignored its/her pleas to run his experiments/training sessions. A fact that obviously doesn't sit right with Pitor, nor the rest of the team, who kind of turn their back on their former Professor. This is made worse by the added revelation during Ed Brubakers' run that Xaiver had assembled another team of mutants (One of which being the long lost Summers brother, Vulcan, which Charles had wiped Scott's memory of) before the events of GIANT SIZE, and that team had been mostly slaughtered by Krakoa (The Island That Walked Like a Man!!!!), forcing Xaiver to assemble the team of All New, All Different X-Men that we know and love. This would cause that rift to widen to the point where, when Cyclops would kind of turn heel during the 2010's, he would actually execute Xaiver to end the AVENGERS VS. X-MEN crossover. I'll briefly talk about how shitty that whole deal was in the next couple reviews, though. Speaking of Cyclops though, the other rift formed concerns Emma Frost, who walks out during the final battle to converse with the mysterious person/persons she has been talking to since the end of the first arc. This causes Scott to kind of snap on her, causing hurt feelings between the two lovers. Of course, the next arc deals with that rift, along with the HUGE reveal at the end of this one, as we see exactly who Emma has been talking to; a seemingly new version of Frost's old employer, The Hellfire Club, with an interesting mix of characters within it: Sebastian Shaw (of course), the mysterious Perfection (whose identity remains unknown until mid way through the next arc), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (yes, the character from the DEADPOOL movie, but in the form she was in during her introduction at the beginning of Grant Morrison's run, and also where she supposedly died during the liquidation of Genosha), and, speaking of Morrison, perhaps his greatest X-creation, the highly dangerous Cassandra Nova, who plays a MUCH bigger role in the next arc than her appearance here would originally suggest. As I said before, this next arc is actually my favorite of the four, as I love when we get to explore the inner thoughts/desires of certain characters. Plus, I love all the characters involved in it. Be here tomorrow when the Mind Games begin. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 21, 2017 0:13:44 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #13"Torn (Part 1)"Cover Date: April, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: Wild Sentinels, & "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection) Guest Stars: S.H.I.E.L.D (Maria Hill), S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand), New X-Men (Hellion, Mercury, Rockslide, & Surge), Xaiver Student Body (Armor, Anole, Indra, Match, Pixie, & Wolf Cub) Official Plot: In the present day, Emma Frost is forced to confront the deal she made so long ago with Cassandra Nova, even as she was sending the Mega-Sentinels to destroy Genosha. In exchange for saving her, by bestowing the secondary mutation of Emma’s diamond form, Cassandra would gain Emma as a plant within Xavier’s group, even though Emma would not remember it until Cassandra allowed it. Now that that time has come, Emma stands with Cassandra, Sebastian Shaw, Ellie Phimister and the one who has brought them all together, the cloaked Perfection, who informs Emma that her game will be first. Elsewhere in the Institute, Logan trains the remaining students in combat himself, since the Danger Room is no longer a high-tech training facility. Meanwhile, Beast and Cyclops each try to lose themselves in their work, shunning the company of others. Miles away, SHIELD Director Hill meets has Special Agent Brand of SWORD meet her at the SHIELD helicarrier, though the meeting is useless. Brand refuses to submit to an administrative lease and storms off the carrier, rocketing to SWORD’s orbital space station, the Peak, where she is informed that they have news. Back at the Institute, Kitty is still unsure of her relationship with Piotr, after a romantic dream of the two of them, which leads into a horrific nightmare of her father, she is even more confused. However, after building up enough courage, Kitty finds herself visiting Piotr in his room and rambling about their relationship, until he defines it once and for all with a passionate kiss. Having witnessed this via her telepathy, Emma intends a little seduction of her own and tries to prompt Scott to their bed. Engrossed in paperwork, he rebukes her, so she uses her powers to wear his “favorite outfit,” the exact form of his former wife in her green Phoenix costume. Brodie's View:Oh yes, welcome to the halfway point of this run, to my favorite arc out of the four, and to almost a year later from where we left things after "Dangerous." Of course, a lot has changed in both the Marvel and X-Universe since that happened, which, as I said in a previous review, starts to isolate Joss' run into being entirely its own thing, rather than the cannon it had been in its first half. There are both good and bad aspects to that; good, as it allows Joss to do his own thing, not restrained by having to participate in crossovers or whatever, and bad, as it allows the future writers to just no sell/undersell a lot of the work Joss put in on certain characters/storylines in this run. This arc, and how it affects certain characters, is a perfect example of this, and I'll explain exactly how when these major changes occur. For now, we actually start this arc going back to Grant Morrison's run once again, to explain a plot thread Grant kind of left hanging (and no other writer even tried to touch); the idea of secondary mutations. During the beginning of his run, Grant had laid down the idea that mutants would continue to mutate over time, and that would involve secondary mutations (Beast turning from his Ape form to more of a feline form, and Emma Frost being able to transform into diamond). The second gets explained as being manufactured here, as we see Emma meeting with Cassandra Nova slightly before the events of Grant's run began, and Nova offers to create a "secondary mutation" for her. This definitely would make sense, as the brilliant Nova would often have fall back plans, in case her main plan didn't work. As for Nova, when we last we saw her, she had been tricked into transferring her mind into a mindless alien shape changing blob, which was then locked in an impenetrable steel box in the basement of the mansion. So, how Cassandra got out of that box, and seemingly back into her old body (Which was "killed" at the end of Morrison's first arc), is one of the first mysteries that we were left with at the end of #12 (and the beginning of this issue, as she's seen with the rest of the New Hellfire Club that we saw at the end of #12 as well). Another, obviously, is how Negasonic Teenage Warhead is still alive, as she also had died near the beginning of Morrison's run, as she was one of the mutants killed by Nova's Wild Sentinels. The third is who "Perfection" is, but we'll find out all our answers by the end of this arc, as well as raising some new questions as well. However, before any of this happens, we have the fallout from the last 12 issues to deal with, as we see Wolverine training students in the (Non) Danger Room (Which basically translates into the students fighting him ), Pitor helping Kitty deal with the loss of her father, who had also died in Genoshia, and the rest of the team dealing with the various things that happened in #12. We also see the head of S.H.I.E.L.D (which is Maria Hill, after Nick Fury split to parts unknown) arguing with Agent Brand (who is the defacto leader of S.W.O.R.D), over which position pulls rank over the other. Hill expects Brand to fall in line with her leadership, and Brand tells Hill (as she's fond of doing) to kiss her ass basically, as Brand's jurisdiction covers a lot more space ( ) than Hill's. We'll definitely see more of Brand in action as this arc transitions into the next one. Later in the issue, we see Kitty (in the most wonderfully Claremont moment of this issue) finally get the courage to discuss her feelings with Pitor, who, quickly responds by laying one on her. Claremont would have had to stop there, had this issue taken place in the 80's, with what follows being only hinted at. However, this was 2006, and Joss wasn't going to stop there, as we see in the next issue ( ) Finally, we see Emma Frost talking with the New Hellfire Club, who are ready to put their plan into action. Emma agrees to kick things off, and we see her head into Cyclops' room, seemingly to take her lover out. However, things are more than they seem on the surface of things, and we will start to see all that play out in the next issue. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 22, 2017 0:36:11 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #14"Torn (Part 2)"Cover Date: June, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection) Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, & Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Pixie, & Wolf Cub) Official Plot: In the past, Scott Summers and Phoenix are concluding a romantic getaway at a remote desert location. As they prepare to return, Phoenix realizes the gift she his given Scott, in that using her telekinesis to hold back his optic blasts has given him a chance to see the world without his ruby-quartz lenses. It has also temporarily given him a chance to relinquish the control he so carefully monitors every moment. In the present, the current Scott Summers looks upon the visage of Phoenix again, though he knows that it is only a mental projection of Emma’s. Emma turns Scott’s anger at this around, using it to demonstrate his obsession with self-control, which comes from a seminal moment as a boy, who swore to never lose control. Through a mental trip through his own past and through a nightmarish place called the Bug Room, Emma allows Scott to relinquish control and disables his powers, though leaving him in a catatonic state in the process. Elsewhere in the Institute, Kitty and Piotr finally consummate their relationship, though not without incident, as Kitty accidentally phases though the floor of her room and into the living room below. The next morning, they are greeted by Logan in the kitchen, who immediately senses their awkwardness and tells them that it’s “’Bout time.” Below them in his lab, the Beast greets whom he believes to be Emma – though to his astonishment, it is not. It is his nightmare, Cassandra Nova. Meanwhile, in orbit, Special Agent Brandt and her comrades at SWORD have received notification from the Breakworld that they have determined exactly which X-Man is supposed to lead to their destruction. Brodie's View:To answer the question right off the bat; no, Emma Frost and Wolverine do not make out in this issue. Well, not really. It's all part of Emma messing with the mind of her boyfriend, Cyclops (AKA Scott Summers), who she basically breaks down by revealing some very uncomfortable truths concerning his past and purpose. One can assume on the surface of things that she's doing this as part of a nefarious plan of the "New Hellfire Club" she's a part of, and there's definitely a lot of evidence for that theory in this issue (and the next), as we see the rest of the "Club" go after different X-Men. In particular, Cassandra Nova paying a visit to a character that she had a great deal of fun torturing at the beginning of Grant Morrison's second arc, Beast, who is absolutely terror stricken upon seeing her. The rest of the "Club" make their moves in the next issue, throwing the team into completely anarchy; this is started at the end of this issue, as Scott appears to have been totally fried by Emma cutting to the core of his issues: That he subconsciously chose not to be able to control his powers, which his admittance of that is what she uses to turn his powers completely off for a time. One would think that this would totally destroy him as a character, but you would be WAY wrong, as we'll soon see. However, while this is the meat of this issue (and what a great issue this is, as far as understanding why Cyclops is the way he is), there are some other very interesting things that happen in it as well. For one, Kitty and Pitor finally knock boots, and it's made pretty clear (via a phasing sequence that has to be seen to be believed) that the Russian knows how to handle his business in the bed room. As Logan states the morning after, after obviously sensing that the two had been intimate in some kind of way, "Bout Time." Last but certainly not least, the Agents of S.W.O.R.D learn the identity of the mutant that has been destined to destroy the Breakworld, and, while we don't learn the identity of this mutant for an issue or two, it's official revealing will definitely kick things back in as far as the whole Ord/Breakworld storyline is concerned. However, in the next issue, the mind games are expanded to encompass the entire team, and things get VERY interesting (And in a few cases, pretty God Damn Funny ). GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 22, 2017 23:26:04 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #15"Torn (Part 3)"Cover Date: August, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection), Ord, & Danger Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, & Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Armor & Blindfold) Official Plot: Preparing herself after having just reduced Cyclops to a catatonic state, Emma rushes into the kitchen, informing Kitty, Logan and Piotr of his state, though not her role in it. As Kitty and Piotr take Scott to the infirmary, Logan goes to find Hank, discovering him cornered in his lab by Cassandra Nova. With her mental abilities, Cassandra reduces the Beast to his animalistic namesake, and Wolverine to a childlike state. Logan quickly becomes afraid of the Beast and runs for cover in the girl’s bathroom, where he finds Hisako and Blindfold. The Beast follows him there, but Hisako manages to use her powers to scare him away after which Logan uses the opportunity to flee the Institute, with the Beast in pursuit. Elsewhere, Ellie Phimister uses her abilities on Kitty to make her lose control of her phasing powers, sending her downward toward the Earth’s core, while Sebastian Shaw confronts Colossus in the infirmary. Colossus begins to beat Shaw, demanding to know what’s going on. However, Shaw merely takes the beating to absorb the kinetic energy, eventually expending it to knock Colossus out. Meanwhile, on SWORD’s space station, Agent Brand and her colleagues monitor the situation in the Institute via their mole. However, their information is incomplete on the cause of the attack. Elsewhere on the station, Danger approaches Ord of the Breakworld, who is still imprisoned. Danger informs Ord that not only are his people on the way… but the mutant destined to destroy his world has been found. Later, as the Hellfire Club reconvenes to discuss the status of their plan, Kitty Pryde has managed to stop her descent, in a cavern deep underground. Her thoughts composed, she tells the non-present, traitorous Emma Frost that she has made good moves so far, but now it’s her turn! Brodie's View:The "New Hellfire" Club make their moves in full in this issue, which quickly turns what remains of the X-Men (As Emma is helping them, and Scott has been reduced to a catatonic state) into a complete mess. Cassandra Nova uses her ability to de-evolve Beast into a complete feral state, while regressing Wolverine into the young, proper British boy he was before he first popped his claws (The full revelation of this is worth the price of admission alone). Meanwhile, Sebastian Shaw confronts Colossus, and goads him into beating the shit out of him (which, thanks to Shaw's powers, the rich mutant is able to absorb the energy expended, and uses that energy to knock Pitor cold with one blow), while Negasonic uses her ability to turn Kitty into a living ghost. Thus, at the end of this issue, Colossus is unconscious, Logan is on the run from a mindless Beast (who Logan, or should I say, James, thinks is a giant moose...lol ), Scott is catatonic, and Kitty is sinking into the Earth's center. Luckily, Kitty is able to right herself first, which allows her to strike the pose Wolverine did after the "All New, All Different" team got their asses handed to them in a similar fashion by the original Hellfire Club back during the DARK PHOENIX SAGA. Criticism has been tossed at this moment, as Joss trying to force the idea of Kitty being a Bad Ass, but anyone who would say that obviously isn't too up on their X-History. Kitty Pryde IS a Bad Ass, Joss was just the first writer to remember that. She was trained in two different styles of martial arts by Wolverine, along with having the abilities of a ninja master kind of imprinted on her psyche (In the KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE mini). In other words, she can hang with some of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe. A lot of Post Claremont writers just forgot that, as during the 90's, it was the Jim Lee/cartoon era X-Men that got the focus, while Kitty was off in EXCALIBUR. Anyways, this sets up some interesting scenarios for the next issue, as Kitty is the only seemingly fully functional X-Man left standing (well, save for Emma, but she's working for the bad guys). To add to all of this, aboard S.W.O.R.D's space bound HQ, Danger makes her/its return, and offers the captured Ord the idea of a partnership, as their goals are similar. She/it also reveals the name of the mutant that is fated to destroy The Breakworld, and in the next issue, we'll see the two break loose to join in the chaotic "fun" taking place at the mansion. We also will find out who "Perfection" is, which will get one of the best "WTF" reactions from a character ever. Oh, and Wolverine clings from a tree for dear life. Good times. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 23, 2017 23:10:39 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #16 "Torn (Part 4)"Cover Date: October, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection), Ord, & Danger Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand & Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Armor & Blindfold) Official Plot: Ord of the Breakworld is free from his prison on the SWORD space station, the Peak, and is determined to remain so. Making his way through a host of agents, Ord is stopped briefly by Special Agent Brand, though he still makes his escape by jumping through a window and into the vacuum of space. There, he is rescued and taken away by Danger, piloting a space craft. Meanwhile, Kitty returns to the surface of the Institute from deep underground. She briefly checks in on Piotr and speaks with the frightened Hisako and Blindfold, before searching for Wolverine. She finds Logan in the forest on the outskirts of the Institute’s grounds, having survived and regenerated from an attack by the mentally devolved Beast. In the bowels of the Institute, Emma Frost, Ellie Phimister, Shaw, Cassandra and Perfection find their prize: a metal container, which they try to open. However, the container resists Emma’s diamond-fist blows and its defenses beat her back in turn. The group begins to argue about their next course of action, however Emma senses something amiss and goes to investigate. She discovers Kitty Pryde, who was lying in wait behind a wall. Using her phasing powers on Emma herself, Kitty takes her to a small cavern, beneath the Institute. Leaving her there, effectively imprisoned, Kitty returns to the Institute to look for students who can help. However, she is discovered by the still-terrified Wolverine – and then by the enigmatic Perfection, who reveals her identity: the White Queen! Seeing Emma, whom she just imprisoned in a cavern and appearing as she has not for years, Kitty is… confused. Meanwhile, back on the Peak, Special Agent Brand prepares to go after the escaped Ord, whose mental status might be suspect upon learning that the one mutant who was destined to destroy his homeworld was the one mutant that he had resurrected: Colossus. Brodie's View:We get some big reveals in this issue; one being the identity of "Perfection," which ends up being a past version of Emma Frost (in full Old School "White Queen" getup, which instantly sends what is happening, or the perception of what is happening, into a whole new direction), and the second, and far more important to the future of this arc, is the revelation of the mutant that is destined (supposedly) to destroy The Breakworld, Colossus. This, of course, sends Ord into a fury, and he winds up escaping S.W.O.R.D's space headquarters, and into a waiting escape ship, piloted by Danger (who he formed a partnership with last issue). Of course, we all know where they're headed, but we won't see them join the fun until next issue, and a lot of fun is had in this issue, well, for us as readers. The X-Men certainly don't have a lot of fun. Particularly not poor Logan, who we find cowering while hanging from a tree branch, terrified that a feral Beast (who he thinks is a giant moose) will find him, which he does, forcing Logan to unconsciously pop his claws (after Beast has taken a chunk out of him). I will say that until the last issue, regressed Logan really kind of steals this whole arc. I kind of wish we would have gotten a full on adaptation of Joss' run, instead of the mess of the movie X3 turned into, just, if for nothing else, seeing Hugh Jackman go from playing super Bad Ass Wolverine to frightened, comedic James Howlette. He would have killed it. But leaving Logan behind, at least for now, let's get to the main focus of this whole deal; the "New Hellfire Club," and their main purpose for doing all this in the first place. As we can start to put together (and the whole "Perfection" reveal kind of brings it more into focus) the fact that this whole thing is about freeing Cassandra Nova's body from the metal container its been in since Grant Morrison's run. Emma tries in her diamond form, but is unable to penetrate it. They quickly realize that the only person who could potentially break into that container is the very person they sent sinking into the middle of the Earth last issue, Kitty Pryde. However, Kitty is lying in wait, and when Emma comes to find her, she totally kicks Emma's ass, and phases her into the spot Negasonic sent her to. However, Kitty comes back to the mansion to find Logan, who half heartedly offers to help her. However, it's at this exact moment that Perfection reveals herself to be...."The White Queen." It's here...well, after Kitty's "YeahbutWHAT?!?" response that we kind of end things off. In the next issue, things start to come to a head, as the HC try to use Kitty to accomplish their goal. Oh yeah, and one of the X-Men busts a cap in someone. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 25, 2017 0:27:09 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #17"Torn (Part 5)" Cover Date: November, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection), Ord, & Danger Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Armor & Blindfold) Official Plot: From their station in orbit, Agents Brand, Deems and Sydren watch as Ord of the Breakworld and Danger rocket to the Institute in search of Colossus, who they have discovered is destined to be responsible for the Breakworld’s destruction. Despite the threat, Brand orders Lockheed, SWORD’s mole in the Institute, not to interfere. Shortly thereafter, as Logan and a recovered Hisako go in search of Kitty, Danger and Ord arrive. However, Danger immediately realizes she is experiencing critical malfunction caused by an unknown source. As she and Ord consider their next action, they are unaware that a mentally recovered Wolverine is nearby. In the levels below, to cajole Kitty into performing their needed task, Perfection – now revealed to be “the White Queen” – telepathically has Kitty live a fantasy in her mind, where she has a son with Piotr Rasputin, named Michael, but then loses him to the X-Men. Eventually escaping incarceration, she steals into the Xavier Institute and removes her son from a containment capsule designed to keep even her out. In the real world, she has actually removed the artificial body of Cassandra Nova from her prison, much to Ms. Nova’s delight. However, before Cassandra can make use of her body, the White Queen is shot by a de-powered, though no less dangerous, Cyclops. Brodie's View:We begin this issue with one of the most heartbreaking scenarios ever experience by Kitty Pryde, which is all manufactured by "Perfection," who is a past version of Emma Frost (In her full "White Queen" garb), in order to get her to do what the rest of the "New Hellfire Club" couldn't; retrieve Cassandra Nova's (who we're quickly putting together is somehow behind this whole thing) body out of the metal canister it's been in since Grant Morrison's run. In it, a false future is created where Kitty and Pitor have a child, which ends up being a "dangerous mutant" that is taken from Kitty by Professor X and the X-Men (Including Colossus, who betrays her), and locked in the previously mentioned canister. Kitty does the deed, but before her mental strings are cut by Nova, it is revealed that it isn't the body of her child Kitty's holding, it's the alien shape changing slug looking thing Nova had her mind transferred into to. Now that the body is free, Nova plans on obviously doing the mind transfer thing that started the whole body jumping thing to begin with (Near the beginning of Morrison's run, as she had switched minds with her twin, Charles Xaiver), with the target body obviously being Kitty's. However, this is stopped dead in its tracks by "Perfection" being shot in the stomach by who is revealed to be Cyclops, who is now powerless, but holding a gun. I will say that from here on out, Scott Summers becomes one of the most awesome members of the team, and it was a massive tragedy that the writing team on the rest of the X-books decided to ignore this whole development entirely, and turned him, instead, back into first a dick on a level he hadn't been before, even at his dickiest points in the mid/late 80's, and then, even worse, into a Magneto lite villain....before unceremoniously killing him off last year. However, before we get more into this whole thing, which plays out next issue, as this arc comes to a close and the next one begins, let's talk about some of the other stuff that happens in this issue. Lockheed is surprisingly revealed to be the mole that has been reporting information back to the X-Men for S.W.O.R.D, for how long is unrevealed. Perhaps from the get go, as it never was exactly explained how the hell he escaped the destruction of Brood-world back in UXM #166. This will later be revealed to Kitty and the rest of the team, which definitely strains her and her dragon's relationship for a while, and, I'm sure, makes any continuing relationship between the two have to operate under brand new assumptions. We also see Wolverine being snapped out of his de-evolvement by getting hit in the head with a can of beer (lol). This happens just as Danger and Ord make their explosive entrance into the mansion, and are met in battle by both Logan and young mutant, Armor. In the next issue, things all come to a head, this whole "Hellfire Club" deal is explained in full (although, left with one unanswered question that no other writer has bothered to answer, although, the door is left wide open to do so), and Cyclops shoots more people GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 25, 2017 22:05:39 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #18"Torn (Part 6)"Cover Date: December, 2006 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: "The Hellfire Club" (Sebastian Shaw, Cassandra Nova, Ellie Phimister (AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead), and Perfection), Ord, & Danger Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand & Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Armor, Anole, Hellion, Match & Blindfold) Official Plot: Having just shot the White Queen, Scott Summers is attacked by Cassandra Nova. However, prepared for her, he shoots her as well with a smile. Elsewhere, Blindfold is confronted by the feral Beast, but she has been instructed on how to handle him, per a plan put into motion months before by Cyclops and the Beast himself: a ball of yarn. Elsewhere in the Institute, Danger and Ord of the Breakworld are met by both Hisako and a mentally-recovered Wolverine. Though both manage to hold their own, it is the mentally recovered Beast who defeats the two with a device he had constructed to use against Magneto. Moving down to seek out Scott, the trio meet up with Scott, Piotr & Hisako – as well as Kitty and Emma, whom Scott ordered Kitty to rescue from her makeshift prison below the Institute’s foundation. To their surprise, Scott informs them that they are not really facing the Hellfire Club, but manifestations of Emma’s telepathy, caused by a telepathic suggestion by Cassandra when she was imprisoned so long ago. As the X-Men discuss this, they are unaware that the still-mentally controlled Emma is telepathically downloading Cassandra Nova’s consciousness into the unwilling Hisako. Just as the transfer is complete – and just as Ord and Danger press their attack – all of the players are transported aboard a SWORD spacecraft, which begins to rocket toward the Breakworld. Left behind, the prophetic Blindfold informs a fellow student that not all of the X-Men will return… Brodie's View:We come to the end of the "Torn" arc, and we finally get the full story on what is happening, y'know, once Cyclops is done blowing people away (Of course, revealing that none of the "New Hellfire Club" were real in the first place). At the moment Cassandra Nova had her mind transferred into that alien slug thing, she used her rapport with Emma Frost to bind the two somewhat, at least enough to be able to manipulate Emma (through past guilts, hence, why these imaginary people were created in the first place) into putting this whole thing together, so, Nova could be transferred into a new body. However, Emma also brought Kitty in to basically stop that from happening, even if just on a subconscious level, and even if it meant dying by her hands, which also almost happens, as Kitty is ready to blow Emma's brains out for the horrible scenario she put her through last issue. While this is all going on, Cyclops has recruited blind seer (And X-Student), Blindfold, to help him bring Beast back to his full intelligence, which she does. Then, Beast puts an end to the fight between Wolverine/Armor and Ord/Danger, by magnetizing the two baddies to the ceiling (and just as Ord and Danger were starting to gain the upper hand). The two X-Men (and future X-Man, Armor) join the rest of the group in the basement, as Scott is trying to get through to Emma, before she allows Nova to transfer into a new body (as Nova changes course, and tries to jump into Armor's mind). Whether it is successful or not is never fully answered, which is a shame, as it could have made for a great future story, but ah well. Just as this all comes to a head, Danger and Ord, who have freed themselves from the ceiling, charge in at the X-Men, and the entire group is teleported away to parts unknown. This, of course, will lead into the next issue, and the final arc of this run, as the whole "Breakworld" storyline comes to a MAJOR head. There will be some shocks and surprises, and as Blindfold basically states at the end of this issue, not ALL the X-Men will be returning from this one. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 26, 2017 21:55:01 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #19 "Unstoppable (Part 1)" Cover Date: February, 2007 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, and Beast Villain/s: Ord, Danger, Powerlord Kruun, & Sylatin (1st Appearances of the last two) Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, & Agent Deems), Xaiver Student Body (Armor), Aghanne, & Dafi (First appearance of both) Official Plot: Though having been teleported onto a SWORD space craft, Danger and Ord continue their attack on Colossus, whose strength and invulnerability seem to be a match. However, having had enough, Special Agent Brand uses the gravity drive beneath them and the rest of the X-Men to increase gravity to the point where they are pulled down and trapped. Kitty’s phasing power though makes her immune to the effect and she pulls a gun on Brand, ordering her to let them go. Brand complies, having already dealt with Danger by downloading hundreds of thousands of viruses into her processing unit. The crisis passed, she now explains to the X-Men their position in deep space, as well as their destination: the Breakworld. Hearing this as he is taken away in shackles, Ord manages to break free and contact his homeworld, just before being recaptured. Later, Brand holds a briefing session, explaining the Breakworld’s obsession with Colossus, after their Augurs having decided upon him as being destined to destroy their world. She further briefs them that she allowed Ord to overhear their position and destination in hopes that he would contact his people and make them avert their warfleet, which had previously been on its way to destroy the Earth. Now, they are on their way to intercept the SWORD vessel, though they hope to arrive at the Breakworld before this happens. Unfortunately, this is not the case and the war ships reach them first. Fired upon by dozens of missiles, the SWORD spaceship erupts in flames around its passengers. Brodie's View:Welcome to the final arc of Joss Whedon's ASTONISHING X-MEN run, and the culmination of the various threads laid down by Joss since the first issue of the arc. Titled "Unstoppable," this arc deals with The Breakworld, Ord, and the prophecy that an Earth born mutant (revealed to be Colossus a few issues ago) is fated to destroy The Breakworld, which is why Ord was involved with the X-Men (and through them, all mutants) to begin with. We are introduced to some of the major players on The Breakworld in this issue, which is a very war-hungry planet, with the few pacifists being, basically, the mutants of that world. These are the people (Represented by Aghanne & Dafi) who are hoping the X-Men are coming to save them from what will be the eventual annihilation of that world through ever increasing (and constant) war. These wars are continued by Powerlord Kruun, who seemingly enjoys just killing people for the fun of it, and would seemingly have zero problem with launching their Doomsday Weapon at Earth, regardless of whether or not the prophecy is true. It seems that both parties doubt the prophecy, but both are willing to use it to justify their own means. It is also revealed that Ord, who one has assumed up until now to be some major representative of The Breakworld, is really just considered to be a failure and a joke, who was only sent to Earth as a token gesture. Speaking of Ord, we see him (And Danger, who joined up with Ord a few issues ago) trying to continue his attack against Colossus (and the X-Men), even as they all are transported aboard a S.W.O.R.D space craft. Agent Brand, after a tense show down, is able to contain the situation (somewhat), and takes both Ord and Danger (who she nullified by downloading tons of viruses to the robot) off to cells. Most of the rest of the issue involves Brand and S.W.O.R.D bringing the X-Men (who she hopes can help her/S.W.O.R.D stop The Breakworld from destroying Earth) up to speed of what has to happen, while the various team members deal with the fallout from the last few issues. We see this a bit with Kitty and Colossus dealing with the false memories Emma/Cassandra Nova installed in her a couple of issues ago, and how Kitty has to admit that they were spun from very real feelings of betrayal that exist within her about Pitor "betraying" her back in the Claremont run. They will mend fences eventually, but it will take a few more issues. We also get the official word that Emma Frost's mind has been purged clean of the influence of Nova, although, as I said, it's never resolved where Nova's consciousness went, both within the story, and down the line. However, all of this might end up being a moot point, as the ship is attacked by Kuun's fleet at the end of the issue, and severely damaged. In the next issue, we see the fall out from that attack, and whether or not the team/S.W.O.R.D make it to The Breakworld.....period. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 27, 2017 22:53:13 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #20 "Unstoppable (Part 2)" Cover Date: February, 2007 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun, & Sylatin Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Sydren, Agent Paulletz, & Agent Deems), Danger, & Ord Official Plot: On flames, the SWORD starship is in its death throws. As a result, Agent Brand orders the launch of the Splinter, a smaller vessel which erupts from the larger one and darts toward the Breakworld at a faster velocity. However, though manned by all of the crew, save Agent Brand and the X-Men, the vessel is just a diversion to draw the attention of the Breakworld Bruteships, which do indeed give chase. By the time they have made preparations, including a short briefing, the Brand and the X-Men are about to be attacked once again by Breakworld ships. However, this time Brand orders the ship’s destruction, which sunders the vessel in two. The two sections actually serve as lifeboats for Brand and the X-Men, who have split into two groups. One group, composed of Cyclops, Emma, Brand and the Beast arrive on the planet’s surface fairly unscathed. However, the other section impacts a satellite and begins to break apart. Kitty and Colossus survive by relying on Kitty’s phasing power until the strain becomes too great, then relying on Colossus’ invulnerability to survive. Meanwhile, Wolverine makes use of Hisako’s psionic exo-armor to help her survive reentry, though he himself is badly burned by the friction. As he heals, Hisako has a brief bout of panic at their situation, but Wolverine appeals to her sense of responsibility and duty. In this spirit, she heartens, as well as chooses her codename: Armor. Meanwhile, Powerlord Kruun, absolute ruler of the Breakworld, coordinates the planet’s response, specifically considering the prophecy relating to Colossus destroying their world. As he orders his men to interrogate the SWORD agents that have been captured, he decides to personally question the “synthetic” entity called Danger. Elsewhere, Cyclops’ team arrives at their destination, the recently excavated tomb called Attur-Hei. Therein, they discover an immense mosaic impossibly old. It depicts Colossus’ sun in one hand, maniacally destroying the Breakworld, which he holds in the other. Brodie's View:The X-Men and what remains of S.W.O.R.D, as their ship was critically wounded at the end of last issue, make their way (some more gentle than others) to the surface of The Breakworld. This splits the team up drastically, as Emma, Cyclops, Beast, and Agent Brand land pretty easily in their ship (So easily, that in a great scene, Emma mentally "softens the blow" by having them all sitting in a fancy room, drinking tea), whereas, Kitty, Colossus, Wolverine, and Armor don't have such an easy time, as their ship breaks apart. Colossus ends up taking the impact for Kitty, while Logan and Armor section off by themselves (with Logan getting f**ked up pretty badly in the process). However, this allows the last two to bond as future teammates, as Armor officially joins the team in this issue. She also becomes the next "daughter" that Logan takes under his wing; the first of which, of course, being Kitty Pryde herself. Meanwhile, Cyclops' group comes across an ancient Breakworld temple, and see a supposed anciently created mosaic which depicts Colossus symbolically destroying the Breakworld; the prophecy made literal. Meanwhile, we also see Powerlord Kruun, who has taken some of the S.W.O.R.D agents that survived the crash (along with Ord and Danger) prisoner. He pretty much regards Ord, once again, as a joke, but displays interest in interrogating Danger. This will lead to the robot once again trying to kill the X-Men, but that will all end in a most unexpected way. In the next issue, the team will somewhat regroup, and then re-splinter once again, leading to more inter-member bonding (taken quite literally by two of the team, and I'm sure you can guess which two), and the build towards our big finale will continue. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 29, 2017 0:54:16 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #21 "Unstoppable (Part 3)"Cover Date: May, 2007 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun, Sylatin, & Danger Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand & Agent Deems), Aghanne, & Dafi Official Plot: Though late, Wolverine and Hisako join Cyclops, Emma, Beast and Special Agent Brand at the tomb at Attur-Hei. There, Wolverine informs the rest of the X-Men that Hisako is now an official member, a decision which is summarily accepted without objection. Having examined the mosaic of Colossus destroying the Breakworld with the sun and unable to learn more from it, the group breaks into three teams. While the Beast and Brand go in search of the Breakworld weapon capable of destroying the Earth, Wolverine and Hisako search for Colossus and Kitty. Cyclops and Emma are to rendezvous with the downed SWORD spaceship, Splinter. Elsewhere, Colossus and Kitty are given shelter from the Breakdown citizenry, both of which want to kill them, by a rival sect led by Aghanne, a Breakworld malcontent who is repulsed by the society’s lack of compassion. Her fervent hope is that the prophecy about Colossus’ destiny regarding the Breakworld has been interpreted incorrectly as destruction instead of rebirth. Accepting a night of respite despite his misgivings at being labeled a messiah, the spirits of the dour Colossus are raised when Kitty resumes their romantic relationship, much to his surprise. Meanwhile, acting on intelligence of the X-Men’s departure from the tomb, Powerlord Kruun orders a snowstrike on an area, through which the Beast and Brand are currently traveling. Crashing as a result of the sudden blizzard, the two quickly burrow into the amassing snow, using their body warmth to survive, much to the amusement of the Beast. Elsewhere, en route to the downed Splinter in a confiscated sky craft, Cyclops and Emma’s conversation leads to argument, which in turn leads to a revelation when Scott admits he’s in love with her. Emma is rendered speechless for some time until they converge on the Splinter, which is now in flames. As they circle for survivors, the two are attacked and downed by Danger, who has created a monstrous and immense body, resembling a mechanical insect. Danger subsequently reassumes humanoid form to finish the job but, to her astonishment, is asked by Emma, who survived the crash in better shape than Cyclops, to kill her – and to try to make it quick… Brodie's View:As we continue the build towards the end of the "Unstoppable" arc (and this run), we see a good chunk of the team (Other than Kitty and Colossus, who end up with the "resistance" to The Breakworld's war-like culture, Aghanne and Dafi, and their people) gather at the ancient tomb where Cyclops, Emma, Beast, and Agent Brand discovered a giant mosaic that depicted what appears to be Colossus destroying The Breakworld. The two strays that meet them, by process of elimination, are Wolverine and Armor, who the former announces as officially joining the team, which the others have little problem with. However, shortly after, they split into three teams (Brand and Beast, Cyclops and Emma, and Wolverine and Armor); each with their own specific purpose. However, three out of the four duos (As Logan and Armor kind of had their bonding moment last issue) engage in their own forms of bonding/re-bonding; Pitor and Kitty quite literally, Emma and Scott, romantically, and Beast and Brand....well, in their own particular way, which will end up playing out in an unforeseen way later on. However, we do have some wonderful moments in this; for example, Scott ends up admitting to Emma that he has fallen in love with her, which adds quite a bit to their relationship, which, up until that moment has mostly been built on lust. Speaking of lust, Kitty and Pitor end up knocking boots again, but it's the afterglow that provides a great moment between the two, as Kitty admits she re-kindled their romance because life, especially life as an X-Man, is short, and if one finds happiness, one should enjoy that happiness as much as they can, because in a moment, it could all be gone. Obviously, we hear these words again before this is all over, in a most poignant way. Heck, the title of the last part is literally titled "Gone," which should say something. Besides the character developments that happen in this issue, we do also get some plot development, as Powerlord Kruun makes more moves against the team, including making a deal with Danger to do what she/it can do to kill the mutants. This, of course, leads to the robot attacking Scott and Emma's ship, sending it crashing back down to The Breakworld surface. This pretty much ends the issue, as Danger has the two dead to rights, and Emma shocks both Danger and the readers, as she offers herself up for Danger to kill. We also, as previously stated, have Kitty and Pitor being rescued from rabid Breakworld-ians by Aghanne and Dafi, who are hoping that the prophecy was misread, and Pitor will, instead of destroying the Breakworld, will merely lead to a brand new beginning for the planet. However, in the case of one of these two women, we'll soon discover that there's quite a bit more to their motivations (as well as the prophecy itself) as there appears to be on the surface of things. In the next issue there will be reunions, revelations, deceptions, alignment changes, and, oh yeah, one of the X-Men will die. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 30, 2017 0:05:38 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #22"Unstoppable (Part 4)"Cover Date: October, 2007 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun & Sylatin, Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand & Sydren), Dafi, and Danger Official Plot: Despite being asked by Emma to kill her, Danger does not yet deliver the execution blow, though this is hardly a surprise to Emma. Rather, the request was made to prove a point – that Emma is aware of Danger’s secret: that her programming does not allow her to kill, hence the need for surrogates to try to kill the X-Men over the last few months. Danger’s secret now revealed, Emma makes the synthetic an alternate offer. Meanwhile, still guests of Aghanne and her people, Kitty and Piotr enjoy the respite in each others’ arms. Though much has still happened between them recently, Kitty has been reminded that life is short, and she wants to grab whatever happiness she can with him. The next morning, Brand and the Beast emerge from their snow cave to find the mass of dead citizens of the Breakworld, killed by Kruun’s indiscriminant snowstrike against the two of them. Angered, the Beast harkens on a new plan. Instead of taking the space craft they are about to confiscate directly to the weapon Kruun has constructed, they will use it to regroup with the X-Men and then attack the weapon from the other side. A short while later, the Beast and Brand have picked up all of the rest of the team, including Cyclops and Emma, who have instructed Danger to rendezvous with the remaining SWORD soldiers for another task. En route to the moon where the weapon is located, Kitty is reunited with Lockheed, though the reunion turns bittersweet when Brand coldly informs her that the dragon has been a spy for SWORD for months. Further disheartening, upon their arrival the team discovers to their horror that the moon of their destination itself is the weapon, the whole sphere an artificial construct. Worse still, the moon is guarded by Bruteships, which attack the X-Men’s craft. Attempting to distract them, Cyclops departs in a small repair craft and buys the time the X-Men need to reach their destination. However, as his smaller craft is eventually hit by weapons fire and disintegrates around him, Cyclops finds himself floating in the vacuum of space, all alone in the black. Brodie's View:Okay, I got a bit ahead of myself, as the "life is short" speech given by Kitty to Pitor (during a bit of Post sex pillow talk) happens in this issue, not last like I originally thought. However, just go back to last issue's review to see my views on that scene; it hasn't changed. However, even adding that scene to this issue, it is just one of many important moments, as we get closer and closer to our grand finale,' both of the "Unstoppable" arc and Joss' run. For one, we finally get the reason Danger didn't just straight out kill the team back during the "Dangerous" arc, which is revealed by Emma Frost after a bit of mind games with the robot; she/it can't, as it/she can't defy her/its initial programming. This basically causes Danger to switch alignments, actually aiding the team in the rest of this mission, and later, actually becoming an X-Man her/itself. I assume some resolvement with Xaiver happens shortly after the team returns to Earth as well (well, the part of the team that does return ). We also get the big reveal to the team that Lockheed, Kitty's cute space dragon, has been acting as a spy for S.W.O.R.D, and is far more intelligent and capable (which, we've always suspected, even the whole being able to speak thing, which was revealed during Warren Ellis' EXCALIBUR run) than either Kitty or the rest of the team ever suspected. I'm assuming the rift this probably caused between Kitty and the dragon was settled down the road (WAY down the road ) at some point as well. Anyways, the team all reunites (including Kitty and Colossus), and embarks on a mission to discover what Powerlord Kruun/The Breakworld's "Doomsday Weapon" is, only to discover that the weapon is actually one of the moons of that planet, which is a hollowed out Death Star type of deal. In a couple of issues, we'll find out what exactly the weapon is, but what is important for this issue is the lead up to the team getting to that moon, as they are instantly attacked by Kruun's ships. Faced with little other choice, Cyclops offers to serve as a diversion, so, the rest of the team can reach their destination and (hopefully) complete the mission of stopping the weapon before it can be used. The rest of the team try to talk him out of it, but his decision is final. He takes off in a repair ship, and buys the team the time it needs, but has his ship destroyed in the process, ejecting him out into the cold vacuum of space, where it appears that he dies, ending the issue. Of course, there's more to all of this than meets the eye, and in the next issue, we'll see that play out, as well as coming even closer to the end of this kick ass run. However, there's a few more great moments to come, and we'll see one of them next issue as well. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 1, 2017 1:44:47 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #23"Unstoppable (Part 5)" Cover Date: January, 2008 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand), Aghanne, Dafi, & Danger Official Plot: The X-Men are seemingly at a low point. Their leader, Cyclops, has been killed and left floating in the void of space. Now having landed back on the Breakworld, they split up, intending to complete the final orders of their fallen commander. On one such mission, Wolverine and Hisako attack Breakworld troops, only to be captured and imprisoned. Meanwhile, Beast and Special Agent Brand have more immediate luck with the deciphering of the details of the prophecy, the Beast surmising that it is practically an instruction manual on how to destroy the planet from its core. Elsewhere, while Colossus and Shadowcat recruit Aghanne’s help, Cyclops once again finds himself among the living, resurrected by Breakworld technology. Immediately, Powerlord Kruun begins torturing the X-Man for information on “Leviathan.” However, Cyclops continues to remain defiant until he receives a telepathic download from Emma, who had used her time to fill her mind with the schematics of Cyclops’ prison. Once the download is complete, Cyclops admits to Kruun that his actions since the assault on the artificial moon were a deception. Aware of Ord’s surveillance of the craft, Cyclops used Emma’s telepathy to order the team into enacting everything they have done since, including the capture of Wolverine and Armor. When the incensed Kruun asks the X-Man what other lies he has told, Cyclops fires his previously believed dormant optic blasts, taking out Ord, destroying Wolverine’s bonds some levels above and acting as a signal to the waiting X-Men and SWORD agents. Now free, Cyclops uses Emma’s telepathy once again to give his orders. “To me, my X-Men.” Brodie's View:The main story of this issue is Cyclops being brought back to life by Breakworld technology, and after a bit of torture (which ends up being for a purpose, as Scott is stalling for time to allow his team to get in place), Cyclops reveals that the whole ending of last issue was merely a ruse to get Scott exactly where he needed to be. We see this in hilarious fashion, as we see the scene before Cyke takes off in that ship play out as it did, but revealing that a mental conversation (thanks to Emma Frost) was going on between the team at the same time. We also reveal that Kitty can't multi-task well, which the other team mates mentally crack on her for her bad acting. This all leads to one of the most pimptatstic moment of Cyclops of....well, ever, as he pisses off Kruun by telling him this, which causes the alien to get in his face, demanding to know what other lies he has told. A wicked smile crosses Scott's face, and he then unloads with a massive ass optic blast (as his powers have obviously returned) that instantly takes Kruun out of contention, and sets up our big lead up towards the end of this story. This all is most of the story, as the rest of the team merely get into place (well, other than Beast and Agent Brand, who decipher the prophecy, which ends up being a step by step instruction manual on how to destroy The Breakworld, which kind of puts into question why someone would do something like that? We get our answers to that next issue. Meanwhile, Kitty and Pitor enlist the help of Aghanne, Dafi, and the rest of the Breakworld resistance for what is going to end up being the final conflict. Speaking of conflict, Wolverine and Armor purposely get captured by Kruun's troops (after taking out quite a few of them), which, as I've stated a few times, was strictly for the purpose of Cyclops doing what he did, which allows the mutants to quickly take over Kruun's fortress. The next issue will be our last actual regular issue ( ), and it will pretty much be the set up for our big finale,' which, will bring things full circle, reviews-wise, as it will be GIANT SIZED. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 1, 2017 21:54:02 GMT -5
Astonishing X-Men #24"Unstoppable (Part 6)"Cover Date: March, 2008 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun, Ord, & Aghanne Guest Stars: S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Paulletz, and Deems) & Danger Official Plot: Having taken the prison and captured Powerlord Kruun, Cyclops sets upon the next step of his plan. While the agents of SWORD hold the facility, distracting Breakworld forces, one team is to attack the Retaliator weapon, while the other led by Cyclops is to try to convince Kruun to abandon his attack, or face the Breakworld’s destruction by Colossus. Unfortunately for Cyclops’ team, Ord arrives, forcing Colossus to enter the power source of the planet, from which the prophecy says he will destroy the Breakworld. Almost to his surprise, he is joined by Aghanne, who has been planning for Colossus to do so the whole time. Outside the sphere, Powerlord Kruun is freed by Ord and his soldiers. Gloating, he tells the X-Men that the Retaliator is about to fire. Meanwhile, in orbit, the rest of the X-Men, along with Brand and Danger, succeed in making their way to the Retaliator, though Brand takes a fatal shot in the process. Reaching the weapon itself, Danger can find no way to disarm it, forcing Kitty to phase within. However, to her surprise, she finds no wires or controls, only metal, save for a hollowed-out point at the top. At that moment the Retaliator fires, taking Kitty along with it. The lack of thrusters on the weapon quickly leads to a realization by the Beast. With no guidance systems or engines, just a rod of metal hollow at the front. It is not a missile, but a bullet. Brodie's View:Wow. We're almost at the end of this run already, as this issue is basically the lead up to the GIANT SIZED ending to this whole run that I'll be reviewing tomorrow . Being that this is the case, this issue is basically the setup for all of that, as the team tries to convince Powerlord Kruun to stop the Breakworld's "Doomsday Weapon," which is pointed at Earth (Known henceforth as "The Retaliator"), and once they realize that it can't be stopped, they try to stop it. Kitty tries to do this, as she (and everyone else) figures that she would be the one most likely to be able to stop it, due to both her ability to short out electronic devices due to her powers, and her knowledge of computers, were the first plan to fail to work. However, it's discovered too late that this plan wouldn't work, as the device isn't a computerized missile at all; it's just a giant hollow point bullet, and because it's made of Breakworld metal, Kitty is massively weakened by phasing through it, and is trapped inside. Now, I will say that this development is a bit cheesy and obvious in the statement Joss is trying to make with it (which is why this issue gets a bit of a knock, rating-wise, versus the last couple of issues), but I will say this; in the next issue, we'll see Joss get the maximum amount of emotion a writer could get out of such a potentially silly plot device, and if you doubt that, look at how ham handedly Matt Fraction handled the resolving of the whole thing. Of course, I'll talk about that in the next review, but let's just say, it's the most anti-climatic resolving in the history of anti climatic resolvings. Such a shame, and what really kind of turned me off of reading any of the X-books past tomorrow's issue (and nothing I've read since has changed my mind on that, and, trust me, I'd love for one to). Taking all that in consideration, we also have our other major twist in this issue, which Colossus figures out as he's been kind of forced into potentially destroying the power source for The Breakworld, and destroying it. As Aghanne approaches behind him, making sure he knows what to do, Pitor reveals that he has put it all together; that this whole deal has been manufactured by Aghanne all along. This is kind of a more powerful point Joss makes here, as even someone that started out working for the right reasons can be corrupted into thinking that the ends justify the means, no matter how horrible those ends are. Meanwhile, the rest of the team fight off Ord (who has gotten free) and Kruun and his troops (who Ord freed), who are trying to stop Colossus from destroying their planet. Of course, with the sides somewhat switched, we find ourselves with only the finale' to talk about, and I will say that Joss does end very strong here. Expect a lot of emotion, and a whole Crapton of guest stars. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 2, 2017 18:26:34 GMT -5
Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1"Gone"Cover Date: July, 2008 Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday Team: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (& Lockheed), Colossus, Armor, and Beast Villain/s: Powerlord Kruun, Ord, & Aghanne Guest Stars: Spider-Man, X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, Angel, Ice Man, & Warpath), New X-Men (Dust, Anole, Pixie, & Gentle), Iron Man, The Sentry, The Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, Professor X, Giant Wild Sentinel, S.W.O.R.D (Agent Brand, Agent Paulletz, and Sydren) & Danger Official Plot: In Earth orbit, the SWORD’s space station known as the Peak hosts an assemblage of super-heroes, all of whom have been informed of the danger of bullet fired from the Breakworld. Strange is the first to act but an unknown form of magical protection from the projectile renders him unconscious, though seemingly does not affect the others present. Mr. Fantastic is next to act, creating a device that opens a port to the Negative Zone, which successfully sends the bullet out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, this is a deception on part of the bullet’s magical defenses, which create likewise fantasies for the other heroes. Meanwhile, within the sphere, Colossus’ refusal to destroy the core and therefore the Breakworld causes him and Aghanne to come to blows. However, before she can force Colossus to enact the prophecy, the battle is joined by Ord, who tears Aghanne’s environmental suit. As Ord then succumbs to the harsh environment of the sphere, Colossus finishes Ord’s final task and tosses Aghanne to the chasm below. The Breakworld saved, Colossus exits the sphere to find Powerlord Kruun having been captured by the X-Men and agents of SWORD. Resolutely, Colossus then informs the former dictator that, though he will not fulfill the prophecy and destroy the Breakworld, unless Kruun gives a weakness of the bullet, he will rule it as its leader. In near-Earth space, the only remaining action to stop the bullet – the Mega-Sentinel attempting to redeem its actions of genocide – ends in failure as the Mega-Sentinel is annihilated in a head-on collision. Having arrived via swift space craft, Cyclops and Emma contact Kitty telepathically, attempting to rescue her before the bullet impacts the Earth. Unfortunately, Kitty finds she cannot phase through, seemingly having become bonded with the projectile. This in turn leads to an incredible yet arduous opportunity for Kitty, who phases the bullet just before impact, allowing it to phase through the Earth and emerge from the other side. Unfortunately, the bullet continues on its path, departing the solar system and into deep space. Those left behind attempt to continue on. Hisako tries to allay Wolverine’s grief through his training of her. Agent Brand offers the Beast a position as a much needed critic of her actions at SWORD. Cyclops, having kept his powers under control recently through clarity of purpose, once again takes upon himself the burden of his ruby quartz visor. Meanwhile, very much alone among dozens of friends, Colossus feels the absence of Kitty, who is very much… gone. Brodie's View:As you can tell by the list of Guest Stars above, we end this whole run in a pretty spectacular fashion, and what better way to start this issue than with an awesome double spread of the Amazing Spider-Man swinging through New York? Spidey ends up encountering some of the X-Men we haven't seen throughout this whole run (Including Nightcrawler in a pretty great moment) before they're all transported up to S.W.O.R.D's space bound station by the Giant Wild Sentinel from the "Dangerous" arc; all meeting to try and stop the giant bullet (with Kitty Pryde trapped inside) that is speeding towards Earth. All this is happening while Colossus confronts Aghanne, who was revealed last issue to be behind this whole "prophecy" to begin with; orchestrating a chain of events that would hopefully (at least for her) lead to Colossus doing what he was "destined" to do, and destroy the Breakworld. However, Colossus refuses to do so, causing Aghanne to attack him. However, in a major swerve, Ord actually ends up being the hero here, and shreds Aghanne's protective suit, causing her to burn to death, even at the cost of his own life. Colossus (and Wolverine) then threaten Kruun with taking over The Breakworld, if the alien doesn't give up the info on how to stop the bullet. However, as we'll find, there is no way to stop it, as it is exactly what one would think it would be, simply a large metal object that has been propelled towards Earth. This all leads to the emotional crux of this whole story, as none of the heroes are depicted as being able to stop that bullet. The Giant Sentinel tries, but gets destroyed by it. Doctor Strange tries a spell, but it backfires, basically putting all the heroes into a "wish fulfillment" trance that shows each of them stopping the bullet. Spider-Man snaps out of it first, but by the time he brings the other heroes around, it's too late to do anything to stop the bullet (although, there is that great cutaway of his socking Storm in the jaw, to try and snap her out of the trance. I can only imagine John Cassaday's reaction when he read that in Joss' script). No, it comes down to Kitty Pryde, who must be the hero when no one else can, and Joss plays this for as much as one can. To me, the greatest part of this issue is the mental conversation between Kitty and Emma, where even the ice cold "White Queen" has to give her long time "frenemy" her respect for her staring down potential death by doing what she's going to do (she uses her phasing ability to its maximum limit, to phase both her and the bullet, allowing it to pass through Earth, thus, saving the day). This essentially bonds her with the bullet for a time, as it speeds out into space. The rest of the issue deals with this major loss, as Kitty's words from a few issues ago come back to Pitor, as he stands alone outside of the mansion, staring out into the sky. What a great ending, and unlike other writers, Joss actually left future X-writers with more than he took or changed. However, many of the writers who would follow would kind of either ignore the great things Joss did in his run, or they would kind of do wet fart follow ups on it. As I said last issue, Matt Fraction's just having Magneto pull the giant bullet back was the lamest of lame ass resolve-ments of Joss' ending. I mean, if Magneto could do all that, why hasn't he been able to take over the world again? Anyways, griping aside, this ends my reviews of the X-Men books, at least for the time being. My next series of reviews will take us back to the 70's, and will deal with a certain Aunt's blue eyed baby boy. It's about to be Clobberin' Time for the next few months. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 3, 2017 22:03:11 GMT -5
Marvel Feature #11"Cry: Monster!"Cover Date: September, 1973 Writer: Len Wein Artist: Jim Starlin Feature Characters: The Thing & The Hulk Villain/s: The Leader, Kurrgo, and Kurrgo's Robot Special Guests: Mister Fantastic & The Human Torch Official Plot: The story opens with the Thing destroying one of Mr. Fantastic's inventions, which is revealed to be another attempt at returning the Thing to his human form. Grimm states that he could not stand another failure, and is left alone. He reflects on his origin as Kurrgo reads his thoughts from a space craft in Earth’s orbit. Kurrgo retells his own story, revealing that since being abandoned on Xantha he traveled to the new world of his former servants, where he was warded off by their advanced technology. Kurrgo then traveled to Earth in an attempt to use the planet’s strongest creature to control New Xanth. The Leader blocked his attempt to recruit the Hulk, and the two villains agreed to stage a contest between the Thing and the Hulk, with the winner’s patron gaining the use of both titans. They trick the Thing into attacking the nearby Hulk, and after the two battle, Kurrgo and the Leader try to transport the Hulk to their ship when it is determined by them that the Hulk would be the victor. Thing hitches along for the ride, and when the two are before both Kurrgo and the Leader, Thing realizes that the whole thing was a trick. The two then attack Kurrgo's robot, knocking it into the ships controls. They manage to escape just before the ship explodes, seemingly destroying Kurrgo and the Leader. Afterwords the Thing and the Hulk part company. Brodie's View:It's time to flash back to 1973; the era of Nixon (who was on his way out), Jim Croce (who, sadly, was also on his way out, as he would die the month this issue was dated as coming out ), and the Vietnam War (which was almost over at this point, well, at least on the American side of things). However, while all the above mentioned were ending, there was something that was just beginning, and that was MARVEL TWO IN ONE. Obviously, Marvel Comics had a great deal of success with their first major "Team Up" book, MARVEL TEAM UP, which usually featured what was, at that time, Marvel's most popular character, Spider-Man, teaming up with another Marvel hero, and the company must have decided that if MTU was that successful, then another "Team Up" book featuring their second most popular character at the time, The Thing, would be at least close to being that successful as well. They decided to test this concept out with the last two issues of a anthology book that was on its way out, MARVEL FEATURE, which is what our first two reviews of this run will cover. So, to start this off, we get a brief recap of the Thing's origin story, and how flying in that experimental rocket with the rest of what would make up his teammates in the Fantastic Four, would transform him into the tragic, yet heroic pile of orange rocks that we've all come to know and love both then and today. This allows us to get some FF cameos in the form of Reed Richards (who has tried yet again to create a device to cure his friend, which Ben rejects and destroys, as he doesn't want to be disappointing when it fails again. Of course, we'll find out much later that these "cures" fail because Ben subconsciously wants them to fail, as he's afraid that his lady love, the blind sculptress Alicia Masters, would reject him as anything other than being The Thing) and Johnny Storm, who Ben quickly sends packing due to his anger. This allows Ben to wallow in self pity, which, little does he know (but we do) is being observed by older FF baddie, Kurrgo, who has enlisted the tenuous partnership of long time Hulk villain, The (Lethal) Leader (!!!), who has become paralyzed after failing to recruit the Gamma Irradiated monster just mentioned. Kurrgo, who had previously been interested in recruiting The Thing to help him get back his lost "kingdom," now is just as interested in recruiting The Hulk, which obviously doesn't sit well with old flat top. Hence, the two villains decide to play a little game, which, let's face it, is just an excuse to get these two monstrous heroes to fight each other, which, after a bit of prodding and manipulation (and fooling Ben into thinking that he must stop a bomb before it blows up the planet), they do. However, little does either monster or The Leader know, but Kurrgo is boosting The Thing's strength (as Ben is the guy Kurrgo is betting on to beat The Leader's guy, The Hulk, natch) to equal ole Green skin, which puts the two on equal ground, and each gives as good as they get, until The Thing finds the supposed bomb, which ends up being a dud. This quickly brings the fight to an end, as the two are transported up to Kurrgo's ship, where the fact that Kurrgo cheated comes out, which causes the shit to hit the fan, as The Thing and The Hulk wreck Kurrgo's robot, and after they are teleported back to Earth, it's revealed that they wrecked his ship as well, which crashes down nearby, leaving the fate of both villains as being unknown (although, I'm sure both return at some point....well, The Leader does at least). The Hulk then splits, leaving poor Ben stranded in the desert, however, as we suspect due to the tease for next issue's Guest Star, not for long. This was definitely a fun start to this whole MARVEL TWO IN ONE deal, as The Hulk was really the perfect first hero for The Thing to team with (well, somewhat teamed with). I mean, who doesn't love watching these two beat the shit out of each other? And to make things better, we had a really talented duo writing and drawing this issue as well, as the duo of longtime Marvel writer, Len Wein, and growing superstar artist (and later writer), Jim Starlin, did a great job in capturing one of Ben's first major "solo" stories. Speaking of Starlin, one of the major characters that would later become synonymous with that artist/writer will appear in the next issue (and the final issue of MARVEL FEATURE before we officially start the MARVEL TWO IN ONE book), along with a super popular Avenger. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 4, 2017 23:08:22 GMT -5
Marvel Feature #12"The Bite of the Blood Brothers!"Cover Date: November, 1973 Writer: Mike Friedrich Artist: Jim Starlin Feature Characters: The Thing & Iron Man Villain/s: Thanos & The Blood Brothers Special Guests: Mentor & Eros (Starfox) Official Plot: The Thing attempts to walk back to civilization after his battle with the Hulk last issue. Iron Man flies overhead but is too busy to stop. Iron Man is returning to the place where he first meet Thanos, in an attempt to find clues of the titan’s location. He is soon ambushed by the blood brothers. The Thing, having seen Iron Man land, follows after him. Monitoring Iron Man from his Cosmic Cube, Thanos orders his agents the Blood Brothers to destroy him. The Blood Brothers, however, did not anticipate for the arrival of the Thing, who matches their strength and his rocky exterior which prevents them from drinking his blood. With the aid of the Thing, Iron Man is able to fight the Blood Brothers to a standstill. With the Blood Brothers defeated, Thanos uses the cosmic cube to send them away. After the fight is over, Iron Man tells Thing that he doesn't have the power to carry them both out of the desert and apologizes. The Thing, figuring it is his lot in life trudges off into the desert, continuing his walk back to civilization. Brodie's View:Poor Ben Grimm. He starts this issue stranded in the desert (after last issue's tussle with The Hulk and Kurrgo/The Leader), and ends the issue....well, stranded in the desert. However, in the middle of all that, he ends up getting involved with Iron Man, and the building chain of events that will later become known as "The Thanos Saga." It's been a minute since I read that storyline (which starts in Shell Head's book before crossing over into Captain Marvel's book, and later the Avengers, with pit stops in MARVEL TWO IN ONE, this being one of those pit stops), so, I'm not sure exactly what point in that whole deal this is taking place in. However, it's clear that some major things have gone down, as Thanos has taken his father and brother captive (Mentor and Eros, fellow Titans), and gotten a hold of the Cosmic Cube (The Tesseract, for those that only follow the Marvel movies). ( ) How the Thing gets involved in this, is by having Iron Man fly over him, on his way to the point in the desert where he first encountered Thanos. Ben follows, hoping that he can catch a ride back with the Avenger, and not realizing the heavy shit he's wandering in to. It's a good thing the Thing does show up when he does, though, as Iron Man has been jumped by Thanos cronies, The Blood Brothers, who in addition to being really strong, are actually SPACE VAMPIRES(!!!), which we find out when one tries to suck Ben's blood (the big dummy...lol). Luckily, Ben shows up, and after a nice back and forth battle, the two heroes wind up thumping the Blood Brothers, who are instantly zapped away to be punished by Thanos, who, obviously doesn't take failure very well. However, the battle has ended up draining Iron Man's suit reserve power, which means he can't offer the Ben the ride back he was hoping for, forcing our rocky hero to have to continue hoofing it home. Although, I have to assume Shell Head sent back someone, as by the time we get to our next issue (The actual first issue of MARVEL TWO IN ONE), he's back home without nary a mention of how he got back. Speaking of that issue, that's what our next review will be, which will feature The Thing teaming up with another creature with the word "Thing" in his name. GRADE: B+
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