Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted | Joss Whedon, John Cassaday

Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted | Joss Whedon, John Cassaday | A True Rebirth

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Astonishing X-Men ...

	Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted Joss Whedon, John Cassaday Marvel Comics, 2004 - 152 pages average customer review:based on 55 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Back to the past

I am an old collector of the X-men since the days of Claremont and Cockrum. I actually pulled from the old spinner racks all the issues of Claremont/Byrne and I actually read X-Men 135 during my social studies class in high school. Why do I mention any of this? It's because the Astonishing X-Men made me feel like I did when I read those books before. These are excellent books and definitely worth the investment and time.

A True Rebirth

I've been away from X-Men for many years, I stopped regularly reading the X-Books around 1998. But, the movies and the X-Men Legends games slowly sucked me back in, though I was hesitant to get back into the habit of reading the comics. However, when I found out that Whedon was writing a title (I'm a huge Firefly and Serenity fan) I looked into it and, eventually, decided to invest in the two current TPBs (the other being "Dangerous.")

I'm absolutely hooked now. Whedon's vision of the X-Men is nothing short of amazing; in part because you can feel the love in every word of his writing. Whedon is a long-time X-Men fan and "Gifted" shows he has a true understanding of what makes the X-Universe great. The title focuses on a small squad of the team, and this limited scope allows for real character development. Whedon's love of the X-Men also shines through in internal jokes about the character's stereotypes (e.g. Cyclops calls himself dull and Wolverine's love of beer becomes a clever running gag.) The whole "Gifted" arc strips X-Men down to its core component of human and mutant interaction. It then creates a fantastic blend of the serious and often intense subjects of racism, isolation and suffering with Whedon's quick wit and fantastic feel for human interaction to lighten things up.

As another note, I don't know that Cassaday's art gets the credit it's due, even though it is widely praised. As much as I love X-Men and Whedon, it was browsing through samples of Cassaday's work that finally convinced me to give the series a whirl. It is nothing short of breathtaking. Growing up, I was used to the stylized exagerated art of Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee and the Kubert brothers. And, while that style is all well and good (well... except for Liefeld) it has a unreal, plastic feel compared to Cassaday's work. Everything in "Gifted" feels so real, so organic. In addition to more realistic human proportions, the light and shadow, the scaling, everything has a living, almost earthy feel to it. His rendition of Shadowcat, for example, is truly beautiful, as is his ability to balance Beast's feline and simian aspects.

The story itself is great, though it reminds me of one of the reasons I stopped reading comics in the first place. I can't help but feel if Whedon and Cassaday were allowed to release the series and yearly or twice-yearly installments, each given a good hundred pages to really develop the story, it would be that much better. Instead, some parts of what should be a truly Earth-changing and wide-reaching arc are ignored or minimized. For those of you who have seen the new X-Men movie, you'll probably be somewhat dissapointed, as I was, that less time is spent on the human (and mutant) ramifications of the "cure." Still, it's a failing of the medium, not the creators themselves, and Whedon has done the best he can with his limitations.

There really is no good reason not to buy this, "Dangerous" and any other Astonishing releases so long as Whedon and Cassaday keep making them.

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I must be in a parallel world

Because the X-Men are cool again.

Joss Whedon, to put it bluntly, made the X-Men have value again.

The first storyline not only brought back the elements of the X-Men that made sense, but told a tight story that among other things brought in a shadowy version of SHIELD, a cure for mutants, and most importantly, returned Colossus from the dead.

Oh yes, and it made the X-Men actually seem to work together as a team, and actually made you care. Both the interaction with Wolverine and Cyclops to the return of Colossus and the role with Kitty Pryde, this was old school X-Men, and adding to the mix a new problem for being a mutant: If you could be cured, would you be?

For the better part of 25 years, Mutant persecution has been the staple of the X-Franchise, the thinly veiled attack on society's views of being different. Now, the real question isn't the place for mutants in the world, but if you had a chance to be normal, to 'fit in', would you? It turns the classic (and over-used) dilemma facing a mutant on its ear.

The best part of this volume and the Whedon X-Men is that every character gets to shine, from Wolverine to the Beast, each character gets to do their thing. That was something that seemed to be missed, and I have to say, I like Whedon's take on both Colossus/Kitty and his characterization of Cyclops. Whedon can write both dialog and story, and the ploting is tight, as is the art.

I can honestly say this is the reason I started collecting X-Books again, and looking forward to it.

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Joss is a great story teller...

As always Joss Whedon focuses in on the story, the interaction between characters and a twist here and there. I've been an X-Men fan for a very long time (since 1980) but have not collected for some 15 years. I took the extraordinary writing of Joss Whedon to get me back to collecting. I can't wait for more X-Men from Joss and John Cassaday.

Outstanding!

The first story arc of this series was outstanding!

I've recently returned to comics after a long absence and my first exposure to the X-Men this time around was the Ultimate X-Men as written by Mark Millar. The writing in that series was a big letdown.

Whedon's writing in this series however was everything that Millar's was not. Character driven with fresh ideas while nostalgic enough to excite old Claremont/Byrne fans like myself.

Cassaday's art was amazing as well. The only artistic disappointment was the final installment of the story. I'm not sure whether the art was inferior in that chapter or whether Cassaday had just set the bar impossibly high in the first part of the book.

I'm looking forward to the second part of this Whedon/Cassaday collaboration!

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