Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday Book 1 by Joss Whedon (Author), John Cassaday (Illustrator, Cover Art, Artist)
The comic book community this week lost the gifted artist John Cassaday.
Appropriately titled “Gifted”, I will commemorate him by reviewing his first volume of his run on the Astonishing X-Men with Joss Whedon (of Avengers fame), which was the first title I collected consistently as a youth.
Hot on the heels of Grant Morrison’s mind-bending run, which sought to bring the X-Men into the 21st century, with the Astonishing X-Men instead ditches the black leather that was synonymous with the X-Men movies back to their superhero roots; no more were the X-Men just about taking care of their dwindling species after the genocide in Genosha in Morrison’s run. The X-Men would now be on a “rebranding” campaign – “We aren’t here just for our people; we are here for the world.”
You can imagine how well that turns out. “Hated and feared” has always been on the X-Men’s resume.
No sooner their announcement is made, another announcement overshadows it; the discovery of a mutant “cure”.
Imagine that; you have just announced you are off to be there for people and suddenly they tell you that not only you are not wanted around, but anything you do is a disease.
And true to form, they represent it as something benign: “What if you don’t want your powers? Some see them as a curse…”
Sounds familiar to some. But yeah, “X-Men are woke.” They have ALWAYS been.
And then the fun stuff begins.
I have no complaints about this volume; it is fun, it is easily readable and very consistent even well beyond 2004 when it was released. The artwork – it’s Cassaday – it’s crisp,dynamic (except for the occasionally odd face) and tells the story with the right beats.
Honestly, there is nothing to criticise. Go out and read it.
And it gets better with every volume.
