The focus is on Warbird, and the character arc that Liu picked up from Jason Aaron, in which she turns out to be a frustrated artist in denial beneath her psychotically violent exterior. This will happen when you try to stretch a brand to this degree.Īfter a bizarre two-issue detour into fanfic – which the recap page dutifully recounts even though it has no bearing whatsoever on this issue – this issue is an attempt to wrap up Marjorie Liu’s remaining storylines. But Astonishing X-Men and X-Men are just Other X-Men Titles, and for all we’ve seen so far, it sounds as though Amazing X-Men will be the same. X-Men Legacy isn’t an X-Men title at all. Wolverine and the X-Men, despite the name, is really about the kids. Most of the X-Men books right now actually do have something more distinctive to them. “The X-Men” is not a concept when you have so many X-Men comics. Still, Astonishing X-Men is a comic without a concept.

For the last while we’ve had Marjorie Liu and Gabriel Hernandez Walta – hardly industry stars, though they were certainly allowed to bring their own voice to the book. Whatever you may think of the creators assigned, though, few could deny that the star power has eroded rather drastically over the years, much as occurred with the Ultimate line. Its regular absence from the shipping schedule didn’t deprive it of that status, so much as leave the line floundering for direction without it.Īfter Whedon left, the book was rebranded as a place where writers could do their own thing without worrying about the broader X-Men continuity, which isn’t really a premise, but at least allowed it to be defined by the style of the creative team of the day. The book was created as a vehicle for Joss Whedon, and while it proved to be something of an absentee flagship, it was a flagship nonetheless. Now it’s the runt of the litter that doesn’t get invited to the crossover, as if all the other books were whispering to one another to for christ’s sake not mention the party in front of Astonishing, because it’d be really awkward. It’s hard to believe now, but when it was launched in 2004, Astonishing X-Men was the main book of the line. You will be back next month with a shiny new adjective.

Astonishing x men joss whedon run