While Messiah Complex blows the X-Men line wide open, it’s easy to forget Astonishing X-Men - a kind of living fossil, now in the 4th year of its 2-year storyline. Where the delays are coming from, it’s not clear. Whedon says he’s turned in all his scripts. Cassaday was recently able to take time out to draw an issue of Fallen Son. Whatever the reason, the rest of the line eventually got tired of waiting and moved on without them, and the title now stands as a reminder of a different time, awaiting the big finish in Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 that’ll at least help the nerdish among us slot it into continuity.

While it might seem a bit unnecessary to spend a paragraph criticising a book’s inexplicable delays, it has, at this point, reached the stage where I forget the plot between issues. That’s what’s known, in the business of comics reading as a Problem. I know that Whedon can write, and I certainly know that Cassaday can draw, so on that level it’s a good comic, but when the big twist in the issue relies on a character I don’t remember being introduced, and the X-Men’s mechanic for defeating them relies on a plot point I don’t remember being revealed, you have to wonder if something hasn’t gone a bit wrong somewhere.

Still, it’s not all doom - Whedon’s plot mechanics and dialogue are still some of the best in the business. The idea that the “missile” the X-Men were trying to stop isn’t a missile at all, but a giant, planet-destroying bulletis an idea that comes straight out of classic science-fiction, befitting the setting of this arc, and it’s an altogether unusual fake-out that had me guessing right up until the last page, like all the best revelations should. I couldn’t be more excited about the big finale coming in Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men, which promises to include all the major Marvel Universe players, as written by Whedon, so delays aside I can imagine that being fantastic. 

With one more issue to go, it sort of occurred to me that I should’ve done what I did with Ultimates and waited for the hardcover. This whole story will read many times better without massive between-issue delays, and the larger, glossier pages will do Cassaday’s art maximum justice. It’s too late for me, and I suspect that if you haven’t started reading it’s going to be pointless me giving that advice now, but perhaps we can all learn something that’ll come in useful when Ellis and Bianchi launch Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage later this year…

Tags: John Cassaday, Joss Whedon, X-Men
Publisher: Marvel