Astonishing X-Men #4

Astonishing X-Men #4
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: We’re treated to a gorgeous one page spread of Blink angrily calling out Holocaust. Of course Holocaust underestimates the youth, and a fight begins that ends with Blink dropping the villain in a vat of chemicals. Meanwhile, the rest of the X-Men are still fighting Infinites.

Elsewhere, Magneto has been captured by Apocalypse (which happens in Amazing X-Men). Apocalypse taunts Magneto and threatens his loved ones. At the plant, prisoners scheduled for processing are about to be executed. Sunfire saves them all and frees them.

Holocaust survives the acid and attacks Morph and Blink, but together with the other X-Men they beat him. Holocaust tells Rogue that Apocalypse has captured Magneto and Bishop before teleporting away. Iceman shows up to stop Rogue from following Holocaust, and Sabretooth also shows up after healing from his wounds. Rogue ends the issue by swearing that they will save Magneto and Charles as well as end the Age of Apocalypse.

How It Was: Action, action, and more action. If you can’t tell by the brief description above, most of this issue is fighting. And really, isn’t that what the grand finale of a story should be. The seemingly docile Blink gets to shine with a little aggressiveness as well as some creative uses for her teleporting powers. Plus the Infinites make for excellent cannon fodder. And the fight at the end with Holocaust is awesome, except for Holocaust’s anti-climactic escape at the end.

Even with all of the action, Lobdell doesn’t let up with the cool character moments. Morph and Rogue share a great scene together when Morph thinks she’s dead, and Sunfire gets to sort of redeem himself by saving a large group of people. So many writers don’t understand that to make a good team book, every character has to shine, but Lobdell has this concept nailed.

Overall this was a fantastic series. It is a little weak how Sabretooth just pops up on the last two pages after his death was made into such a big deal. But as I’ve said before, his personality was probably the weakest (i.e. Wolverine wannabe), and his death served the purpose of placing more focus on the other characters. Still, there’s no real reason to bring him back since he doesn’t serve that big of a purpose in the finale. While this series doesn’t have a lot to do directly with Apocalypse, it is still a really well done series that does justice to all of the characters and the setting.

A

Astonishing X-Men #3

Astonishing X-Men #3
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: We open on the Infinites chasing after the feral Wild Child and trying to stop him from bringing intel to the rest of the X-Men. Wild Child is shot, but Morph and Sunfire save him. Then Wild Child touches Rogue, allowing her to see his memories and learn where the factory is.

Sabretooth wakes up and finds that he is a prisoner of Holocaust. The villain brags about how nothing can stop Apocalypse etcetera etcetera, followed by cutting Sabretooth’s throat. We then see a flashback of Wolverine and Sabretooth rescuing a young Blink from a burning building. Morph tries to lighten the mood, but Sunfire gets mad at him.

At the Xavier Estate, Magneto is testing Bishop, asking if Bishop would kill him to save all of humanity. Nanny, Magneto’s robot nanny in charge of his son, sounds an alert and takes Charles through an emergency exit. In the processing plant, Morph turns into a whale and transports all of the X-Men inside. A lot of fighting ensues, ending with Blink discovering the dead body of Sabretooth.

How It Was: This book is great; it has some straight up awesome scenes. One of the best is Morph rescuing Wild Child disguised as Holocaust with a top hat and cane, directly followed by a grim and stoic Sunfire incinerating all of the bad guys. It’s such a great juxtaposition of emotion and tone; I love it. Morph actually has a number of great scenes; the creators have a lot of fun turning him into a door, a brick wall, and even a talking whale. His one-liners and silly forms offer a great counter to more serious scenes like the “death” of Sabretooth.

Speaking of the death, while it’s impact is limited by the end of this series I really like how Sabretooth’s death scene is immediately followed by a flashback to him rescuing Blink after the turn of the page. This does a great job of setting up Blink’s behaviors next issue as well as sheds some light on her beginnings. The art continues to be phenomenal, with Joe Mad conveying both excitement and emotion quite well. My only issue with the issue is that the plot doesn’t move very far as we go from learning about the factory to initially arriving there. But it’s a small price to pray for all of the great character goodness in this issue.

B+

Astonishing X-Men #2

Astonishing X-Men #2
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: This issue starts out with the X-Men already in Chicago, trying to direct a mob of terrorized humans to safety; the people are terrified by the sight of Apocalypse’s probes coming to calculate the potential body count. Sunfire becomes angry and attacks the probes, causing more panic. Rogue absorbs his power to get him to calm down, but in the process she absorbs his memories of seeing Apocalypse defeating Sunfire and wiping out everyone in Japan. Sunfire is ashamed, but Rogue comforts him.

Back in Westchester County, Magneto is having a tender moment watching his son Charles sleep. Bishop comes in and insists that Charles isn’t supposed to exist, but Magneto explains that to a father it doesn’t matter. In Manhattan, Apocalypse is throwing a hissy fit because his minions haven’t detected the X-Men’s base yet. Rex gets the call with the location and Apocalypse is appeased.

In Chicago, Sabretooth tells Blink that he is going to stall Holocaust while the other X-Men evacuate the city; he also tells Blink to avenge him, since this is most likely a suicide mission. Rogue tries to stop Creed, but Blink uses her powers to knock Rogue unconscious and teleport Creed to Holocaust’s location.

Sabretooth confronts Holocaust, learns the location of his Infinite factory, and sends Wild Child to go tell the others. A fight arises with Sabretooth tearing off Holocaust’s helmet, but inevitably still failing.

How It Was: As I noted before, Astonishing X-Men’s strength is its strong personalities for its characters. Lobdell takes his cast of five and uses each issue to focus on what really drives each X-Man. Here we get an excellent flashback with Sunfire: dressed in his old uniform, surrounded by piles of corpses, and being held down by Apocalypse in a lake of the blood of innocents. In four panels, Lobdell is able to justify all of Sunfire’s erratic, impulsive, and angry attitude quirks and at the same time make us feel sympathetic for a very unlikable character.

All of the characters are equally interesting, although Sabretooth is kind of acting as a second-rate Wolverine; I say this because his relationship with Blink strongly echoes the Wolverine/Kitty or Wolverine/Jubilee dynamic. And I’m not quite sure how Blink knows where Holocaust is, and if she knows where he is, why don’t all of the X-Men just go and beat him right now? I guess we would miss out on a pretty awesome fight with Holocaust.

And while I’m on the subject, I feel like Holocaust is a wildly inappropriate name for a super villain. Yes, it’s a nitpick and I know that the word refers to any mass genocide and not a specific one, but the seriousness of the name doesn’t really fit with this basically one-dimensional villain. Marvel apparently agreed with me, because years later characters started calling him Nemesis again.

Still this is a fun book with actual overwhelming odds for the protagonists to overcome. Awesome efforts on writing and art make this really enjoyable.

A

Astonishing X-Men #1

Astonishing X-Men #1
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: Magneto gathers his X-Men to discuss the intelligence he received from Bishop about their world not being real. Many of the X-Men believe it is a lie, but Magneto is completely convinced. Suddenly a portal opens in the middle of the group and Blink flies out of it, followed by Sunfire, whose powers are out of control. Storm and Magneto help protect the others and get Sunfire’s powers under control, but not before a Prelate, Delgado, starts to climb through Blink’s portal. Blink closes the portal on Delgado, killing him. Sunfire tells the X-Men that they were in such a rush because he and Blink have learned that Apocalypse’s son Holocaust is beginning another series of killings in Chicago.

In Manhattan, Apocalypse’s servant Rex approaches his master’s fortress. He informs Apocalypse that because of Delgado, soon they will know the location of the X-Men. Back at the mansion, Gambit meets up with Rogue to bid her farewell. The former couple is about to kiss, but Blink brings Rogue’s son to her, purposely spoiling the moment. Blink doesn’t trust Gambit for some reason. In the attic of the mansion, Magneto contemplates Xavier’s influences and resolve. Nightcrawler shows up, and their discussion outlines the premises for all of the A of A titles and explains the set up of the entire story for those who might not know.

In the hanger bay, Quicksilver bids his stepmother Rogue goodbye because she is taking a team to Chicago to stop Holocaust. Going with her are Sabretooth, Wildchild, Sunfire, Blink, and Morph; Morph has a great scene where he impersonates Magneto to play a joke on Pietro. After the team leaves, Bishop asks Quicksilver why the team is going off. Quicksilver claims that if the X-Men are real in Bishop’s time line, then he should know the answer.

How It Was: The Uncanny X-Men AOA replacement is as good as anything Lobdell has written up to this point. Not a lot happens this issue except for reiterating the point of the crossover and setting up what all of the individual titles are going to be about, but the story still finds a center in the various relationships. Lobdell demonstrates his amazing handle of these characters and their voices. Whether it is Magneto confiding in Kurt, Blink’s mistrust of Gambit, Morph’s refusal to take anything seriously, or Quicksilver’s awkward/heartfelt good luck to his younger stepmother, all of these characters feel like they’ve existed for years. The dialogue does such a great job of acquainting us with the new status quo, but at the same time we can still see hints of old personalities, roles, and relationships that weren’t allowed to develop under these new circumstances.

The token action scene does feel a little forced; I can understand Blink and Sunfire trying to make a quick escape, but why wait so long to close the portal? And Apocalypse doesn’t get a whole lot to do. But what this story nails on the head is its tone. From Magneto’s conflict over a better world vs. his son to the nonchalance of the X-Men about going on missions where no one is expected to come back, the darkness and hopelessness really raises questions in the reader’s mind about who is going to survive and how this all is going to end. Plus, most of the revamped designs for the characters look really awesome. Standouts  include Iceman and Sunfire, but I also love the little details like how Rogue has the same style cape as her husband Magneto or how Sabretooth wears big gloves to cover his claws. Joe Mad really outdoes himself with this one by creating costumes that are visually dynamic, but also help to flesh out the characters and reflect their new histories and personalities.

This is such a solid issue; while it is initially disappointing that the X-Men aren’t immediately taking the fight to Apocalypse, the story in Chicago turns out to be an exciting, memorable experience, even if it doesn’t really affect the grander scheme of things.

B+