ASTONISHING X-MEN #3 - November 1999

In the Shadow of Death!

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Brandon Peterson (breakdowns), Tim Townsend & Dan Panosian (finishes), Liquid! (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Death forces the Blackbird to crash, but Phoenix manages to save the crew. The team regroups to fight Death, who kills Wolverine in the battle. Darco emerges from his cocoon with massive telepathic powers. Death retreats, teleporting away. The Mannites also teleport away to face their upcoming mutations.

Continuity Notes: Death is unable to kill Phoenix, which is a big hint that he’s Wolverine in disguise.

Review: Not surprisingly, Astonishing X-Men’s ending is just as disappointing as its beginning and middle. For the first time in the miniseries, Mackie acknowledges most of the cast’s connection to Apocalypse (Cable raised in a future ruled by him, X-Man raised in an alternate reality ruled by him, Cyclops and Phoenix lost their son to him, Archangel was horribly mutated and tortured by him, and Wolverine…well, there's nothing for Mackie to acknowledge here, but Wolverine did receive his adamantium from Apocalypse, if you believe Barry Windsor-Smith), and then does absolutely nothing with the concept. It’s treated as just more text to fill up a few more pages. With all the goodwill in the world, it’s hard to argue this miniseries ever had a point, but at least the hook of using X-characters with connections to Apocalypse could’ve been exploited. Oh, and maybe the alleged death of Wolverine might have just an ounce of honest emotion in it. Instead, this is just a dumb fight scene, followed by a lazy resolution that centers on the increasingly annoying Mannites as the saviors of the day. It’s not hard to remember why people hated this so much. (Paul O’Brien’s old review of this issue has been mentioned in the comments here in the past. It’s worth reading.)

ASTONISHING X-MEN #2 - October 1999

The Trouble with Mannites

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Brandon Peterson w/Brett Booth (pencilers), Tim Townsend w/Dan Panosian (inkers), Liquid!/Buccellato/Kubina (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Nina senses that Darco of the Mannites is undergoing “the changing” and needs help. Phoenix, Wolverine, and X-Man travel with Nina to the abandoned carnival where the Mannites are hiding. Cyclops, Archangel, and Cable stay behind to face Death if he reappears. Death does return, and battles them only long enough to intercept a telepathic message sent by Phoenix. Death teleports away to finish his mission. The team flies to Phoenix’s location, unaware Death’s snuck on top of the Blackbird.

Continuity Notes: “The changing” is some sort of violent metamorphosis that the Mannites must go through. Darco’s leaves him in a mysterious cocoon.

Review: More fun with Mannites. Yay. If the first issue didn’t make it obvious, this miniseries is largely time-killer. The big event is of course saved for the last issue, leaving the reader with endless scenes of filler starring the Mannites and an incompetent group of X-Men trying to fight Death. To further insult the idea that this series was meant to be “important” in any way, half of the pages are handled by Brett Booth, who isn’t a match for Brandon Peterson even when he’s slumming. It was impossible at the time to find anyone willing to defend this series, and I can’t imagine a second reading would make anyone more favorable towards it. This is a shameless cash grab, only meant for the most hardcore of completists or the most susceptible to Marvel’s marketing tactics.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 - September 1999

Call to Arms

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Brandon Peterson (penciler), Tim Townsend and Dan Panosian (inkers), Liquid! (colors), Jon Babcock (letters)

Summary: Following the dissolution of the X-Men, only Cyclops, Phoenix, and Wolverine remain. When Nina of the Mannites sends a distress call, Phoenix calls upon Cable, X-Man, and Archangel for help. They travel to Bastion’s former headquarters in New Mexico, only to discover that all of the government agents stationed there are dead. Inside the complex, the team finds the Mannites, along with the dismembered head of Bastion. When a mystery figure wrecks havoc through the facility, Nina teleports the Mannites away and then leaves with the team. Eventually, Death emerges from the rubble, holding Bastion’s head.

Continuity Notes:

· Cyclops questions how Bastion is still alive, following the events of the Machine Man/Bastion annual.

· The Mannites have returned to Bastion’s former base because they couldn’t deal with the outside world. No mention is made of Renee Majcomb, who was last seen caring for them. As for the Mannites that go missing in the final pages of the story, Nina claims: “They didn’t want to be here, Jean. They had to go…somewhere else.”

Review: Astonishing X-Men was hyped months in advance as a mystery project that would have massive repercussions for the entire X-line. Long before its release, Marvel ran a series of house ads, teasing all of the potential members of the all-new X-team. Polaris? Sunfire? Forge? Longshot? Sabretooth? Blink?! What did it all mean? All the audience knew was that Brandon Peterson was assigned as the artist, and Magneto Rex aside, this indicated at the time that Marvel was pretty serious about the project. Then Howard Mackie was announced as the writer. And then the readers saw that the team consisted mostly of current members of the X-Men, or other mutants with their own books. Plus, the story centered on the Mannites. And the collective response seemed to be “Forget it!” (or any vulgar variation of that phrase you can think of.)

So, yes, Astonishing X-Men turned out to be largely filler, designed to run simultaneously with the “Shattering” crossover. There is a “major” event during the miniseries, one that could’ve easily run in the regular titles, and it was hardly a great surprise by the time the story was actually published.

The first issue of the book sets up the premise, as clumsily and blandly as you might expect a Howard Mackie story to do the job, reintroducing us to Bastion and Mannites. Bastion’s back to life without explanation, and the Mannites have apparently returned to the facility that created them with barely a reference to their ongoing subplot in Uncanny X-Men and X-Men. Apocalypse’s Horseman Death seemingly wants them dead, and somehow they’re able to hide from him during the numerous hours it takes the “new” X-Men team to assemble from across the globe and arrive. Conveniently, he returns right after the team lands, and this time manages to destroy the entire facility. That’s not much of a plot, but it could’ve been salvaged if Mackie could somehow create an entertaining dynamic for the team. Instead, they’re generic heroes just going through the motions, waiting for the shocking event that’s allegedly going to justify this miniseries. Even if Brandon Peterson was at the top of his game (and, judging by that cover, he clearly isn’t), he couldn’t do enough to save this.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #4 – June 1995

Holocaust!

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciler), Tim Townsend & Al Milgrom (inkers), Steve Buccellato & Digital Chameleon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters)

Summary

Blink confronts Holocaust, and manages to use her teleporting powers to drop him into a boiling vat of genetic stew. Nearby, Rogue’s team of X-Men fights the army of Infinite soldiers. The team splits up, leaving Sunfire and Wild Child to rescue the humans inside the plant. Morph meets up with Blink, who tells him that Sabretooth is dead. Holocaust suddenly emerges from the vat and resumes their fight. Morph reveals himself to actually be Rogue, who absorbed his shapeshifting powers a few minutes earlier. Taking Holocaust by surprise, she uses her magnetic powers to reverse the electromagnetic flow inside his brain. The real Morph joins the fight, along with Sunfire and Wild Child. Rogue is gravely injured in the battle, but Morph uses his powers to impersonate her son, inspiring her to fight. After pushing Holocaust back into a teleportation platform, Rogue is prepared to follow him to Apocalypse, but Iceman arrives with Sabretooth to stop her. Rogue declares that the Age of Apocalypse will end tonight.

Creative Differences

The last page has an obviously tacked on exchange between Blink and Sabretooth, which has Sabretooth tell Blink that he’s hard to kill. I guess the editors wanted the readers to know that they didn’t forget about Blink’s numerous references to his death earlier in this issue.

I Love the ‘90s

The “X-Facts” hype page mentions the hostile initial reaction to this storyline that emerged when the cancellation of the X-titles was announced. “You sent your opinions spinning through the techno-void of cyberspace and posted them proudly on the bulletin boards of the information superhighway.” I think this is the first reference to internet fan reaction in one of the books (although the letters pages still haven’t started listing email addresses yet).

Review

This is the big fight issue, which is appropriate since it’s the series’ final installment that's supposed to lead the characters directly into X-Men Omega. As an issue-long fight scene, it starts to feel flaccid after a while, but the opening few pages are fairly exciting. Once you get to page sixteen and everyone is still fighting Holocaust, it can’t help but to be tedious at that point. Madureira’s art really helps to sell the action in the opening scenes, but it starts to look sketchier and rushed as the issue goes on. His exaggerated manga influence also gets dialed up in this issue (especially with his interpretation of Rogue), which starts to push things a little too far away from what normally works in superhero comics.

Going for an all-action issue to close things out is an understandable move, but it comes at the cost of developing the character dynamics hinted at in the first issue. The only cast member who completes a character arc is Sunfire, who comes to the sudden realization that he was the sole survivor of Japan because he’s destined to save humanity from Apocalypse. The scene doesn’t really work, unless we’re supposed to believe that Sunfire wouldn’t have done anything against Apocalypse unless he was personally affected by his actions, an idea that hadn’t been mentioned earlier. It’s also a very rushed one-page scene that almost reads like it was done as an afterthought. There’s some decent material that comes from Blink’s mourning for Sabretooth, but it’s undermined by his sudden resurrection at the end. This is also the third issue in a row where Sabretooth is believed dead but turns out to be alive, which I always thought was absurdly redundant.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #3 – May 1995

In Excess

Credits: Scott Lobdell (plot), Jeph Loeb (script), Joe Madureira (penciler), Tim Townsend & Al Milgrom (inkers), Steve Buccellato & Digital Chameleon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

In Chicago, Apocalypse’s Infinite soldiers chase down Wild Child. Morph, disguised as Holocaust, distracts them while Sunfire approaches from behind and kills them. Rogue and Blink teleport by their side when they see the lights Sunfire's power created. Wild Child touches Rogue’s face so that she can absorb the information he learned about the Infinite processing plant in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, Sabretooth regains consciousness while he’s in Holocaust’s custody. Sabretooth taunts him, which leads to another beating. Blink flashes back to her first meeting with Sabretooth, as Sunfire carries the team to Indianapolis. They soon sneak into the Infinite processing plant, but Blink is distracted from the mission when she sees Sabretooth chained up outside. Meanwhile in New York, Magneto questions if Bishop has the willpower to kill Legion in order to prevent this reality from happening. The robotic Nanny’s alarm sounds, warning of Apocalypse’s arrival.

Continuity Note

Sabretooth rescues Blink from a burning building with Weapon X’s help in a flashback scene. No specifics are given on where and when this happened.

“Huh?” Moments

Apparently, Wild Child physically ran from Indianapolis to Chicago in-between issues, even though hardly any time seems to have passed. And when the team goes to Indianapolis, Sunfire carries them on a plank instead of just having Blink teleport them (which is how Sabretooth and Wild Child got there last issue).

Review

I guess this is the awkward middle chapter of the series. It’s essentially an entire issue dedicated to moving the team from one city to the next, while Sabretooth gets another beating from Holocaust. Since Wild Child already gives the X-Men the information they need by page eight, it’s hard not to notice the padding in the rest of the issue. (Considering that the opening eight pages average less than four panels each, it’s hard not to notice the padding there, either). Sunfire and Morph have a few character moments together that aren’t bad, and Morph gets to use his powers creatively towards the end when the team sneaks into the plant, but that’s not enough material to fill up over half of the issue. The story is filled with giant panels and splash pages, which I suspect were used to show off Madureria’s impressive art, but mainly serve to slow the story down to a crawl. There’s one two-panel page that solely consists of Holocaust bragging that his Infinite soldiers will create “death and destruction” that Apocalypse never dreamed of. It comes after a multiple-page sequence of Holocaust bragging about his Infinite soldiers, which already included a splash page devoted to the Infinite processing plant. Why waste another page on this? If Holocaust’s dialogue is supposed to imply that he’s willing to betray Apocalypse, that is an important plot point, but the small amount of dialogue used to convey it doesn’t deserve an entire page. When I first read this issue at fourteen, I was disappointed that it ended the same way the previous one did – with another page hinting that Holocaust possibly killed Sabretooth. That page really calls attention to how little the story’s advanced, and it’s probably the first time I noticed story padding when I was young. Little did I know what awaited the comic book industry.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #2 – April 1995

No Exit

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciler), Dan Green & Tim Townsend (inkers), Steve Buccellato & Digital Chameleon (colorists), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

Summary

While evacuating the humans in Chicago, the unstable Sunfire decides to go after Holocaust alone. Rogue uses her absorption powers to stop him, which exposes her to Sunfire’s memories of his family’s murder. He’s angry that Rogue knows the shame he feels about their deaths, but is willing to go along with the mission now. Meanwhile, Apocalypse’s human agent Rex reveals to him the X-Men’s secret headquarters is in Westchester, while Magneto spends a night alone with his son. Back in Chicago, Blink goes against Rogue’s wishes and teleports Sabretooth and Wild Child to Holocaust’s location. Sabretooth and Wild Child reappear in Indianapolis, and are quickly confronted by Holocaust. He brags that the city’s humans are twenty miles away in an Infinite processing plant, not knowing that Wild Child is intelligent enough to comprehend what he’s saying. Wild Child runs off while Sabretooth fights Holocaust. Sabretooth cracks open his life support armor, but not before Holocaust mortally wounds him. As Sabretooth falls down, Holocaust rematerializes inside his armor.

Continuity Notes

This issue confirms that Holocaust used to be Nemesis. He was nearly killed by Magneto years ago as retaliation for murdering Scarlet Witch. He presumably changed his name when he began wearing his life-support armor. Another specific time reference is made when a narrative caption reveals that Sabretooth joined the X-Men five years ago.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Rogue says, “Damn you, Apocalypse”, a line that goes against the no profanity policy Marvel had for its mainstream books at the time. A couple of “damn”s and “hell”s show up throughout the AoA (particularly in the X-Universe mini, as I recall), and then go away once the regular titles restart. I assume the creators were given more freedom with the language in order to sell the gritty nature of the new reality. People wouldn’t even notice this now, but I was shocked to see any profanity in an X-Men comic at the time.

Review

This is a decent effort, managing to cover characterization, backstory, plot advancement, and some action, all handled very effectively by Madureira’s art. None of the elements really overwhelms one another, so it doesn’t feel like the book’s dwelling too long on any one area. The interactions between the characters help to make the new world feel more real, while also allowing the cast to feel less like ciphers than they have in the previous crossovers. Sunfire’s shame over having his failure exposed, and Magneto’s conflicting feelings about ending the world that created his son, are both well-played. The fact that the AoA is still regarded as more than just a ‘90s stunt by a lot of fans is not only due to Marvel’s commitment to selling the new world, but the continued emphasis on characterization that also helped to make the books feel like traditional X-titles, even if the continuity had been radically altered. Reading this, it makes me wonder why Lobdell didn’t do more of these “balanced” issues during his regular UXM run. There, he seemed to segregate the character stories from the action stories. The routine crossovers undoubtedly had something to do with this, but even when they were over, Lobdell usually seemed more interested in character-centered stories with barely any plot or action.

If I have to complain about anything in this issue, it would be the horrible portrayal of Rogue’s accent. Rogue’s watching a sea of humans she’s convinced are about to be murdered run past her, and we get dialogue like this: “It ain’t enough for y’all to simply kill these people…ya have to terrorize them first?...If’n we cain’t find a way to calm these people, they’re gonna trample themselves t’death -- before we can get the chance to get them clear o’ heah…”. Rogue has always been portrayed with a heavy accent, but this is Snuffy Smith-level nonsense (“if’n”? Really?)

ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 – March 1995

Once More with Feeling

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Joe Madureira (penciler), Dan Green & Tim Townsend (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colorist)

Summary

During a meeting of the X-Men, Blink and a wounded Sunfire suddenly teleport in. One of Apocalypse’s Prelates manages to partially emerge from the teleportation portal, bragging that he’s discovered the X-Men’s hidden base. Blink closes the portal on him, as Sunfire reports to Magneto. He tells Magneto that the culling of humans in Seattle was done with Apocalypse’s permission, despite his denials, and that Holocaust is performing more cullings. Later, Gambit tries to seduce Rogue before leaving on his mission, but he’s interrupted by Blink. Elsewhere, Nightcrawler questions Magneto’s belief in Bishop before leaving on his mission to find his mother. Finally, Rogue, Sabretooth, Wild Child, Morph, Blink, and Sunfire leave to stop the culling in Chicago, while the rest of the X-Men travel to Maine to assist the Sentinels in the human evacuation.

Continuity Notes

There are quite a few dialogue bits that hint at the universe’s new backstory. Rogue tells Gambit that Magneto is his best friend, while Gambit responds that he used to be. Blink tells Gambit that she won’t “feel better” while he’s still alive. Sunfire claims that his entire country was destroyed by Holocaust. Sabretooth says that he and Wild Child used to “run with” Holocaust.

Magneto sends Gambit on a mission to find the M’Kraan Crystal, tying in to the Gambit and the Externals series. Nightcrawler, for whatever reason, is still hanging around the mansion and hasn’t left on the mission given to him in X-Men Alpha yet.

Review

While X-Men Alpha served to establish the new world, this issue sets up the specific storylines going on in most of the other X-books. There’s only one brief action scene, but it’s handled with a lot of enthusiasm by Madureira. This is his strongest issue yet (and the first one printed on the nicer paper, which means he missed four straight issues of UXM), as he pushes his manga influences even further while still delivering a solid superhero story. The new character designs, especially Sunfire’s, are well suited for his style. Lobdell helps to sell the event by having the characters refer to past events and make vague comments about one another, giving you the feeling that these X-Men have been around just as long as the “real” team. Splitting the characters up to go on various missions could be bland, tedious work, but Lobdell’s able to ease the movements pretty naturally into the dialogue. The character scenes with Rogue, Gambit, Blink, and Sunfire don’t feel contrived and help to make the story feel like more than just a random stunt. Even if this is mostly setup, it’s still a decent beginning for the new storyline.