Astonishing X-Men #30
Jul 1, 2009 by     1 Comment     Posted In: Reviews

Cover by Simone Bianchi

Marvel Comics – August 2009 – $2.99 – 32 pgs – Color

Writer: Warren Ellis – Art: Simone Bianchi – Cover: Simone Bianchi

Synopsis:  Last issue in the 6 part “Ghost Box” arc.  The team discovers that Forge has been behind the creation of new mutants, which he intends to fight a war against invaders from an alternate universe.  The X-Men quickly write him off as out of his mind, and inhumane for turning people into mindless messed up looking mutants.  A quick solution is found to not only end the threat from the invaders, but put an end to the insane Forge.

Review:  First off, ever since Ellis has taken over the book I have NOT found myself really enjoying it.  There have been a few little things where I have thought MAYBE there was some potential, but lost all luster about issue #27.  This issue was definitely no exception.  Basically the few things that were interesting and threatening about the book were taken care of by simply blowing it all up.  I was really annoyed by this especially given the situation.  Beast explains that the blast shot down (a super laser courtesy of Agent Brand) through the Ghost Box (the door into the parallel dimension) is so powerful that it would kill everything within 10 miles of the blast in that dimension.  I understand the concern for protecting their own dimension, but potentially killing thousands of people in another to do that doesn’t seem in character in my opinion.  Also, find it VERY stupid that Forge is the inhumane one when the X-Men make a reckless decision to blow up what could be an entire city.   Does anyone know what Armor was talking about when she said “See? Death legs!” after Wolverine slashed off Forge’s robot leg?  Or, why Storm refers to Forge as her maker?  Honestly, doesn’t matter because I have removed this from my pull list (3 issue too late).

Simone’s artwork has never worked for me.  There are a few good looking panels here and there, but for the most part everything he has done looks kinda creepy.  I felt this cover was especially odd considering Cyclops is wearing purple glossy lipstick.

Story: 4.5 – Writing: 4 – Art: 6 – Cover 5

Overall: 4.875

Share

1 Comment Add Comment

  • EMERPUS01 August 10, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    Good review – what a sad fate for the title Joss Whedon started. Incidently, if Storm refers to Forge as ‘maker’, that’s a mocking nickname she used for him since their first meeting. He makes things, and Storm is an uptight bitch (at least when she’s written right).