Astonishing X-Men # 2

[barryreese]

Okay, I'm seriously not enjoying Banshee (I can only read 'boyo' once every six months or so before wanting to claw my eyes out) and Longshot (who says "Jesus..." in this issue... that doesn't sound right. First, it just doesn't strike me as the way he would talk... and second, why the heck would he use Jesus Christ as an oath anyway? I know he's lived on Earth for awhile and is from the Mojoverse, which certainly has enough general media worship of Earth for him to be familiar with Christ but it just doesn't strike me as something he would do. Has he used this before in the comics? I was just stopped when I read that as it seemed so... wrong. But I'm certainly no Longshot expert so what do I know?).

I see that Dino is using the current version of Scott here, which I don't really warm to. I liked serious, sad-sack Cyke but I guess that one started to be killed off way back in Uncanny X-Men # 201 when he and Ororo idiotically decided to see who would be the best leader by *fighting* for it. Oh and then he abandoned his wife, etc. But again, I digress. This is why I don't usually read X-Men fanfics. They just remind me of how much I used to love these characters and how much crap Marvel's put them through.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that Jean is calling Scott on how he's behaving. That leaves me some hope that the current Scott is going to be 'fixed' back to the way he acted for the first 25-30 years he was in existence.

Loved the Sunfire/Firestar/Justice scene. Great dialogue and Dino *really* captured Sunfire here. Loved it.

I still feel we're stumbling after the excellent Alpha issue but there are enough good things here that I'm sticking around. Most of my criticisms don't stem from Dino's writing but from the current status quo of the characters. I mean, Dino writes a fine Banshee, I just hate him with a passion. :-)

I know that this was apparently Dino's last issue so I'm curious to see how the new writer approaches all this.

Grade: C+

[Dino Pollard]

Just discovered this board existed and there were two reviews for AXM. First off, thanks for the comments, Barry, both good and bad. I'll address what you said point by point.

Okay, I'm seriously not enjoying Banshee (I can only read 'boyo' once every six months or so before wanting to claw my eyes out) and Longshot (who says "Jesus..." in this issue... that doesn't sound right. First, it just doesn't strike me as the way he would talk... and second, why the heck would he use Jesus Christ as an oath anyway? I know he's lived on Earth for awhile and is from the Mojoverse, which certainly has enough general media worship of Earth for him to be familiar with Christ but it just doesn't strike me as something he would do. Has he used this before in the comics? I was just stopped when I read that as it seemed so... wrong. But I'm certainly no Longshot expert so what do I know?).

Not sure what's up with your Banshee hate, but there's obviously something wrong with you if you don't like everyone's favorite Irishman You're right about Longshot, in retrospect I'm not sure why I wrote that line (hell, I don't even remember writing it). I've never written the character before so I was still feeling him out by this issue.

I see that Dino is using the current version of Scott here, which I don't really warm to. I liked serious, sad-sack Cyke but I guess that one started to be killed off way back in Uncanny X-Men # 201 when he and Ororo idiotically decided to see who would be the best leader by *fighting* for it. Oh and then he abandoned his wife, etc. But again, I digress. This is why I don't usually read X-Men fanfics. They just remind me of how much I used to love these characters and how much crap Marvel's put them through.

By current Scott, I assume you mean the one from Marvel? I wouldn't say I was using that version, mine was more akin to the set-up Lobdell established during the Eve of Destruction storyline that serves as a prelude to this series. A lot of the stuff that's been happening with Scott lately in Marvel actually came after Erik, MC and I discussed how Cyke would be portrayed in this series.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that Jean is calling Scott on how he's behaving. That leaves me some hope that the current Scott is going to be 'fixed' back to the way he acted for the first 25-30 years he was in existence.

I'm a big Cyclops fan and while I can't say he would have gone back to the way he used to be, he has been through the ringer recently and he's got a lot of issues after being merged with Apocalypse for about a year.

Loved the Sunfire/Firestar/Justice scene. Great dialogue and Dino *really* captured Sunfire here. Loved it.

I appreciate that. Justice and Firestar were two of the characters who I felt I didn't have a handle on and if I could go back in time, I wouldn't have put them on the roster. So I'm glad you enjoyed the scene.

And I'm a big Sunfire fan, so I'm really happy that I nailed his character.

I know that this was apparently Dino's last issue so I'm curious to see how the new writer approaches all this.

I'm a little disappointed with how things turned out with AXM. Erik and MC came up with a great premise and I was really psyched but somewhere between all the planning and the issues themselves, something got lost in the translation and the book just wasn't working for me. Might be some of the characters I had, might've just been a change in mood, but whatever the case, I hope Scott has better luck with the book than I did. He's one of the new rising stars in the community, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with AXM.

[Erik]

Banshee's "boyo" or not. I really liked how the X-Men were brought/invited into a Police investigation when it was apparent something was weird about the crime. Seeing Banshee explore his law enforcement talents was very well welcome. I also dug how the team was split in focus for this issue and I got the impression that was how Dino was going to approach this book with 2 or 3 main focuses and splitting the characters up in how they relate to that focus. That would've helped keep each focus easy to follow since there wouldn't have been 7 unique voices trying to talk over each other or turn into a roundtable discussion and then all of a sudden I'm lost as to who's talking.

I dunno. I didn't really think the issues were too slow or anything. The celebrity/public superhero approach for the X-Men IS a new approach for this group and I thought it needed to be approached alittle cautiously (so to speak) to give the concept a chance to develop. Otherwise, jumping right into the concept where all of a sudden Scott's picture is slapped onto a magazine and yukking it up on TV without a real thought as to WHY or WHAT their reaction to it was in relation to their previous hateful POV would've completely derailed the readers ability to grasp how exactly that was possible.