At the beginning of the week, I was on the fence about whether or not to pick up this book. The first issue was really great, and I thought that I would really like the series, but I didn’t quite like the $4 price and the bi-monthly schedule, so I figured I’d trade wait and read it if I continued to hear good things. This is what I thought up until I randomly ran into Jason Aaron at my LCS, and decided that I must pick up a copy because he was shopping there and was nice enough to have a conversation with me and sign my books.

And I must say, I’m glad that I picked up the book. It was still the fun kind of story that the first one was, and it introduced a lot of interesting new concepts and ideas. I like how the Astonishing label is basically just an alternate universe kind of branding, because I think stories like this that just get to go however the creator wants them to are really great. So story wise, this was incredible yet again, and it set up some interesting things for future issues. It also included some really fun scenes too, most of them being about this new Earth. Also there’s Wolverine, who surprisingly, despite my disdain for the character, has really been turned into someone of my interest by Aaron. The only downside to the writing on this is that it seemed quite wordy, and was very narration heavy.

The art on the issue was also great again, as it included several very nice looking panels and layouts by Kubert. So this issue, while in all not being as enjoyable as the first, was still a very fun ride and it’s definitly a good book to pick up in this light week.