Astonishing X-Men! We've had 24 issues of some of the best comics made under this title. Character defining moments. Depth of emotion. Beautiful, crisp art.

Ellis writes a lot of rote dialogue in this issue. Lots of overextended sex references. Lots of overextended beer references. The linguistic level is pretentious and hyperbolized, very unlike the casual relationship the X-Men should share.  The psuedo-science babble is over the top, too. To the level of old Star Trek episodes. The 'story', such as it is, holds little depth and actually goes nowhere. There's a murder. The X-Men start investigating it. I've summed up the3 entirety of the issue for you. Ellis continues a streak of, in my opinion, botched handlings of pre-existing properties. I'll give this one more issue to clear up before it gets dropped.

The art is, frankly, bad. Muddy, dark coloring makes some pages a mush of sameness that verges on unreadable. There are half a dozen awfully drawn panels where angles are distorted and surreal. This is a fine example of what art should not be given modern talent and ability.