What the hell is going on in this book? Why is this title so medicore now? A couple of months ago we were stating that this was the best X-title out there. Now, thanks to a bad creative team, has made Astonishing a ‘grindtastic’ mesh of boredom an some of the worst art ever put into a book.

I love Warren Ellis, he wrties some of the best titles out there. Sadly it just feels like he’s phoning it in and ever time I flip a page I just hope it’s the last. None of the jokes work; there is no tension, and the villian is just plain boring. I dont know where this new mutant has come from but damn he wins the award for ‘most boring X-Men villian ever’. The only thing worth while here is the team up of Armor and Wolverine. This seems to work and calls back to the heyday of the Wolverine/Kitty Pride team up a couple of decades ago. But sadly you got to remember that Whedon brought Armor on the team and made this team up first so…it’s not original on Ellis’s part.

The art, or if you can call brown art, is just plain boring. It fits the tone of the book: Whatever isnt brown, it’s grey; and whatever isnt grey is a fine mesh of shit and smog. Although the backdrops in this issue are pretty good…the less said about the facial details the better. Cyclops literally changes head shape in this book, it’s like there’s no skull and he’s just shifting everytime he moves. Plus if anyone can tell me how this issue ended I’ll give a brownie too cause the last page was so confusingly laid out I just threw this issue right into the trash.

Sorry Ellis, I’ll still pick up your titles but this is definitely not going to be one of them. I have the four trades for Astonishing and I will read them again. It is definitely one of the defining moments of the X-Men. This run, as of right now, will be remembered for a huge waste of time.