I normally don’t like to start a review talking about the art, as I
usually find it incidental, but this issue needs to be addressed. I
hate Simon Bianchi. He is incredibly capable, but for every cool spread
of a fortress we get, there’s another close up of Cyclops that looks
like he’s wearing gray lipstick. And the pages where Beast was talking
about consulting with Forge had the most insanely retarded movements
for Hank I’ve ever seen. Seriously, he moved like a cat getting ready
for a nap. Okay, that being said, I think this was probably the most
Ellis-y issue of Astonishing since he took over. There was a really
nice Storm moment when she took out that one guy. There was a really
nice moment with Armor and her description of Forge. Death Legs indeed.
I liked the interrogation with Emma and Logan. I don’t like the idea of
Forge being evil, but it seems that Ellis understands the character
well enough to pull it off. Any more it just strikes me that Ellis is
writing pretty good stories and getting atrocious artists to work with.
7/10