If Graphic Traffic had continued as an Artvoice feature, this would have been my next contribution:
ASTONISHING X-MEN
By Joss Whedon (Writer) and John Cassaday and Laura
Martin (Artists)
Published by Marvel Publishing, Inc.
Reviewed by Jack Dumpert
By 2002, Joss Whedon had achieved acclaim as the creator of
the very successful TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the not as
successful but equally admired series “Firefly.” So it was somewhat astonishing
when Marvel Comics announced that Whedon would write an X-Men comic book
series. For the series Marvel revived the title “Astonishing X-Men” and teamed
Whedon with multi-award winning artist John Cassaday and multi-award winning
colorist Laura Martin. Whedon proceeded to create three story arcs that stand
as one of the best comics series ever. The X-Men, created in 1963 Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby, had by the time Whedon came along morphed into a huge unwieldy cast
of characters. Whedon narrowed his scope to a half dozen core characters. He
then employed his considerable story telling talents to create three engrossing
six issue episodes. But what sets the series apart from others in the long
X-Men corpus is the very real depth Whedon brought to characters previously
known mostly for their powers.
Whedon’s run on “Astonishing X-Men” has been collected into
three paperback collections and a single deluxe oversized hardcover omnibus edition,
a treasure in anyone’s collection of graphic fiction.
