Customer Reviews

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Box

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4 star:		(6)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not sure if it's because Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run was so damn good or if it's that Warren Ellis was having an off day, but this Ghost Box arc leaves me with a reaction of "meh." I guess if you're the oncoming crew you may feel the need to switch things up, try to make the venue your own. Ergo, the X-Men's relocating to San Francisco. Ergo, the new costumes (again).

But some things stay the same. Disappointingly, there are still those shipping delays. Creatively, the character dynamics remain mostly intact. Colossus and Shadowcat are gone, but everyone else is here. Scott and Emma Frost are still together, and we learn that Ms. Frost isn't really a morning person. The Beast and S.W.O.R.D. Special Agent Abigail Brand are also an item, and Brand figures in this story arc a little bit. Logan is Logan and, honestly, it's a bit hard to introduce sweeping changes in Wolverine when the guy is in every friggin' comic book! Hisako, the newest teenaged X-Man, is still learning the ropes and also hating on her codename "Armor." Early in issue #25 Storm asks to join the team, citing occasional hohumness in her marriage and craving some away time from being Queen of Wakanda.

The X-Men have set up shop in the Marin Headlands, and their headquarters looks dang impressive, and yet I miss the stately Xavier mansion. Surprisingly, the San Francisco police force considers the X-Men a viable asset to crime solving and doesn't hesitate to call them in on weird cases (which makes the X-Men the Marvel version of Sara Pezzini). One such summons has the team confounded by a floating burning corpse, and the question surfaces as to whether this body is that of a mutant or something else.

The Children of the Atom track the killer (whom Emma Frost would dub as "Subject X") to Chaparanga, Indonesia, to the graveyard of alien space crafts. When they find him, Subject X is tinkering with an ominous mechanical cubelike artifact, and there's a brief fighty fight. Demonstrating that S.W.O.R.D. really does know its extraterrestrial stuff, Agent Brand is consulted and she right away identifies the artifact as a Ghost Box, a gateway between parallel universes. She and Cyclops briefly bicker over jurisdiction, with Cyclops finally buying his team a bit of time before S.W.O.R.D. steps in.

Warren Ellis has never shied away from dropping in those epic, big-sciency elements, and this time the plot revolves around parallel realities, and never mind that it's not exactly an original concept anymore. I simply dig alternate timelines. There's an invasion in the works and it ties into the House of M event and with Scarlet Witch's hexed mandate of "No more mutants." There are less than 200 mutants now in the 616 universe, and this renders Earth very vulnerable and ripe for "Annexation." There's also a lot of techno-babble about "functioning triploids" and X-genes springing off the wrong chromosome, the summation of which is that somehow there may now be three types of mutants. My head throbs, trying to take it all in.

I was dreading a post-Joss Whedon hangover, and here it is. Going into this one, I wasn't looking for the next creative team's stuff to live up to what Whedon and Cassaday brought to the table, and yet I still feel vaguely let down with the Ghost Box story arc. I think it's more the art than the writing which creates this lukewarm response, this sense of disconnect. More on that in a bit.

I happen to think that Warren Ellis has an okay grasp on his cast, and there are some solid character moments and decent one-liners. I like that the SFPD is working with the X-Men. I'm in line with Cyclops's reasoning in having his team show up at police crime scenes not clothed in superhero duds. I relish how Logan and Hisako relate to each other, and I dig how Hisako, in one instance, takes on the Colossus role in the age-old Fastball Special maneuver. I've always thought of Cyclops as the most traditional super-hero on the team, so it's a bit disconcerting to see him condoning killing. But, then again, I've been away from the X-Men universe for a while, only having come back since Whedon's run and then only for the Astonishing X-title. I've probably missed out on some relevant story arc about Cyclops. About Ororo, I've never warmed up to her. I've always regarded her as this regal yet very bland, very static character, and Ellis hasn't done anything to alter my perception. The semi-biting banter between her and Emma seems forced.

The story itself doesn't wow me. It's okay, or maybe a bit flat. But the Ghost Boxes do introduce a new wrinkle in the mutant universe. My big issue is with the artwork. On one hand, Simone Bianchi's stylish art is always interesting to look at, and there are instances when his images are really arresting and they remind me of stuff from a Heavy Metal magazine. His two-paged spreads of the UFO dump site in Chaparanga and of the floating structure in Tian, China evoke a sense of mood and grandeur and desolation. I'm still not sure what to make of his and Andrea Silvestri's ink washes and of the muddy colors, but Bianchi really does justice to Wolverine and the Beast; they receive the best visual treatment, although Wolverine seems to have reverted to his crazy hair look. So I'm not completely hating on the man. I'm even okay with the number of panels in which I gaze up at people's nostrils, that seems to be Bianchi's preferred forced perspective.

But Bianchi has this tendency to lay out these baffling panel compositions and a lot of the action sequences are muddled. It becomes a chore trying to figure out what's going on and who's doing what. And then there are times when Bianchi is just a hair off on drawing a face or a figure. All this stuff really disrupts the flow of the story, and it makes me long for Cassaday's clean, crisp lines.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: GHOST BOX collects issues #25-30 of the ongoing series & the ASTONISHING X-MEN: GHOST BOXES #1-2. GHOST BOXES #1 & 2 present four short stories which set up various "what if" scenarios (or bleak glimpses into the near future) had the alternate universe mutant invasion been successful. Other than the visually intriguing New Albion chapter, the other three stories are potential futures of the 616 Earth. But, again except for the New Albion piece, these Ghost Box add-ons come off as lackluster, as fillers. Alan Davis, Adi Granov, Clayton Crain, and Kaare Andrews handle the respective artwork, with Granov's stuff the standout of the pack, making me very much hanker for more of the X Society's steampunk reality. Surprisingly, Alan Davis's pencils are the shakiest and his segment feels like a rush job.

I think ASTONISHING X-MEN: GHOST BOX rates 3.5 stars out of 5, that extra half star thrown in because I'm not sure I'm not being unfairly biased here against Ellis & Bianchi, what with the Whedon/Cassaday era so fresh and indelible in my mind. Although I do sort of resent Ellis for bringing Storm into the mix.

Joss Whedon and John Cassaday left some pretty big shoes to fill when they departed the Astonishing X-Men title, a title they started. It would take a pretty big talent to pick up the torch, but by tapping Warren Ellis (Authority, Planetary) and illustrator Simone Bianchi (Wolverine: Evolution) Marvel put the flagship title in good hands.

The initial Ellis/Bianchi run is called Ghost Box, and finds our favorite mutants relocated to San Francisco, where a call from SFPD puts the X-Men on the trail of a murderous new type of mutated individual. The trail leads to a UFO junkyard in Indonesia, and a threat from an extra-dimensional world as well as a dangerously unbalanced former ally. This collection includes Astonishing X-Men #25-30 and Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1-2. The latter series served as a "What If" style look at what might have happened if the Ghost Box story had played out differently, and the results are more than a little haunting.

I tend of expect the best from Warren Ellis, and I'm rarely disappointed. Even if I didn't end up caring much about these "New Mutants" or the extra-dimensional threat, I had a huge grin on my face reading Ellis's razor-sharp dialogue and seeing how he treated and developed these iconic characters. I loved Whedon's Astonishing X-Men arc, but Ellis comes closer to the "voice" of the classic Grant Morrison X-Men run.

The painted artwork from Simone Bianchi was another major treat. His use of framing and white space is almost as impressive as his fully rendered (and oh so real) characters and intricate scenery. These are some truly beautiful pages, though they could benefit at times from some more vibrant color. I suppose the "gray" feel adds to the darker story. Artwork on the supplemental Ghost Boxes issues was provided by Alan Davis, Adi Granov, Clayton Crain and Kaare Andrews. I've never warmed up to Davis's style, but Granov, Crain and Andrews did an impressive job.

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Box is about as different from the previous Astonishing X-Men storylines as possible, but Ellis and Bianchi maintain the same level of quality as Whedon and Cassaday. This is one of the more memorable X-Men storylines in recent history, and one that I'd recommend to just about any X-Men fan.

I enjoyed the Joss Whedon and John Cassaday run very much, and like the "Astonishing" characters. I wanted to like this Warren Ellis collection. Sadly, "Ghost Box" was a letdown in every way.

The art wasn't engaging or consistent. The angles were strange, and things were just off enough to be unsettling.
Panel to panel a character's features change, dramatically at times, and, as someone else mentioned, there's an awful lot of looking up the characters' nostrils.
Perhaps to others the style will be attractive, but it was not appealing to me.

I want to be careful not to spoil too much, but be warned that the story is thin. There seemed to be very little time actually spent drawing out the plot.
We are confronted with a situation early on that then sets the characters off for other parts of the globe, but from beginning to end I never feel the urgency that I am told I should. There is very little evidence presented of what is taking place. They simply come to know, follow point (a) to point (b) to point (c) and go home. Sure, there's a halfhearted attempt at a dramatic end, but even the attempted climax falls flat.

As the story unfolds, or doesn't, it feels more and more like the "Ghost Box" is just a plot device to put the characters repeatedly in situations where they can act on, and then justify, their post "M-Day" standards.
Even the follow-up, "what if," chapters go about justifying the moral decisions in the main story by "proving" to you that it was the right thing by way of contrasting what would have come about if they'd chosen differently.
Very forced.

Character interactions also felt contrived in most cases, with very little of the banter striking me as "real" or clever.

I'm glad I read "Ghost Box," simply to satisfy curiosity, but I wish I'd read it before buying. I won't bother reading this one twice or recommending it to friends.
Strange. Forgettable. Disappointing.

Absolutely excrutiating to read, an obviously unmotivated Ellis seemed to have phoned this one in. One of the worst attempts at "witty ensemble banter" I've ever seen, where the most mundane comments are milked for five mind-numbing panels at a stretch, void of humor and without moving the story or developing the characters in any way. As the characters are presented, they are entirely unlikeable, even loathsome. (Keep in mind I am a big Ellis fan, and an X-men fan)
As for the artist, Bianchi seems better suited for cover work than story-telling. Many of these ultra-realistic pictures and pop-art layouts pages would make beautiful posters, but do not carry the story along at all. The characters are rendered as emotionless fashion models or manikins. (actually come to think of it, maybe the art does fit the writing). More unforgiving are the kind of crude, muddy, almost amatuerish fill-in panels in between the fully rendered "posters".

Avoid this book! If you have a hankerin' for some great semi-recent X-men, go get the Joss Whedon and John Cassaday run, or the Grant Morrison run. For some fantastic Warren Ellis work, see his more "independent" stuff like Stormwatch/Authority, and Planetary, where he was really "feelin' it".

This is sorta a big change from the Whedon-Cassaday AXM, but that's alright in my book because it's Warren Ellis (never mind Bianchi, more on that later).

The storyline revolves around a dead mutant, and Science-head Beast quickly establishes the mutant isn't a "normal Marvel mutie". Joined by Storm (who married Black Panther in a silly move on Marvel's part circa Civil War), everyone's favorite mutants one-line one another and fight opponents to discover alternate realities are pretty much invading this one. The main villain behind the arc is another long term X-hero who becomes quasi-evil, sorta like that Bishop guy in Messiah CompleX, but it seems to be logical to me considering how Joe Q had Storm marry someone that didn't make a whole lotta sense, anyway. It's Ellis doing sciencey stuff, and while this isn't Planetary (but what is, really?), it's still entertaining. I didn't see any jokes dragging on for 4 or 5 panels like one reviewer mentioned, but there was lotsa Armor vs. Wolvie one-liners, but Joss sorta started that in his run anyway.

Bianchi's art is a drastic change from Cassaday. B does great cover art, great poster art, but his interiors always feel way too busy for me, stiff, and the humongous X plastered on each costume is highly distracting to me, not to mention when he bleeds white panels into silhouettes (making a character or clothing become all white with possible minor detailing), having foreground panels that cover background panels suddenly become pure white (most artists would draw the foreground limbs in, but this guy just whites out the foreground stuff for some reason, and it really bugged me when White Queen armors up and her clothing becomes crystal, because I don't recall this happening in any other title either.

My biggest disappointmets on the presentation:
1. The hardcover is NOT in scale with AXM volumes 1 and 2. It seems that for 5 bucks more this hardcover coulda been in scale for the price.
2. Skimping on the special features (though the variant covers and Bianchi's skeetchbooks are included)
3. Ghost Boxes, 2 issues of 2 short stories each, were simply "What If" tales that should've just been a smaller companion tpb. They are completely unnecessary (in fact, if they avoided the inclusion, this could have been an oversized hardcover.. I don't see Ellis getting one volume with GB & his current arc getting presented, unless it's an omnibus, since this one is already 30 alone).

Overall, it's worth a purchase I think.

I'm very happy to see Astonishing in the hands of Ellis. I'm a huge fan of the Whedon run, and Ellis did justice to his series. You'll find humor and dramatic dialogue that truly compare with the previous installments. What's different? No Kitty Pryde or Colossus. Storm joins the gang and gives new chemistry to the group. And we're all in SF now. A significant change in scenery, gave the book that extra originality.

The only thing I miss, is Cassady's artwork. Bianchi(This novel's artist) has beautiful washed ethereal pictures, with a strange panel arrangement. But seeing the artist change dramatically was like seeing new characters. They look completely different, so be prepared for hefty changes. I'm sure as the trades roll in more for Ellis's run I'll begin to become more familiar with Bianchi's style. It's definately something to get used to, but right off the bat the close-ups really held me. God knows he put tenfold effort into his art.

I like Ghost Box a lot, because by the ending we are familiar with the idea of parallel universes, and they really play with that. The end shows a lot of interesting scenerios for alternate universes of the X-men. I thought it was extremely original to give something new like that. To toy with the characters. At the end of the day, I miss the old duo, but the new one carries along the series just fine.

I was really, really, really excited when Marvel announced that Warren Ellis would be following Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men. I love what Warren Ellis did to Stormwatch, an ok book that flourished under his work and later became the Authority.

Hoping to see more of the same I must say I was disappointed with this story that seemed to drag on (assisted by the delays with the art).

It is not a bad story, just a long one.

This was an interesting continuation of the Astonishing series. The artwork was good but it kept bugging me about the way their lips were drawn...and that's not something I would normally notice. The story line jumped around a bit and I will definitely have to reread to catch things I might have missed the first time...especially after reading the alternate universe versions. I won't spoil any of those, but it was cool to see how things were different and sometimes depressing to see how they turned out.

To follow Joss Whedon's "astonishing" run was a tough task for Warren Ellis. That being said, Ellis' follow-up was passable and enjoyable but no where near the level of excitement and nonstop joy that was Whedon's "Astonishing." There were a few slight problems with Ellis' characterization but my biggest gripe was with Simone Bianchi's art. While Bianchi's work is beautiful it isn't always cohesive with the plot, especially when detailing the action. As another reviewer has already noted, Bianchi's style is much better suited for cover art. An overall enjoyable read but a definite letdown after Whedon's roaring run.

This volume was great, one of the best X books I've read lately. If you enjoyed the previous Astonishing X-Men run then you should definitely pick this up. I didn't think the new creative team would give it the same feel as Whedon and co but it actually does have a similar style (dialogue and story wise, not art... it looks something special for sure though, just new and different from before. Reminds me of Mark Texeira a bit). You kind of have to know what is going on related to Manifest Destiny and the team's relocation etc, but it's not that bogged down and when they reference a prior event they generally recap it quickly. Worth a try! Rated PG13 for dark scifi elements and killing.