Astonishing X-Men has become one of the most venerable names in X-Men history. The first time readers encountered a book with that title was during The Age of Apocalypse, taking the place of Uncanny X-Men. The next time was 1999, with a three issue miniseries that set up “The Twelve”, the story that ended the X-Men in the ’90s. However, the most well-known Astonishing X-Men book came in 2004, when Marvel got Joss Whedon and John Cassaday to create a new X-Men flagship title that has boasted some of the best X-Men stories of all time. Whedon and Cassaday were able to capture the magic of ’80s Uncanny X-Men, creating twenty-five issues of X-Men stories perfect for new fans. Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men still stands tall among X-Men comics, but isn’t actually the best run on Astonishing X-Men. That came after Whedon and Cassaday left, leading to a short run that doesn’t get the credit it deserves — Warren Ellis’s run of Astonishing X-Men #25 to #35.
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Warren Ellis was once one of the comic industry’s most beloved creators, but all of that changed in recent years, when his treatment of female fans and creators led to him being cancelled. However, that doesn’t mean that all of his work should be thrown into a memory hole, especially his ten issues of Astonishing X-Men. Ellis’s Astonishing captured the energy of Morrison’s New X-Men and took it to the nth degree. Ellis’s stories, “Ghost Box” and “Exogenetic”, as well as two complimentary miniseries, are brilliant, much better than what came before. Ellis’s run shows off just how groundbreaking an X-Men comic can be.
Ellis’s Astonishing X-Men Is a Masterpiece of Superhero Sci-Fi
Ellis’s Astonishing X-Men came at a time of flux for the X-Men. Whedon and Cassaday’s long run had just ended, and the X-Men had just lost the X-Mansion. The team moved to San Francisco, with mutants in more danger than ever. Ellis’s Astonishing couldn’t be like what came before, and he needed to help set up this new era of the team. “Ghost Box” was a story that was completely unlike any other X-Men story, taking the X-Men’s experience with alternate universes and pushing it to the fore. The X-Men are called to investigate the dead body of a mutant, one who wasn’t a part of the less than two hundred mutants on the planet. When Beast finds something very different about the dead mutant’s X-Gene, the X-Men realize that way more is going on than they ever guessed, leading them to a spaceship graveyard and a secret facility in China, before finding a friend in desperate war of their own creation.
Right from the beginning, when the first page showed Armor posting on the Marvel Universe equivalent of Twitter, it was immediately apparent this was going to be a different kind of X-Men story. Ellis was able to perfectly capture the camaraderie of the X-Men right off the bat. The book is full of great little quips and character moments, finding a way to do the soap opera of the X-Men without copying what came before. The story was perfect superhero sci-fi, using tried and true X-Men concepts to take readers on a trip unlike any they’d been before. There was nothing in “Ghost Box” that hadn’t been in X-Men comics before, but Ellis found new and interesting ways to use these tried and true concepts. Ellis worked with Simone Bianchi on the story, and Bianchi’s stylized artwork made the story that much better. Looking at the big sci-fi set pieces — the starship graveyard, the secret facility in Tian, and the base of the big bad — shows off some sensational designs, masterpieces that enmeshed readers in the story’s world. Bianchi’s character acting was astounding, selling Ellis’s dialogue beautifully. The villain designs are yet another great part of the story, Bianchi’s style creating antagonists that are as well-designed as they are frightening. It’s an amazing synergy of art and words, something that was a huge part of Ellis’s run on Astonishing. Both of these stories are gorgeous.
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“Exogenetic” is yet another wild story, taking the past of the X-Men and using it in new ways, as dead mutants return and transform into monstrous bio-Sentinels, all in a bid to kill the X-Men. This leads the team to hunting a mutant unlike any they’ve faced before, one out to kill the team because they’re pretty mutants and he’s not. “Exogenetic” kicks off with a huge action set piece on a space station, and keeps up that kind of frenetic pace. It’s the kind of X-Men story that starts out at a hundred miles per hour and keeps ramping things up from there. It’s the X-Men as the ultimate action team, and it’s awesome. The best part about the book is the villain’s motivation. The X-Men are the most beautiful mutants in the world, and yet they act like their lives are such a chore. There are mutants out there that have it much worse than them, and the villain’s entire plan is to kill the team because he’s ugly and they’re not. It’s an idea that X-Men fans have talked about many times, so seeing on the page, and how the X-Men react to it, is golden.
Jimenez’s art is perfect for the story. The bio-Sentinels are body horror monsters of the highest order, and that’s before we get to the monsters based on the Brood and Krakoa. Jimenez gives readers detailed, fluid action scenes that never fail to impress. On top of that, Jimenez captures the beauty of the X-Men — Phil Jimenez draws the most beautiful human beings in comic history — which makes a lot of sense in story where their beauty is the main problem. Every panel is a feast for eyes, with Jimenez’s George Perez-inspired pencils capturing every minute detail. Bianchi and Jimenez’s styles are completely different, yet each of them are perfect for their stories. Ellis has always worked well with artists, and his time on Astonishing X-Men shows that off. Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes and Astonishing X-Men: Exogenesis are also phenomenal stories. Ghost Boxes digs into the ideas of the main story, showing what happened in alternate realities facing the same threat as the 616 X-Men, with art by Alan Davis, Adi Granov, and Kaare Andrews. Andrews and Ellis teamed up again for Exogenesis, a story that sees a bunch of what could be new mutants manifesting in a small African village. It’s a pulse-pounding story, one that takes the ideas of “Ghost Box” and “Exogenetic”, meshes it with the mutant status quo, and takes readers on a wild ride.
Ellis’s Astonishing X-Men Never Got the Credit It Deserved
Warren Ellis’s run on Astonishing came at a perfect time for it to be overlooked. Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing was a blockbuster; while the book’s long delays hurt it, fans always got amazing stories. Ellis’s Astonishing had some big shoes to fill, and it was never going to stand up to Whedon and Cassaday’s run. The irony of that is that Ellis’s run is definitely superior to what came before. Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing was a Claremont pastiche and as good as it was, it never felt like it was pushing things forward. Ellis’s Astonishing always felt like it was pushing the envelope, taking the X-Men into new directions that rhymed with the past.
A lot of fans don’t want to give Ellis’s run a chance because of what he did. This is a perfectly acceptable reason not to read the story. However, seeing as how it’s out of print but still available on the secondary market, readers will not be supporting Ellis by buying it. Ellis’s Astonishing was never going to match what came before in sales, but it definitely surpassed everything that came before and after it.
