Joss Whedon

Into every generation... - Written by: Joss Whedon - Penciled by: John Cassaday - Inked by: N/A - Colored by: Laura Martin - Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos - Editor: Mike Marts - Publisher: Marvel Comics

Let me tell you a little story. A fair few years ago there was a little boy whose favourite toys in all the world were the ageless denizens of planet Cybertron, the Transformers. He saved up his pocket money each and every week in order to buy a new figure every once in a blue moon. He helped out his mother around the house so she would continue to buy him the official comic book every week. To this very day he remembers quite vividly standing in the long queue outside the cinema to go see Transformers the Movie, high on sugar and anticipation that he couldn’t quite understand. He cried when Optimus Prime died, stared in awe as Unicron transformed into a frickin’ planet sized robot (!!) and cheered his little heart out as the baddies were smooshed in a righteous cheesy manner. This is the first mark-out moment.

Twenty-odd years later, the boy was bigger, hairier, slightly wiser and a whole lot more cynical. He lay dozing in bed one fine June morn when the phone rang and a friend of his told him to get his ass down to the cinema for a sneak preview of the first Spider-Man movie. Feeling that familiar twinge of anticipation again - though, as yet, no sugar - he dressed quicker than any student before him and sprinted across town to get to the cinema within about fifteen minutes. He went in and watched the movie. He came out and immediately went and bought the soundtrack CD, then went back to watch the movie another three times over the course of the week, before finally relenting and going back to the comic shop for the first time in years. He picked up Ultimate Spider-Man and fell in love. This is the second mark-out moment.

A couple of years after that, as Spider-Man 2 approached, he read a copy of Wizard #152 and, more specifically, the five-page preview of Astonishing X-Men #1. Afterwards, sporting a great big cheesy grin, he leapt online and immediately e-mailed his Dark Overlord, Daron, and proceeded to spout-off some of the most loveable fanboy claptrap about how good this book was and pleaded to be allowed to review it. Oh yes, make no mistake about it, the boy is me and this is the third mark-out moment. Why the hell else do you think I paid so much for that cover?

After all, this is Joss freakin’ Whedon, creator of the most influential slice of pop culture our generation has ever seen. Ever since it became all too apparent that nobody, including Chris Carter, had a clue what was going on in The X-Files, sci-fi could have very easily slipped back into the dark and dingy bedrooms of overweight Trekkies and never seen the light of day again. Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed all of that, wrapping up subversive takes on horror and fantasy with a post-modern sense of humour that reinvigorated the genre. Take a look at the aforementioned Ultimate Spider-Man, the comic that saved Marvel from its own idiocy. It’s hard to imagine Bendis would have been given the chance to write his trademark dialogue to such a sparkling effect had Whedon not been there first in the ‘Buffyverse’. Yet, just as the announcement of the Ultimate Universe got the fanboys collective knickers in a twist, so did the announcement of Whedon’s arrival on this title spark some serious newsgroup ranting. “He can only write for TV!” they clamoured, obviously choosing to ignore his excellent Fray mini-series for Dark Horse. “He can only write about vampires!” they yelled, overlooking Firefly and the Academy Award nomination for Toy Story. “He can only do comedy!” they shouted, having not seen Buffy episodes such as The Body and forgetting the oh-so-obvious fact that the X-Men are meant to be fun!

Yes people, it’s okay, we are allowed to have fun with our comic books! You may have forgotten about this given everything that has happened over the past few years. We’ve seen Genosha destroyed, Jean Grey dying again, Daredevil battling for his identity, the Fantastic Four overthrowing governments, Spider-Man’s origins being tweaked further than ever before, Bruce Banner being coerced into some mammoth conspiracy and, um, Chuck Austen. As good as it has been, and Grant Morrison’s New X-Men was probably the best part of it all, we need to chill out and just enjoy ourselves once again before the tension and melodrama descends into parody. That’s why the costumes are back. That’s why Whedon is here. Everything he has crafted for TV has been inspired by Chris Claremont’s seminal Uncanny X-Men run. Now the pupil is preparing to surpass the master with Whedon grasping the characters as Claremont struggles with caricatures. Even Morrison struggled to write the majority of the X-Men convincingly. Instead they remained largely hidden by lots of new characters and high-concept developments. It was impressive but somewhat insubstantial.

Thankfully, Whedon’s five-person cast sound just as good as they look. Emma Frost, one of the few that Morrison delivered spot-on dialogue for, continues her bitch-with-a-heart-of-gold routine and makes me forget about the diminishing quality of her solo title. For example, she goes behind the backs of her fellow teachers to simulate a Sentinel attack in the Danger Room while addressing the school body. She doesn’t feel bad about it, she just wants her kids to be fully aware of the threat that may face them and sense how they react. Telling Scott or the others beforehand would only allow them to play the cautious card and veto the idea. Her actions are perhaps not what most people would do, but she honestly believes they are for the best and that is what makes them ring true. Not to mention that the line “Superpowers, a scintillating wit and the best body money can buy... and I still rate below a corpse” reveals everything about her relationship with Scott that Austen’s New X-Men #155-156 wanted to show but couldn’t.

That leads us nicely onto both Scott and Logan, their testosterone fuelled grief reaching boiling point once more as they come to blows. The former is still torn between finally moving on with his life and clinging to the past with Jean and, ironically enough, given their history Logan is probably the closest thing in his life to his relationship with Jean at the moment. One brief spat later and he stays on a path that lies somewhere in between progressing and regressing - namely running the school with Emma while leading the X-Men and attempting to win over the public once again. He mentions that they have “been taking it on the chin so long, just trying to keep from being wiped out, I think we’ve forgotten that we have a purpose. I know the rest of the world has forgotten.” You could read that simply as the citizens of the Marvel Universe being more confused than ever about the conflicting dreams of Xavier and Magneto in the wake of Genosha, or as the comic book readers having forgotten the core principles of the X-books in the wake of endless alternate timelines, crossovers and retcons. Both ways work and Logan can be said to feel the exact same way as Scott whether he wants to admit it or not. They are two sides of the same coin, which is exactly why the love triangle with Jean existed.

Also in the mix are Hank and Kitty. Hank continues to be the wise and calming influence that will keep the team together. Reading this issue makes it seem as though he is better suited to run the school than Emma or Scott but as we all know, this cannot be. It sets up what will be an interesting character arc for Scott, aiming to earn his leadership all over again the eyes of many, including himself, who feel betrayed by his recent actions. Hank also gives us a beautiful little Danger Room segment as the group talks shop while literally standing on Hawaii. Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t the metaphor for larger-than-life mutants that Kitty thinks it is; it’s just a little technical glitch. Still, these fun visuals were what made the X-Men so uncannily popular in the first place and, when drawn so beautifully by Cassaday we can only hope for more.

Speaking of Kitty, she is the typical Whedon female protagonist. Throughout his work that has been a recurring theme, inspired by Claremont introducing Kitty to the world way back in Uncanny X-Men #129. Now he gets to write his favourite character and takes great delight in using her as an introductory device with some stunning flashbacks to Claremont comics of old. As Scott says to her, the team and the reader, “people like you.” Kitty is the grounded one, the heart and soul of the team. Although she can more than hold her own in a fight, she does not have the same instinctive fighting qualities as Scott, Emma or Logan, nor does she have the brains of Hank. On the other hand, the team is setting out to remind the world that the X-Men are here to help, not hinder. And who could possibly not trust a team with Kitty Pryde as a member? She is the archetype of approachable, one of the most enduringly loveable characters in the X-Men’s history. The fact that she has never looked cuter than Cassaday’s rendition of her in this issue is an added bonus, as is the return of her feisty comebacks - “Sorry, I was busy remembering to put on all my clothes” she tells Emma.

The plot itself is largely redundant at this point. By now we should all be well aware that a new story arc in this day and age cannot be properly dissected until at least the third issue. This is even truer for a first issue, even with established characters like these. C’mon, it’s still Marvel! For what it’s worth, it involves a geneticist named Kavita Rao who claims to have found a cure for genetic mutation, which she considers to be nothing more than a disease. This is juxtaposed in the closing pages of the issue with an assault on a cocktail party in the Chapman Building by a mysterious mutant terrorist and his cronies, while the X-Men prepare to go and run interference in their new costumes. Both the hostages and the X-Men have demons to face, metaphorically that is, and remain unaware of the overlying danger that threatens them both. It’s a nice little trick. Speaking of the costumes, here’s the quick lowdown: Emma, Logan and Kitty - yes. Hank and Scott - no. That’s all you need to know about them so deal with it. Actually, I have probably done Cassaday a great disservice in this review by focusing so much on Whedon but both men deserve praise for making the most of a landmark moment in not just comics but all of pop culture. It is going to be an interesting journey over the next year. Lee conjured up the dream, Claremont moulded it to perfection and Morrison wiped the slate clean. Whedon has been given free reign to dream it all up again and, going by this introduction, I feel confident enough to say that when all is said and done it will have been more than worth the wait.