Warren Ellis is on Astonishing … and it scares me.
Warren Ellis seems like a decent enough guy. His WarrenEllis.com blog is really entertaining, and full of useless but awesome crap (random pictures, etc.). He’s got a niche fanbase that may not be the size of say, Grant Morrison or Neil Gaiman, but certainly warrants some golf applause.
But here’s the thing. His writing is dense. Not just “dense” dense. Unreadable dense, the kind where fourth or fifth time is a charm trying to read something like “Global Frequency.” On an accessibility scale, Ellis is somewhere around Alan Moore writing in ancient languages.
In books like “Global Frequency,” this served him ok, in a strange way. He writes science fiction based comics. Most of the genre of science fiction isn’t all that accessible. Arthur C. Clarke is pretty dry, and Philip Dick is the author you have to look past the writing for (Kilgore Trout, anyone?) A lot of people like a good science fiction. But what Ellis offers may be a bit too much for “Astonishing X-Men.”
Maybe Marvel is looking to repeat Morrison’s “New X-Men” run, most oft-referenced by current Astonishing writer Joss Whedon, and never really referenced by anyone else. “New X-Men” is what brought me back into the fold, and it pushed the boundaries of the X-Men, and yes, added in science fiction elements.
But the last X-Books Ellis touched didn’t quite turn to gold. Granted, it was almost a decade ago when he took over “Generation X,” “X-Force” and “X-Man.” During this time, he presented some interesting ideas, but a lot more confusion. I will give somebody a picture of my little-seen Vision Halloween costume if they can explain to me what exactly happened to Nathan Grey at the end of “X-Man.” And let’s not forget that he put his pet character, Pete Wisdom, on “X-Force,” establishing very little and making way for the Milligan / Allred overhaul. And “Generation X” was just kind of muddled, with an integrated school, and Synch dying, and something something, Adrienne Frost. I think I mostly understand this one. I just don’t happen to care. If someone can make me care, I’ll turn over an even rarer picture of myself dressed in a Wolverine costume made out of milk cartons, tank tops and leather gloves.
This seems overly harsh, and Ellis did come in at what was a nadir for the three books. It was at the end of the whole line, essentially. (Yes, for a while, Marvel pretended they were cutting back on X-Books.) And Ellis has come along as a writer since then. But I’ve never been floored by anything I’ve read by him, and so I’m a little bit wary.
Not helping my fears for the book is the art of Simone Bianchi. Hyped as the next big thing, his ugly pencils for “Wolverine #50” made a weak fight seem that much more stupid. And right now, the characters range from bizarre to hideous – just check out Cyclops’ new visor, or Kitty Pryde’s male abdomen, or Wolverine the Magic Bridge Troll. The line-up isn’t announced for the book yet, of course, but it’s going to take more than Beast’s bulge in the picture to turn me around.
Perhaps they both need new chances, new leases on the X-Books to turn around a sour crank still living out his boyhood Cyclops obsessions. But right now, the details are sketchy … just read the CBR bit here. I’m not going to cast it aside – but I’m going to be weary about it.
While I pretty much agree with you on Warren Ellis (he was also on Wolverine for a while too) and I also agree that the recent Wolverine arc stunk, I do think Simone Bianchi will be a huge improvement over John Cassaday.
I’m actually of the opposite thinking than Jim (imagine that!). Simone Bianchi does well on covers but not interiors, and John Cassady (who rocks) will be a tough act to follow. Warren Ellis’s stuff is hit or miss, but lately with Thunderbolts and Nextwave he’s been hitting. And I always think back to Planetary and remember that Ellis really does have the ability to do very good work.
I really wish Marvel would have gone all the way renaming the book instead of just adding a subtitle. Morrison’s New X-Men begat Whedon’s Astonishing, so Astonishing should beget (?) something else that’s just Ellis’.
“I will give somebody a picture of my little-seen Vision Halloween costume if they can explain to me what exactly happened to Nathan Grey at the end of “X-Man.””
You owe Endangered Species writer Mike Carey a pic, because he happened to explain it in this week’s installment:
“Nate dispersed his being and his consciousness into every living thing on Earth. It was the only way he could stop an alien race from feeding on us.”
What do you mean, adding a subtitle? What subtitle are they adding?
Esperanto. Definitely Esperanto subtitles.
Simone Bianchi is not any kind of an upgrade from Cassady. Bianchi’s work strays too far into the vein of Humberto Ramos. Sometimes it looks cool, often it’s just ugly and overmuscled.
Cassady has his faults (look ma, no backgrounds!), but he’s really, really good at facial expressions and body language, which fit Astonishing really well.
Has anyone figured out whether Cassady or Whedon was the slow one?
Oh my gosh, are we talking about the same Simone Bianchi? I can’t think of two more dissimilar artists than Humberto Ramos of the the Joe Madureira / Chris Bachalo Saturday morning cartoons meet anime school, versus the hyper-realistic inkwashed style of Simone Bianchi.
His character styling is akin to Ramos et al more than the inkwash, etc. Some times it’s worse than others. His Detective covers were very good. Actually, I almost always tend to love his covers and really dislike any interior work. Maybe I should judge his work by the cover???
Maybe, because by comparing the character styling to Ramos, I’m not convinced you’ve actually looked inside the cover.
They’re calling this Astonishing X-Men: Second Something-or-other.
I think Cassady was the slow one. Or should I say slower one. Cassaday can only manage about 8 issues a year judging by past output. Without a TV series or movie to get in the way, Whedon’s doing three comics right now.