Book Update 1: Random Comics

So a couple days ago I found a few comic books in my house I'd never seen before. Apparently someone found them and just brought them home. I decided to read them, after all, why not? Especially since two of them were written by, surprise of surprises, Joss Whedon, he of Firefly! "Holy shit, since when does he write comics?" I asked myself. Since they brought back the Astonishing series a couple years ago, I guess.

Astonishing X-Men #10


So before this issue, the famous Danger Room apparently gained sentience and came to hate the X-Men. It was able to insert its existence or what have you into a robotic body that looks like a woman with large breasts for some reason, and attacked our heroes. At first I wasn't sure who one of the X-Men was, he looked like a lame cat-version rip-off of Beast. It turns out it actually was Beast, who sometime fairly recently underwent a secondary mutation and gained feline features and powers. It seems kind of silly to me, but what do I know?

This was actually a pretty good issue. The story was interesting, with the introspective narration coming from Danger - the obvious name for the Danger Room's new incarnation - and flash-forward scenes depicting "her" taunting Xavier after she's apparently defeated the X team. The action was also good for a comic, with the frames showing a lot of dynamic range and being easy to follow. Danger knew all their moves and tactics but they were able to fight back by acting erratically, like throwing each other at her. What was strange was that I only had this and issue 12, without 11. 12 has a synopsis explaining how the X-Men came to Xavier's aid, but not how they managed to survive long enough to do so. Emma Frost, Wolverine, and Beast were believably okay, but Cyclops was under a floor that collapsed and wasn't breathing, while Colossus and Shadowcat were freaking impaled on a gigantic spike. What the hell happened in between these two issues?

Astonishing X-Men #12


So anyway, Danger was defeated but activated this gigantic sentinel thing that Emma had previously come in contact with. It unleashes a huge wave of flaming destruction, but Shadowcat protects everyone with her incorporeality. While the sentinel is unleashing a horde of smaller robots to attack the good guys, Colossus throws Wolverine at them, who declares that he's "killed a city before." Um, what? Cyclops continues to suck like he always does and Beast protects Xavier from a new Danger with these weird wings. He kicks her ass, but not before she says she lives on in her new creation. Meanwhile, Emma pointlessly meets with her secret, shadow-covered allies, leading to suspicion about where she was during the battle. She arrives back on the scene to save her man Cyclops, while spouting a great variation on the "Sorry I'm late" line the cavalry always says: "Sorry, darling. Had to pee." This is a classic example of Whedon's unique, strange sense of humor that plays with typical action clichés.

Shadowcat pretty much saves the day, as her powers keep everyone from getting incinerated and she defeats the sentinel by reasoning with him. Why doesn't this happen more often in comic books? Anyway, after that's over, the crew gets pissed at Xavier for knowing of Danger's existence but keeping her suppressed. How dare he treat intelligent life like that? Anyway, they're all super angry as they leave, watched by Emma's evil cohorts, who turn out to be, shocking plot twist: Hellfire? I've never heard of them and I didn't recognize any of the drawn characters, so a lot of the dramatic impact was probably lost on me. Oh well, some weird stuff but definitely entertaining.

Ms. Marvel Special - One Shot #1


I'm not really familiar with Ms. Marvel besides the fact that Rogue had her powers in the X-Men cartoon, but luckily this was a standalone issue that didn't require any knowledge and was just interesting for the story. It's about a kid who can conjure anything he imagines into reality. At first it's just by reading something and picturing it in his head, and it affects everyone nearby except for the person who wrote it. Anyway, the kid starts reading this book Ms. Marvel wrote to his friend, and it gets out of hand and envelops the whole city.

There's some interesting stuff as Ms. Marvel tries to talk with the kid and get him to realize what's happening and how he can fix it. Eventually order is restored, but in the process the kid has discovered that he doesn't have to read to use his powers. He then gets accosted by some weirdly uniformed people who he gets rid of, and then acts all threatening before making Ms. Marvel forget what happened, and of course there's the lame ending where she wakes up and isn't sure whether it actually happened or was all just a dream. Similar story ideas have been explored before, particularly the concept of someone becoming involved in a story they or someone else is writing, but it's still pretty cool.