Ultimate Fantastic Four: I must say that until this new writer hopped on board with Greg Land, I was very much dulled by this book. It didnt seem to have a voice, the characters were lack-luster at best, and the art was mediocre. But now, I find myself quite hooked. The past few storylines have really taken interesting turns and risks and created some very memorable things for this team. I love the creativity with this team and will ultimately be very sad to see them go. My higlight of the book was the last few pages, with introductions of Masters and the reveal of Doom's return.
X-Factor: Aside from Astonishing X-Men & Runaways, this is hands down, my favorite book out there right now. It has a tone, a great cast of characters, and a fantastic realism to it. Layla Miller seems to be developing into a very interesting and mysterious character. I thank this team for running with this great character from 'House of M' and doing her justice. I love everyone else as well, which usually wouldnt be the case. I feel these characters are meshed well and have great written chemistry.
Astonishing X-Men: Not many people can create a full dialogue issue and still captivate someone fully. Joss Whedon has now done this. His amazing dialogue and fantastic sense of these characters has truly impressed me in this issue. I wasnt sure where this would pick up from last issue, but it started and didnt stop. I feel Joss has a way of adding a depth and truly exploring these characters that has the genuine idea of what the X-Men stand for and adding more to them. I understand people's concern about Cyclops, but it's true what the others have said. Cylocps has never been an interesting character, he's always been pretty dull and dependant on other characters (especially Jean Grey) to exist solidly in the X-Universe. And what i LOVE about this issue, is Joss doesn't ignore all of this. He throws it in our and Scott's face. He almost does a crack of the fourth wall and aknowledges what most people think about this character. Him living under Wolverine's Shadow, never feeling enough for Jean, Having to make this large tradgedy of himself so that he can merely be noticed. It really made sense to me. And for the first time in years, I've understood Cyclops. I've even liked him. Thats big. Emma is wonderful as a manipulator and it's nice seeing her make this turn in this issue and being so darn good at it. Kitty and Peter are fantastic and such a delicate throw in as the phase through the floor was just perfect. And Wolvie's reaction as well. Beast's face at the return of Nova was classic, seeing as how she f^%#ed him up in Morrison's Run. I feel Joss also has something that Morrison had, exceeding expectations of fans and progressing the characters we love. We shouldnt slow them down because we like the way they are. These are people and we just watch. So lets sit back and leave the writing to the professionals
Its not balls, other writers decided it was unnecessary and I agree.
