Astonishing Junk in the Trunk

*An excerpt from a post I wrote for my site early last March, posted here at Jared's suggestion.

Thrilling, well-written, and beautifully drawn, Marvel's current Astonishing X-Men series, launched by fanboy god Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday, is getting a relaunch of sorts. I guess the official word in the comic industry is "reboot," which I don't really understand as this new arc, set to be released later this spring, is less of a reboot and more of a creative new direction. It won't be starting from scratch. Rather, this new story-line, a limited series titled Xenogenesis, will simply offer new readers a chance to jump into the Astonishing mythos without having to have read the thirty-five issues that will have already gone to print.

I'm cool with that idea. What I'm not entirely sold on yet is artist Kaare Andrews. I've glanced at some of his other work and, truth be told, he has some great stuff out there, but unfortunately his promotional art for this series isn't doing him any favors. I'm okay with Cyclops, Wolverine, and Beast, and Armor's look is pretty neat, but I'm not sure how I feel about Storm going back to the Mohawk, and I am definitely not a fan of Emma Frost's ghetto booty. I mean, I am all for artists making comic book women more real, but come on, that is way more than just a little bit of junk in the trunk. And is that her hair flowing down to her feet? What is up with that?

I only worry so much because a large part of why...

If you're interested, check out the rest of my original post here.