io9: astonishing x-men

Joss Whedon's X-Men: What We Didn't See, Apparently

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:37:32 PDT

Ahead of next week's public screening of their new Astonishing X-Men motion comic, Marvel have released the oddest trailer for the Joss Whedon-written project yet. Click through for details.

The official press release accompanying this new clip reads,

Marvel is also proud to present MarvelFest NYC 2009, an all-new interactive outdoor experience in New York City to celebrate the iTunes release of the groundbreaking Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic on October 28th. In honor of this unprecedented event, Marvel.Com unveils a very special episode of the critically-acclaimed Marvel Super Heroes: What The—?! video series, taking you behind the scenes of what could've been! Join celebrities and the biggest names in Marvel history to commemorate the Astonishing X-Men premiere, projected three stories high in Union Square at MarvelFest! For complete details and official costume contest rules regarding MarvelFest NYC 2009 please visit www.marvel.com/fest.

Never mind the chance to meet people dressed up as Wolverine next Wednesday, we want to see more MODOK as Emma Frost.

Want To See Joss Whedon's Next Web Project?

Graeme McMillan — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:00:24 PDT

It's no Dr. Horrible (or even Dollhouse), but Joss Whedon's next web outing will be Marvel's motion comic version of his Astonishing X-Men series. Here's a new clip of what to expect.

Marvel released the clip yesterday, along with the following release:

Marvel is proud to unveil the newly trailer to the hotly anticipated Astonishing X-Men motion comic, based on the seminal comic story by superstar scribe Joss Whedon (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) and renowned artist John Cassaday (Captain America). This is your latest peek at Marvel's newest original motion comic (available October 28th on iTunes) as the X-Men embark on a bold new mission! Discover more at www.marvel.com/motioncomics, bub!

[Marvel]

Up, Down And Away In This Week's Comics

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:00:00 PDT

Whether you're looking for superpowered pets, non-moving motion comics, classic tales retold or spelunking adventure the way you want it, there's only one place to look this week: Your local comic book store. Why, yes: These are comics we crave.

Fans of Marvel Comics' ongoing Dark Reign storyline will be happy this week. In addition to Dark Reign: The List - X-Men, there's also Dark X-Men: The Confession (which, in the mighty Marvel tradition, ties into Dark Reign, X-Men and the recently completed Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia) and Dark Reign: Made Men, which looks at what's happening for the villains not in the center of Norman Osborn's scheme to villainize America.

For those who prefer a brighter Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon's entire X-Men run gets a collection in the Astonishing X-Men Omnibus. And the X-Men Origins hardcover brings together some beautifully illustrated retellings of the earliest days of the mutant franchise. Spider-Woman #1 is the paper version of the motion comic, but the oddest release from Marvel this week is Pet Avengers Classic Vol. 1, which offers up an anthology of stories about Marvel's Mightiest Pets. Yes, really.

DC aren't the kind of publishers who'd pull a lame stunt like pet superheroes (Well, apart from the Legion of Super-Pets, and Krypto and Streaky and, okay, never mind). DC would much rather pull lame stunts like phone votes to decide the fates of long-running characters, and in the DC Comics Library: A Death In The Family hardcover, you can relive that bold, classy experiment that ended with Robin being blown up by the Joker. Prouder moments of classic comics get collected in the first volume of Flash Chronicles, reprinting (again) the first appearances of the Silver Age Flash. And the Push trade paperback collects the comic book prologue that was much better than the movie it tied into.

Luckily, and unusually, the two best books of the week are both single issues, allowing you to sample both before running back in a month for seconds. (And they're openings of mini-series, so you don't have to worry about making a long-term commitment.)

Superman: Secret Origin lets Geoff Johns and Gary Frank go to town on the Man of Steel, taking six issues to tell the story of how a baby rocketed from a dying planet could grow up to make the tights and cape combo work in a way that will doubtless entertain and hint at what's to come in the character's future.

Underground brings together the obscenely talented Jeff (X-Men First Class, Agents of Atlas and countless other wonderful books) Parker and Steve (Whiteout, which I promise is better than the movie) Lieber for a series that makes up in adventure and fun what it lacks in science fiction. Check out a preview of the first issue here to be convinced.

As always, all of these books and more can be found on the official Diamond shipping list for the week, and your local comic store can be found using your friendly neighborhood Comic Shop Locator. Just promise us that you'll believe that a man can fly and go underground all at the same time, huh?

Get Gifted With Whedon's X-Men Motion Comic Trailer

Graeme McMillan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:30:00 PDT

Never mind the Mouse, Marvel is playing its Joss Whedon card for the next Motion Comic series to come from the publisher: Here's the trailer for the upcoming Astonishing X-Men: Gifted.

Marvel's official PR for the project follows:

Marvel is proud to unveil the first full-length trailer to the hotly anticipated Astonishing X-Men: Gifted motion comic, based on the seminal comic story by superstar scribe Joss Whedon (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) and renowned artist John Cassaday (Captain America). Now you can get your first look at Marvel's newest original motion comic (available October 28th on iTunes) as the X-Men embark on a bold new mission! Discover more at www.marvel.com/motioncomics, bub!

For those who think the storyline seems kind of familiar, you're right; it "influenced" the plot of X-Men: The Last Stand, much to Whedon's dissatisfaction. Us, we're hoping that the Disney/Marvel alliance may result in animation that doesn't remind us of Captain Pugwash.

Start Bracing Yourself Now For Joss Whedon's Final X-Men Twist

Meredith Woerner — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:31:00 PDT

Here's a cool-looking spaceship from Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men 1 the final Joss Whedon-John Cassaday X-Men comic which comes out May 21. New images from the issue have turned up at Comic Book Resources, and they hint at some potential bad news from one of the franchise's coolest characters. Click through for more pics, and a potential spoiler, after the jump.

Meanwhile, Shadowcat awakes in a world of trouble in this page from the final ASM comic. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about the possibility of Shadowcat's imminent demise. Whedon did say that Kitty Pride was a prototype for Buffy, and look how many times he killed her.

Joss Whedon Hates Weird Science

charliejane — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:40:17 PST

That Buffy episode where Warren makes a robot girlfriend, who then goes berzerk? "I Was Made To Love You?" Turns out it's Joss Whedon's way of critiquing Weird Science, a movie he loathes. That's just one of the insights that Joss dropped in a discussion with group of L.A. geeks for the GeeksOn podcast. He also revealed some new details about his upcoming projects.

The GeeksOn podcast was devoted to artificial intelligence, and when the subject of Kelly LeBrock's Weird Science came up, Joss got intense:

I hate Weird Science not a little. I find it offensive. The boy fantasy of building a girl. Obviously, we were doing the nasty version of it, because I find it grotesque.

Joss says his new Eliza Dushku show Dollhouse is "very much about humanity and how much of it is programmed," not unlike that creepy robo-girlfriend. Also in the pipeline: A movie he cowrote with Drew Goddard, which may be more bankable now that Goddard's Cloverfield is a big hit. And Joss has some "embryonic" projects to make money by putting content on the Internet. Finally, he's working on the Giant Size Astonishing X-Men annual, the end of his AXM run, and finishing up his Runaways run. But his Wonder Woman movie? Still dead.

Joss also mentioned that the metaphor of Winona Ryder, girl robot, changed his whole writing style, back when he wrote Alien: Resurrection:

That was a huge beginning for my whole career, when I had the metaphor for: "She's come back from the dead and has alien in her." And [Winona Ryder] is a robot. And to have this beautiful girl say, "Look at me I'm disgusting." I was like, "Oh my god, this robot is a metaphor for everybody who feels different." And [then I thought] "metaphors! Maybe I could do that again some time." I basically went from being a yarn-spinner to being a writer in that moment.

But of course Joss wasn't too happy with how Alien: Resurrection actually turned out on screen.

Joss is also very sad that X-fans didn't like his Astonishing X-Men storyline where the Danger Room becomes sentient, because he was trying to play with all sorts of clever themes of "cognitive dissonance" where we learn to sympathize with the exploited Danger Room AI. But the fans just wanted the X-men doing X-things. [Geeks On Podcast]

Must Read: Astonishing X-Men

charliejane — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:06:03 PDT

Must-read graphic novels are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Date: 2004-present

Vitals: Joss Whedon writes the X-men, who suddenly decide to be superheroes again after years of being too cool for matching uniforms.

Famous names: JOSS!!! WHEDON!!!! OMG Joss will you be my boyfriend? Oh, and John Cassaday.

Crunchy goodness: 4

The shit: Whedon writes the X-men with the glee of a long-time fan finally getting his hands on the toybox. The storylines are pedestrian, even by X-men standards, but the character beats and dialogue are solid gold.

Life lesson: Black leather isn't really THAT slimming. And bright yellow spandex is kinky in its own way.

Deadliest spoiler: Colossus isn't really dead. Or gay. Actually he is gay, but only in an alternate universe (otherwise known as the XXX video arcade in the alley behind the X-mansion.)

The X-Axis Review by Paul O'Brien