I haven't watched the first episode of "Astonishing X-Men: Gifted" yet, but I am curious.
A lot of my interest is fueled by my affinity for the original comics story by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday and knowing that comics legend Neal Adams has a hand in the animation.
I've shown you the above trailer clip of writer Joss Whedon ("Buffy the vampire Slayer" of course) and artist John Cassady's ("Planetary") motion comic for their story arc on "Astonishing X-Men."
Marvel announced plans to use a three-story former storefront in Union Square Park as a mega-sized screen to premiere the first episode of Astonishing during its inaugural "Marvelfest" event in New York Oct. 28.
Astonishing is the Cadillac of the of the bushel of X-Men comics Marvel releases every month. Whedon and Cassaday's arc re-introduced the X-Men to the masked super hero universe. It was a little off-putting for me at first because I don't think of the X-Men as traditional secret identity-style super heroes. They're really Xavier's private army/security force. Think about it; How often do they save cats from trees or stop bank robberies?
Anyway, Cyclops puts the X-squad back into their costumes to help the characters deal with the more modern issue of having to maintain a positive public image in a world that still fears mutants. Despite my poor job of a plot summary, trust me -- Whedon and Cassaday story presented the characters brilliantly. Kitty Pryde (One of Buffy's character inspirations according to Whedon) tells off former enemy and current teammate Emma Frost as only she can.
But this post is supposed to be about the motion comic... Let's just call the "Astonishing X-Men" motion comic an animated mini-series. The animators who worked on this project make the characters move quite a bit more than artist Alex Maleev's animators on the "Spider-Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D." motion project. Their mouths even move to go along with the dialogue (unlike the Spider-Woman story). Check out the trailer from Comic Book Resources above.
Don't get it twisted, all of this is fine. While I am a bigger fan of the Spider-Woman motion series, this other style on the X-Men piece may not work for me. I like my image motion to be a little more comic book-ish with subtle motion and all the great audio performances. But I am aware that this project is not made for guys like myself who have read comics for 30-plus years, it's made for that new-fangled iTunes audience who can watch movies on their phones.
And since "Spider-Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D" topped the iTunes sales charts for animated TV episodes in its debut, it's a safe bet we will see this audience catered to a lot more.
If I hear good things about it I may even buy a few episodes myself.
Based on the first arc of "Astonishing X-Men," the newest series featuring the worlds most popular "gifted children," this Marvel motion comic features the work of writer Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday.
I'm enthusiastic about this choice for a motion-story. Whedon not only allowed the mutants to confront the hottest storyline issues in the series (Anyone want a cure for being a mutant?), he also made it possible for audiences to get reacquainted with the characters and their personal conflicts.
The animation aspect of this trailer is a little bit of a problem for me.
I watched the first part of the new "Spider-Woman" motion comic and found it to be subtle and exciting in its use of motion, moody backgrounds, sound effects and actor dialogue. This X-Men project is obviously more animated. More Bending limbs. More moving mouths. I'm not sure if I like it yet.
This may only be my issue because I liked the Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev "Spider-Woman" so much. Motion comics are going to be a little different and every style will not thrill every audience.
Well, if I didn't ruin it for you, enjoy the trailer courtesy of Comic Book Resources.
Comics are expensive. The average price for a single 22-page issue can run you anywhere from $2.99 to $3.99. That makes those comics seem awfully thin for the green you're shelling out.
Now, what if that $2.99 book not only contained an engrossing story but had some of the most impressive artwork you could find in any comic being published today? Maybe that price wouldn't be so bad since you're collecting something that is a pleasure to look at.
Marvel's "Astonishing X-Men" teams one of the busiest writers in the game -- Warren Ellis -- with the Italian art sensation Simone Bianchi. The squad over at Comic Book Resources have an interview with the artist and more samples than I can show you here at Modern.
I caught Bianchi's work over on the ongoing "Wolverine" series. It was violent, vivid and not so realistic that I disconnected. That's the knock some fans, myself included, sometimes hang on the brilliant Alex Ross whose work is so real it can cause a subliminal cancellation of the comic storytelling experience.
I am an X-Men fan from the earliest days of my life and there are so many key moments in the series' history that I define by not only the storyline of the time but also the visuals on every page every issue.
I remember artists Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith and Jim Lee. When this run on 'Astonishing' is done, I may love or hate the story but I can say I will definitely recall Simone Bianchi's artwork.
Check out the interview here and if you can't afford those individual issues of "Astonishing X-Men" stay on the lookout for the inevitable collected paperback sometime next year.
