Trade Tales! - Astonishing X-Men: Torn

Next up is a return to Joss Whedon’s and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men run. It really has been a while since I looked at the first two trades… a long while. I was always meaning to get to this one, but other things kept getting in the way. I guess this was the right time to do this one since Whedon’s name has been thrown around because of his time on Justice League. No, I won’t be discussing the Snyder Cut here… yet (wink, wink).

Anyway, tonight’s trade is Torn… the title, not the trade itself. It contains Astonishing X-Men #13-18. The creative team was pretty much the same with Whedon doing the story, Cassaday doing the art, Laura Martin doing the colors, and Chris Eliopoulos handling the lettering. Around this time, I remember that the book was starting to be delayed. I know it got worse as time went along. I don’t if it had to do with the process or with things changing for the X-Men at Marvel. This was released around the time Decimation, the era where only 198 mutants were left on Earth. So, what happens when the Hellfire Club “returns?”

Astonishing X-Men: Torn

Writer: Joss Whedon

Artist: John Cassaday

Colors: Laura Martin

Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos

Associate Editors: Nick Lowe and Sean Ryan

Editor: Mike Marts

 

SYNOPSIS

The Hellfire Club is back in action, it’s been led by Cassandra Nova (Professor Xavier’s evil twin sister), and Emma Frost is secretly working for them. They have some nefarious plan for the X-Men who are basically just chilling at the Mansion. Logan’s training what’s left of the young mutants, Beast and Scott are talking, and Peter and Kitty are chilling. It’s all good… sort of. Then, two sometimes unlikable women, Agent Maria Hill and Agent Brand of SHIELD/SWORD, show up for a page to let us know that there’s still that Ord business to take care of.

The Hellfire Club then put their plan into action. Emma messes with Scott’s mind to the point he loses his powers (and goes unconscious), Logan gets the mind of a child, and Cassandra Nova unleashes Beast’s animal side (he was devolving for some reason). As for Colossus,  Sebastion Shaw takes care of him. Kitty gets her powers screwed over by… Negasonic Teenage Warhead. She’s a Grant Morrison creation, by the way. We ultimately find out that they are after something secured in the basement of the Mansion. None can break its seal, so they try to figure something else out.

What happened to Kitty here was pretty messed up.

Luckily, Kitty’s not out of the fight yet and is able to regain control of her powers. She traps Emma underground and tries to take on the rest of the club, but their hidden figure (the original Emma Frost?) brainwashes her into trying to unlock the box. Meanwhile, the students try to help Colossus, Wolverine, and Beast come to their senses. Unfortunately, Danger and Ord (who escaped SWORD’s space fortress) show up to kill the Worldbreaker and cause havoc. On SWORD’s base, Agent Brand and her team find out who the Worldbreaker will be.

Cyclops: The GOAT of the run... and in general. Come at me, y'all!

Kitty breaks through the seal and takes the… slug (?) that the Hellfire Club wanted out. All seems lost, but Scott shows up in the nick of time to bust a cap in the Hellfire Club… yeah, you read that right. As everyone gets their crap together (and take care of Ord and Danger), it’s revealed that the Hellfire Club members were projections from Emma’s mind and that all this was started by Cassandra Nova. She’s trapped in the slug and has been using Emma to get out. Scott does his best to get Emma to permanently trap Cassandra in the slug, but before all is wrapped up, Ord and Danger attack again. The story ends with SWORD teleporting the X-Men, Armor (one of the students), Ord, and Danger to their base. They’re going to Breakworld (Ord’s homeworld).

OPINION

I though that this was good for the most part. Whedon does his usual mix of seriousness and humor. We get to see Emma get to let loose on the team. Yeah, she’s been a good guy for quite a while before this, but with the animosity Kitty and others have with her, it was bound for things to go bad. Things even get tied in the previous runs on X-Men. This straight up felt like a sequel to Grant Morrison’s run. The whole twist that Cassandra was controlling this was a nice one.

Wolverine, the most manly man of all!

As for the rest of the team, they all get a good outing. Each of the team gets put through some of their worst fears. Scott and Kitty get the worst.  Scott goes through some stuff with Emma and comes out the other side kinda awesome. He’s powerless, but he’s still that mutant you don’t want to trifle with. Kitty and Peter’s relationship goes to the next level, but who knows how that’ll work since it’s revealed that Colossus is the Worldbreaker. Beast’s part pretty tragic since he's led to go feral. As for Wolverine… well, it was pretty hilarious with him running around like a scared child from the 19th century. We needed it here with all the seriousness going on.

Awesome throwback and image.

The artwork was good as usual. We don’t get to see the X-Men in their uniforms, but they look good as ever. We do see couple of old uniforms for characters show up here, and they look good. The action was good as ever, and we had a couple of cool callbacks to classic stories. As for my qualms, the stuff involving Ord and Danger was okay. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Danger before. Also, some of the SWORD stuff was a little dull. Lastly, it could get a little confusing with that plot twist at the end. Other than those two things, I really enjoyed this.

Overall, this was pretty good. It was better than Dangerous, but Gifted still has the top spot. I think I may finish this run out soon. I hope the team can stick the landing in the end. Well, I’m gonna call it a night. I got three more posts for the month. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t trust the blonde in the skimpy outfit.

If life and Battlestar Galactica has taught me anything, don't mess with blondes.