Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Joss Whedon is king at creating character driven stories! The writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Astonishes the X-Men!!!
Ranking: 5 stars
Recently one of my favorite writers has become screenwriter, as well as film and television director/producer Joss Whedon. Having not only directed MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, Whedon is also famous for his hit TV series BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, a series I'm currently viewing (seriously, go and check it out on Netflix, you will not be disappointed). What intrigues me about the show is that it not only focuses on Buffy fighting the supernatural, but also on her high school social life, and her finding ways to balance it with her duty as a slayer. Whedon's greatest strength as a writer in my opinion comes from the dialogue and banter between characters, as he makes their interactions feel as if I'm not looking at actors, but at real people having real conversations. It takes an extremely talented writer to pull off such a feat, and Whedon rarely disappoints, which is why his skills are well suited for the character driven stories of ASTONISHING X-MEN. This new series takes place after Grant Morrison's run on NEW X-MEN, and while I found to his stories to be compelling and interesting, I have mixed feelings towards his dialogue. The character's never seemed to speak naturally, as they always seemed to be focused on making their statements sound deep and philosophical. While this did take me out of the stories a bit, I still found them entertaining as I found Morrison's themes to be highly engaging, expanding on the philosophy of the X-Men's universe. But whereas Grant Morrison focused on the X-Men's mythos as a whole, Joss Whedon decided to focus on the individual members of the team instead, creating a more character driven story arcs, starting with GIFTED. After Magneto's assault on New York in PLANET X, the Xavier institute was destroyed, and Xavier left the team in order to rebuild the ruined nation of Genosha. However, Cyclops and Emma Frost have rebuilt the institute, and have decided to reform the X-Men. Rejoining the team is Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, who serves as the main protagonist of Whedon's run, and is a mutant with the ability to phase through solid matter. Cyclops and Emma hope to bring the X-Men back to their status as a superhero task force, intending to wash away humanity's blind prejudice towards mutants. But this plan proves difficult when it's discovered that scientists have created a drug that can permanently suppress the mutant X-gene. The news of this "cure" causes a huge uproar among the mutant community, with some mutants desperate for a normal life while others view it as humans attempting to rob them of their gifts. With demand for the cure ripping apart the nation, and a mysterious alien warlord named Ord somehow connected to the cure's development, will the X-Men's new plans for mutant and human relations be lost before they have even begun. As I said earlier, what attracts me to Joss Whedon's works is his focus on interactions between characters and how they deal with the situations that they are faced with. Such a setting works well with a team like the X-Men, as their roster consists of mutants who are united by a common cause, but are individual people with different beliefs and personalities. While we want the team as a whole fight for what they stand for, we also want to now more about how these characters work together, and what relationships they have with other members. Writers in the past have been able to balance focus on the team and it's individual members well in the past, but Whedon takes a different approach by focusing more on the individuals than on the team. Like his work on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the story is mainly told through the dialogue and daily interactions between characters, allowing the reader to view them as if they were real people. Despite their delimas being unrealistic, the reader can easily parallel them to the situations that people face on a daily basis. The Beast's fear of losing his intellect to his animal side reflects to the fear of losing one's self worth, Cyclops affair with Emma Frost after Jean Grey's death demonstrates post-traumatic stress and denial, and Shadowcat's contempt towards Emma perfectly portrays the nature of distrustful relationships. On the subject of Shadowcat, Whedon has stated that Kitty Pryde has acted as an inspiration for his character Buffy Summers, so he places her as the central star of the story. Like Buffy, Kitty's character started out as the average teenage girl, who had discovered that she was a mutant and was forced to mature and discover her place in life. Know a young adult in this series, Kitty has now matured and accepted her mutant gifts, and has taken the role of helping other young mutants find their place in life as well. It's through Kitty's perspective, that the story is able to flow through the interactions with her fellow X-Men, as well as their fights against Ord and cure controversy. I always felt like I could see myself in Shadowcat's shoes, as she was the youngest of the team, and was trying to find a way to cope with and endure the struggles of being a mutant. Her ability to immerse me into the story through her characterization has made her one of my favorite X-Men, and as I write this review, I realize how adept Whedon is at writing her character as she inspired one of his own. GIFTED's story also operates on a structure similar to an episode of BUFFY. Episodes of the TV series usually focused on a supernatural threat that would interfere with people's lives, causing Buffy and her friends to find out what the creature is and how to stop it while also dealing with their normal lives in high school. Whedon takes a similar approach with ASTONISHING X-MEN by building up suspense by connecting the mutant cure to the alien Ord, and focusing on the team's attempts to discover Ord's plan while also dealing with their own personal issues. Stories that follow this narrative are very engaging to me, as they allow me to believe that these characters can be real people despite being mutants or facing alien menaces. It takes incredible skill to create such an atmosphere, and like his work on BUFFY, Whedon pulls it off extremely well. ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL. 1: GIFTED not only succeeds as an opening arc to Joss Whedon's incredible run, but also as a story that creates three-dimensional and believable characters. The reader is able to connect with the individual team members through their dialogue and daily interactions, and by focusing on Kitty Pryde as a relatable main protagonist, we are able to fully immerse ourselves into this fantastical world of mutants and their struggles. Whedon shows no error in providing the reader a unique environment of characters and their dilemmas, and this is only the beginning his ground shaking run. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm in a graveyard with a strange man hunting for vampires on a *school night*." -Buffy Summers, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
