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The only continuity here is that Agent Brand decides to swoop up the X-Men and Ord for a trip to the Breakworld to sort out the intergalactic strife. The problem with this plot is the rationale for the Hellfire club in this comic. Even their names were unclear. A bunch of mutants().
After the truly astonishing vol 1 comic, followed by the confusing vol 2, vol 3 sees some restoration of continuity to this X-men series. I accept this last premise as it was part of the plot continuation from vol 1, which was the point of this series when it first started. To a casual comic reader, this is bloody confusing. The title Torn refers (I think) to Emma Frost's state of mind whereby she betrays the X-men because she was brainwashed by members of the Hellfire Club into releasing a ghoulish looking lump of jelly from some pod.
with what powers. The Hellfire Club plot was just filler, and poor filler at that. Naturally in turn, Emma brainwashes Kitty Pryde into actually doing the task. What the hell is it all about.
Vol.3 is astonishingly different from 1&2. It reminds me of a really tough math problem that baffles you instantly, but after you analyze it becomes intelligently beautiful. This time its no-holds-barred for Joss Whedon. Since it involves a lot of psychic interference, it makes sense to complicate the reading, because the characters become totally entangled in a "hypnotic state", if you will.
Trust me you will be laughing and gasping as you see what Wolvie, Beast, and Cyclops go through. Joss Whedon can not only write a smart story like this, but he can form it with cinematic elements. Aside from that he always has something incredible up his sleeve. Joss Whedon writes the characters the way I want them to be written. I fell in love with this book for the journeys that our heroes go to. The previous two had simpler plots and defined characters.
I love that it feels like an awesome movie page for page. Nuff Said. Torn dives deep and far taking us to places we never thought we'd see the series go.A good portion of the volume is quite confusing at times. Some parts will seem bizarre and hard to swallow but as time goes on it will reveal itself to be quite plausible.
Great characters, storylines, dialogue, illustrations.everything. LOVE IT. There so addictive, and well worth the price.
Die hard fans, pick this bad boy up whenever. This is the most trippy of the four Whedon/Cassaday X Books, but it is still well worth a look. Newbies, maybe you should start with the first two. Whedon and Cassaday return for the third installment of The Astonishing X Men, this one focusing on more psychological threats rather than the very tangible threats of the first two installments. Nonetheless, this is a very interesting and fun trip, with lots of good action, good humor and certain members of the x team like no one's ever seen them before.
The artwork by John Cassaday is topnotch, with the action moving along like a well paced movie. The dialogue is great if you're into banter. I've been a Whedon fan for years, and am convinced that he can take any story and find a new take on it. In his X-Men stories, he takes a group of well established characters and still manages to find a few new angles on them.
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