Astonishing X-Men #26 review

Picking up from last issue, the X-Men have tracked their man to a starship graveyard in Indonesia. Emma Frost quickly finds their man in a ship floating overhead and Wolverine is sent in to handle the guy. Seems the guy is messing around with some big glowing box when Wolverine orders him on his knees, hands behind his head, the whole nine yards. Dude's a firestarter though, so when Wolverine touches him...BOOM! He goes back to his box but the rest of the X-Men get up to the ship. Storm blows him to the ground, but it's a bit too late. Cyclops orders Storm, blow the ship. After the ships falls to Earth, the team searches the wreckage while the suspect, apparently working for someone else, blows his own head off.

Mmmmmmmmmmm.....

Eeeeehhhhhh.....

I just don't know.

I really want to like this issue, but I just don't know.

I liked the almost cramped sleepiness of the last issue. I loved the art on this issue. Simone Bianchi just did an out-fucking-standing job. The panoramic views of teh graveyard, the ship design, the whole thing falling to Earth.....just wonderful. He really has to do more open spaced pages like that. The moment he draws cramped quarters, things get really cluttered. The open spaces, however, are fucking georgeous!

I think it's the dialogue. Ellis is engaging in a lot of needless exposition that drives the story nowhere. For instance, after Storm down the spacecraft, her and Cyclops have this whole conversation over killing. It's not really doing anything for the story, it's just there and it's boring. Also, it seems to contradict the presentation of Cyclops in other books who, after Messiah Complex, went all cold blooded (going back to X-Force #1, he shows no aversity towards having people hacked up). The Cyclops in this issue is way too apologetic for this new stance (and then keeps speaking for everyone around him). It feels.....I don't know. He might be trying too hard to keep the book open and accessible to new readers but on the other hand it feels like he's just slumming it. His trademark Ellis-isms are there, the witty dialogue, the casual sci-fi weirdness but it's feeling less like an X-Men book and more like Warren Ellis Project #469. Mind you, I enjoyed the sleepiness of his first issue, but now should have been the time to change into high gear. Damn.

Strangely, you can read this issue without having read the last issue. The "previous issue" blurb catches the reader up nicely and you can buy this issue solely to revel in Bianchi's fantastic artwork. Story wise, however, the issue is sorely lacking.