Review: Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic

 Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic (Gifted)

Animation by Marvel Knights 

Written by Joss Whedon

Art by John Cassaday

Chapters: 6

I am a big fan of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and it was very interesting for me to see how it would look like if the whole medium was translated into a motion comic, with the photo-realisitic art of John Cassaday brought to life. So I quickly borrowed a DVD copy of its first comic book arc titled Gifted from one of my colleagues, went home and turned on the home theater set.

Though I already know what the whole premise of the story is -  basically a "mutant cure" claimed to be created by Dr. Kavita Rau is exposed to the world and is causing unrest within the mutant community - I still wanted to see how the whole thing would work in a different form. Take note that reading a comic book is far more different than watching a movie and there is a unique experience reading a graphic novel which cannot be translated. That's why some comic book movie adaptations don't tend to work that well because there are a lot of things that were intended to work ONLY in the book's written pages.

So with that being said, watching the whole 6 chapters of this motion comic I would say was quite fun, and there's a lot of things I would like to point out in the next paragraphs:

Comic Book Review: Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1 - "Gifted"

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I remember when I was about 10 years old, me and my brothers watched "The X-Men" tv series every week and imitated our favorite characters. Mine was Cyclops. I would act like I got those cool shades and fire blasts of energy from my eyes, then one of my brothers would come at me like Wolverine with three sticks between his fists, slashing his way and beating the hell out of me. Good times.

So the X-Men had a profound impact on my childhood. They were my first superhero team, and Cyclops was my first favorite comic book character long before I loved Superman. 

Enter The Astonishing X-Men. A 2004 ongoing series written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday that focused on a new roster featuring Wolverine, Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), Beast, Colossus, with Emma Frost and Cyclops in the lead of the team. This was the first X-Men comic book that I have read in 20 freaking years.

This comic book was a continuation of the previous X-Men storylines years prior to 2004, but I didn't really care much about trying to get to know what happened in the past, mainly because past stories gets too confusing. On to the review.

First story arc is titled "Gifted" and it basically introduces the main team players that we're going to see through out the book. Here's one of the early panels showcasing Cassaday's exceptional art:

The X-Men (from left to right): Beast (Hank McCoy), Emma Frost, Wolverine (Logan), Shadowcat (Kitty Pride) and Cyclops (Scott Summers)