I received Torn, the third TPB of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, two days ago. I loved the first series and greatly enjoyed the second (even though it was clearly less well plotted); the third really got to me. Whedon just has this amazing knack for dialogues and for making me laugh one panel and gasp or gulp in the next. (And the bits with Wolverine and Beast are wonderful. Does anyone here know what the reference is? Some of the dialogue sounds faintly Little Nemo-ish...)

I have a love/hate relationship with Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. series. I really like a lot of Whedon's work (Firefly and Serenity are especially fun) and I dig that he's writing comic books, especially since he's such a fanboy himself. That said, I was a bit skeptical when Whedon first started doing the comic, especially when he reset most of what Grant Morrison did with the New X-Men (easily my favorite of all X-Men arcs) I felt a bit ripped off. Still, I love Whedon's dialogue and he writes a mean Kitty Pryde. I've been buying the TPBs and in the end, I enjoyed the book, even if it did seem to all build up to a fastball special punchline. The second one I didn't enjoy all that much. It had its moments, but aside from the dialogue and some fun teamwork, the second one didn't do much for me and I felt let down by the ending.

Which brings us to the third TPB of the series. Why did I buy it, after being so wishy-washy about the first two? I guess it's because I wanted to believe Whedon can pull it off. And boy did he ever. After the first couple pages, I was terrified that Whedon was hitting the reset button again. Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he powered on forward, kicking ass and taking names, creating some dynamic situations that I haven't seen explored before in the X-Men universe. All the things Whedon did before that I liked are present (Dialogue? Check. Teamwork? Check. Kitty Pryde? BIG check) and more. There's the most kick-ass Kitty Pryde fight I've ever read. There's a hilarious Wolverine mind-fuck. And Cyclops. Oh, man Cyclops. Scott Summers really comes into his own in a way I've never seen before. He literally steals the comic by the end.

Is the series as good as Morrison's New X-Men run? I'll be honest, I'm not expecting anything to be that good. But this outing was pretty great and it was definitely a lot of fun. Right now, my relationship with Whedon's X-Men series is a lot more love than hate.

I'm getting them issue by issue, so I'm a bit ahead of you guys. The last arc is shaping up to be pretty wicked, as well. The new girl is pretty cool, especially in her ability to hold her own with Wolverine and not get intimidated.

Favorite line so far: "Tell you what: you go one day without stabbing me, you get to choose my name."

I bought the first series one by one and it was okay.

then i stopped buying comics.

from what i've read here i'll avoid the second one, but might pick up the third one (unless i need the second one to understand the third).

evenually anyone. there's a few other things i want first. like the complete transmet run!