Comic-Con staple Joss Whedon is probably best known for the long running Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series though more recently, he is more than partly responsible for making The Avengers the record-breaking behemoth it is. Lesser known, is that Joss Whedon has tackled comic book heroes before. He worked on the 2000 X-Men film, the more recent treatments of Thor and Captain America and from 2004 to 2008 he even wrote 25 issues of Marvel Comic’s Astonishing X-Men series which was illustrated by John Cassaday.
It is this series, that Marvel Knights Animation has brought their hybrid comic-animation treatment to Shout Factory DVD. The first installment of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men was titled Gifted and released almost two years ago. In it Dr. Kavita Rao develops a controversial mutant cure and Professor Charles Xavier’s X-Men which includes; Wolverine, Beast, a newly returned Kitty Pryde, and leaders Cyclops and Emma Frost find themselves battling against science, prejudice, and a mysterious new foe named Ord.
Dangerous, the second collection continues the story with the tragic death of a student at the Xavier Institute. It is revealed that a powerful enemy is working from inside the mansion to destroy the X-Men, an enemy who knows all their weaknesses and can predict their every move. This foe doesn’t want the typical wealth, power, or world domination. Unfortunately, it seems they only want them dead. As the X-Men fight for their lives, they come to learn that they’ve been deceived by one of their own.
This is where the video translation of the six issues of the Astonishing X-Men, Volume 3, issues 13 through 18, also known as Torn picks up. The third installment is broken into six DVD chapters and kicks off as Emma Frost’s erratic behavior has the X-Men spinning in a nonstop downward spiral and after secretly lying in wait for months the new Hellfire Club makes its move. The animated motion treatment of the comic panels is co-directed by both the original artist John Cassaday and the legendary Neal Adams.
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Article comments
1 - Lina Posada
To tell you the truth I am still amazed by how much can a series such as X-Men be exploited! But I guess that a classic never gets old and people will always want to relive the beautiful memories of the cartoons that they grew up with!