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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: November 13, 2012.
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: N/A
Year: 2011
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The Series:
As comic books embark on their technical evolution from four color printed staple bound booklets to hardcover collections to paperback style graphic novels to e-Books, somewhere along the way motion comics were born. While taking specific panels out of specific comic books and moving them around on a DVD or Blu-ray with some music, effects and voice actors overtop might sound like kind of a lame idea, recent releases like Warner Brothers' Watchmen and Shout! Factory's Marvel Knights releases have proven that interesting things can and are being done with the concept.
That brings us to this release: The Astonishing X-Men, a two disc Blu-ray collection that compiles four stories in motion comic form originally written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday (a talented artist who took home an Eisner Award not that long ago). The good here is that diehard fans of the comic books will appreciate re-experiencing the popular material in a new format, but the bad? This isn't a good stepping on point for those new to the long running and very continuity heavy world of The X-Men. With that said, this type of thing is aimed at the more seasoned fans anyway, so it was likely with them in mind that Shout! Factory and Marvel set out working on this project in the first place.
This collection brings together four story arcs from the comics, each one tying into the next:
Gifted: The first story arc beings when Dr. Kavita Rao develops a cure for the type of genetic mutation that has given rise to the X-Men and many others. Of course, once word gets out, it's only a matter of time before certain parties want to use Rao's invention to get rid of not only the X-Men but all mutants. Complicating matters is the presence of an alien named Ord as the X-Men have to deal with the constant issue of prejudice while saving the planet from aliens!
Dangerous: A student who somehow lost his powers and who was attending Xavier's institute has passed away, a victim of suicide after a bout of depression, causing the X-Men to try to figure out how this happened and why. As it turns out, there's possibly someone or something inside their ranks wreaking havoc - how else would this unseen force be able to know what they're doing and how they do it?
Torn: The Hellfire Club's White Queen, Emma Frost, is acting strange as things reach a boil for the X-Men. Scott somehow manages to lose his powers while Wolverine reverts to a more primal form only to be hunted by The Beast as Kitty Pryde deals with complications involving her unborn child. Things are going downhill for the team very quickly and seemingly without explanation, which leads into the final story arc…
Unstoppable: Agent Brand and S.W.O.R.D. have abducted the team with the intentions of bringing them to Breakworld and preventing them from saving the Earth! 'Nuff said.
All in all, this is a pretty decent batch of stories. The characters are fleshed out well and there's some legitimately creative direction here in terms of pacing, arc and reach. Whedon has a good feel for the characters and is able to take them into new worlds and bring a breath of fresh air to the franchise without disrespecting the long and storied past.
The artwork is top notch throughout, showing strong line work and a good eye for detail and composition and the ways in which the motion comics take advantage of technology to infer and often times show movement brings some good depth to the visuals. If you're not already a fan of the X-Men comics, this won't change your mind as it's basically a condensed version of some pre-existing material but fans ought to appreciate the quality work done here.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Astonishing X-Men arrives on Blu-ray in a nice AVC encoded 1.78.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer that replicates the art style well. This is a softer looking presentation than some might be accustomed to but it's in keeping with the original illustrations. There aren't any compression artifacts and as this was all done digitally, there are no issues with print damage. Some scenes and frames look noticeably softer than others for some reason but the colors are bright, bold and often times very beautiful and there's nary a trace of compression or edge enhancement to note.
The only audio option provided is an English DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo mix, there's no five channel option here, surprisingly enough. Generally the audio is pretty good, particularly when it comes to the effects and the score but there are some spots where the dialogue gets a bit buried. Otherwise, the levels are properly balanced throughout and there are no audible defects - the audio really helps enhance the presentation quite a bit and the powers that be at Shout! Factory have done great work here and there are times where you won't even notice the absence of any rear channel activity.
There aren't a ton of extra features but there are a few goodies tucked away on the two discs in this set. Let's start with the first one, which includes a seventeen minute long featurette entitled A Conversation With Joe Quesada And Neal Adams in which the pair talk about their feelings on motion comics style and what it was like working with Joss Whedon on this project. Also on the first disc are a music video for the song Rise Up by David Ari Leon and Guy Erez and a trailer for Astonishing X-Men: Gifted.
The second disc starts off with a featurette called Behind the Scenes: Marvel Knights Animation which spends a quick five minutes with Quesada, Alex Maleev, David Goldberg, Neal Adams, Kristine Stone, Corinne Hall, Jason Chambers, Bob Wilson, and Vincente Alcazar where all involved discuss the in's and out's of putting motion comics together. Aside from that, look for trailers for other Marvel motion comics available from Shout! Factory like Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D., Black Panther, Iron Man: Extremis, and Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers.
The Final Word:
It if isn't overflowing with extra features Shout! Factory's collected Blu-ray release of The Astonishing X-Men makes up for it with some pretty solid audio and video quality. As to the series itself, the content translates to the motion comics format well and it takes some very well established characters in some interesting directions and features some strong artwork form John Cassaday.
