Astonishing X-Men Vol 5 Ghost Box
Overview: When the X-Men are called to the scene of a murder that appears to have involved heretofore unknown mutants, they discover that though the victim was indeed a mutant, his mutations appears to have been artificially produced. The team races to a spaceship graveyard in Indonesia in their search for the killer, who they find huddled over the mysterious Ghost Box, preparing to activate it. The murderer reveals he is also a mutant, but commits suicide rather than give the X-Men any information as to his, or the Ghost Box’s, origins. With mysterious, artificially created mutants popping up out of nowhere, the X-Men must struggle to unlock the mysteries of the Ghost Box: What is the device’s purpose, and why was it sent to Earth?
Pages: 184 Pages
Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Simone Bianchi
Colors: Simone Peruzzi
Collecting: Astonishing X-Men #25-30, Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #1-2
Recommendations:
I was encouraged by vol 4 and had high hopes that vol 5 would take it to great heights. You know what expectations normally do, and that is leave you disappointed. Well, that is exactly what happened in this book. Now, Warren Ellis is writing the story, so that might explain why the story is completely going in another direction. Another thing that really stood out to me is the artwork. It also is completely different. Even some characters have a slight different look to them. Of course, some things are revealed towards the end of the book that could explain that. Another thing that really had me confused is it had some elements in the story that didn’t seem to jibe with the events in the other volumes. In this volume, it is the first time that I heard of only having 198 mutants left, and I didn’t realize that the x-men had moved to San Fran. Once again, this might be revealed in the next volume, but if that is the case, I am really confused why they have not revealed some of that up front to make this a better story all together. The story is a lot like an EKG. As quick as it spikes up, it also drops. This was frustrating as well that it would build, spike, and then bottom out. Build spike and bottom out. Every time I thought it was going to get really good the story would just drop off. With that I am also not entirely sold on the artwork in this book but for the most part it was decent.
Overall, this book was a let-down. I am sure I will continue to go through the volumes as I have committed this much, what is it going to hurt to try and get through them. It just is not the best work I have seen done in the comic book universe.