Astonishing X-Men Vol 8
Overview: The fearsome Brood have overtaken the orbital research satellite known as Pandora’s Box – stranding Breast’s girlfriend, S.W.O.R.D. agent Abigail Brand. Embarking on a daring rescue mission, Beast, Storm, Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Lockheed will encounter old friends and older enemies. But to escape the inescapable Pandora’s Box – commissioned to house hazardous experiments on the universe’s horrors – they must not only survive one of the most dangerous alien species in existence, but also make an impossible decision: Even if it means sparing untold live, can the X-Men bring themselves to rescue the Brood along with their friends?
Collecting Astonishing X-Men #38, 40, 42, 43, and Uncanny X-men #163
Pages: 112 Pages
Writers: Christos Gage, James Asmus, Chris Claremont
Pencilers: Juan Bobillo, David Yardin, Dave Cockrum
Inker: Marcelo Sosa, Norman Lee, Bob Wiacek
Colorist: Chris Sotomayor, Rachelle Rosenberg, Glynis Wein
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna, Tom Orzechowski
Recommendations:
Of course the book centers around the Brood if you didn’t get that from the title. I think every universe that has some sci-fi element to it has and aggressive species like this as we have seen similar in video games, board games, movie and other forms of entertainment. The Brood attack for no reason and turn their victims into living hosts for the next batch of Brood. When an isolated base gets infected with Brood and it involved the girlfriend of The Beast. He asks some of his friends to help him rescue her. The story itself is decent, but at times seems to get very muddled. I realize that this came out in comic book serial form, so pages were limited with each issue. Now in collected form you really start to see the gaps in the story and how things at the time seem very rushed. It kept feeling like they were building up for something exciting and then kind of said yep that happened but didn’t flush it out. If you keep saying it is impossible to accomplish, then I want to see how they accomplish it.
Overall, I just think it could have been better and think the story could have been developed to be a longer series with more details. It felt rushed and key moments seemed to have been skipped to fit the story into a small window. Still, it was pretty good, and I enjoyed how the characters were represented.