Wow. I just read Whedon’s first X-Men story again, and boy, is it great. (“Just read” of course meaning just before writing this, not just before posting it.)

Sure, it obviously builds on a lot of continuity of which I know approximately squat, but it still manages to pull me in and move me. Like the scene where Kitty finds Colossus in the Benetech “sub-basement”. Brought me to tears, it did.

The characters are, interestingly enough, even more fascinating here than they have ever become in the “Ultimate X-Men” run (which I’m beginning to lose faith in; mediocrity is currently balancing out the good parts, if I remember correctly), and the plotting is just awesome. The way Whedon constantly builds suspense is great, even if he might be using the “character standing in darkness behind an other, well-lit character, while saying ominous things” a little too frequent. But I’ll give him credit for not keeping all of these plot moments unresolved al through the story.

Anyway, this post is just here to pay tribute to the amazing character writer that is Joss Whedon.

EDIT: I’ve read “Dangerous” too, now, and it was better than I remembered. The “villain” wasn’t as annoying as I thought — I usually don’t like non-human (or non-sentient) “bad guys”, since they mainly just follow their instincts, and that ain’t fun. Or, you could of course make an argument for humans only following their instincts, too, but they’re more familiar, more… bah, I can’t explain it at the moment; my parents have the TV on so loud I can’t hear myself think. I’ll get back to it later.

But in this instance, it was kinda okay. And the Kitty/Colossus moment gave me goosebumps. Can’t wait to read “Torn”! :D

Oh, and this:

“If I ate your head, two thirds of your agents would praise me in poems and song.”
“So my approval rating’s up.”
- Sydren and Special Agent Brand