cliffhanger of the week #1

counting down the best (i.e., the ones i read) cliffhangers of the week.

#3
Iron Man #25
Knauf Brothers/Roberto De La Torre


Maya finally learns who "Tem Borjin" is, Sec Def Koonig sings, and Tony goes head to head with the old geezer with rings in his retro Iron Man armor and without Extremis. oh joy.


#2
X-Men #207
Mike Carey/Chris Bachalo/Tim Townsend et al.

though it is a concluding issue, there are still a lot of questions that pushed us over that cliff - starting with "what the hell is going on with Bishop???" who is this new mutant baby? what happens to Gambit? is Sinister really dead? is Charles really dead? what happened to Layla? will Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination?

#1
Astonishing X-Men #24
Joss Whedon/John Cassaday

just whose side's on whose? does Peter have the balls to break this alien world? and with a ten-mile long non-electronic bullet fired at Earth, will the X-Men be able to stop it in time? will i be able to hold my pee? tune back next month! (or months, because this will be allegedly be concluded in a giant-sized issue)

tunnel vision

i knew there was a reason, all these years, that Cyclops is my favorite X-Man.

quick recap: the X-Men get involved in a planetary war between earth and the alien inhabitants of Breakworld, whose technologies have resurrected the once-dead Colossus as an experiment. the aliens want to off all earth mutants because it is prophesied that their world would be devastated by one - and ironically it turns out to be Colossus himself. pursued by the megalomaniac Warlord Kruun, a de-powered Cyclops buys time for the team by taking them on his own, and last we see, he gets jettisoned from his ship and left for dead in the blackness of space. but these are the guys who resurrect dead people.

oh, and everything was just ensemble acting worthy of Oscars and Emmys.

yeah, so the boy scout is turning out to be a worthier leader than his mentor Professor Chuck.

this stunt even earns the occasional grunt of respect from Logan, who has grudgingly accorded Scott that in those few times the writers get it right. and damn, Joss Whedon gets it right, with his nod to exciting space opera (Firefly/Serenity, anyone?) and last-minute saves.

John Cassaday's art gets dirtier and murkier but he's still #1 in my list.

and yes, its a cliffhanger. hope Whedon and Cassaday stay on for another 24 issues.

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Astonishing X-Men #23