The good outweighs the bad in Astonishing X-Men #29, but not by as much as I'd like. The writing rocks for the most part, but the book as a whole is weighed down by the art and the pacing. Read Full Review

The art has redeemed this comic book a bit. I like Simone Bianchi's pencils, and he uses interesting layouts and his shadowy style creates a dark mood to the story. The only let down would be that the characters blend in too much with the backgrounds, and it's sometime hard, at first glimpse, to distinguish who is doing what. There are two inkers and three colorists assisting Mr. Bianchi on the art. This usually bothers me, but in this case it took careful inspection to see where the differences between each inker were. On a side note, will someone please tell me why European artists working in American comics can't produce interesting work like they do back home. Even if Bianchi's art on X-Men is great, I appreciate his work for European publishers more. Maybe it's the format, the more constricted deadline or the work-for-hire, but it seems like a continuing situation, and it surely does not help American readers appreciate what Europeans can do. Read Full Review

It's unfortunate, but since Ellis has given answers to some of the questions he's posed in Astonishing X-Men, they've proven to be uniformly underwhelming. Astonishing #29 certainly isn't a horrid book; there are definitely bright spots along the way. But the overarching feel of the issue is one of quiet dragging where earlier issues crackled along with momentum. Read Full Review

This isn't a terrible book, and there are reasons to recommend it. Ellis still manages to inject some cool ideas into the story, even if they aren't coming as thick and fast as they were in earlier issues. Also, the book ends on a cliffhanger (albeit a low-key one) that suggests that we might finally be getting to the bottom of the story soon. However, merely being an okay read doesn't really cut it when there are better books out there, especially for a "flagship" title like this (and especially for a book that ships so infrequently). On the strength of earlier issues, I was fully prepared for Ellis and Bianchi's Astonishing X-Men to blow Whedon and Cassaday's run out of the water. Now, I'm seriously considering whether it's even going to be worth following in future. Read Full Review

The best way I can sum it up my view of this title is that Astonishing X-Men has gone from being the must-read X-Book of the line to being one that is for completists only. Read Full Review