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A review by colophonphile
Astonishing X-Men - Volume 2: Dangerous by
Yes there are "spoilers" ahead. If that really bothers you, so be it. It doesn't bother me.
I read this quickly after the first volume in the series. I can't say that I love John Cassaday's art here. The frequent employment of gradients as generic backgrounds just seems, well, generic after awhile. As for his depictions of the characters, I have liked his work, especially on Planetary and, at times, Captain America, but never really felt like he had his own take on X-Men visually, with the exception of Beast — that's in contrast with, say, the versions of these characters by Chris Bachalo and Frank Quitely, two favorites. In addition, while the plot was intriguing, it was also a little extravagant in its execution, and ended up reminding me of the tail end of Grant Morrison's run, when things just got too out of the author's control. Here what gets out of control is the idea of the Danger Room becoming sentient. It's a nifty concept, but goes haywire fast. There's also just so much packed in here, not just a sentient Danger Room but the Sentinels and, at the close, the Hellfire Club. It seems like any one of those things could be stretched out longer, and the proliferation of developments ends up diminishing each of them individually. I will say the moral conflict at the end, about AI as a new life form to be respected, was handled quite well.
I read this quickly after the first volume in the series. I can't say that I love John Cassaday's art here. The frequent employment of gradients as generic backgrounds just seems, well, generic after awhile. As for his depictions of the characters, I have liked his work, especially on Planetary and, at times, Captain America, but never really felt like he had his own take on X-Men visually, with the exception of Beast — that's in contrast with, say, the versions of these characters by Chris Bachalo and Frank Quitely, two favorites. In addition, while the plot was intriguing, it was also a little extravagant in its execution, and ended up reminding me of the tail end of Grant Morrison's run, when things just got too out of the author's control. Here what gets out of control is the idea of the Danger Room becoming sentient. It's a nifty concept, but goes haywire fast. There's also just so much packed in here, not just a sentient Danger Room but the Sentinels and, at the close, the Hellfire Club. It seems like any one of those things could be stretched out longer, and the proliferation of developments ends up diminishing each of them individually. I will say the moral conflict at the end, about AI as a new life form to be respected, was handled quite well.