I find that word choice a bit ironic considering Joss's background and current work...

marvelknight616 | December 14, 13:19 CET

I have liked Joss' X-Men better with each re-reading, and I mostly echo Mr. Wheatons thoughts, though I wasn't that pleased with 1602. Mebbee I'll read it again and like it better.

espalier | December 14, 13:22 CET

Which word is that, marvelknight?

Matt7325 | December 14, 13:35 CET

He's right about Nextwave. That series was brilliant and hilarious.

war_machine | December 14, 14:26 CET

I loved 1602. But I can easily see how some might not. Most of my X-Men reading friends *despise* Astonishing X-Men, even if they like some of Joss's work.

ern | December 14, 18:38 CET

ern: To paraphrase Men Without Hats...
" 'Cause your friends don't (read Astonishing X-Men) and if they don't (read Astonishing X-Men)
Well they're no friends of mine!"

OneTeV | December 14, 19:37 CET

As a lifelong X-Men fan, I *loved* his run on Astonishing X-Men. I even got a chuckle when the third X-Men movie "borrowed" one of Joss' plot points from the comic ... and if memory serves, no credit was ever given or anything.

I wouldn't mind seeing Joss take on a project like Witchblade; I loved that comic when it first came out (granted, I was in high school at the time), but from about issue #40 onward, I just lost interest. I'd be interested to see what Joss would do with that property.

CowboyWitch | December 14, 20:09 CET

I thought Astonishing X-Men was fantastic. Didn't have to read up on 15 years worth of backstory, great dialogue, stunning artwork by Cassaday and it had some of Joss' darkest and best writing to date.

Simon | December 14, 20:13 CET

I agree, Simon; I think Cassaday is horribly underrated as an artist.

CowboyWitch | December 14, 20:34 CET

After reading Astonishing X-men i got interested in X-men again for the first time since i was a kid. I bought a lot of old and classic stuff, mutant massacre, god saves, man kills, messiah complex, endagered species, New X-men. Everything was a disappointment.

vaygr | December 14, 20:52 CET

"and he wants a goddamn concerted effort to not come out of a fucking uptempo record when he has to do a goddamn death dedication?"

(to those who were wondering...this is a paraphrase of a Casey Casem quote.)

Hjermsted | December 14, 21:41 CET

Love Astonishing X-Men. I have nightmares about Cassandra Nova, I fell in love with Emma Frost, and the craziest? It made me actually LIKE Cyclops!

5X5B | December 14, 22:30 CET

Heh, CowboyWitch, I used to read Witchblade in highschool too and gave up on it around the same time (#40+). There was a book that was better-written by committee (when David Wohl, Christina Z., and Michael Turner all had a hand) and suffered greatly when it was first pared down to only one of those writers (Z), and then given to a writer (Paul Jenkins) who wanted to revamp it slightly/ignore some of what had happened and been important to the fans.

There was potential there, sure. Potential in the TV series too, at least the first season (second season had a very cool set-up, for a TV show--an entire season that would be a Groundhog Day-like repeat of the first--except they didn't run with it as crazily as they should've and made the huge mistake of switching from the arc nature of Season 1 to mostly a series of standalone eps). It was cheese at times, sure, but I liked Yancy Butler in the lead (just spotted her in Kick-Ass last week). I can see why you think Joss'd be well-suited to give his take on it, lotta girl-power in the franchise, but he's shown since Buffy that that's not all he's about or even interested in continually pushing to the forefront of his work (then again, but his own admission, he couldn't resist featuring a young superpowered girl in each of his TV works--eventually Angel got Illyria, River recovered and kicked ass on Firefly, and Echo evolved in Dollhouse).

Wheaton was so goddam hot as Fawkes in The Guild.

Kris | December 15, 05:21 CET

Kris,

So glad to know I'm not the only one who aoured on Witchblade. Honestly, Turner's art was what originally drove me to the book, and why I followed him when he left Top Cow to start Aspen (another book I loved early on then lose interest). Witchblade was just never the same after its creators went on to bigger and better things.

R.I.P. Michael Turner, too. :(

I could never get into the TV show, no matter how hard I tried. It'll be interesting to see if a movie comes into being, given Hollywood's love for all things comic book the last several years. In the right hands, a Witchblade movie could be a very, very good thing.

My desire to see Joss handle Witchblade has less to do with the girl-power theme (though it's there, won't lie) and more to do with seeing how great he was when someone entrusted the X-Men to him. Astonishing X-Men was excellent, so if he ever decided to write another childhood comic favorite of mine, I won't complain. :P

CowboyWitch | December 15, 06:15 CET