A Can-Con look at Astonishing X-Men #49

Every attempt will be made to keep this a spoiler-free zone.

This book is similar in almost every way to the previous issue.  The only difference is that the action takes place in the middle pages rather than at the end.  Northstar again appears in a near-future scene over the first four pages and we spend the rest of the issue still catching up to that point (but we're not there yet).  Not every one likes that but personally I have no objection to that kind of story-telling.

I'm still not crazy about this book overall though.

I buy it for Northstar specifically and he feels out of character to me.  I have no idea what he's doing with this bunch.  For that matter, I have no idea what the team is together for.  They feel like random characters thrown together.  Maybe all will be made clear later but there's no real indication of that.

They were attacked at Gambit's place after which Northstar apparently agrees to help some of the others track down who did it.

Why?  He has no reason to think that he (or Kyle) was specifically a target.  He didn't even want to be there, he was dragged by Wolverine.  He has no problem telling Alpha Flight to go to hell.  But his relationship with the X-Men is so much better that he'd look into who blew up Gambit's condo?  Hasn't he been trying to avoid this lifestyle for years?

And of course, we get what appears to be a mandatory four-page declaration of love between Kyle and Northstar.  I don't mind romance in a book but this one is so over-played that it's nauseating.

Also, whether you consider it a plus or a minus, Wolverine is still not particularly prominent and in fact, when you do see him in a fight scene and are actually able to determine what he's doing, he's getting punked by a couple of d-list'ers.

I'm going to make my way through the first storyline regardless but will not make an effort to keep up beyond that if the book remains little more than an advertisement for Marvel's new-found tolerance and if the book exists just to have another X-book out there.  It may be that the team's purpose was defined earlier and I just missed it because I don't buy 20 x-books a month, but that doesn't help me enjoy this one any more.