I think I am actually going to continue reading. I'm too much into comics now :-)

Valentyn | March 16, 04:37 CET

Mr. Ellis is a top notch writer. Planetary is the 2nd best comic of all time (Promethea is the first by the by). Won't be the same as Whedon but all things must end, that's what makes them special or at least that's what people always say when someone dies and it applies just as well here. The artist is quite good, but nobody can ever replace Cassaday, he is the greatest comic artist of all time. But since he is not going to be doing it and I have to get through my thick skull, I look forward to the new guy.

theMidnighter | March 16, 09:28 CET

Simone Bianchi is a terrific artist, anyone who followed his work on Detective Comics can see that. Add me to the list of those not dropping the book after Joss leaves, Marvel picked the right people to follow in Joss' footsteps.

And Storm/Nightcrawler in the mix ? Inspired.

More news from Newsarama:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150253

[ edited by Perseo on 2008-03-16 16:43 ]

Perseo | March 16, 12:21 CET

Nightcrawler has been my favorite mutant since the halcyon Claremont/Byrne days (and was never, ever handled better, in terms of story OR art, than during Alan Davis' run on Excalibur... period). I'm deeply saddened that he didn't make the cut for Astonishing while J & J were running things, but I'm overjoyed that Ellis gets another crack at the character.

[ edited by Haunt on 2008-03-16 18:56 ]

Haunt | March 16, 20:15 CET

"(and was never, ever handled better, in terms of story OR art, than during Alan Davis' run on Excaliber... period)"

Could not agree more. The series itself was close to perfection in it's early days but one of the highlights for me was how well Davis was able to depict Nightcrawler. A close second regarding the art side of things would be Carlos Pacheco, also very good at capturing the physical nature of Kurt.

Koven | March 16, 20:31 CET

Yeah, I did like what Pacheco did with Kurt's look (during Ellis' run on Excalibur if I remember correctly) when he gave him a more "swashbuckler" look, the sort of flowing clothes, close-cropped hair and, of course, the swords. I'm also a HUGE fan of the design that Alex Ross came up with but which was never used. It was extremely basic skin-tight black with the dark blue 'X' across the front and the priest collar. But overall, if I had to pick a look for the fuzzy elf I'd go with Alan Davis all the way.

Haunt | March 16, 22:07 CET

It's going to stop astonishing me, because Joss was the reason I was buying it.

That's not because I don't read comics - I do, but I'm not particularly into the X-Men.

redeem147 | March 17, 00:46 CET