Genre: Animated | Motion Comics
Director: Jesse Cote
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Producer: Todd Casey
Studio: Marvel Knights
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Run Time: 69 minutes
Synopsis:
The tragic death of a student at the Xavier Institute reveals that a powerful enemy is working from inside the mansion to destroy the X-Men, an enemy who knows all their weaknesses and can predict their every move. This new foe doesn’t want wealth, power or world domination — it only wants them dead. As the X-Men fight for their lives, they learn they’ve been deceived by one of their own . . . even if they survive, the team will never be the same.
Dream-team creators Joss Whedon (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and John Cassaday (Planetary, Captain America) present the explosive, all-new flagship X-Men series – marking a return to classic greatness and the beginning of a brand-new era for the X-Men! Cyclops and Emma Frost re-form the X-Men with the express purpose of “astonishing” the world. But when breaking news regarding the mutant gene unexpectedly hits the airwaves, will it derail their new plans before they even get started? As demand for the “mutant cure” reaches near-riot levels, the X-Men go head-to-head with the enigmatic Ord, with an unexpected ally – and some unexpected adversaries – tipping the scales!
This DVD captures Issues 7 through 12 of Whedon and Cassaday’s 2004 comic book series for Marvel Comics, so if you happen to be one of the people who complain about comic book movies and TV shows not being true enough to the source material, I highly suggest you get yourself into motion-comics. This particular DVD and its predecessor, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, both penned by Joss Whedon (The Avengers) with artwork by John Cassaday are really good places to start with motion comics.
Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous is divided into six 12-minute episodes penned by Whedon and illustrated by Cassaday and starts out with a bit of a team-up between the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and we get to see Colossus and The Thing partner up for an impromptu game of Whac-A-Mole, which is worth the price of admission alone. There’s also a minor cameo by a certain web-slinging hero, but if you blink you would miss it.
Thankfully, we do get to see Colossus’ legendary Fastball Special as he first hurls Wolverine at a barrage of enemies, and then later launches Kitty Pride for more tactical reasons than the brute force earlier applied by Logan.
Those who are fans of Whedon’s witty banter will not be disappointed, nor will fans of Cassaday’s art, which is very vibrant on the screen. While this is a serious story, deaths do occur and it can be really trippy and weird in some places (in a good way), Whedon’s penchant for truly clever humor shines through perfectly. Just one minor example, but a bit of dialogue that struck me as funny was during a point in the story where Kitty Pryde saves her fellow mutants, then raises an eyebrow and in a very Logan-like tone of voice says,
“That all ya got, BUB?“
The video quality on the disc is great, it’s basically a high definition comic book… what’s not to like? While there are no bonus features (at this low price-point we shouldn’t really expect any) the DVD itself comes in attractive, comic book-style, bagged and boarded packaging, which is sure to appeal to most comic book fans.
The only fault that I can pin on this DVD is the fact that they didn’t include any type of summary at the beginning of what had occurred on the previous disc (Astonishing X-Men: Gifted). While it’s not entirely necessary, because “Dangerous” does work just fine as a completely standalone story, I think it would give people who haven’t either read Whedon’s comic book run, or seen “Gifted” a little bit of a lead-in, and would likely give people incentive to buy or rent the previous disc.
That being said… if you’re an X-Men fan, this is definitely a must buy!
I give Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous Four out of Five Stars
Pick up your copy of “Dangerous” and “Gifted” at Amazon using the links below!
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B006UKX5V0]
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B003NHMYJ2]
