Did anyone else read the first issue of the new Astonishing? I read it mostly because I like Charles Soule, and I wasn't disappointed. The lineup looks very X-Force, and Rogue is the only real favorite I have in the line-up, but it still wound up being the best of the lot. The line-up includes Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke, Bishop, Archangel, Fanotmex, Mystique, and Old Man Logan. Beast also appears, but it seems more as a guest star than an ongoing team member.

Unlike the other books which are trying very hard to be Classic X-Men, this book just gets on with telling stories with a classic X-Men bent. The Shadow King is attacking psychics as part of some sort of scheme, and when he psychically assaults Psylocke, she sends out a mental alarm that winds up assembling the above lineup.

The narrative boxes tend to go for poetic and sometimes overshoot, but it's a good effect overall, and the poetic turns help to balance out the "dark badass" nature of the lineup.

I really tried to get into this X-Men relaunch before deciding liking comics shouldn't be this much work. But this late addition really worked for me.

Thanks, BFOB, but Old Man Logan and Psylocke are deal-breakers for me.

I do think that Marvel should give Fabian Nicieza a shot at an X-Men Forever type story (if only for a resolution to the Rogue-Gambit romance,) but as a 12-issue limited series rather than an ongoing, which I think is the main reason why Chris Claremont's XMF didn't last very long, and also why Weezie Simonson's X-Factor Forever, at only 5 issues, was a decent read (although I did have some minor problems with it.)

What can I say? I'm old.

I passed on the other things you mentioned, but I would actually read that Fabian project.

I totally get Old Man Logan and Psylocke being dealbreakers. Believe me, I'm reading it in spite of them, not because of them.

Cheers, BFOB.