I should say that Astonishing X-Men are not my team, I do not regularly read them. Everything I am going to say is based purely on this one issue. If I seem to think the characters are behaving incorrectly when they are actually doing exactly as you would expect. Please do tell me.
We open with Northstar getting ready for the wedding, still in badages from his last fight one week ago. The first thing I have to say is, the art really flip flops in this comic. On the second page we get a close up of Northstar smiling saying "This is the happiest day of my life." The picture is just scary, I mean it kinda looks like he is forcing the smile, which he might be, but the eyes just look weird and the smile with that makes it creepy.
I will also say that it's interesting that they went the nervous route for Northstar. I can say that without a shadow of a doubt, public speaking makes me nervous, yet I was not even a little bit flittery on my wedding. Northstar is a superhero it's peculiar that they made him act nervous for his wedding. It seems a little odd, and a little forced but either way it doesn't detract from the overall theme.
What does detract is the flashback to the fight with Karma, just to force in a little bit of action. It feels totally crammed in and unnecessary. Also more bad facial art for Northstar, the panel in which he says "together" looks more constipated than anything. Rather unfortunate.
We continue the flash back with the scene of them healing later, this is a little more relevant as it shows us Kyle saying yes to the wedding. This flashback on it's own would of been better than having the fight for no reason. A slight expository caption "After Karma's betrayal.." would of been better.
Then we get to the wedding and that's when things start going down hill. I've already said I don't really agree with making a superhero nervous, but that's fine, it's an ok move just an odd one in my opinion. Then we have Warbird declare matter-of-factly that she doesn't recognise the validity of the ceremony, that she won't attend. A few people have suggested to me that this is because she is Shi'ar, that they may just not view any wedding as valid. Ok that might be true, but the big issue I have with her attitude is that Northstar says, and I quote; "Stay. Please stay. As my friend and teammate." The Shi'ar are a warrior culture, Warbird is an X-man. You'd think somewhere in that dense honor code warrior culture's have there is something about not acting like a dick on you're friends important days. She simply ignores his held out hand and walks away.
Yet, arguably she could be acting in character, as stated above. I mean it leads into Logan giving genuinely good advice. The one character I could of seen acting like a dick at a wedding, any wedding gay or otherwise, and he's probably one of the few characters who doesn't. Beast isn't really being a douche about anything, he's just being fastidious, but when you consider that Aurora, Northstar's sister, starts giving "you can just leave now" advice? Logan winds up being the only kind-hearted good guy there!
We do get some touching scenes between Kyle and Northstar though, where we find Kyle isn't nervous. Seriously good stuff, the art is a little weird here and there but by this point I figure that Northstar just doesn't have bones underneath his face anymore. We also see some better stuff in the background than in the front. Maybe it is a satire on the two polarisations, the anti movement forcing their way to the forefront, being lound and vocal, the pro movement being quiet and respectful in the background. Essentially Marvel might be saying bigots shout loudest.
Yet I doubt it's that clever, it still is nice to see some nice stuff in the background though, like Iceman making sculptures for them.
Then we hit the stuff that really, really bugs me. Puck and Havok. A guy who is 3' after being 6' and a Mutant. Ok maybe Puck could be a bigot, but Havok? It makes no sense to me to have any mutant be homophobic, even slightly. It goes against everything that the Mutants and the X-men stand for. Seriously going to go this route with them? It's just ridiculous.
All ends well though, they are happily married, people are having fun and dancing. Wolverine flirts with Storm, because she is married, yeah that's back to normal for him. Oh and then Wolverine explodes.
Wait...
Yeah it ends on Wolverine's stomach exploding. Implied that it is Karma's doing. Interested to know how, regardless he's not dead.
Side note, glad to know that Wolverine can take time out of hunting down Hope and the Phoenix Five to attend the wedding. Glad to know Puck can jump back into his superhero outfit to attend a wedding even if he's in south america, in hospital, after fighting Mayan Gods. Continuity eh?
Honestly, this comic sucks, not because of the subject matter, but because of the art and how the subject is handled. Characters act strange, they are drawn worse than strange and it feels like the wedding of the pod people more than Kyle and Northstar. Regardless I would recommend buying this small piece of Comic History. The first "Gay Wedding" (sigh) in comics is not something to be missed! Be forward thinking and buy it.
