Ah, the ever-popular Joss Whedon delves into Marvel’s most prominent and lucrative band of mutants. So what happens when Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s creator tangles with the X-Men? In a word: mediocrity. With Astonishing X-Men #22, the boys (and girls) in blue and yellow are still trying to survive their adventures on Breakworld where everyone’s favorite Russian, Colossus, is prophesized to jump start Armageddon. After surviving a battle with the sentient embodiment of the Danger Room, the X-Men pull themselves together and head towards the giant missile aimed at Earth. Exciting times, no?

Well, Joss Whedon may be a major fan favorite and, according to some lady I saw on television who paid upwards of $20,000 to have lunch with him at Comic-Con, “a genius,” I’m not overly impressed by his time on X-Men. While he’s got no problem getting the action going and dragging everybody into some fracas or other, as soon as the punches stop flying and the characters have to say something other than “we’ve only got one shot at this,” the weaknesses start to show. The dialogue of this issue is weak at best and “misplaced” at worst. No one in this issue behaves as they should. Wolverine sounds more like storm, Beast says all the things Jean Gray used to say (admittedly, with much better diction), and Cyclops…well, Cyclops is okay. Whedon just doesn’t seem to quite be able to handle the juggling act that writing for a team of characters like the X-Men demands. The end result is lackluster dialogue and forgettable performances all around.

Cassady’s artwork in this issue oscillates between appropriately grand and exciting to flat and limp. Cassidy seems to be suffering from some major issues of quality consistency. His pencils can go from smooth, fluid, detailed samples of artwork so well-done that he seems to be auditioning for his own job and giving it everything he can to panels where he seems to have been asleep at the sticks and in a rush to get pages completed and off to the editor before deadline. His character close-ups are terrific, but as soon as the panel becomes anything more than a head shot, the detail falls off and what feels like a genuine “artistic nervousness” takes over. Still, the good moments can be really good, which leads to the conundrum of whether or not to recommend this issue.

Overall:  3 out of 5.  Whedon is weak, but Cassady comes through at times.