Joss Whedon is essentially the reverse-Chris Claremont.  Claremont, in his prime, was capable of numerous creative plots and never seemed to run out of truly original ideas.  Unfortunately, the man couldn’t write believable dialogue to save his life and he came from the Stan Lee School of “Let’s narrate the Hell out of everything!”  Joss Whedon, at least in regards to his run on Astonishing X-Men, has been the polar opposite.  All his plots, stories, ideas…they’re all pretty thinly-disguised retreads of previous stories or concepts.  Not particularly creative at all.  So what makes this so good?  Whedon can write witty dialogue like nobody’s business.  His characterization is spot-on and consistent; you really feel like you KNOW the X-Men.  His sense of comic-timing is also remarkable, making Astonishing X-Men, while some-what creatively-bankrupt, an absolute riot to read.

Well, #15 carries that tradition.  The new Hellfire Club has initiated its attack on the X-Men and boy, are they screwed.  Cassandra Nova and Emma are brutalizing everybody’s minds, while Sebastian Shaw and that goth chick clean-up the rest.  I won’t tell you what happens to Wolverine, as it would ruin the best part of the issue, but I have to admit…it’s the best part of the issue.  This installment also ties-in the events from the previous two arcs (“Gifted” and “Dangerous”), and everything’s starting to come-together.  The final page with Kitty is an homage, to you guessed it, a classic Claremont moment.  There’s a reason this is the best X-Men title on the racks and you’d be doing yourself a disservice by skipping it.

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