Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and Firefly, turned his hand to the X-Men as the author of 24 issues of Astonishing X-Men, plus a giant-sized special.

This is the first of four trade paperbacks collecting his stories, and it's perhaps the finest X-Men comic ever produced.

Whedon doesn't attempt to reinvent the X-Men or impose his own unique style in the way Grant Morrison did in his own impressive run of tales. Neither does this book feature a big "event".

It's simply a brilliantly-written superhero comic, full of humour and drama. The plot focuses on the announcement that a "cure" for mutants has been found. This treats mutants as if they were the victims of a disease and provokes an angry response from the X-Men - although at least one of the team is secretly considering using the cure themselves.

The story branches out with the involvement of SHIELD and an alien threat. But it also features lots of wonderful human moments between the characters, not least Kitty Pryde, newly returned to the X-Men after a spell at university, who Whedon clearly has a particular fondness for.