Best of 2025 :: Published/Unpublished Interior Panel Pages

Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 pg 36 (Cassaday art, Whedon story) - Kitty phasing bullet through Earth

Owner: James Dornoff
Artists: John Cassaday (Penciller) , John Cassaday (Inker) , Joss Whedon (Writer)

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Artwork Details

Title:	Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 pg 36 (Cassaday art, Whedon story) - Kitty phasing bullet through Earth
Artist:	John Cassaday (Penciller)
Artist:	John Cassaday (Inker)
Artist:	Joss Whedon (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
Views:	168
Likes on CAF:	15 16
Added to Site:	11/9/2025

Description

GONE

From Joss Whedon and John Cassidy�s closing issue of one of the best modern runs in X-Men, comes this page of Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1. The storyline of GONE follows the final arc, UNSTOPPABLE (Astonishing X-Men #19 - 24, 2007/2008) of Whedon and Cassaday�s epic run on the Astonishing X-Men series. The storyline thus far is that Breakworld has a prophecy that an X-Man (Colossus) will come to destroy their world, something that one of their resistance leaders, Aghanne, feels needs to be done to end their cycles of violence (death to their world and race). The Powerlord, Kruun, constructs a 10 mile long Breakworld special metal rocket �bullet� in retaliation to destroy Earth, called the RETALIATOR. The �bullet� is fired, Kitty phases into it and tries to dismantle it from inside. The metal has a special metal bonding to her and she is unable to separate herself from it. Earth�s most mighty heroes gather to divert the bullet in their special ways but to no avail. The �bullet� is heading to Earth and only Kitty is left to use all her might and phase it through the Earth.

This huge ultimate storyline event only has 3 pages of Kitty phasing �bullet� through the Earth to save humanity and this is the center page, I would even say the best page. The preceding page is a beautiful wide action splash page of the �bullet� phasing through New York buildings, and the following page, which is equally beautiful, features Colossus, Professor X, tight shot of Kitty�s hand phasing �bullet� and a wide of �bullet� phasing through/coming out the other side of Earth. Although I would love to have the Colossus portion, the page I have here, is absolutely monumental. It showcases a tighter shot of the action of the �bullet� phasing through New York buildings, with tight character reaction shots of Scott and Emma (in space), Storm, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in another section of space all holding their breath (since all their epic plans failed) as their fates live in the strength and power of Kitty Pryde to phase the RETALIATOR through the Earth. The X-tra reason why this is the best page, for me, is the top right panel closeup of Kitty Pryde putting her all in to save humankind. This is moneyshot action beat, mixed with the holding their breath reaction shots (not saying this lightly, since Kitty has to hold her breath to activate her phasing power) of what everything led up to. There are literally no words or dialogue on this page. It�s a quiet moment of intense action that painfully answers the question of how they will survive this, sadly not all of them �survive�. This is the last time we see Kitty�s face, as she is then lost in space, trapped inside a metal bullet cage that her body has bonded to, traveling too fast to intercept. At the end we get a closeup on her hand. She is gone from the X-Men for the next few years (around 2008 - 2010), returning in Uncanny X-Men 521/522 as Magneto reaches out to this specific Breakworld metal �bullet� (it has slown down and the metal has hardened, making it more controllable), changes it�s trajectory and returns the still alive Kitty back to Earth.

I absolutely loved his storyline from Whedon and Cassaday, this page is one of the ultimate pieces to their entire Astonishing X-Men storytelling. The series, while in their hands, brought Colossus back after sacrificing himself to stop the Legacy Virus (the reunion with Kitty was on of the best moments on comics) and introduced some new characters into the X-Men family (Dr Kavita Rao, Abigail Brand, Armor, a favorite of mine - Blindfold, and Danger). To get a piece of their historic run, and an end piece at a that, is a phenomenal add to my collection. Wanted to post this to express my love for what they both did for the X franchise but especially for Cassaday as he passed away a little over a year ago (9/9/2024). I never got to meet him and thank him for his great work.

I did get to, not just thank him, but actually work with Joss Whedon. I was fortunate to be a member of the post production film crew on SERENITY. At the time this was Joss�s first feature film, and I thoroughly enjoyed FIREFLY, even became a Brown Coat member and you can see me in as one of the interviewed crew members on DONE THE IMPOSSIBLE documentary about the making of SERENITY. Joss was great to work with and this was before any of the craziness that happened on JUSTICE LEAGUE, as I eventually worked on the SNYDER side of that film. When I was working on SERENITY, it was just @ 8 of us on the post team with Joss at Universal. And one of the best things happened to me while on the project, I was tasked to pick up Joss�s books from the comic shop he went to, HOUSE OF SECRETS in Burbank. This quickly became my comic shop that I�ve now been going to since 2005 (marking 20 years).
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	James Dornoff ( 5 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	June 2019
Last Login:	January 2026
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