The dates may be baffling to some younger reader, but I arrived relatively late to the X-Men party. The comic book title had undergone its renaissance in 1975 when the title was revamped, but it wasn't until the early 80s that I started reading the books. Of course, this was still when Chris Claremont was the main writer and the stories and character arcs were at their best. I also arrived late to the Astonishing X-Men home video releases. Based on one of the myriad X titles which Marvel trots out every month, the first DVD ("Gifted") arrived in September, 2010. This was followed by "Dangerous" in April, 2012. Having seen neither of these releases, I was plunged into Astonishing X-Men: Torn with very little to go on.

As it's part of an ongoing series, Astonishing X-Men: Torn takes place not longer after the events of "Dangerous" which were apparently very devastating. Emma Frost (voiced by Lara Gilchrist), who in this continuity is part of the X-Men and Cyclops' (voiced by Mark Hildreth) lover. She is forced by Cassandra (?) to subdue the X-Men by having them become what they fear the most; Kitty Pryde (voiced by Laura Harris) falls uncontrollably through the floor and then the Earth's surface; Wolverine (voiced by Brian Drummond) becomes a coward; Beast (voiced by Ron Halder) loses self-control (truly becoming a beast); and Colossus (voice by Trevor Devall) gets into a fight -- with Sebastian Shaw -- which he can't win. With the X-Men out of commission, the rest of the Hellfire Club invades the X-Mansion with the intent of stealing a specific item. Some of the younger students -- Blindfold & Hisako -- begin to fight back. Meanwhile, Agent Brand (voiced by Rebecca Shoicet) (is she with S.H.I.E.L.D.?) is in a space-station attempting to keep a prisoner in check.

As far as the story is concerned, it was a bit jarring jumping into the middle of an isolated continuity (it seems that every new X-Men title takes place in a slightly different universe. Apparently in this one, Professor X is dead.). I had mistakenly assumed that this would be a stand-alone storyline and not something with which I would need to catch up. Also, I had to get used to some of the ideas here -- Emma Frost and Cyclops are a couple? Kitty and Colossus still live in the mansion? Once I wrapped my head around the basics here, I found Torn to be a good story, which really harkened back to classic X-Men tales, especially those from the "Dark Phoenix" saga. It seems that the X-Men have a bad habit of being manipulated by telepaths and this is very good example of that sort of storyline. One can definitely feel Whedon's hand guiding the story, as it has some genuine humor and he allows Kitty Pryde to take center-stage, thus highlighting his love for strong female characters.

Overall, I enjoyed Astonishing X-Men: Torn, as it reminded me (somewhat) of the X-Men comics I loved as a teenager. The story is solid and the artwork is good for the most part. I can see how some wouldn't like the "motion comic" approach, but I prefer this medium to truly questionable animation. My only real complaint is that this seems relatively short -- the running time is 81 minutes, but one must subtract at least 5 minutes from that, as each episode has opening and closing credits -- and it ends very abruptly. But, I have to say that Astonishing X-Men: Torn gets my highest personal rating -- I'm looking forward to the next entry ("Unstoppable") and I want to go back and watch the first two chapters.

Astonishing X-Men: Torn may be the first movie I've seen where a ball of yarn plays a pivotal role on DVD courtesy of Shout! Factory. The feature has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing on grain and no defects from the source material. The colors are outstanding, most notably the reds, and the image is never overly dark or bright. As the motion is limited, it's sort of hard to grade the video, but there's very little stuttering of the motion or jagged lines. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Again, the audio really carries this piece and this is a satisfying track. The stereo effects are nicely detailed. The surround effects work nicely during the action scenes and we are able to pick out individual sounds. The subwoofer is somewhat weak here, but it does perk up some of the action scenes.

The Astonishing X-Men: Torn DVD contains no extra features.