The two-issue Ghost Boxes limited series reveals to readers what happens in parallel worlds in which the Ghost Box has been successfully activated: Utter destruction. Apparently the purpose of this limited series is to build reader suspense and anticipation for the new Ellis/Bianchi storyline in the main Astonishing X-Men title. Well. In doing so, with monstrous cynicism toward its readers, Marvel dishes up two sixteen page books for 3.99 each with "director's cut-style extras." The "extras" consist of Ellis's script and some pencil art from that issue, but these really aren't "extras" since with sixteen pages of story and a 3.99 price tag, the reader is in fact paying for these director's cut features. The problem is simply that these issues contribute little to nothing to the Ghost Boxes storyline. The basic concept that the activation of the Ghost Box will cause horrific devastation to a world could easily have been covered in a page or two in the main Ghost Boxes story arc in Astonishing X-Men itself. While the first issue of the limited series was intriguing in some ways, this issue is a gratuitous waste of time--and money. At 3.99 each for two issues, both with only sixteen pages of story, and an insubstantial story at that, you can't help but feel exploited by Marvel. Avoid unless you are a completist.

$3.99 for 16 pages of story!?!?