Also among this week's comics...

AVENGERS #67 - Ah, more anti-Americanism.  It warms the cockles of my heart, it really does.  Oh, alright, let's be honest - it's a passable superhero story with above average art, but nothing particularly special.  For those who haven't been following the series, the main storyline involves the Avengers feuding with US Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk (hint: anagram).  If it's not meant to have political overtones, it's all a bit pointless; if it is, it's perhaps a little over the top, to put it mildly.  Nice art, though.  B

CAPTAIN MARVEL #10 - In which our hero joins forces with a serial killer to set up his own parallel legal system.  It's far from subtle, but I like the direction Peter David's taken this title in.  It says something about the title character that it took something this drastic to make him interesting, but it's worked nonetheless.  Captain Marvel the satirical psychopathic nihilist has certainly got a lot more personality to him than the other guy.  The story has a very silly twist, but it's funny enough to be allowed through.  B+

GLOBAL FREQUENCY #8 - Chris Sprouse is this month's guest artist, and the story is the Global Frequency organisation rescuing founder Miranda Zero from villains.  I'm increasingly dubious that there's enough in this concept to carry a twelve issue miniseries - it's a series of one-act action stories that are deliberately low on characterisation, and the high concept on this one isn't all that extraordinary.  It's basically a paean to the efficiency of hackers, but goes a bit over the top.  Middling.  B-

NAMOR #2 - Okay, this isn't working.  It's beautiful, to be sure, but there isn't really much of a story here.  What's Namor looking to achieve?  What's the goal?  By the end of the issue the answer is apparently "to hook up with the girl from issue #1", whom he's been pining for in the intervening years.  How fortunate that she should stroll by at just the right moment.  Look, let's be blunt here.  This is supposed to be a love story.  The goal of the characters is to fall in love and have a relationship, and it's taken you two issues just to get as far as establishing vague interest in one another.  In order to make it into an actual story you need blocking forces, which traditionally means "the parents of the girl" but in this case will presumably be "chronic cross-cultural barriers."  The cultural barriers haven't been effectively illustrated - we haven't even seen Sandy's life at all - and all we have, two issues in, is some attractively drawn figures meandering around expressing the desire to go on a date.  You can't blame it on the dialogue; the events aren't there to advance the plot.  It's just too damn slow - by which I don't mean that there isn't enough action, I mean that there isn't enough anything.  Andi Watson's skill is in constructing stories, in the sense of arranging events, and he's not a good enough dialoguer to save the thing on his own - even with the undeniably excellent artwork.  C-

PETER PARKER, SPIDER-MAN #56 - We're still in fill-in territory as the book waits for its upcoming relaunch, but never mind - that means we get a two-parter by Zeb Wells and Sam Kieth.  Wells has proved to have a pretty high strike rate for entertaining stories, and Kieth is an ideal match for this Sandman story, a character whose fluid appearance suits his style to a tee.  I'd like to see Wells work on something a little longer than a fill-in story one of these days, come to think of it.  Anyhow, good stuff.  B+

SWEATSHOP #2 - Peter Bagge's series about underpaid studio cartoonists is showing a tendency towards industry stories, which does give it a slightly inward-looking quality.  Nonetheless, it's very funny - Carrie, who would clearly be out of her depth buying a newspaper, is hopelessly at sea trying to negotiate a TV deal.  The sales aren't exactly great, but it deserves better.  A-

ULTIMATES #10 - Insert obligatory gag about how late it is.  That said, the delays are a problem - this is the sort of story which would fit in just fine as part of a regular title, but ends up a touch frustrating when you know history shows the next issue probably won't be out till the autumn.  Still, it's undeniably gorgeous to look at, and when Hitch is allowed to go to town like this, you can't complain too much.  It's worth having just to gaze at.  A-

Before anyone asks: yes, I do know that X-Men: Phoenix came out this week as well.  I flicked through it in the store and decided it didn't look remotely interesting.  Having given up on the last Mangaverse series halfway through, and absolutely loathed the original one-shot, I've decided to stop wasting my money on the line.

I gather Weapon X #9 came out in the States last week as well, but it didn't show up at my store.  It'll probably turn up next week.  Regular readers will probably have guessed that I couldn't be bothered checking other stores for a book I don't particularly like.

Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art.

Next week, it's Chuck Austen week!  He writes Exiles #28, in which the team come to the mainstream Marvel Universe; he writes Uncanny X-Men #425 (yes, two weeks running); he contributes a story to X-Men Unlimited #48; and outside the X-books, he also brings us Call #3 and The Eternal #1.  Yes, that's five Chuck Austen comics in one week.  Oh, and the trade paperback of his first Captain America storyline is out too.  Truly a great week if you happen to be a fan of Chuck Austen.

For the rest of us, Agent X has the second half of Evan Dorkin's storyline; New X-Men goes hunting for Cyclops; and Wolverine: Snikt! continues the art showcase.

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