Also this week:

ADAM STRANGE #4 - Maybe it's just me, but the cover line "Who are the Omega Men?" seems a bit superfluous, considering that the Omega Men have been around since 1981.  Anyhow, Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry continue their charmingly energetic revamp of the character.  It works because it's a genuine modernisation of the character, trying to capture the same spirit in a modern style, rather than trying to drag him wholesale into a grim and gritty world.  He's still a square-jawed hero with a jetpack and a ray gun, and dammit, it works for him.  There's a place for this kind of thing.  A-

WHAT IF... JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED THE AVENGERS? - Lest anyone think I'm picking on Chris Claremont, this is the only other What If? one-shot I picked up, and it's almost as bad.  Not for the same reasons - Bendis does run with the concept and shows how it would have changed things.  Basically, Jessica becomes a hero again, she stops Avengers Disassembled from happening without realising it, and she lives happily ever after.  Unfortunately, it's shapeless and completely lacking in drama - and a ridiculous nine pages is given over to recapping how things happened in the Marvel Universe.  Sometimes What If? stories work, when they allow creators to explore a decent story which can't be published in the mainstream universe because it would crash the Marvel Universe or leave the character unusable for future stories.  The problem here is that Jessica's life may be happy, but it's not remotely interesting.  The basic point that she'd have a happier life if she had more confidence was surely already obvious to anyone reading Alias.  D+ 

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art.

Next week, Jubilee nears the end of her run with issue #5; Ultimate X-Men #54 begins a new storyline introducing Ultimate Longshot; X4 ships its second issue, which I suppose can't be much worse than the first; and X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong begins its run.

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