Also this week:

AVENGERS / JLA #4 - End of the miniseries and, well, it does what it says on the tin.  Busiek and Perez use the magic of reality warping to involve every present and former member of the Avengers and the JLA, which should be a nice crowdpleaser for the fans.  If we're being honest, though, it does result in an extremely cluttered final issue as the story ends up bending in order to allow for cameos by extremely minor roster members like Marrina and Aztek.  But then, the point of this exercise isn't really to tell a story - it's just to do the crossover at all.  The art's as good as you'd expect, and the target audience should love it.  B+

HELLBLAZER #194 - After the recent quasi-superhero stories, this is a bit of a shift in tone.  It's back to straightforward horror as an amnesiac John Constantine finds himself in a psychiatric ward with a dangerous lunatic with weird powers.  Best issue in ages, and the sort of thing this title does best.  A

LORE #2 - Featuring an action sequence, which is always a brave move when you've got Ashley Wood on art.  In fairness, he's long since got past the sepia wash phase when everything was virtually incomprehensible, but he's still more effective as a mood artist.  That being said, I'm really starting to enjoy this book.  The Bradley diaries section is good black comedy, and there are some good fun ideas in here.  A-

ULTIMATES #13 - The final issue for the forseeable future.  It's basically a huge great big fight scene, for the second month running, and it goes without saying that the enormous delays on this storyline have hugely damaged its momentum.  (This seven issue arc has been underway since 2002.)  It's also got some of those slightly annoying moments where Mark Millar starts playing it for laughs when the story's supposed to be reaching its climax, as if the Hulk is somehow improved by ironic distance.  That said, the closing sequence with Thor works very well.  And it's got a bunch of superheroes smashing things up on a grand scale.  Which is the selling point, really, so you can't complain too much.  B+

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

Next week, it's Chuck Austen week!  Chuck Austen takes over New X-Men with issue #155.  Chuck Austen still writes Uncanny X-Men #442.  And Chuck Austen writes Exiles #45.  If Austen lives down to his usual standards, this is going to be taxing.

Wolverine joins the Marvel Knights imprint with issue #13.  Because Marvel Knights is all about being edgy and different, he's going to fight Sabretooth.  Wolverine: The End #3 finally limps out, almost two months late.  And Alpha Flight #2 will probably just get lost in the clutter.

Finally, there's also the Sentinel digest, attractively priced at eight dollars for the first six issues.  That's less than half the price of the original issues, so if you didn't buy it first time round, this would be a good chance to reconsider.  Same applies to the Runaways digest, also out next week, which isn't an X-book, but deserves the plug.

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