Also among this week's comics...

CAPTAIN AMERICA #21 - The first issue by Robert Morales and Chris Bachalo.  Thus far, the Marvel Knights version of Captain America has comprehensively failed to make the character work in more adult stories.  Morales and Bachalo do somewhat better than the previous efforts - they're still doing Issues, but it's within the context of a rather more effective plot.  I'm not entirely convinced by the idea of Captain America being packed off to Guantanamo Bay to sit on a military tribunal and provide a guarantee of justice for the public (after all, he's got no qualifications for the role whatsoever, and it's not like the US government actually gives a toss about the appearance of justice at Guantanamo Bay).  Still, it's off to a better start than previous efforts.  B

CREW #7 - Another Tsunami book gets the chop.  Christopher Priest's original plans for this book had a year-long opening arc, so this final issue ends up with an extraordinarily rushed and compressed effort to resolve everything.  It kind of succeeds in that, in that at least everything does get tied up.  But it's less than satisfying, as you might expect.  Looks like the curse of Priest is back in full effect, anyway.  C+

FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE #6 - The JLA guest star, as they turn up to make sure that the Superbuddies don't completely screw things up and destroy the earth.  Final issue of the miniseries, and I'm perfectly happy to see that a sequel is already in the works.  Reassuringly, the series worked as more than just a reminder of how good the book was fifteen years ago; the approach still works, and it still makes the book unique on the shelves.  B+

PROMETHEA #28 - Reality starts to break down - or at least, the perception of reality does - and Alan Moore reaches into his bag of narrative tricks to reflect that with bizarre panel layouts and characters escaping the page.  Meanwhile, in the other half of the book, characters from the ABC universe turn up for a big final team-up as the title somehow strives to be simultaneously extremely weird and a semi-conventional superhero book.  Completely nuts, of course, but Moore and Williams do some of the most colourful apocalypses you can imagine.  A-

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #50 - This title actually launched in September 2000, but thanks to shipping eighteen issues a year, it's already up at its first anniversary.  Since that's guaranteed to bring in a few extra readers, Bendis and Bagley sensibly go for the first part of a new story, with the debut of the Black Cat.  I'm not entirely convinced by the costume - those bits of hair on the sleeves and legs always remind me more of horses - but it's a nice start for her.  They're going for the bad luck powers, by the way.  This is a double-sized issue, and that gives plenty of space for a nice extended break-in sequence.  Good as ever.  A-

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

Next week, plenty of material.  Uncanny X-Men #434 is the final chapter of "The Draco", so the light is at the end of the tunnel in more ways than one.  X-Treme X-Men #36 begins a four-part weekly storyline starring Storm.  (Although it won't actually be weekly, because two of the issues have already been delayed.)  And Ultimate X-Men #40 begins a new arc, "New Mutants", with the debut of Ultimate Angel.  Gosh, I hope he has healing blood.  It'd be such a shame to lose that.  Down in the second tier books, NYX #3 and New Mutants #8 are both shipping.  And there's also the first trade paperback of Greg Rucka's Wolverine, collecting "The Brothers."

back | continue