Also among this week's comics...

CEREBUS #293 - I don't know why I keep punishing myself by reading this.  But then again, the end is only seven issues away.  It would be such a shame to stop now, wouldn't it?  This issue, Cerebus is prevented from enjoying a visit from his son thanks to the paranoia of militant feminists (a subject which, you'll recall, Sim promised to stop writing about several years ago).  Mind you, Cerebus is at least dying alone, unmourned and unloved, so that part of the story is preserved.  The story runs to 20 pages; yet another continuation of the essay "Why Canada Slept" runs to 28 pages of interminable small print.  If I were a diligent reviewer, I would bother reading it.  But more importantly, I am a human being who is not insane, and therefore I will not waste my time reading it in full.  A random skim of page 2 reveals that Canadian policy suffers from "Marxist-feminist extremism."  No doubt this will ring true to all those suffering under the forced labour regimes of the Manitoba tampon collectives.  Honestly, is there any point to reading this comic any more, other than to obtain ammunition with which to mock the mentally ill?  B-

DAREDEVIL #51 - David Mack arrives for a new storyline, and kicks off with an issue that amounts to a one-issue monologue summarising the history of Echo.  It is, of course, beautiful.  On the other hand, it raises my hackles by spending several pages rhapsodising about the glory of visual storytelling.  Why can't comics artists just prove how good they are instead of droning on about it?  I'm fed up of reading comics about how good comics are.  The very fact that people seem to feel the need to keep producing them is, if anything, testimony to how few people agree.  Anyway, if you can ignore the tedious promotion of the medium (even the converted can be bored by preaching), it is undeniably a very well put together monologue.  I am open to persuasion as to whether it actually constitutes a comic.  B+

THOR #68 - This is the prologue to "The Reigning"; last issue, readers will recall, Asgard fell down onto New York and obliterated the city.  Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that we're heading for a reset button storyline?  The fact that this storyline picks up in 2020 only fuels my suspicions.  That said, Dan Jurgens' curent writing on Thor is far and away the most interesting stuff he's done in years - and now that the book has completely parted company with Marvel continuity, at least we don't have to worry about it being reined in.  I still can't quite believe Jurgens is writing this stuff, to be honest.  This issue, Asgard has quietly conquered the world, and humans complain about Thor's abuse of the register of births.  Now there's a story I never thought I'd see.  B+

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

Next week, Emma Frost #3, New X-Men #146 and Ultimate X-Men #37.  Nice quiet week, then.

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