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Also this week...
ALIAS #17 - "The
Underneath", part 2, and it's more guest appearances for the
supporting cast of Spider-Woman. Still seems a
strange book to reference, but there you go. Some
amusing use of Madame Web here, although I'm not wild about
the heavyhanded "Jessica has a dark and disturbing past"
routine. Pretty good nonetheless. B+
CALL OF DUTY: THE BROTHERHOOD
#6 - My god, this book has completely lost the plot.
The supposed ongoing series has still not been solicited and
if there's any justice, Marvel might still think twice about
it. Anyhow, lots of burning, lots of nonsense about
canisters of gas, and nobody really cares. D+
CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 - The
Kree come to invade a planet and find that Captain Marvel's
got there first. Sets up the new costume and direction
for the character which, at long last, is based around his own
history rather than just using him as a straight man for Rick
Jones. On the minus side, he's not all that exciting a
character, but there's still some decent material in here.
B+
DOOM PATROL #15 - Cliff
leaves the group and everything turns to chaos. Again.
As usual, there's enough here to keep me entertained, but I
never really feel particularly engaged by any of the
characters. It's alright, but it never really seems to
click. B-
ELEKTRA #17 - Elektra
waits for her new sensei to agree to take her in. Which
means we get a front cover of Elektra in the rain, with her
top apparently spray-painted directly onto her tits.
God, I loathe Greg Horn's covers for this series. It's
not even as if they're helping sales any. Here we have a
good solid character-based story, and the cover makes it look
like a fifth-rate soft porn book. I'm embarrassed to be
seen in public which this thing, I really am. Which is a
shame, since the content is great. A-
JACK STAFF #11 - More
over-the-top retro-heroics, with the origin of the Claw (an
idea straight out of B-movie horror) and Charlie Raven doing
the man-out-of-time routine. Paul Grist's gloriously
absurd pile-up of genre ideas remains as thoroughly enjoyable
as ever, and hopefully the upcoming move to Image will help it
to build a new audience. A-
MARVEL DOUBLE-SHOT #2 -
Christopher Priest and Paolo Rivera do a rather decent
character piece for Dr Doom, marred somewhat by dialogue
that's just a little too melodramatic. Meanwhile, Loki
vexes the Avengers in the style of the Simpsons, in an amusing
throwaway by Bill Morrison that bizarrely looks like it might
actually be in continuity. B
THOR #57 - Pin-up time, as
Volstagg tells a rather implausible Thor story that seems to
have been lifted from the pre-Crisis Superman, and assorted
artists chip in with splash pages. Not the best way of
telling a story, but Kaare Andrews, Bill Sienkiewicz and P
Craig Russell are always welcome. B
ULTIMATE DAREDEVIL & ELEKTRA
#2 - Daredevil hangs around vaguely in the background,
while Elektra becomes disillusioned with the legal system
(thus setting up a nice clash with Matt) in the second part of
her origin story. A little misleading to promote it as a
Daredevil story, but never mind, because it's still a good
solid story. A-
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #32 -
Spider-Man beats up his impostor, and his personal life
continues to run into problems. Business as usual,
basically, but the regular standard is perfectly good on this
book. B+
VERTIGO POP: LONDON #2 -
Selling abysmally, it seems, which is a great shame, since
Peter Milligan's story of an aging rocker trying to regain his
youth - or rather, steal someone else's - is a great little
comedy-drama that should go down well with a wide audience.
Good fun stuff. A
Another Article 10 column will be up on
Monday at
Ninth Art.
Next week... um, Mekanix.
Which is all that was solicited for next week, so they're
still running to schedule.
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