Also this week...

NEW AVENGERS & TRANSFORMERS #1 - Exactly what it says on the tin.  The New Avengers (pre Civil War) meet the 1980s version of the Transformers that everyone of a certain age remembers from their childhoods, and some fighting ensues.  It's a very old school superhero book which seems a little at odds with Brian Bendis' roster, and I can only assume it's intended principally to attract Transformers fans.  In fact, the Fantastic Four might have been a better bet - as an old-school team with an interest in weird alien stuff, they'd match rather better in both tone and plot.  But we've got the Avengers and... yeah, it's alright.  It's a New Avengers/Transformers book, and it's competently done.  Nobody would really expect much more.  B-

PUNISHER PRESENTS BARRACUDA #5 - Or, to give it its inexplicable full title (which appears in the solicitations and the indicia, but not the cover), "Punisher Presents Barracuda Max".  Not that you'll need any help to be reminded that this is a Max book, since it's typical Garth Ennis black comedy - gloriously tasteless and over the top.  Actually, if you compare it to the other Ennis book out this week - Chronicles of Wormwood #5 - it's positively restrained.  But Ennis benefits from having somebody rein in his more puerile excesses just a little bit, and Barracuda turns out to be better as an anti-hero in a broad comedy than he was in the deadly serious monthly Punisher title.  A success.  A

There's more from me at If Destroyed, and if you're desperate for more Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth Art.

Next week, Bishop finally unveils his new team in Ultimate X-Men #84.  The Isolationist arrives in X-Factor #21.  Chris Claremont fans get to enjoy both Exiles #96 and New Excalibur #21.  And for a change of pace, there's the Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular.  That's GLI for "Great Lakes Initiative", if you were wondering. 

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