Also this week:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #2 - You know, this is really rather good.  I'm not entirely sold on the low light, moody visuals - it's Captain America, for god's sake, he's wearing a brightly-coloured jumpsuit - but it's a damn good superhero comic.  After swerving the audience at the end of issue #1 by bumping off the Red Skull, Brubaker deals with the fallout this issue.  And for once, the heroes remember that they've been here a million times before, and just plain aren't convinced.  Meanwhile, the Skull's henchmen go into headless chicken mode.  Very good stuff.  A-

FANTASTIC FOUR: FOES #1 - Yet another character-diluting miniseries.  Supposedly this is meant to be a miniseries looking at various characters from the FF's rogue's gallery, but it's really just another FF book.  And we've already got three of them.  Awkward-looking art doesn't help.  Not completely awful, but it does nothing to justify its existence.  Between this, Jubilee, Marvel Knights 2099 and Marvel Team-Up, Robert Kirkman's Marvel work has been awfully disappointing, compared to what we know he's capable of.  C

INCREDIBLE HULK #77 - Peter David returns to the book, for a five-part storyline which was originally going to be published as the Tempus Fugit miniseries - no doubt up to the point where Marvel realised that the previous Hulk miniseries had actually cost them sales.  It's a solid enough start, although I honestly have no idea what's meant to be happening on the last couple of pages, which rather undermines the cliffhanger.  Lovely art from Lee Weeks, though, who's well matched with this character.  B+

NEW AVENGERS #2 - Ehh.  My head says it's getting better, but I just don't care.  Bendis just doesn't seem to have the knack for this sort of story - big events happen, and yet somehow seem completely undramatic.  When you unmask Spider-Man in front of a horde of villains, and kill Carnage, and it still seems completely inconsequential... something's just not right.  There's no pace, there's no rise and fall, just an endless tiresome hammering, and the bits that are meant to matter get lost in the crowd.  C

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

Next week, District X #9 continues "Underground"; Gambit #6 finally finishes the over-extended first arc; the delayed New X-Men #8 continues the ghost story; and X23's origin miniseries gets underway.

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