Also this week...

ALIAS #20 - The team-up you've all been waiting for - Jessica Jones and the original Spider-Woman.  Plus, another character who you wouldn't expect to see in this series in a million years turns up at the end.  This horde of minor superheroes really ought to be staggeringly out of place in a mature readers comic, but somehow they feel perfectly at home in Alias.  A-

CAPTAIN MARVEL #6 - Erm... crikey.  Since the last issue, Captain Marvel has destroyed the universe, in one of those minor pieces of plot development which could be helpfully skipped over.  This issue starts off looking like it's going to hit the reset button, but just when I think we've hit the end of the storyline, suddenly wrongfoots me entirely and goes into a recursive loop instead.  I now have no clue where this is heading.  And that's always a good thing.  B+

FANTASTIC FOUR: UNSTABLE MOLECULES #3 - Johnny Storm becomes involved with beat poets, much to the annoyance of his young friend.  This series has been an excellent set of character studies, although the point of the gimmick - the "real" people on whom the Fantastic Four were based - remains elusive.  The first elements of explanation appear in this issue, though, as the narration starts off by more or less admitting that the gimmick is false.  Stands up as a series in its own right, though, even without the metafiction explained.  A-

FIGHT FOR TOMORROW #5 - A whole load of fighting, as the story builds up to its climax.  And really, it leans a little heavily towards action sequences.  But I love the artwork on this title, so I can't complain too much about the weighting.  Gorgeous cover from Jo Chen, by the way.  B-

FIREBREATHER #3 - Well, we get the idea by now - Duncan isn't entirely at home either in the normal world or with his father.  Dad gets a somewhat more sympathetic showing this time round, although because they're determined to give him an alien worldview, he's inevitably going to come across as vaguely villainous or at least nuts.  I really want them to get around to doing a story about the marriage.  That's potentially wonderful material.  Anyhow, there's a slightly obvious "teen suicide, don't do it" subplot here, but the book just about gets away with it.  Solid teen superheroics.  B+

POWERS #29 - Superman has gone nuts and is attacking the world.  Our heroes consider what they can do about it, and come up with the inevitable answer of "nothing at all".  Unexpected territory for this series to be getting into - it's somewhat the same area as early Authority with its undertone of "It just so happens that they're nice people, but what would you do if they weren't?"  This seems a bit at odds with the police procedural side of the book, since it feels like events have long since passed the point where the lead characters could do anything about it, but it's still a good issue.  A-

PROMETHEA #25 - The competing Prometheas appear before King Solomon to decide who will get the role.  Guess the ending and win a prize.  This would probably work better as a pay-off if the other Promethea's role had been allowed to develop beyond brief cameos, which is pretty much how it ended up during the lengthy lectures-on-magic phase.  Still pretty good, though, and the art is typically excellent.  It looks like the book is shifting back to a more story-based approach, which is good news.  B+

THOR #61 - Thor is invited to the council of elder gods, to decide whether he's worthy or not.  At this point we get into a riff on why it is bad for gods to help people, which is all very well if you're religious and need to explain why god allows suffering.  I'm an atheist, so at this point I lose interest and start wondering what's on TV, since it's a totally academic question to me.  Fine as far as it goes.  B-

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

Don't forget to vote in the UK National Comics Awards at their website.  The X-Axis and Ninth Art are both eligible for the website awards.  As the BBC say, other voting options are also available.

If you're desperate for more reviews of any sort, visit my Livejournal.  Posted on Saturday, you'll find an extended dissertation on the first episode of Reborn in the USA.  If people like it, I might do more TV reviews.  Haven't decided yet.

Next week, Mekanix concludes; Ultimate X-Men #30; and a fill-in story in Wolverine.  X-Men Unlimited #43 is solicited for next week, so it might turn up as well.

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