Also this week:

FIRESTORM #1 - Not a character that I'm enormously interested in, to be honest, but this is a perfectly good first issue origin story.  Teenager Jason Rusch takes a courier job for a somewhat questionable acquaintance in order to pay off his debts, and inexplicably turns into Firestorm thanks to one of those happy coincidences that you can get away with in origin stories.  Surprisingly decent, actually, as Dan Jolley does a good job of fleshing out Jason's character and giving him a detailed and believable relationship with his father.  Art is from ChrisCross, who's always enjoyable.  B+

PIRATE CLUB #2 - The first issue of this book had the characters as kids delusionally swept up in their fantasy world.  This issue gets rather darker - they inadvertently manage to kill someone, and still charge gamely on with their inexplicable pirate fantasies.  Meanwhile, the adults don't seem too much saner, and the Pirate Club embark on a scheme to enslave the local Bible Club.  Completely nuts, and strangely compelling.  A-

SERENITY ROSE #3 - Yes, I know it came out a few weeks ago, but I... uh, didn't notice.  This issue, Serenity is besieged by the media after conjuring up an eight-foot pony to eat a drugged-up vampire.  Characteristically, she sits quietly in a corner and hopes the plot will go away.  I really ought to hate this book, since not much happens and it's worryingly goth.  But it's very funny indeed, and really charming.  I'm going to keep banging on about it until people actually start buying it, you know.  A

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #58 - Hmm, all the Spider-Man film stuff seems to have fallen completely by the wayside.  That'll be the contractual obligation finished with, then.  Back to the ongoing storylines, as Spider-Man spends an entire issue getting back home from Brazil (which will infuriate the anti-decompression brigade, but in this case they're wrong, because it's fantastic).  And Gwen Stacy does something very important to the plot which I kind of wish wasn't stuck in a storyline with the movie tie-in.  But there you go.  B+

There's another Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art.

Next week, Reload continues.  District X launches, giving Bishop another shot at an ongoing series.  Weapon X #23 guest stars Wolverine and Fantomex.  Sean McKeever takes over Mystique with issue #14.  And Emma Frost just carries on with business as usual.

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