Also this week:

AMAZING FANTASY #13 - Another attempt to launch a new character, this time with Karl Kesel and Carmine di Giandomenico's Vegas.  It's a bit of a slog, frankly.  Essential back story is drip fed in flashbacks, and it's thoroughly unclear what the lead character is actually trying to achieve here, since he seems to be motivated by something the story deliberately doesn't actually explain.  Ultimately, the character comes off as a poor man's Gambit, which must be the last thing they wanted.  A Captain Universe back-up strip has a half-decent idea but far too little space and average, dated-looking art.  C

FANTASTIC FOUR & IRON MAN: BIG IN JAPAN #1 - Fans of advertising won't want to miss this fabulous collection of 2005-era promotional material.  Due to some sort of production error, pages of story have inadvertantly slipped into the publication, in which Zeb Wells and Seth Fisher attempt to do a charmingly batty piece about the FF and Iron Man teaming up to fight giant monsters in Japan.  Except it's Fisher, so the monsters are one part Godzilla to two parts children's toys and three parts psychedelic drugs.  The eventual trade paperback will probably be fabulous.  The serialised version is almost unreadable, offensively overpriced, and should be avoided like the plague.  It pains me to give such good work a negative rating - it would have been an A- if they'd packaged it in the same format as this week's $2.99 books.  But at this price and in this format I cannot in good conscience go any higher than C. 

FELL #2 - Another very strong story with Detective Richard Fell unravelling another bizarre murder in a warped city full of people who've read the same articles Warren Ellis has.  While Snowtown itself may be over the top, the story works because it's still got psychological credibility - you may not believe in Snowtown itself, but you believe there are people out there acting on horrifyingly bizarre beliefs.  Oh, and there are no adverts and it's cheap, so it must be fantastic.  A+

MARVEL MONSTERS: DEVIL DINOSAUR - The first of this month's monster-themed one-shots, and Eric Powell brings back Devil Dinosaur.  It doesn't fit with continuity at all, and the scale seems a bit dodgy, but who cares, it's a semi-comedy one-shot.  Two squabbling Celestials who never quite made it to the major leagues try to influence evolution on Earth.  Somehow, this ends up with Devil Dinosaur fighting the Hulk.  Great fun, which is all that really matters.  The back-up strip, rather cheekily announced as "the first appearance of the Hulk", is actually a reprint of Journey into Mystery #62's "I was a Slave of the Living Hulk!", the first appearance of Xemnu the Titan.  It's godawful in the sort of way that makes it fabulously entertaining for entirely unintended reasons.  B+

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art, and other stuff from me at If Destroyed.  

Next week, lots of House of M stuff.  House of M #7, delayed from 28 September, supposedly contains all sorts of important stuff (which would make a change).  Meanwhile, the tie-ins continue in Wolverine #34, Exiles #71 and Mutopia X #4.  Back in the real world - well, the slightly realer world - Cable & Deadpool #21 guest stars Power Man and Iron Fist, and "Magnetic North" continues in Ultimate X-Men #64.  And over in the trade paperbacks, X-Men gets a collection for "Bizarre Love Triangle."

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