Also this week...

AMAZING FANTASY #7 - The new concept for Amazing Fantasy is that it's going to launch new characters in, er, six issue arcs.  The whole concept strikes me as hopelessly optimistic in the current market, and if it's going to serve that function, then six issues is way too long.  Nonetheless, this first issue of the Scorpion revamp actually isn't bad at all.  The plot is a little over-convenient - girl with superpowers discovers she's adopted, rushes off to investigate - but the lead character is well written, Leonard Kirk's art is solid, and it seems to have a reasonably solid grasp of where it wants to go.  I can't imagine who the target market is for a six-issue Amazing Fantasy storyline by unknown creators dedicated to launching an unknown new character who just happens to share the name of the Scorpion, but the actual product isn't bad at all.  B+

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #75 - Not in fact an anniversary issue, but part 4 of "Hobgoblin".  It doesn't seem like 75 issues, though.  Perhaps because it's so rare for a creative team to stick around that long, and perhaps because for the most part the quality control's been very high on this title.  It's certainly been the most consistent of the Spider-Man books over the last few years, and it helps that they get to do a version of Spider-Man who hasn't seen it all before.  He's just much more entertaining to read about.  The more I read of this book, the more convinced I become that the mainstream character has become a dead end - there's just nowhere else to go with him because he's done everything already.  Anyhow, this issue Bendis continues the slow burn on Harry Osborn with a nice piece of misdirection.  Spider-Man done right.  A

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art.

Next week, a new villain debuts in Ultimate X-Men #58.  Storylines come to a head as "Time Breakers" begins with Exiles #62.  "Underground" concludes in District X #12, and "Voodoo Economics" wraps up in Gambit #9.  X-Force: Shatterstar #3 is the penultimate issue of the series.  And X-Men: The End drones on into Book Two #2.

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