Also this week:

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #2 - Okay, Bart Sears has got to go.  I suffered through issue #1 with relative tolerance, but this is almost unreadable.  Remember back when Christopher Priest was writing Deadpool, and there was an issue where the artist had drawn a big picture of Deadpool down the side of the page for no reason?  And Priest dialogued the page with that figure delivering a monologue about how shit the artist was for wasting space on such obvious crap?  Well, in this book, that crap is all over the place. When did Bart Sears lose the plot, exactly?  Wasn't he popular, several years ago?  Didn't he understand at one point how to draw a comic?  This is a decent script.  It is, however, an almost unreadable comic, thanks to Bart Sears.   I was one of the minority of reviewers last month who was prepared to look past the art to the story.  I was wrong.  This is just incredibly annoying.  What the fuck does Sears think he's doing?  Why aren't Marvel sending this crap back to be re-drawn?  Does anyone actually like the art in this book?  I hate to give Priest a bad review for a decent piece of writing, but god, this is painful to read.  C

DESPERATE TIMES #1 - This is the third issue #1 for Chris Eliopoulos' web comic, although he sheepishly admits on the letters page that it's also the final issue, since he's planning to concentrate on other things.  The usual concerns of web comics apply - it's got some great jokes, and Eliopoulos has a nice touch when it comes to delivering his gags.  On the other hand, it doesn't really work as a book in its own right - these collections seem somehow more comfortable as paperbacks than as pamphlet-format issues.  Fun, though.  B+

MY FAITH IN FRANKIE #4 - The final issue of Mike Carey and Sonny Liew's screwball supernatural romance comic, and if you haven't been buying this, You Are Wrong.  This being a DC book, the trade paperback will doubtless be out some time in the next three years.  Try and remember that the comic exists, and buy it then.  Alternatively, see if you can hunt the issues down, because it's fantastic.  One of the best things Carey has done.  A

PUNISHER: THE END - Garth Ennis and Richard Corben cover the final Punisher story in a one-shot (not, you'll notice, a six-issue mini such as Wolverine is getting, or a bloated one-year-plus story like the X-Men).  Simple, direct, effective.  Having survived nuclear apocalypse thanks to the bunker in his jail, the Punisher emerges one last time to get rid of the bastards in the bunker down the road.  Brilliantly done, this really is the essence of the character - at least in Ennis' interpretation, but Ennis' version is by far the most interesting.  Fantastic.  A

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

Next week, Emma Frost #10 continues "Mind Games."  New Mutants #11 finally slinks out, racing to complete its schedule before Reload.  Ultimate X-Men #44 has the penultimate chapter of "New Mutants."  "Countdown to Zero" concludes in Weapon X #21.  Bishop and Jubilee star in X-Men Unlimited #2.  X-Statix #21 begins the Marvel Knights run with a new storyline guest starring the Avengers (because you don't get much more edgy than that).  And "Prisoner of Fire" concludes in X-Treme X-Men #45.

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