Also this week... well, there's Dark Tower #1, but I didn't buy it.  Yes, yes, I normally buy any new series in order to review it.  But with the best will in the world, I can't begin to tell you how little Stephen King interests me, and the sheer scale of hype for this book has brought out my contrarian streak.  I genuinely don't have the faintest interest in reading it, so I didn't bother. 

Sounds like the Stephen King fans enjoyed it, though, and the preview art looks very sleek, so I'm sure it's just fine if you're into that sort of thing.  There's been less discussion of it than I was expecting in the usual comics circles, mind you.  Perhaps that's a good thing, if it means that all those copies were sold outside the hardcore fanbase.

By the way, my favourite Marvel feature of the week is the house ad for Civil War, which proudly proclaims "Civil War is intriguing because of its pointed, albeit allegorical exploration of a question that faces us in the present era of surveillance, detention and the Patriot Act."  That's a quote taken from the Miami Herald, no doubt reviewing the series before the berserker cyborg clone of the Norse god Thor showed up.  Perhaps he symbolises Bill O'Reilly.

Now, then... 

FELL #7 - Another book that seems to have drifted off any kind of regular schedule, but since it only does self-contained stories, it doesn't really matter.  This is an interview room story with Fell thinking that he's nailed a murderer, only to find that the case isn't prosecutable.  I'm not sure this one really works.  The central message is garbled.  Basically (and this is a spoiler), the kid gets off because he was out of his head on drugs, which he hadn't taken intentionally.  We're apparently meant to take it that it's a terrible injustice that he gets off with murder because he was drugged at the time but... er, why?  Seems a perfectly reasonable outcome to me.  Yes, Fell creates needless problems for himself by telling the defence about the drugs issue - but he'd be obliged to disclose something so obviously relevant anyway, and besides, wouldn't the kid already know?  So, er, no, this doesn't work for me.  It wants me to believe that I'm witnessing a terrible injustice, and I just don't see how that's a tenable reading of the facts of the story.  B-

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #17 - Well, this is an odd piece of scheduling.  The first "Back in Black" Spider-Man book comes out with the storyline already underway, and dancing politely around the question of what's going on.  Meanwhile, Peter David bravely attempts to plough on with his story about the Sandman and the duplicate Ben Parker, and to make some use of Spider-Man's supporting cast.  This is a deeply frustrating book, because the overwhelming impression is that it would be 300% better if it wasn't struggling with the Big!  Sweeping!  Unexpected!  Events! thrust on it by other titles in the line.  Even as it is, it's not bad at all, but there's a much better comic in here struggling to get out.  B

NEW AVENGERS #27 - The first issue with the new line-up.  Of course, Civil War is still going, but this issue gets round that problem by just leaving the formation of the new team as a mystery to be addressed in future issues.  It's basically an Echo solo issue for the most part, picking up on the Ronin storyline from a year or so back.  Now, I've not been greatly impressed by most of Bendis' Avengers stories, but this is a definite step up.  Great art from Leinil Francis Yu, plenty of action, decent story, cool bit at the end when the new Avengers show up.  I have no problem with this at all.  Pleasant surprise.  B+

OTHER SIDE #5 - The concluding issue of Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart's Vertigo miniseries about Vietnam.  The high concept of this series was to follow two ordinary soldiers on either side of the Vietnam War as they make their way across the country to their inevitable meeting in the final issue.  The American soldier is a conscript from Alabama who hasn't a clue why he's there, and who's going steadily mad from the word go.  His Vietnamese counterpart is an determined patriot from the middle of nowhere, trudging across the country and being faced with increasingly incontrovertible evidence of the insanity of the mission.  This could have been unbearably miserable, but Aaron and Stewart hit the right tone to avoid that.  The final meeting of the two characters in the final issue isn't quite what I'd expected, but it's all the better for that.  A very good series.  A

UNCANNY X-MEN #483 - Part nine of twelve, and another Vulcan solo story.  This one has to explain how Vulcan goes from a crazed anti-Shi'ar fanatic who flew halfway across the universe to take revenge, to a loyal soldier in D'Ken's army.  To say this was a difficult trick to pull off would be putting it mildly, and I don't think it comes off.  Up to now, Vulcan's been defined almost exclusively by two things: his admiration for the X-Men in the flashback scenes of Deadly Genesis, and his vengeful bitterness towards the X-Men and the Shi'ar in his modern-day appearances.  And now he's suddenly doing a flip-flop because he's tied in with Deathbird.  The idea about him wanting revenge on D'Ken isn't entirely dropped, but still, it's a heck of a turnaround.  I hesitate to use the words "too quick" about a twelve-part story, but Vulcan's been off-scren for most of the storyline, and I don't think this has been set up as a believable direction for the character.  And now I'm left wondering just what this guy's personality is meant to be - and not in a good way.  B-

X-23: TARGET X #3 - Continuing X-23's origin story, and the series seems to be leaping all over the place in time.  A fair chunk of this issue is given over to a flashback involving the Kingpin that doesn't seem to have much to do with anything, and I can't help but detect the faint but unmistakeable whiff of space being filled.  Still, at least it's being filled entertainingly, and the art remains gorgeous (though there's a noticeable tendency to babyface the male characters, which looks very odd on a couple of them).  The main story teeters on the brink of contrivance, to put it mildly, but X-23's such a weird character to start with that I can accept her stories being a little odd.  It all fits nicely with the tone of the character.  The series could probably have done with some fat being trimmed, but overall, this is ticking along nicely.  B+

There's more from me at If Destroyed - now updating daily, you know - and if you're desperate for more Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth Art.

Next week, it's Astonishing X-Men #20, rescheduled from 20 December 2006.  Marvel have quietly rescheduled the following two issues for 2 May and 4 July, so the book is drifting way off schedule again.  But really, who still cares about Astonishing X-Men anyway?

Back in the realms of books that (shock, horror) actually come out, Chris Claremont's return continues with New Excalibur #16 and Exiles #91.  Wolverine goes after his son in Wolverine: Origins #11.  New X-Men #35 is still digging into X-23's back story.  And Ultimate X-Men #79 brings in the Ultimate Shadow King, as we cross our fingers and hope that Robert Kirkman gets back on track after some very shaky issues.

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