Also among this week's comics...

100% #5 - The end of Paul Pope's vaguely sci-fi Vertigo miniseries, although the story could really work in any setting.  Despite the scary cover price and delayed ending, this has been a great collection of stories about well rounded characters, well worth sticking with.  If Vertigo move with their usual lightning speed, the trade paperback should be out some time in 2004, so be sure to look out for it.  Quality stuff.  A

ALIAS #22 - A two-parter with Jessica's origin.  One of those Zelig routines where Jessica hangs around on the fringes of the Marvel Universe and nearly gets hit by two other characters' origins until fate finally manages to nail her with a suitably Silver Age-ish origin.  An odd combination of understated angst and retro pastiche, even down to the pre-yellowed pages.  Curious.  B+

CAPTAIN MARVEL #9 - Damn, I've missed an issue.  Anyone know if issue #8 was any good?  Anyway, this month Captain Marvel turns his attention to law and order.  It says something that Peter David had to overhaul the lead character this drastically to make him interesting, but the end result is perversely entertaining.  We now have a set-up where instead of being able to change places with a bland superhero, Rick Jones is perpetually saddled with the power to change places with a psychotic nihilist and self-proclaimed lunatic.  Who keeps talking to him.  Much darker than it used to be, but still funny.  B+

ELEKTRA #23 - Welcome to new creative team Robert Rodi and Sean Chen, who set about re-establishing the status quo - ie, forget everything you read in the Greg Rucka run.  We're back to Elektra as murderous force of nature which other characters are afraid of, and this amounts to a very well-choreographed power demo issue.  Given that it's trying to clear the decks, I'll allow an issue like this once in a while.  Fine for what it is.  B

FILTH #10 - Maxwell Shatt decides to become a superhero.  Since he's a Morrison character, he pumps himself full of drugs and garbled Buddhism, and renames himself Max Thunderstone - the man whose mind is so powerful, you can literally see the thoughts in little bubbles over his head.  Yes, we've been here before with Flex Mentallo, and I'm sure Morrison's well aware of that.  Doesn't stop it being more fabulously insane entertainment.  A

SHADES OF BLUE #1 - This has been around for a while in the small press, but it's getting a new issue #1 because it's moved to Digital Webbing.  It's a high school superhero book, and a pretty good one - it would benefit from being in colour, to be honest, but there's not much to be done about budgetary limitations.  Strong characters and a simple but effective concept; pretty good, all told.   A-

VENOM #1 - Or alternatively you could just read the solicitations, since there's more plot in there.  Venom's in the Arctic.  He's killing people.  At least we assume he is, because the killer's off panel, in what looks like an utterly bizarre attempt to build tension around the big reveal of the guy who's on the cover.  Not sure about the choice of Francisco Herrera on art, either.  Venom's oddball character design requires an artist whose style is skewed enough to accommodate him but still gives the rest of the world a more baseline look for him to stand out against; Herrera's style starts at warped and works up from there.  We'll see how it works when Venom finally turns up, I suppose.  Not a good start.  C+

Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art.

UK National Comics Awards, blah blah blah, website, blah blah blah, X-Axis and Ninth Art, etc.  You know the drill by now.  Only two weeks to go, so be sure to vote.

Next week, the long-delayed Domino miniseries begins, if anyone even remembers it being announced in the first place.  Plus, X-Men Unlimited #46.  Due next week but not on the shipping list are Ultimate X-Men and the Mangaverse series X-Men: Phoenix - but that's no guarantee that they won't turn up.

Only two weeks until the scheduled relaunch of Wolverine and the return of New Mutants, which is probably more interesting, if we're being honest.

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