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Also among this week's comics...
AVENGERS / THUNDERBOLTS #1
- If for some reason you're not interested in the ongoing
Avengers title, you get an alternative. This takes
us back to the original Thunderbolts, who were of course
unceremoniously booted out of their own title for a totally
misconceived reboot that sold even more badly than they had.
Had Nicieza stayed with the book, this is the direction it
would have gone in - Baron Zemo leading the Thunderbolts in a
slightly questionable crusade of interfering with sovereign
governments to make the world a better place. Or does he
have an ulterior motive? The post-Authority
fallout continues to have an influence on the superhero genre,
although one wonders whether the point of diminishing returns
hasn't set in by now. Still, it's a good solid superhero
book, and preferable to the parent title. B+
CEREBUS #300 - In which
Cerebus dies, alone and unloved. Well, you can't accuse
Sim of bait and switch tactics. Literally all that
happens in this book is that Cerebus dies, his life flashes
before his eyes and he ascends to the afterlife. If
you're not a fan of decompression, you'll really hate this,
since Sim devotes four silent pages to Cerebus falling off a
chair. But, fortunately, this final issue does show off
Sim's undeniable visual skills, as well as working in one
final twist to end the series. A
POWERS #37 - The book
wraps up its first volume by completing Christian Walker's
origin story and bringing us back full circle to where we
began three years ago. Bendis and Oeming have spent a
little longer on this whole arc than I might have liked, and
I'm looking forward to getting back to the regular stories.
But there's something strangely satisfying about the whole
thing, as it loops back to swallow its own tail in an odd sort
of incomplete closure. A-
STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES #20
- The first issue with exciting cover text - and in true, old
school fashion, the comic bears virtually no resemblance to
the cover. Post Coup d'Etat, the Authority are
running the USA and StormWatch have been disbanded. But
Santini has other sources of funding on the horizon. I'm
still entirely unconvinced about the wisdom of building the
whole line so thoroughly around a tired old property like the
Authority, which should have been put out to pasture several
years ago. The Authority are the villains in this book,
however, and it does kind of work. But I really don't
want to see this set up carry on for too long. B
On Monday, Article 10 looks back at
Cerebus over at
Ninth Art.
Next week, ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee. New X-Men #154 concludes Grant
Morrison's run.
Still, the rest of the line ploughs gamely
onwards. New Mutants #10 continues "The Ties That
Bind". Weapon X #19 begins a new storyline,
"Countdown to Zero", which I would guess is going to do
something about the languishing Agent Zero plot.
Wolverine #12 is a self-contained story guest starring the
X-Men. And "Prisoner of Fire" continues in X-Treme
X-Men #43.
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