Also this week...

BLACK PANTHER #55 - Ah, misdirection.  Counting the prologue, "Black and White" is now up to its sixth issue with no end in sight, and Christopher Priest continues to twist the plot in unexpected directions.  This is turning into an entertaining, meticulously plotted storyline, and it's a shame it didn't really achieve the intended aim of boosting sales.  A-

BLUE MONDAY: NOBODY'S FOOL - Two stories, set on different holidays.  Maybe I'm missing something, but why are they singing songs about Glasgow for St Patrick's Day?  Have we moved?  Anyhow, it's a typically entertaining teen comedy story, with the focus moving somewhat onto the supporting cast.  Chynna Clugston-Major's art has looked sharper, but Victor's goth phase is hilarious nonetheless.  B+

CAPTAIN AMERICA #10 - Jae Lee arrives on art, meaning that this title has now had an impressive three regular artists in ten issues.  And he gets to draw the tail-end of a story written by one writer and taken over by another.  Can you say "train wreck"?  Well, you will by the end of this story, which seems to be almost inviting mockery as it threatens to rewrite the death of Bucky and then unveils - I swear - an army of Captain America clones.  What a mess.  D

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHAT PRICE GLORY? #2 - Meanwhile, Bruce Jones and Steve Rude continue their rather more successful approach on the character.  The retro aspects of this story - complete with giant theme park statues of the Red Skull - fit the character just fine.  The character doesn't hold up well in the face of attempts at realism, but is more at home in the slightly camp excesses of this title.  It's not a particularly striking storyline, but it's certainly on the right lines in terms of the portrayal of the character.  B

FABLES #11 - A trip back to the American Civil War, and Jack appears in some American folklore.  It's an endearingly silly story about the inadvisability of getting rid of Death, which you've probably heard before.  Bill Willingham and Bryan Talbot do a fun rendition of it, and Talbot's walking dead animals strike the perfect balance between comedy and the grotesque.  B+

FILTH #9 - Slade is given another induction course, in an attempt to shake loose the Greg Feely persona, and explain the plot to bemused readers.  Morrison's metafictional interests rear their head again in a thoroughly odd manner, and Slade has a pleasant chat with a Gilbert and George painting.  And, of course, it turns out that the Hand aren't entirely sure what's going on either.  More beautifully illustrated lunacy as Morrison and Weston continue to keep up the quality.  A

H-E-R-O #2 - Okay, this is an improvement on the first issue, which I wasn't too keen on.  There's some amusing stuff here about Jerry's hamfisted attempts to become a superhero, and the depression angle isn't so overplayed.  The basic idea is that Jerry's powers don't work out the way he expects because the real world refuses to play along with superhero logic.  Nonetheless, I'm still not sufficiently interested in this character to want to follow him in an ongoing series.  B

INCREDIBLE HULK #51 - I'm starting to get the impression that Bruce Banner is the only character in this series who isn't a member of at least one conspiracy.  Bruce Jones continues to tease out his tangled plots, and Mike Deodato Jr is turning in excellent artwork - though I'm not too sure about his take on the Hulk himself, which seems a little out of keeping with the rest of the work.  B+

MIDNIGHT MOVER #1 - Another crime series from Oni, this time featuring a discharged Ranger framed for a murder, and the odd couple police officers assigned to the case.  Which is a terrible summary, because it makes it sound totally formulaic.  It's much better than that, thanks to strong characterisation and a fun sense of humour.  Well worth picking up.  A

RELOAD #1 - This is Warren Ellis and Paul Gulacy doing a series for Homage.  Ellis brings you hi-tech toys, conspiracies and terrorism on American soil.  Gulacy brings you an attractive woman in black leather.  This first issue is largely a massive, chaotic action sequence, pretty much the definition of hitting the ground running.  By the end of the story we seem to be getting more into JFK cover-up territory.  It's a fabulous sequence but perhaps doesn't leave all that much space to establish the characters.  Still a good first issue.  A-

STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES #9 - Oh god, Portacio's back.  He's actually not so bad this time round, but this still has to be a rare example of a series which is actually improved every time it runs fill-in art.  This month's story is one of those "powerful guy takes over town" routines, but Wright does a fairly effective take on it.  Plus, in the back-up strip, a preview of the new Authority series, which still shows absolutely no sign of understanding the point.  B+

ULTIMATES #9 - A warm welcome to the world for Ultimates #9, originally solicited for last October.  It's been a long pregnancy, and one that seems to have resulted in redialoguing to claim that Wanda and Pietro have in fact joined at some point, and have just phoned in sick today.  I now have no clue what the hell order these stories are meant to be happening in, or whether the Hulk's supposed to be gassed by default, or what.  Anyway, there's a very good confrontation between Steve Rogers and Hank Pym to start the issue, with Hitch doing great work on the sense of scale.  The second half is a solid enough build-up scene, but does pale in comparison.  B+

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

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Next week, New X-Men ties up "Riot at Xavier's"; there's two X-Men movie prequels; Soldier X staggers awkwardly towards cancellation; and X-Men: Ronin continues.

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