Also this week:

IRON MAN #89 - Final issue of the series, and the end of the Avengers Disassembled crossover.  I use the term "crossover", of course, in the loosest possible sense.  Marvel have overplayed their hand badly with this one, producing a string of alleged "crossover" arcs which have in fact boosted sales, but may leave a lot of those new readers wondering whether they've been had, since the actual relationship to the core Avengers plot is slim or none.  Spectacular Spider-Man has nothing at all to do with Avengers Disassembled; Thor was thematically linked, if you're going to be charitable; both Captain America titles at least mentioned that it was happening, but had no actual interaction with it; and hilariously, the tie-in in Fantastic Four is simply that the Avengers aren't around any more, so the authorities phone the FF instead.  Iron Man was one of the stronger ones, since at least there was some reference to Avengers Disassembled in the first chapter, but the actual story arc is entirely unconnected.  I'm not saying I want to see actual, interlinking crossovers - god forbid - but I really question the wisdom of publishing stories which are plainly and obviously not crossovers, and labelling them as such in order to get a cheap sales boost.  There is a trust issue.  And this sort of thing damages trust.  Anyway, this rather awkward arc turns out to serve the purpose of hitting the reset button on Iron Man's status quo - he's back with the company, and he's claiming that there's somebody else in the armour again.  Not very well done, a jarring shift of art style doesn't help, and it reads like a shopping list of transitional changes to the status quo rather than a story.  C+

LORE #4 - This came out a couple of weeks back, but I figured it's worth flagging up.  Ashley Wood is not to everyone's taste, but this collaboration with co-writer TP Louise has got a nice little story going on - a strong concept about an amateurishly organised network who are meant to be keeping the leylines in order, but seem to be largely a bunch of poseurs who rely on not much actually happening.  It's a mixture of prose and comics, and it's easy to imagine a lot of readers being rather annoyed by this particular issue - it contains a seven-page framing sequence and a forty-page short story.  But it's a good one, and I'm not complaining.  A-

MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #7 - You know, this is growing on me.  There are still some grating bits - how many times is Millar going to use this "downtrodden loser gets powers and goes on rampage" schtick? - but if it's an idea he overuses, at least it's one that's right for the character.  Spider-Man is the mirror image of Millar's usual stereotype, a downtrodden loser who got superpowers and was still a downtrodden loser.  I'm not entirely convinced about the wisdom of creating a second Venom - the new character seems one-dimensional, but I suppose the Eddie Brock character has been ridden into the ground by now, and Venom is one of those characters where you can legitimately plug somebody else into the role.  Symbiote plus anyone equals Venom, and perhaps this'll freshen him up as a villain.  I know it's flawed, but I'm kind of getting into this.  A-

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

Next week is another ridiculously heavy one.  Cable & Deadpool #8 continues the story formerly known as "The Passion of the Cable."  Gambit #3 inches on with the painfully slow opening arc.  Madrox #2 should be a high point for the week.  New X-Men #6 wraps up its first storyline.  The Official Handbook covers Wolverine.  Rogue #4 has more wandering around Mississippi.  Sabretooth #2 continues the miniseries, which was actually quite promising on the strength of the first issue.  Uncanny X-Men #451 is the second half of the X-23 storyline.  And X-Men Unlimited #5 has some Wolverine stories, to tie in with the anniversary arc.

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