Also among this week's comics...

CAPTAIN AMERICA #16 - Evidently not satisfied with his barndoor target status, Chuck Austen builds an extension to the barn and instals a larger door.  In fairness to Austen, this is a storyline he took over in progress from a writer, John Ney Reiber, who was doing less than stellar work on the book already - so heaven only knows what Austen's remit was when he took over the book.  Nonetheless, this concluding part of "Ice" only serves to confirm the story as incoherent garbage, as the story splutters to a halt by invoking a villain who isn't even in the art (not surprising, if you believe some of the rumours), and leaving a sprawl of dropped plots in its wake.  Truly diabolical, and a complete waste of artist Jae Lee.  This is one of those rare storylines so awful that I genuinely would love to know how on earth it came to be published at all; it reeks of backstage chaos.  D-

FILTH #12 - The penultimate issue, and Morrison finally gets around to those people from the comic book universe that were around months ago.  Meanwhile, the question of whether Greg is hallucinating or not - and if so to what extent - rears its head again.  I'm going to have to sit down and read the whole thing again in preparation for the final issue, because to be honest I'm starting to lose track of some of these plots; Morrison is reviving plot threads long thought resolved and unmentioned in ages, which makes it a bit of a tough read if you haven't got the history of the series committed to memory.  Still, fantastically absurd stuff.  B

INCREDIBLE HULK #59 - The final part of "Hide in Plain Sight", and Leandro Fernandez finally gets to draw the Absorbing Man in action - something eminently suited to his art.  I've been told that the reason Creel has suddenly developed mind-control powers in this storyline is simply because somebody in the film has similar abilities; not having seen the film, I wouldn't be able to tell.  In any event, no attempt is made to give an in-story explanation, which has to rate as a problem for this storyline.  Despite Bruce Jones' best efforts, I cannot comprehend why mind-control would come within the general concept of absorption on even the most charitable view.  Still, if you're prepared to be generous and overlook that problem, this has been a fairly entertaining arc, and a refreshing break from the usual convoluted conspiracy arcs.  B

PUFFED #2 - Bit of a change of pace this issue, as the hapless hero finds himself in a bar being told stories of love which are rather more down to earth than his own.  Somehow, though, this manages to avoid being a jarring shift of tone; the endearingly insane premise of trapping the lead character in a dragon costume for the entire series flips back and forth rather neatly between comedy and pathos.  This is turning into a really fun little book.  A-

SYN #1 - This is a book by Keith Giffen and Greg Titus for Dark Horse's Rocket imprint.  It's a post-apocalyptic world and with humanity long extinct, robots are running the place.  Following an unexplained edict to "know man", Syn is a robot who's become a little too enthralled by the concept - despite being one of the robots whose job is to hunt down other robots who are also a little too enthralled by the concept.  If you're following me.  Ah, the irony.  Accessibility has not been Giffen's strong point of late, especially when doing his own scripting - Suicide Squad, for example, was frequently impenetrable if you weren't heavily familiar with DC continuity, and I'm told it was a bit of a challenge even if you were.  This book more or less makes sense on the second read through, but boy, the first time is a real slog.  Thoroughly cryptic narratoin doesn't help: "Form equals function.  Form without function cannot hide.  Correction.  Form with independent function cannot hide."  I'm still only vaguely sure what this means.  There's an interesting idea in here but Giffen remains frustratingly obscure in his storytelling, and it doesn't help matters.  The art's a little lacking in clarity as well (that opening zoom-in page, for example, would work rather better if the objects being shown didn't seem to have undergone a redesign from panel to panel).  I want to like it, but honestly, I didn't get the sense that my considerable hard work was being repaid in entertainment.  C+

There's a new Article 10 up at Ninth Art.

Next week, Agent X resumes for its final three issues; Judd Winick returns in Exiles #31, and the underachieving but quite pretty Spider-Man / Wolverine miniseries continues.

New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants were all also meant to be shipping next week, but they've all been pushed back to the week after - which is now carrying ten X-books, seven of them rescheduled.  Seems a bit heavy.

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