Also among this week's comics...

COUP D'ETAT: WILDCATS V3.0 - In which we bump up against the obvious problem with this crossover.  It's trying to find a role for all of the Eye of the Storm books whether they like it or not.  And then, having found that role, it proceeds to ignore them completely for the remainder of the crossover.  So Sleeper's cast turned up in episode 1 and were then forgotten; StormWatch's cast turned up in episode 2 and were then forgotten; and now WildCATS pop their heads round the door before deciding that, on balance, they can't be bothered doing anything because it'll probably all sort itself out.  On one level it's a refreshingly odd thing for the lead characters to do in a crossover.  On the other hand, it does make you wonder what the hell the point of the issue is, when it boils down to the WildCATS declining to do anything (other than give the Authority a polite talking-to).  Art isn't up to the fairly high standards that have been set on the monthly title, either.  C+

KISS KISS BANG BANG #2 - Worth flagging up because it's written by Tony Bedard, who's joining the X-books soon as the new writer on Exiles.  This curious retro-Bond title takes an oddball hybrid of the two approaches to Bond.  On the one hand, as in the books, he's a psychopathic bastard.  On the other, he's surrounded by the sixties chic of Avengers, which is more in keeping with the films.  It's not exactly subtle, and often plays the jokes a little bit too broadly.  But it's frequently genuinely funny, and it's beautifully drawn Mike Perkins.  B+

PIRATE CLUB #1 - A new book from Slave Labor Graphics, as cartoonist Derek Hunter takes us back to the faintly delusional childhood days of taking utterly banal clubs with deadly earnest.  As Hunter admits, he didn't actually do anything much along these lines when he was a kid, and there's a certain sense that this is the way everybody remembers other people's childhood - as Hunter says, "stories we will never be able to tell our kids because we never left the house."  But it's very funny, particularly in the way the kids take their hopeless and borderline nonexistent Pirate Club far more seriously than it could conceivably merit.  A-

THE PULSE #1 - Alias reinvented as an all-ages title, although it's perhaps fairer to describe it as a Daily Bugle book which happens to feature the cast of Alias.  For all that he's seen as a "New Marvel" writer, in fact Brian Bendis is one of the more fervent supporters of the Marvel Universe these days, much more likely than most writers to bring in characters from other titles.  Pulse should, in theory, allow him to play with the whole playpen in a way that wasn't possible with Alias (because certain major players aren't allowed to appear in mature readers books - Spider-Man for example).  It's a set-up issue, which means plenty of Bendis dialogue.  And of course, that's a good thing.  I have no clue what the hell is going on with the last page, which is either a badly botched cliffhanger or a printing error - if that's meant to be glare, it really doesn't look right at all, and why devote an entire splash page to a card you can't read when you could just not show it at all?  The ending's a mess, but otherwise it's a good start.  B

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

Next week, fairly quiet.  Mystique #11 is the first half of the two-part "Maker's Mark."  Wolverine/Captain America concludes (so at least it was quick).  And X-Statix #19 finally moves past the Diana debacle.  Plus, if you're reading the trades, there's X-Treme X-Men vol 7, which collects last December's Arena storyline.

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