Also this week:

ASTRO CITY SPECIAL #1 - Astro City seems to have settled down into an occasional story here and there, but that's probably for the best.  No overexposure, this way.  This is a nice simple one - aging Silver Age hero is dragged out of retirement for one last fight.  And boy, is he old.  It's a cute twist on the "hero comes back for one last go" story, with the hero well aware that he's completely past it, and his loyal sidekick still living in better days.  Nice.  B+

DOCTOR SPECTRUM #1 - You know how they did the origin of Doctor Spectrum in Squadron Supreme?  Well, here it is again.  With more detail, to be fair, and doing more to establish how the link between Spectrum and his gem thingy actually works.  But basically, thus far it just seems to be an elaboration on a story we've already seen, interspersed with some flashbacks to Ledger's previous life (none of which comes as a tremendous surprise).  Okay for what it is, but you might have been expecting something a little more.  Nice art, admittedly.  B-

INVADERS #1 - Or New Invaders, as it says on the logo.  Is everything New these days at Marvel?  As with Invaders #0, it's glaringly obvious that writer Allan Jacobsen has some very different ideas about where he's going with these characters, compared with the direction that Chuck Austen was setting up.  You can almost hear the screech of tyres as the book lurches awkwardly to the left.  Not completely without promise, and perhaps it'll settle down once Jacobsen has finished redirecting the characters and hits his stride.  But this does not feel like the sort of blowaway first issue that would surely be needed to make an Invaders comic sell in 2004.  C

MANHUNTER #1 - Isn't this meant to be something to do with Identity Crisis?  Well, whatever.  It's one of those books where somebody gets overcome with righteous indignation over those evil liberals and sets out to kill people the way Jesus and Dubya intended.  The book seems to be equivocating somewhat about whether that's actually a good thing or not, which strikes me as introducing an attempt at moral greyness where none truly exists.  What we have here, essentially, seems to be a comic making a straight-faced argument for executing the mentally ill.  Ideal if you're a bloodthirsty Daily Mail reader, I suppose.  C+

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

Next week, Astonishing X-Men #4 continues "Gifted."  Excalibur #4 wraps up the opening storyline.  Mystique #18 concludes Sean McKeever's first storyline.  And X-Statix #26 brings that series to an end.

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