Also this week...

AUTOMATIC KAFKA #7 - Kafka is reunited with his old enemy Galaxian, a man who has a galaxy for a head.  (Is Casey exchanging notes with Morrison again?)  Meanwhile, the Constitution of the United States decides to enter the porn industry.  Nuts as ever, albeit that the book is becoming increasingly straightforward in terms of its storytelling.  The ideas are bizarre, the presentation is getting more mainstream.  B+

BATGIRL #37 - Another story about Batgirl's relationship with David Cain, transposed onto some people she happens to meet who happen to form an obvious analogy.  A little bit convenient, to put it mildly, but perfectly good if you can look past that point.  B

HELLBLAZER #181 - Demons chase John Constantine through London in a one-act action story.  And a very good one - a nice twist halfway through, and it lets Carey re-establish the idea that this series is emphatically about London.  Oh, and if those marking are permanent, that'll really annoy any future artist who has to draw Constantine topless...  A-

INVINCIBLE #2 - Invincible meets up with some other local superheroes and joins their team.  Uh-huh.  Well, it's fun, it's got likeable characters, it's got attractive art, but this is one of the Image superhero books which is way too close to being generic, unfortunately.  A shame, since while it's short on originality, it does do the old standards quite well.  B

LUCIFER #35 - The concluding half of "Come to Judgment", and a closing twist that I can't believe I didn't spot a mile away.  God, I'm dumb sometimes.  Not sure about the re-use of the old "kill the first thing you see" myth, which is just a little bit too well known for these purposes, but basically another good issue.  B+

PUNISHER #22 - And here's the conclusion of the "Brotherhood" storyline, one of Garth Ennis' rare straight Punisher stories.  That's largely because it isn't really a Punisher story at all, it's a cop story that he's tried to shoehorn into the series.  There's a sort of link to the Punisher in the theme of the difficulty of working within the rules, but really Frank's too extreme an example for that link to stand up to close scrutiny.  Nonetheless, it's been a good character piece, even if the presence of the lead character didn't add all that much to it.  A-

QUEEN & COUNTRY #14 - The SIS are called in to deal with industrial blackmail by the French government, on the somewhat debatable basis that it involves the national interest.  I'm going to remind you all yet again that you should be buying this series, easily the best spy book on the market.  Fabulous artwork from Jason Alexander on this arc, as well.  A

SLEEPER #2 - Ah, I see - the lead character really doesn't have a clue what Tao's up to.  Seems a bit of a stretch that an organisation could have kept its purpose quite that obscure from its own members, but fair enough.  Anyhow, this issue Holden finds himself having to explain away the death of one of his superiors, in a nicely constructed single-issue story.  An improvement on the first issue, I think, but I'm still not convinced about the one-tone colouring scheme.  B+

THOR #60 - Back to Jake Olsen, and he's getting increasingly annoyed by all these religious freaks who trust in god to save their children.  Not least because they have a habit of being right.  It seems we're getting back to the storyline about Thor being framed for murder, which I thought had largely been forgotten about.  This is alright, though I still feel more could be done with the whole subject.  B-

THREE DAYS IN EUROPE #3 - Our heroes find themselves yanked around by supporting characters in what may be the first romantic comedy in history where the lead characters show no romantic interest in one another whatsoever.  Entertaining stuff, and it's continuing to steer well clear of the usual romantic comedy cliches.  A-

Y: THE LAST MAN #8 - Yorick finds out the truth about the village full of women, which is at the more plausible end of my range of guesses.  On the other hand, we've still got a lot of these rabid anti-male Amazons wandering around, and I still have real problems believing that rabid anti-male feminism would take off to that extent in a world with no men.  Kind of drags the book down for me, that subplot, but the main story is good as ever.  B+

Last Monday's Article 10 column about product placement is still up at Ninth Art.

Next week, Agent X #8, which faces an uphill struggle; Hulk / Wolverine: 6 Hours #3; allegedly, another issue of Ultimate X-Men; Weapon X continues on its subtle path; X-Men Unlimited #42 is themed around telepathy; and X-Statix should raise the average.

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