Also this week:

MARVEL MONSTERS: FIN FANG 4 - Now, when I read the solicitations for this, I thought it sounded dreadful.  It's a story in which a bunch of old monsters, including Fin Fang Foom, are shrunk to human size and take on menial jobs around the Baxter Building.  Sounds horribly contrived, doesn't it?  But remarkably, this is a really good comic.  The beleaguered monsters have accepted their fate as bail conditions for being allowed out of prison, and go about their much-reduced daily lives as best they can.  Googam schemes ineffectually for revenge on the human race, Gorgilla the talking ape loves everything, Elektro is starting to realise that his 32K computer brain might be a bit behind the times, and Fin Fang Foom has resigned himself to being a relic from yesterday's genre.  It's really sweet, genuinely funny, and a wholly unexpected surprise.  The back-up strip reprints the original Fin Fang Foom story from Strange Tales #89, complete with the original colouring - which is a bold move, considering that we're talking about a 1950s comic about China, and we all know what that means.  Still, no point sanitising these things if you're going to reprint them at all.  A+

SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION THE WITCH BOY #4 - Another Seven Soldiers mini concludes, and finally we have one that actually delivers on the promise of a self-contained story.  Yes, it ends with Klarion charging off to appear in the finale, but that's after the main storyline for this miniseries has been wrapped up.  Klarion tries to warn his people about the impending invasion, but strangely enough, they're not very receptive to the news that their religion is false.  So they try burning him as a heretic instead.  Okay, it's not exactly subtle, but for my money it's a toss-up between this and Manhattan Guardian as the most entertaining Seven Soldiers miniseries so far.  Klarion probably gets the edge by virtue of giving us a proper story.  And the strained politeness between Klarion and his mother after they abandon the lynching is glorious.  A-

WEAPON X: DAYS OF FUTURE NOW #4 - The series continues to spiral off into an alternate future as we reach the year 2034.  The Sentinels have trashed New York, the heroes have been driven underground, but Magneto has arranged a gathering of mutants to try and turn things around.  Needless to say, being Magneto, it's not quite as straightforward as all that.  We're apparently building up for the big showdown between Wolverine and the Director next issue, and actually, the plot idea isn't bad at all.  But the art lets it down, as Andy Smith doesn't seem to have noticed that it's meant to be 30 years in the future.  The heroes ought to be in the fifties or sixties by this point, but there's no sense of that at all.  B-

X-MEN #176 - The "Wild Kingdom" crossover with Black Panther continues, as the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes turn up.  This story is now getting Very Milligan Indeed, complete with erratic ape semi-geniuses, and a disenfranchised Commie villain.  The Red Ghost's big plan is to build a new Communist state in the political vacuum of Niganda, which actually makes reasonable sense.  But this is Milligan, so the Ghost finds himself promoting a country called the Socialist Simian Republic of Niganda: "A country where a new form of Marxist-Leninist socialism can grow, based on the purity of the ape world.  And built around a strong leader with an unshakeable belief in dialectical materialism."  As always, you either find this stuff hilarious (as I do) or you'll want to throttle Milligan before you get halfway through the book.  Oh, and the regular cast are barely in it - it's the Storm and T'Challa show.  But I got a kick out of it, even though it certainly won't be for everyone.  B+

X-MEN: COLOSSUS - BLOODLINE #2 - In which we learn that Colossus and his family are actually descendents of Rasputin via the orgies in which he supposedly participated during his brief involvement with the Khlyst sect.  Now, in fairness, there's actually some historical basis for this idea.  But I have tremendous difficulty believing that Larisa's research has been able to trace all Rasputin's descendents.  I can't really see the Khlysts keeping paperwork for their orgies.  Somehow or other this is meant to support an argument that the whole Rasputin family is predisposed to mental illness (which also makes reasonable sense, considering what's been done with the characters in the past).  Still, despite some interesting ideas, this is coming across as awfully contrived.  The cliffhanger appearance of a major villain is an interesting surprise, though.  B

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art, and other stuff from me at If Destroyed.

Next week, House of M continues in New X-Men #19 and Wolverine #35, both of which finish their respective crossover storylines.  It's also the final issue of the outgoing New X-Men creative team, who will race to wrap up outstanding storylines in the New X-Men: Academy X Yearbook one-shot.  Meanwhile, over in a completely different crossover, "Wild Kingdom" finishes off in Black Panther #9.  Plus, the trade paperback of X-Men: The End, volume 2.

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