Also this week:

LUCIFER #55 - Ooh, Marc Hempel on art.  That's a pleasant surprise.  It's a good story, too, even if the resolution seems a little forced for purposes of the wider plot.  Christopher Rudd is causing problems in Hell by getting people to question what the point of it all is.  Remiel, the angel who's running the place, is really not pleased.  Hempel's art is ideally suited for stories set in this sort of bizarre location, and this is one of the best looking issues of the series in ages.  A

OCEAN #1 - Recent Warren Ellis stories have got a lot of criticism for being painfully slow and decompressed, much of which is well deserved.  This one is decompressed too, in that not a great deal really happens.  But this time it's done well, with the slow pace allowing plenty of time for detail and build-up, and giving Chris Sprouse the space to really establish the sci-fi world they're going for.  Good start.  A-

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #20 - Good god, have we just spent six months on this Insect Queen nonsense just to bring the character into line with the movies?  Blech.  This was not a good storyline by any stretch of the imagination, and a payoff as contrived as that can only induce groans.  C-

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art.

Next week, Excalibur #6 continues "Food Fight."  Mystique #20 begins the Quiet Man arc.  (Well, it really began last issue, but they're calling that a prologue, so that means they get to claim that the storyline starts in two different issues...)  Wolverine #21 is more chaos with Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.  And X-Men #163 is the penultimate Chuck Austen issue.

Plus, there's the first Excalibur trade paperback; the eighth Exiles trade (collecting "Earn Your Wings", the first Tony Bedard arc); and the Weapon X novel.

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