Also this week...

AUTOMATIC KAFKA #2  - After the first issue's extended hallucination sequence, this issue settles down to a much more sedate level.  In the proud tradition of all those series which didn't do it in issue #1, issue #2 is an origin story and full of characters expounding on backstory.  And as with issue #1, Ashley Wood seems to have found the proper balance between maintaining his style and telling the story.  Bizarre as it may sound, the problem with this issue is that it's really so damn normal, and I get the sense that it wanted to be more than that.  Of course, exposition will bog you down like that.  But Casey has to get out of his promotional habit of promising an earth-shattering headf--k and then delivering something relatively normal with a snazzy new haircut.  A book like this would exceed expectations if only he didn't pitch them so damn high in the first place.  When I'm promised a headf--k, I'm expecting the comics equivalent of Lost Highway.  However, I'm giving this another couple of issues to see how it goes - there's definite possibilities here.  B+

CAPTAIN AMERICA #4 - Hey, this book's still going!  I was starting to wonder.  Anyhow, the pattern continues.  Nice art, but I'm just not being drawn in by this story at all.  I'm still not seeing much here to persuade me that Captain America is a character who will stand up to much beyond conventional superheroics.  B-

CAPTAIN MARVEL #35 - End of the current run before the U-Decide relaunch last month, which the letters page tries to push heavily without getting into the Internet pseudopolitics of the whole stunt.  Um, are Marvel ever planning to actually explain this whole stunt to the no-doubt-a-majority of comics readers who don't go within a mile of Newsarama and can't be bothered wading through Previews every month?  Oh well, it's their funeral.  This is a fairly typical issue of this series with the usual strengths and weaknesses - ie, nice art, it's quite entertaining, but the lead character is still a watery figure lacking in charisma who is consistently upstaged by his supporting cast, and why don't they just get rid of him and publish the Rick Jones series that Peter David would seemingly prefer to write?  B

DAREDEVIL #36 - Matt Murdock denies everything, and everyone spends an issue reacting to the fallout from that.  It's an excellent issue, but I can't deny that the "Jesus, this book is slow" brigade have a point.  I could happily read 22 pages of two Bendis characters talking about which brand of cement to use on their driveway, so I don't care, but the plot is certainly moving very slowly indeed in serial form.  B+

ELEKTRA: GLIMPSE AND ECHO #2 - The Hand are meant to be dissolved?  When did this happen?  Weren't they in a Daredevil miniseries just last year?  I'm starting to see why they're being purged from the Ultimate Elektra miniseries - I can never keep track of them.  Anyhow, lovely artwork, but I'm not really being drawn into the story - it's building heavily on previous Elektra/Hand stories, and to be honest, I'm much more interested in Greg Rucka's take on the character in the regular series.  B-

ESTABLISHMENT #12 - Yes, I know I don't really like the book all that much, but it's so nearly finished that it would be a shame to jump now.  Many plot convolutions ensue as the story builds to its climax.  This is one of those series where the basic plot mechanics involve concepts so offbeat and bizarre that they're really distracting from the story as much as anything, although the rushed reveal in order to bring the series to an early conclusion may have contributed to that.  C+

HULK #44 - A single-issue story, as Doc Samson and Bruce Banner outwit the baddies again, with the help of a trick lifted shamelessly from Silence of the Lambs.  Guest art this month from Stuart Immonen, who would normally strike me as a little bit too shiny and curvy for this series, but seems to dirty up nicely.  Pretty decent.  B+

LUCIFER #29 - Back to Hell for once of those "diplomacy and backstabbing in mythological settings" stories that should go down nicely with people who liked "Season of Mists" in Sandman.  And I did, so I'm very happy indeed here.  A-

PETER PARKER, SPIDER-MAN #47 - Hmm.  I can sort of see what Paul Jenkins is going for here - a version of Spider-Man versus the Green Goblin which plays off their warped psychological relationship rather than just having them fight - but I'm really not sure it works.  Humberto Ramos does quite a good Goblin, but a painfully awkward Spider-Man.  One for the "Miss" column, I'm afraid.  C

SPIDER-MAN / BLACK CAT: THE EVIL THAT MEN DO #2 - Well, the cheesecake isn't as glaring this time round, and Kevin Smith does sell me on Peter and Felicia's relationship well enough.  Unfortunately, he doesn't sell me as well on the plot, which seems like an annoying intrusion into some perfectly good chattering.  Okay, but nothing exceptional.  B

THING: FREAKSHOW #3 - "The Kree and the Skrulls have been feuding since before dinosaurs walked the Earth."  And by god it feels like it.  There's quite a cute idea in here about a baby Watcher, but aside from that it's the usual Kree/Skrull stuff that's been done a million times before.  Can we for god's sake call it a day on this plot until somebody has a new take on it?  C

THOR #53 - The Dark Gods turn up so that they can get beaten up by Thor very quickly indeed.  Weren't these the guys who beat Odin without problems at the beginning of the series?  Oh well, whatever.  Jurgens seems to be moving back towards some degree of complexity in this series, but the determination to keep Asgardian morality pure and wonderful in all things is really holding it back.  What's the point of doing a story about Thor's relationship as a god to humans as worshippers if we're going to pretend that he never endorsed all the things that were staples of Viking civilisation?  C+

THUNDERBOLTS #70 - Fabian Nicieza brings back plot elements from his Heroes Reborn: Young Allies one-shot of a few years ago.  To be honest, this far down the line, I could really use a recap of what actually happened in that story.  As it stands, this is perfectly okay, but I'm really more interested in the social change side of the Counter-Earth plot, and that doesn't play too much of a part here.  B-

Y: THE LAST MAN #2 - The second issue lives up to the promise of the first, with Yorick and his monkeys as the last surviving males, and some interesting ideas beyond the obvious of the consequences of half the population dropping dead.  Yorick isn't entirely sold on the idea of singlehandedly repopulating the world, and the US Presidency has passed some way down the line of succession than anyone ever expected, including the new US President.  Not quite sure about the off-panel Amazons that are mentioned, but we'll see where that plot thread is going.  Still time to pick up on this series, you know.  You really should.  A

Last week's Article 10 column is still up at Ninth Art.  But you don't want to read that.  Much more exciting is that Ninth Art's London contingent spent the weekend attempting Scott McCloud's challenge of creating a complete 24-page comic from scratch in 24 hours.  (I'm at the other end of the country, besides which I'm not a creator, so that's my excuse.)

Click here to find out how they got on and view all of the end products for yourself.  As well as a large number of photos of tired people and empty coffee mugs.

Next week... well, the shipping list has been wrong for the last two weeks, so I'm not sure I trust it in the slightest this week.  But in theory, it's the second issues of Agent X and X-Statix, and Alpha Flight guest star in Matt Nixon's final fill-in issue on Wolverine.

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