Also this week:

SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #4 - Technically it's a fight issue, but it's a fight issue with magic in the Grant Morrison style.  For Morrison, magic is more about altering perceptions than altering physical reality - after all, which is more important? - so we get an odd fight which is part normalcy, part insanity, and occasionally veers into outright collapse of the conventions of comics.  The ludicrous stage costumes of Zatanna and her nemesis shouldn't logically work in this sort of context, but somehow it ends up making sense when Morrison does it.  As a miniseries, Zatanna doesn't quite hold together, but I'd certainly be delighted to see more of this take on the character.  And this issue, in isolation, is wonderful stuff.  A

UNCANNY X-MEN #466 - The week's other X-book is nominally a Decimation crossover, although that boils down to some scenes at the Institute of the X-Men chafing at their new Sentinel "guards."  Most of the story, though, is about Rachel finally visiting her family and getting some degree of closure to her very odd sense of identity.  And it's a pretty good little story, all told.  It's probably incomprehensible to anyone without a degree in Rachel's continuity, which knocks a couple of grades off.  But if you have that familiarity, she's nicely played against Jean Grey's parents, while the X-Men have some good scenes with O*N*E in subplots that make me wonder whether, at long last, we're finally seeing some sort of actual direction emerge in the X-books.  Chris Bachalo is having one of his better days on art, and once again it happens to coincide with him needing seven inkers.  Bachalo must be the only artist in comics whose art is actually better with a squadron of inkers who outnumber the rest of the creative team combined, and I'd love to know what's going on here.  Logically, either he needs tons of time to come up with good work (which never used to be the case), or he's overthinking everything and he's much better when he rushes and goes by instinct.  I strongly suspect the latter, and wish he'd take the hint, because so few artists have disappointed me to badly with their development from a brilliant start.  B+

Last week's  Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art, and there's more stuff from me at If Destroyed.  (Coming in the next day or so, a review of The Libertine.)

Next week, Decimation continues with Generation M #1, checking in on the characters who lost their powers.  Nightcrawler is cancelled with issue #12, and the X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame miniseries finally wraps up with issue #5.  Wolverine #36 starts the first post-House of M story, as Wolverine starts to explore all the things he's remembered after House of M, despite having already remembered them back in the 1990s when Larry Hama was writing his book. 

Exiles #73 continues the New Universe storyline.  The Official Handbook returns to the X-Men.  X-Men & Power Pack #2 continues its bid to be the lowest-selling X-Men miniseries in history.  And, rather oddly, X-Men #178 is also on the shipping list, despite the fact that it had previously been rescheduled for December 7.  All of this more or less brings the delayed comics up to date.

Plus!  The digest edition of Ororo: Before the Storm.  Contain yourselves.

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