Past the halfway point, and onto X-Men Unlimited.  I'm sure we can all agree that in a week where the X-office is already shipping six ongoing titles, an issue of X-Men Unlimited is exactly what we need to fill in that aching void in our lives.

This one is somewhat more interesting than most, because it features the first Bishop story by David Hine, a trailer for the upcoming Marvel Knights series District X.  I don't think I've read anything much by Hine, so I'm fairly interested to see how this turns out.  David Yardin is the regular series artist, but this story has painted art by Adi Granov.

And it's... well, it's okay.  Most people seem to struggle with the format of this book, and Hine does at least deliver a proper story.  As you might expect, it's a crime story with mutant overtones.  The basic idea of District X is to have Bishop working as a cop in the Mutant Town district which Grant Morrison established in New X-Men.  This story is apparently supposed to lead him from being vaguely looking into the area, to taking it under his wing and identifying it as his precinct.  Apparently he's meant to identify with the mutants' persecution, which I suppose is fair enough.

The story is fairly elementary stuff, though I like the fact that Hine is giving his characters mutations which aren't so much powers as medical conditions.  Granov's painted artwork is rather nice as well, even if all his characters do seem to have alarmingly perfect skin tone.  But he keeps visual interest in a story that's almost entirely black and brown, which is something of an achievement.

Not bad.  I'm not blown away by it, but it suggests that the ongoing series could work.

For our back-up, there's a Jubilee story by Robert Kirkman, who had the misfortune to be involved in the whole Epic mess.  Kirkman generally does slightly tongue-in-cheek, straightforward superhero stories, but he does them quite entertainingly.  He's taking over Captain America soon, and against my better judgment, I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Takeshi Miyazawa provides art for this one.  It seems a little odd seeing the art in bright colours, but it's right for the character.

Kirkman is taking Jubilee back to her mallrat roots.  Given that that was her original gimmick, it's actually quite striking to realise that she almost never goes near a mall.  On the other hand, it also means that Kirkman has to invent a bunch of Jubilee's friends whom we've never previously heard of.

Still, it's not a bad take on the character.  It's light, it's fun, and it makes her feel like a teenager, where she'd started to blur into just a miniature superhero.  On the other hand, it's married to a thoroughly hackneyed plot where she's attracted to a boy, but he's not interested once he learns that she's a mutant.  It feels like a stab at emotional depth which has been awkwardly tacked onto a story that was doing just fine without any.

Beautiful art, though.  Miyazawa is doing the art for the upcoming Mary Jane series.  Given that it's also got Sean McKeever doing the writing, it could actually be much better than it sounds.

X-Men Unlimited at least has a genuinely relevant cover - Bishop in front of two police cars.  It's still a pin-up shot, but at least it's got a bearing on the contents.

Rating: B+

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