X-Statix carries the fourth consecutive single-issue story.  My god, people think of the trade paperback!  Why, they might have to publish a trade consisting of a two-issue miniseries and four individual issues.  The bookstore audiences will be so desperately confused by this elementary concept.

Like most of the recent issues, this is a spotlight issue for one of the cast.  This time, it's Dead Girl, in an issue which is hard to get a grip on.  The basic theme seems to be the romanticisation of death, and Milligan comes at it from a hundred different directions at the same time.  To be honest, it does read a little cramped as a single issue storyline, and would probably have benefitted from being a two-parter.

Dead Girl's now got a contract as a fashion model, leading to a very funny scene parodying the feminist disruption of the Miss World contest back in the 1970s.  The protestors object to the presentation of an animated corpse as a sex object.  Meanwhile, teenage girls are going for the goth make-up look following Dead Girl's inspiration, X-Statix mortuary attendant Brad takes up necrophilia (yes, really), and his daughter reacts to all this by going on a Columbine-style school killing.

The problem is that there are way too many threads being brought in for any of them to get enough development.  No doubt Milligan deliberately wants to avoid putting forward any clear resolution - hence the mockingly happy closing pages - but the story feels rushed and garbled.  A lot of stuff is thrown out there, and doesn't really fall into any coherent order.

Still, at least it's being overambitious and missing the mark, rather than going through the motions.  I think it just needs more space to work.

Rating: B

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