Peter Milligan's other book for the week is X-Statix #24, continuing the series of gratuitous fights between X-Statix and the Avengers.  This month, Mr Sensitive versus Iron Man.

You know that episode of the old Batman TV series where Batman is fighting invisible people and he's losing because he can't see them, until they turn out the lights so everyone's even?  Well this is like that.  Except with nudity instead of darkness.  Oh, and French people.

This is X-Statix at its gloriously silly and self-aware best.  Iron Man manages to get under Guy's skin by, essentially, suggesting that maybe the joke's worn a bit thin.  Maybe he secretly wants to be a proper superhero, like Cable.  Iron Man says he wrote a letter of complaint on the subject, signed "a disappointed X-fan."

Meanwhile, a bunch of religious nuts have set up a cult based entirely on nudity.  And for those who enjoyed the multinational European supervillains from the Diana storyline, the French national hero Surrender Monkey is back.  Turns out he's an American spy who went native.

Hilariously funny, thoroughly ridiculous and very clever at the same time, this is precisely what makes some of the best X-Statix stories.  To be fair, the joke probably is wearing thin, and this is quite probably the right time to quite while they're ahead.  But it's good to see that X-Statix is heading into its closing issues on a high.

Rating: A

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