X-Men: Messiah Complex #1 — Writer: Ed Brubaker; Penciler: Marc Sylvestri; Inkers: Joe Weems with Marco Galli Some really powerful mutant baby gets born — the first since the “No more mutants” thing — and the X-Men go looking for it, only to find that the Marauders and the Purifiers got there first. Now, they have to track it down, in one of those 13-part crossovers that’s going to wind through X-Men, Uncanny, New X-Men, and X-Factor. I mean, OK, whee, and it’s not like Brubaker/Sylvestri is a bad team for this first chapter, but look: Marvel’s charging $3.99 for … Continue reading →

Special Crossover-Fatigue Edition (Countdown/52/Infinite Version): Countdown to Final Crisis #26 — Writers: Paul Dini with Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti;  Art: Scott Kolins At the halfway point, we get a title change and a style change, as the story (at least for this issue) becomes more linear: the Monitors gather, review what’s happened so far, and vow to actually, you know, do something. If you haven’t been buying this, it’s a midseason clip-show summary to get you caught up, but it’s still got portentious dialogue, tons of characters from alternate universes, mediocre art, and six long months to go. Countdown … Continue reading →

Action Comics #857 — Writers: Geoff Johns and Richard Donner;  Artist: Eric Powell This is worth it just for the cover, which features the Bizarro Justice League and am gloriously sick and wrong (it looks like some early-Mad parody as drawn by a drunken Wally Wood). The insides don’t quite live up (or down) to it, but the Powell art carries it through nicely, and the end result — we’re back to the square Bizarro World, watched over by Bizarro #1 and populated by weird dopplegangers of the Superman cast who aren’t capable of using the correct form of the … Continue reading →