Weekly Comic Book Reviews 9/3/06

Welcome to the latest post of my weekly comic book reviews. There are four reviews this week, all of them Marvel titles. I've noticed that most of my recent reviews have been of Marvel Comics. If people have suggestions for other series to read and review, please add a comment below and I'll see what I can do.

Astonishing X-Men #16
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Publisher: Marvel
Image via Wikipedia
This issue Whedon continues to spin his current X-Men tale which is a sort of Hellfire Club Redux from the original Dark Phoenix storyline. Whedon's use of characters is good with one major exception, that being Emma Frost. I'm still not sold on returning her to villain status. It just seems like a waste of all the time spent rehabilitating her character for the last decade. Of course this issue throws an interesting twist into that whole situation.

We also get some developments in Whedon's larger story-arc as we finally discover the identity of the mutant who will destroy the Breakworld. Not much to say about the art. Cassady is as good as he's been every other issue, which is to say very good.

New Avengers #23
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Oliver Coipel
Publisher: Marvel

This issue of New Avengers addresses Marvel's ongoing Civil War cross-over series as well as further progressing the whole Spider-woman triple agent storyline and makes IronMan look like an even bigger ass than he has already. I've got to wonder though, what state is SHIELD in that it can be attacked as easily as it was in this issue?

I wasn't so keen on the artwork this issue though. Oliver Coipel's panels were confusing in places and there were two action scenes where I just couldn't quite figure out the correct order to read them in.

X Factor #10
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Renato Arlem
Publisher: Marvel

X-Factor as a series has been strolling along in no particular hurry to get anywhere. Individually the issues have been entertaining, but to date I can't say that we're much further forward at the beginning of this issue than we were at the end of Issue #1. That changes though. This issue gives us some background on Mr Tryp. Not background I fully understand, but background never the less.

We also see signs of Rictor flirting with the idea of getting his powers back and David does his best to try and explain Quicksilver's mindset and how he can continue to believe he is doing good. There's also the first break in the Singularity Investigations case and Multiple Man gets himself into two relationships at once.

I'm torn on the artwork though. On the one hand it does suit the Noir style that Peter David is clearly going for, but on the other the characters just seem very posed and unnatural.

X-Men #190
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Publisher: Marvel

Midway through his first story on the title, Carey seems to have quickly moved the title back towards a traditional superhero plot. Even more refreshingly it looks as though he's not going with the usual X-Men suspects for this story. They might not even be mutants! I did get the feeling that not much actually happened this issue mind you since it was largely a fight scene, but the cliffhanger looked promising.

I'd probably have been less critical if it wasn't for Bachalo's art. Once upon a time I thought he was one of the best artists in the business. Unfortunately sometime during his Generation X run his art style changed. Now I just find it quite hard to follow. This is particularly frustrating in an issue which is largely action oriented and where the visuals are essential.

My final iritation goes for most of the X-Men books. Can we go back to having seperate teams again? I'm getting tired of everybody showing up in every book.