A few years ago, I pretty much swore off the peripheral X-Books altogether and decided to stick with the core titles, as liberal as that definition was. As a result, this is my first ever issue of New X-Men, which seems fairly strange for a book that’s been going for almost 60 issues in various forms. Messiah Complex, however, is compelling enough a story to make me do what even Endangered Species could not.

It’s a good job, too, because this issue is as important to the plot as any other. I had a feeling it might be a bit marginalised, but it continues the breakneck pace of the story. Rictor’s undercover mission is interruped by the New X-Men taking things personally and going, against Cyclops’ orders, after the Purifiers, who we discover have a secret ally (not a huge revelation for anyone who’s seen the variant covers.) Madrox-2 and Layla investigate their future while Madrox Prime lies comatose. Crucially, Wolverine’s team of X-Men actually finds the Marauders and gets the jump on them, in an incredibly pleasing sequence that reminds you that the X-Men aren’t always a bunch of morons who sit around the mansion waiting to be attacked. The bulk of this scene will presumably be played out nicely in next week’s issue of X-Men, and god help me I’m looking forward to it.

As someone who’s not overly familiar with the New X-Men cast, I feel that Gage and Yost have managed to cater for me in introducing them and explaining their personalities. Their leader, Surge, appears to be very close to breaking point which, given the relentless bloodbath they’ve dealt with in the last year or two, seems highly appropriate. Witness, too, the hilarity with which she smacks down Professor Xavier’s offer of training and help, further pushing the old coot to the fringes. I have a suspicion that Xavier’s going to be doing something fairly important in the course of this crossover because they’ve so far gone to a large amount of effort to distance him from the team. Ramos’ art is, as ever, a love it/hate it situation for the audience. Personally, I enjoy it, so I’m pleased to see him pencilling the book, though one wonders what it’ll look like when the whole story is collected because so far, the art’s been fairly consistent.

In any case, the New X-Men holds up well as a story in its own right, with enough plot movement to make it an important chapter of the crossover as well.

As much as I love Bendis’ Avengers, this title has been a complete mess recently. Unfortunately, that’s largely because of the scheduling problems being caused by Mighty Avengers delays, which leave the New Avengers playing out their cameo appearance in a story which hasn’t happened yet. There are some good Secret Invasion-related scenes and the fallout of Spider-Woman “switching sides” is nicely dealt with, as is the growing suspicion between Cage and Jones, but between the end half of the symbiote-hasn’t-happened-yet fight, and the apparantly beginning the end of the Hood storyline, the title’s all over the place.

Lenil Yu’s art is luckily on hand to keep us entertained where the plot doesn’t, and Dave McCaig’s colouring is especially excellent, with brilliant, bright colours for the superhero fighting sections and a sufficiently moodier pallette in the less actiony-bits. It’s rare that a colourist’s work makes me sit up and take notice, but for this issue it really did.

Overall, though, it just feels like this issue of New Avengers in particular is exemplifying the title’s main problems, where lateness in other titles affects this one, and there are simultaneously too many balls in the air to actually deal with them properly. Given its close ties with House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion, New Avengers still feels like it lacks a specific identity. It hasn’t really told a story that wasn’t related to a crossover since The Sentry arc, way, WAY, WAY back in issues #7-10. It’s got some good characters, but christ, give them some time to breathe.

Like the titular Man of Steel, All Star Superman is utterly bullet-proof. I can’t believe that any Super-Hero fan could find fault with it. Every word and pencil-line of the book exudes quality the likes of which almost nothing else is managing to replicate, and that is Fact with a capital F. Morrison is using this book to prove that he is clearly the Next Alan Moore that the industry has been looking for, but far more than that - he’s the First Grant Morrison.

Frank Quitely’s art is the most common vector for people to have a go at the book. Quitely’s idiosyncratic approach to anatomy and, in particular, faces, cause idiots the planet over to shout poorly-considered accusations of “potato-head!” and use the phrase “worse than Liefeld!” These people are not just wrong, they are actually, genuinely stupid. Quitely may be stylised, but beyond that, he’s fantastically expressive and detail-oriented. He draws the moon blowing up with as much grace and panache as he draws an embarrassed look on Clark Kent’s face. In fact, Quitely may well be one of the few artists who can truly, completely make you believe that Clark and Superman are both different people as well as being the same.

But enough gushing about the creators. This issue, Superman returns from his 2-issue excursion to Bizarro-Earth to find that 2 other Kryptonians with a dangerous belief in their own superiority have moved in and taken his place. Superman teaches them the value of humanity, and that’s more or less it, except there’s so much more to it than that. It’s been said a hundred times before, but I’m going to say it anyway: Morrison combines Silver-Age weirdness with his particular brand of futurism perfectly and effortlessly. Nothing short of a must-buy.

It’s Chapter 3 of Messiah Complex, and mercifully the plot is well on its way in what feels like a genuinely considered attempt at pacing. I’m almost shocked.

In this issue, Rictor infiltrates the Purifiers, Madrox and Layla visit Forge, Wolverine’s team track down 90s X-Men supporting character Amelia Voight and Cyclops tells the New X-Men that children should be seen and not heard. Of course, it’s the New X-Men issue coming next, so we can imagine how well they’ll be taking that conversation to heart. Chances are they’ll be the ones who eventually take on Predator X, being the only characters that have a score to settle with it.

The Forge scene is quite good. In a shared universe, it’s easy as a reader to shout from the sidelines like “go and use Dr. Doom’s time machine!” and “get Reed Richards on the case!” so it’s satisfying, as a reader, to see these avenues explored in a way that makes sense - by going to the only X-Men affiliated uber-genius with a time machine. Following up a thread introduced in Endangered Species, Forge’s monitoring devices have seen mutant activity appear in two out of hundreds of possible futures as a result of the recent birth, where previously there was no activity in any. Madrox’s duplicates are sent on a one-way trip to investigate and report back, but Layla throws a spanner into the works by tagging along with one of them.

Meanwhile Rictor discovers that the Purifiers have more guns than an NRA shoot in a move that at least makes these pseudo-religious nuts seem like a vaguely credible threat. The only bad scene in the book comes courtesy of Wolverine’s team, who track down Amelia on the basis that even though she’s apparantly working as a nurse, she’ll know where Exodus is because she’s a former Acolyte (wow, even typing the word makes it feel like 1994). Can’t say the logic follows.

X-Factor do at least manage to retain the spotlight in the midst of all the crossover madness, so while the idea of a line-wide X-Men crossover is itself is something of a throwback, it feels like they’ve finally nailed the execution.

It’s a big day for DMZ as it starts its third year. This is a real milestone to anyone who remembers the days when the comic was conceived as being around 24 issues long (the current target is somewhere around 60)  because any issue from now on should taste extra-sweet.

For this arc, entitled “The Hidden War”,  Wood is once again proving his mastery of the single-issue format by telling the stories of individuals and side-characters living in the DMZ while the main cast largely sit it out. This issue specifically focuses on Wilson, the former gangster who now runs Chinatown, and shows us how he got where he is today in a story stretching right back to the start of the war and ending shortly after the series begins. As one of the series’ more colourful characters, it’s good to see what Wilson’s story is, and ultimately what drives him.

Guest art for this issue is provided by Danijel Sezelj. It has a brilliantly bleak feeling, and a sequence where a bomb explodes, leaving the art temporarily black and white before the colour slowly fades back in is a masterful use of the comics form. Unfortunately, based on the preview pages that were posted on Newarama’s Blog it all should’ve looked so, so much better. The printing job has left the pages incredibly muddy and it’s a real shame to see the art suffering from it.

While I’m thinking about it - DMZ #25, and in fact this entire arc (which began in #23) is a good place for anyone to join the series in progress if they’re interested in it. Because they’re all single-issue stories, they give you an excellent flavour of the series and of Wood’s writing without needing you to know any of the backstory. You should give it a try if you haven’t.

Last spring, I remember that all the comics blogs I was reading all appeared to become incredibly excited about the release of a new Scott Pilgrim volume. Being a finger-on-the-pulse kind of guy, I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was suitably impressed that soon after I bought the first volume off Amazon. An obsession was born that saw me purchase the other 2 volumes and O’Malley’s first work, Lost at Sea.

Fast forward a year after that fateful summer, and we’re finally seeing the release of Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, or, if you like, Scott Pilgrim: Volume 4. This time maybe my blogging will be the reason someone else goes and picks it up.

Volume 4 sees all of the characters in Scott Pilgrim really come into their own - not to deny the quality of the first three instalments, but for the first time, it feels like the characters are driving the story rather than vice versa. The world of Scott Pilgrim is now well-established and it’s good to see that despite being in the somewhat unremarkable point in the process (volume 4 of 6) O’Malley hasn’t lost any of his momentum, and on the contrary, may well be as good as he’s ever been. Even the character models, which are notoriously fluid in earlier volumes, stay together nicely. In a stroke of utter, utter genius, the volume includes a manga-style full-colour section as the opening pages before switching back to monochrome. It’s a cruel tease, because as good as it looks now, I find myself staring at the colour pages and wishing it could all look that stunning.

The plot largely deals with Scott’s attempts to (unsurprisingly) get it together - find himself a job, and a place to live, and to try and sort out his relationship with Ramona. It also contains a few excellent twists, at least one of which I feel incredibly proud to have figured out from the hints dropped in the past. The romance is there, the tragedy is there, and the laugh-out-loud moments are there. Scott Pilgrim has dialogue that Joss Whedon would probably kill to have written.

In short, there’s absolutely nothing bad I can say about Scott Pilgrim. It speaks to me in a way that absolutely no other book on the shelves today can, and not just because it’s about people my age who share my interests - it’s because O’Malley manages to define exactly the sort of hopes, fears, successes and failures that people of our generation encounter, and he brings them to life using the language that we understand. Scott Pilgrim is my heroin, and Bryan Lee O’Malley is my dealer. Now I have to hope I can survive the long wait for that next fix. Suddenly, I realise what all those little Harry Potter-loving children (and adult-children) were going through at the end of every book, but know this: however painful the wait, IT’S ALL WORTH IT.