This week, I’m going solo in the absence of Seb & Julian, who fell prey to the same problem I did last week of not actually having any comics to read. I’ve dropped in some news items about No Heroics and Dark Reign, and you can find capsule reviews of X-Men: Manifest Destiny and Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3. Enjoy!

Interview: Gawker’s sci-fi blog, Io9 has an interview with Drew Pearce, the creator of “No Heroics” ITV’s first watchable series in about a hundred years. Whatever you think of the superhero sitcom (I think it’s a flawed, though largely successful and very enjoyable take) it’s clear from this interview that Pearce knows his comics. And who among us wouldn’t want to see Timebomb, the show’s best character, in his own graphic novel? [JHu]

Review: X-Men: Manifest Destiny #2
Iceman’s plot continues in a rather strange direction, though Mystique openly addresses her “death” at the end of “Get Mystique” which at least helps the continuity nerds among us move on. Strangely, the best short in the issue is drawn by and inker and written by a penciller - a Skottie Young-penned Juggernaut tale drawn by Dan Panosian, in which Young shows he’s got quite a knack for the slice-of-life superhero material. It reminds me of Joe Kelly’s Juggernaut one-shot, and the idea of Cain as a hard-drinking, morally ambiguous redneck superhuman is always an enjoyable take if done right. Yost’s short about Emma Frost, by comparison, is wildly off-tone for the character. While Diaz’s artwork is good, it does serve to prove that Bianchi’s costume designs are tough to separate from his style and his version of Storm, especially, looks fairly ridiculous when drawn by anyone else. A fair issue overall - X-Men anthologies are usually an enjoyable a read for casual and hardcore fans - but as with previous attempts at the format, Manifest Destiny does ultimately end up feeling inconsequential. [JHu]

Review: Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3
After a blistering start, the miniseries seems to hit the skids and spends an entire issue contriving reasons to scatter the characters around the galaxy rather than pursue their main goal. A Triton-based subplot appears to have come to the forefront, perhaps in an attempt to make the series matter in the Inhumans’ wider arc, but really, the focus should’ve always remained on recovering Black Bolt rather than sub-quests and in-fighting. Next issue should wrap it all up, but assuming they do actually succeed next issue, this would’ve made for a perfectly-paced 3-issue series. The writer, “Heroes” staffer Joe Pokaski, has proven with this series that he has a strong grip on character, dialogue and plot, and it’d be nice to see more from the writer. [JHu]

Shameless pluggery: Last week’s Alternate Cover column involved me attempting to figure out what, if anything, Dark Reign is. Read my wild speculation over at Den of Geek! [JHu]

Tags: Dark Reign, Inhumans, No Heroics, secret invasion, X-Men
Publisher: The Sunday Pages