The Sphinx’ self-improvement drive continues, but his younger self stands poised to resist his retconing. It’s up to the schizophrenic villain’s appointed champions to decide the day, but a rogue element looks set to be the deciding factor. The overwhelming feeling of the tale is artificiality, with the ritualise magic deployed being presented as an excuse for a tag-team “contest of champions” which would have appeared clichéd back in the early eighties. The florid dialogue adds to time impression of a forgotten backwater of the Marvel Universe. Reed Richards is particularly poorly-served, being happy to deploy a stratagem “if it means your munitions miss me”.

In many ways, Mahmud Asrar’s art is emblematic of the entire venture. He’s able to command attention during the big moments, despite some slightly clichéd character posing, but the end product fails to gel. The bold signature images and smaller pieces of storytelling are both sound of themselves, but there’s no link between the two. The irritations keep mounting up, with expressions miserably failing the match the dialogue, and some extremely shoddy anatomy drawing. With the comics line firmly established, Nova’s position appears secure, but he won’t be bringing many new recruits to his Corps without a serious increase in quality.

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Review: Cable #23
Could it be? With the end finally within reach, Cable and Hope finally start to make it back towards the present. Bishop’s still inexplicably on their tail, of course, which is starting to make me think that his plot isn’t going to resolve until Second Coming – but at least the stakes do feel a bit like they matter, this close to the end. The reappearance of some characters from the book’s earlier days makes for a nice little reference, and gives some emotional stakes to the final scene, but despite the increased pace, it all feels a bit late for the series to start picking up steam now. [JHu]

Review: Red Robin #9
“It’s good to be back”, declares Tim Drake (sorry… Wayne) at the start of this issue – and the feeling’s mutual. Red Robin has never quite felt “right” so far, with the character descending into mopey darkness and stomping around the world on his “find out what’s really happened to Bruce” quest. Now that he has, and now that he’s back in Gotham, he’s acting a bit more like himself – a fact that even he admittedly remarks upon. It’s a fairly straightforward “state of play” setter, then, this – as he bounds around Gotham a bit, encounters the Foxes (with his new major supporting character having a nice connection to the “classic” Batverse), has yet another “awww, you guys” reunion scene with Conner (sick of those yet, much?) and, in an amusing (if slightly oddly-drawn) final page, finds out about Steph’s new costumed identity. It’s all rather lightweight and fun, and feels a bit more like the old Robin series, which can only be a good thing. Although it’s only a shame that bloody-Hush-bloody-posing-as-bloody-Bruce-bloody-Wayne shows up into the mix, as it remains one of the most tedious and annoying character uses since Jason Todd first showed up as the Red Hood. [SP]

Review: Superman: World of New Krypton #12
And so, the story of Superman’s year away from Earth on New Krypton comes to an end. Nah, of course it doesn’t – bearing in mind the fact that DC have spent twelve months publishing a book called “Superman” without Superman in it, it would be far too simple for the “World of New Krypton” story to see out its conclusion (that is, one would expect, the return of Kal-El to his adoptive planet) in the pages of World of New Krypton. And so, after wrapping up the somewhat disappointing murder mystery storyline that has sapped the energy out of a miniseries that actually started out quite strongly, we’re left with the cliffhanger of Brainiac attacking the planet, ready to lead into a new miniseries, Superman: The Last Stand of New Krypton. Great. A quite strong scene between Kal and Zod – with Robinson proving once again that what he’s quite good at is shifting (or at least blurring) the morality of long-reputed “villains” and providing actual proper motivation behind it (it makes perfect sense, at this point, for Zod to be supportive of Kal’s actions). It’s still hard to see, however, what this diversion has really done for the character of Superman, and I’m still impatiently awaiting his return proper. [SP]

Review: Wolverine: Weapon X #10
It’s been years since Wolverine had an ongoing that actually felt like an ongoing (with his main title being reduced to a series of disconnected arcs since long before Daken replaced him as the lead character) so it’s good to see Aaron makes good on a suggestion first brought up in issue #1 that Wolverine would get a regular cast outside of simply the X-Men/Avengers and, indeed, a love interest. Admittedly, things rarely go well for Wolverine’s love interests, but then that’s one of the central points of this issue, which has him chatting to the various women in his life and staunchly trying to ignore the fact that he now has a girlfriend. It’s a great issue, made so by the kind of expert use of continuity than enhances, rather than distracts from a story. Simply more evidence of what makes Jason Aaron a perfect choice of writer for Wolverine [JHu]

Well, yes and no. This isn’t amazing, but nor is it wretched. It does some things fairly well, while others don’t quite hit the mark. At the very least, what it does have in its favour is that it’s an attempt to do something entirely different with the Ultimate universe – at least, notwithstanding the fact that a son of Wolverine’s has also shown up in the main Marvel universe in recent years. If the line of thinking goes that books like Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four simply turned too quickly into parallel universe doppelgangers of the “main” series and characters, and that a change of approach towards creating completely original characters with which to populate this world has become necessary, then that’s to be applauded (you can argue that USM has already made enough significant-yet-worthwhile changes to its cast’s personalities and settings that it justifies its existence). It’s even almost enough to make you forgive Loeb’s continued lack of awareness of some of the originally-established differences between the Ultimate and 616 universes (I’m fairly sure that Ultimate Wolverine was originally much younger than he’s portrayed here and in other Loeb books; and yet using that “Timesweek” cover from one of Millar’s best UXM issues shows that maybe he has got round to actually reading some backstory).

The main problem, really, is that there’s no story here. It does a not-entirely-terrible job of setting up the existence of a new character – Logan’s son, James Hudson (whose adopted father would appear to be a non-powered version of Alpha Flight’s Guardian) – with Kitty Pryde showing up to tell him about his origins just as his claws conveniently pop for the first time. None of this is done especially badly, aside from the fact that it’s just so slow – and almost everything is exposition. It’s practically a Handbook of the Ultimate Universe told in strip form. As such, it’s difficult to sustain interest – particularly as, so far at least, Hudson is hardly the most exciting of characters.

The presence of Art Adams, meanwhile, immediately makes this better than previous Loeb Ultimate books (David Finch, anyone? Thought not.) That said, it’s not quite the excitement-inducing prospect for me as it is for others – I imagine the way I feel about his work is the way others often feel about Frank Quitely; I can see that he’s technically a very strong composer and storyteller, but his actual character style isn’t really for me. Hudson is admittedly quite distinctly defined, but Kitty, for example, falls victim to his “all his women looking the same” trap. But his briefly-appearing Logan is great (even if, as mentioned, it’s the wrong version), as is a lovely and very well-coloured final page. Indeed, the look of it sums up the overall quality – promising in places, better than probably expected, but ultimately a little hollow, and wanting for a little more if it’s going to match the strong launches of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man and Avengers. But in this day and age, a “passable” Loeb comic is something of an achievement, and it even bodes a little well for the upcoming Ultimate New Ultimate Comics Ultimate Ultimates...

The high concept of Demo is familiar to virtually any comics reader: How would your life be affected if you had an unusual, supernatural ability? However, unlike most takes on that concept, these aren’t stories about donning a mask and cape and fighting crime – indeed, they’re about anything but. In this issue, The Waking Life of Angels, a woman named Joan receives visions of someone, somewhere apparently falling to their death, and finds herself compelled to investigate.

One of the essential challenges of a single issue story is to make the reader care about the lead. Wood and Cloonan instill an instant, if wearied humanity in Joan. Given a cause, however tenuous, she’s happy to drop her life at home in pursuit of this new role. When the vision arrives, it (as you might expect) doesn’t quite occur how she interpreted it – but despite this, someone is saved and she perhaps even begins the new chapter in her life that she was looking for.

One of Demo’s selling points is the polymorphic art of Becky Cloonan, who demonstrated a range of styles in the initial series. In this, the style is stark and architectural – except when the real world dissolves into a dream, at which point things become intricate and elaborate, almost more real than Joan’s actual reality, which helps demonstrate the seductive charm of her obsession – it is, after all, far more interesting than what she leaves behind in pursuit of it.

Although the issue stands firmly alongside those fromthe previous series, it nonetheless tends towards the weaker end, which is a little disappointing as an opener. The story’s twist is predictable from the outset, with a inevitability to it that previous issues of Demo lacked. Personally, I’ve found the series is its best when telling one of two types of story – the traditional twist ending (Bad Blood; Stand Strong; Girl You Want), and the mood piece (NYC; Mixtape; One Shot, Don’t Miss). This one falls right in the middle of those types of stories, neither one nor the other – the mood isn’t powerful enough to be the centre of the piece, and the twist isn’t strong enough to define it.

Perhaps future issues will give this one a little more context in terms of Demo’s re-appearance – however, even if that isn’t the case, one of the best things about Demo is that by showcasing a range of styles and approaches from its superb creative team, every issue is worth a look, regardless of the ultimate quality. It’s already objectively good, the only matter to resolve is how much you, personally, enjoy it.

Closing Date is one week from now, Wednesday, 10th February. The winners will be the first two entries picked out of the inbox by What-Oh, the Comics Daily Watcher, and will be notified by e-mail on the 11th February. Please note that  the contest is only open to those who can provide a UK address for the book to be sent to.

Details of the book are below:

Iron Man : Virus
In the clear blue skies above Long Island, two airplanes collide. Tony Stark watches the scene in horror and wishes he had the technology that is almost within his reach—a new hyperintelligent instant control system that could have given the aircraft advance warning. But Stark, an obsessive, increasingly troubled recluse, doesn’t know that his invention has been compromised.

In fact, the collision was a carefully crafted hit on Madame Hydra, the final stage in Arnim Zola’s plan to seize control of HYDRA and get rid of Iron Man once and for all. The cunning adversary has already infiltrated Stark Industries security to develop a version of the instant control mechanism that will take over the armored suit and turn it against Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. While Tony races to track down the source of the intrusion, Zola unleashes direly ingenious computer viruses and the ultimate secret weapon: a murderous clone army based on Stark’s most trusted friend. A puppet master of self-replicating terror, Zola is plunging a city into a war that threatens to consume all in its wake.

This brand new, original novel goes beyond the movie story to continue the adventures of Tony Stark!

Intertwined with this are advancing sub-plots about the traitors in SHIELD, and the mutant “burn-out” phenomenon, both of which also tie into Mystique’s appearance. Between the book’s pacey schedule and its old-school issue-oriented structure, this actually does feel like the X-Men in the same tradition that made them popular.

Alongside that, Claremont reallys gets these characters. The exchange between Beast, Moira and Xavier is as memorable a scene as Claremont has ever written. A flashback to Nightcrawler and Sefton’s parting is understated and atmospheric. Rogue’s past is explored in a way that first seems like mere character-building then unexpectedly becomes relevant to the plot. The initial twist is believable, but the final page cliffhanger recalls the kind of status quo shift that used to be possible when Claremont was the only man steering the X-Men ship. In almost any other comic, it’d be an obviously temporary state of affairs – but in X-Men Forever, the stakes feel real.

Graham Nolan deserves his own kudos, too, in part for the way he translates the raw emotions of the script onto the page. Due to its frequency, the title has gone through a fair few artists in an effort to keep on schedule, but Nolan is towards the top end of its spectrum – though while we’re talking about art, it’d be nice if the art kept Mystique’s eyes the correct colour, given that it is referenced as a characteristic she shares with Nightcrawler…

Although there are plenty of things about the issue that can be called a mistake – not least the logic of how Mystique’s longetivity, apparently a function of her shape-shifting, would be “inherited” by Nightcrawler – but we can let that slide for now, because the rest of it is actually, against the odds, becoming more and more interesting as time goes on.

To misquote a line from an earlier Grant Morrison epic, we didn’t know how much we’d been missing Batman & Robin until it came back. The book took a hiatus in December, for the rather flimsy reason of not spoiling the “Bruce Wayne’s Skull” fake-out, but in truth, the title had been missing in action since the middle of last year, when Philip Tan took on the rotating art duties. Such weak art is now a distant memory though, with Cameron Stewart’s pages of sufficient quality to merit an “As Good As Frank Quietly, Or Your Money Back” tag on the cover.

After being blind sided by Jason Todd, Dick Grayson is in the mood for taking the initiative. Recognising that the madness he presides over will continue until the steadying presence of Bruce Wayne returns, he ropes in a familiar pair of allies to help his desperate attempt to restore the usual status quo. There’s something of a departure from the first two arcs of the series, where Grayson wore his emotions on his sleeve. Here, unusually never emerging from the cowl, his desperation and recklessness are conveyed in the plot of the story, rather than the usual soliloquies. Morrison’s decision to jump right into the action, following Grayson as he saves London from a not-fully-explained threat, adds to the mood, with the feeling growing that the new Batman is merely spinning plates. While the light-hearted caped crusader is now a comfortable mask for the former acrobat, his doubts about his ability to take charge of the situation provide a compelling narrative drive.

Despite the publicity for the appearance of Batwoman in the pages, with Morrison making a pointed comment on the frequency with which the modern character ends up fulfilling her 1950s narrative role of a damsel in distress, it’s Britain’s resident crime fighters which steal the show. The writer has commented on his policy of adding something new to the world of the Knight and the Squire every time he uses them, but here he excels himself, providing a complete rogues’ gallery for the duo. Taking English folk traditions in the same way that the Batman franchise draws upon American, the book gives a glimpse into a scenario that feels instantly right. There’s even time for an extremely obscure Spike Miligan reference in the dialogue attributed to old King Coal’s henchmen. It’s a dazzling display.

Review: Dark Reign: Hawkeye #5
Diggle’s take on Bullseye (and his pseudo-heroic stint as Hawkeye) was probably the best of all the Dark Reign minis – so it was pretty galling to learn that the conclusion was going to be postponed as long as it was. Of course, I thought that the series’ initial promise had already been somewhat squandered by making the main villain a previous nemesis of Bullseye – so it’s almost a surprise that this issue pulls it back around and gives an enjoyable action-movie ending to the story, in a way that gives the whole series a believable emotional core. If I’m being honest, it’s not the book I was hoping for, and the publishing gap really killed the momentum – but when the trade comes out, it’ll still be worth a look if you’ve been waiting. [JHu]

Review: Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk #1
Ah, finally. The answer to the question we’ve all been waiting for: where did that Cosmic Hulk robot come from in Incredible Hulk #606. What? You thought it’d be something else? This appears to exist solely to fill in that continuity gap, and to be honest, it’s pretty damning that even Jeff Parker, a writer about as unlike Loeb as it’s possible to be, can’t squeeze any interesting material out of the Red Hulk. Probably, that’s because we STILL don’t know who the character is, and this all his thoughts and feelings are completely meaningless. This issue also brings back “A-Bomb”, if only to try and give us something worth reading about. Also, a final tip: When your limited series is called “Red Hulk”, it really confuses matters to put nothing but a picture of the Green Hulk on the cover. I mean, really? [JHu]

Review: New Avengers #61
After an underwhelming initial issue of the Siege main series, the first part of its New Avengers tie-in is rendered rather more engaging by having Brian Bendis playing to his strengths. It’s become a cliché to remark on the writer’s instinctive grasp of Peter Parker, but here he also builds on the outcome of Ed Brubaker’s recent Captain America event to provide plenty of the introspective character drama that made his name. With the story kept closer to street-level, where Bendis’s pseudo-politic intrigue works best, the smaller scale and a more fluid status quo result in an issue that outshines the writer’s more high-profile activities in reshaping the Marvel Universe. Not even the combination of two pencilers can spoil the fun. [JHa]

Review: Superman: Secret Origin #4
Helped largely by the continuing excellence of Gary Frank’s art, this remains a fairly strong book – but at the same time, there’s a strangely hollow feeling to some of it. And it’s still more “Superman: The Early Days” than an actual origin story – we’ve still had, for example (and despite the cover image) barely anything of Krypton, and I find myself wondering just how important creating a new origin for the Parasite (or indeed having him around full stop) is to the “origin” of Superman. It’s also disappointing to see certain classic elements, such as the Lois-Superman interview, left out entirely (particularly given the increased prominence given to a generally quite good interpretation of Lois). Still, on the other hand, it is just quite nice – given the current state of the Super-books – to have a Superman comic kicking around that is (a) actually about Superman being Superman and (b) quite “classic” in tone and style. And it’s undeniably a very pretty piece of work. [SP]

But then you have Ultimate Comics Enemy. After one issue, the disappointing truth seems clear – it’s a Bendis Crossover-by-numbers. In this issue, an amorphous threat (quite literally speaking) upsets various characters’ status quo. We get disconnected snippets of characters, until 22 pages in, we’re left blinking and dumbstruck, but with absolutely no story to hang onto besides “what just happened?” – and these days, when you’re paying $3.99 per instalment, that’s not enough.

It’s also a shame, given Rafa Sandoval’s excellent depiction of a city being subsumed by a giant pink blob, that in a post-Ultimatum universe, threats of this magnitude just don’t seem credible. Last time something on this apparent scale happened, we had a year’s worth of promotion and hype. Arguably, now is not the time to rush into a giant, overwhelming threat that can’t be punched into submission, because it can’t possibly follow through like Ultimatum did – but that’s what we appear to be getting. The best scenes in this issue are actually the small, character moments that allow us to explore the new “disbanded” status of the Fantastic Four – but set against such a massive threat, such material pales into insignificance.

However, the truly sad part is that no matter what we’ve been told about “Ultimate Comics” being the new future face of Marvel, it’s all so painfully rooted in the past. This entire issue is plagued by exactly the kind of decompression that Bendis was pioneering in the first half of last decade. Where it once looked nuanced and inventive, it now looks flabby and unadventurous. I don’t like to spend too much time criticising an individual’s signature technique, but three pages for Nick Fury to get attacked while eating dinner feels like a poor use of space. An entire issue in, I feel like I’ve just seen the pre-credits sequence to a TV show. The only difference is that on TV, I only have to wait seconds for the story to continue, whereas there’s nothing here that’s going to bring me back in a month’s time.

But that said, the book has seemed to get somewhat better in its closing issues – I don’t know if it’s the influence of the in-progress film, but shifting the focus onto Big Daddy and Hit Girl has worked wonders for its entertainment value, with every issue since (and including) their “origin” adding up to something generally better than the first half of the series. There was a strong air of cynicism in those early issues, and it led to a book that it was possible to admire for its craft, but in a rather detached way; however, with an increased amount of sympathy applicable to Dave, and vulnerability to Hit Girl (particularly evident in one very well-judged moment late in this issue), it’s become a lot easier to like.

Not that it’s not still, on the whole, a ridiculously violent near-piss-take of a comic, with Millar delighting in the sheer excess (and Romita being… well, as good as Romita ever is, which is “one of the best artists in comics” good) . Plot-wise there’s barely an unexpected moment – it’s not like any further twist could top #7’s briefcase revelation anyway – even down to the somewhat cruel resolution of the Katie subplot, but this is really just about giving the baddies their comeuppance and revelling in a succession of amusing (if often distasteful) moments. Lines about a Hello Kitty bag and a photo on a cellphone are among the smirk-worthy points, as is the very last line of the issue (even though it’s deliberately nicked from somewhere else). There’s also a rather excellent callback to a throwaway joke from a few issues ago.

It’s hard to tell, though, whether this feels more like a coda to the whole thing – some strands you suspect are definitively tied up – or a setup for more (the back cover blurb, and hints throughout the issue, suggest that this should be seen as Kick-Ass’ “origin” story rather than his entire one). I wouldn’t be averse to seeing the world and characters revisited – but I just wonder if making it less self-contained, and more of an ongoing property, would defeat the object of the unique little niche it carved out. As it stands, though, it’s an often fun, occasionally brilliant – but perhaps a little over-confident series, and will at least stand as perhaps the purest distillation of the brassy excess its creator is so often famed for; the most “Millarish” book that he’s ever put out. Now, though, about that movie…