Over the years, there have been so many comics featuring Spider-Man, so many featuring the X-Men, and so many featuring both, that it’s hard to get hugely excited about yet another crossover miniseries. Certainly, at first glance, there’s little to make you suspect that X-Men/Spider-Man (can’t they come up with some more distinctive titles for these, by the way?) will be any different. Christos Gage at least comes up with a hook for it – four issues hopping between different eras in Marvel history – although even that feels a little tired nowadays, “retro” being one of the company’s favoured tropes right now (we’re barely past the end of 1985, after all).

To be fair to Gage, he instills a good sense of nostalgic fun to proceedings – it feels like exactly the sort of thing the “Brain Trust” have been aiming for in Amazing, further strengthening the argument that if they wanted to live in the past, they should have just bloody wound the clock back – although I strongly doubt that anyone likely to pick this up is in need of quite the amount of exposition given in the early pages. It’s enough to know that Gwen Stacy’s still alive, we don’t need a whole page of Peter agonising about his double life and telling us that “the police and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms”. Nor do we really need him to be quite so heavy-handed with the foreshadowing – Gwen sitting in front of a certain bridge, J. Jonah Jameson calling for “some form of registration, perhaps”.

But it’s got a light, fun air about it, and the X-Men scenes are fairly strong (but then, I’ve always had a soft spot for the dynamic of that original Lee/Kirby lineup). The story’s pretty inconsequential – oh, look, it’s Kraven the Hunter – and despite the introduction of a surprising figure in the closing pages, suffers from the fact that you can never do anything major with these characters when you know how things are going to turn out in the long run. All of this points to a fairly passable series, which would be enjoyable enough if you chose to read it, but no loss whatsoever if you gave it a miss. At least, it would be, were it not for the artwork.

Mario Alberti is a name that’s new to me, and I understand that this is in fact his first major American comics work. In which case, I have to offer a hearty handshake to whichever Marvel hotshot got their hands on the Italian, because he’s one hell of a find. Melding a Milo Manara-esque European romance style with a clear sense of the basics of classical American storytelling, it’s a visual feast. The self-coloured job absolutely leaps off the page – it’s a stark contrast to the muddy colours blighting the likes of Ultimatum, instead looking more similar to the style of Paul Cornell’s Fantastic Four : True Story; but where Horacio Domingues’ panels felt over-packed and unclear there, this is vibrant and dynamic.

His character design, too, is excellent. There’s more than a hint of Tim Sale about his Peter and Kraven, while Spidey in costume swings and contorts through the air just as he’s supposed to (the bottom half of the third page is a particularly arresting image). What really jumps out, however, are his women. In a way that couldn’t be further removed from the likes of Ian Churchill and Greg Land, his Mary Jane, Gwen and Jean are beautiful in an entirely realistic and non-gratuitous way (and actually look, you know, different to one-another facially). If there’s a criticism, it’s that he doesn’t quite get some of the action beats as fluid as they should be – we’re not talking recent Chris Bachalo territory, but it’s a little slow to pick up everything that’s happening in what should be a quick action scene. But it’s a minor quibble when you consider the way the book looks, and it really is an absolutely terrific debut.

It’s rare that I recommend (or even buy) books solely for the artwork – after all, Frank Quitely tends to draw stuff written by the best – although JRJr was admittedly the catalyst for my finally starting to buy Amazing again recently. Alberti’s work here, though, elevates a charming enough but ultimately rather pointless-feeling nostalgia romp to one of the best-looking comics I’ve seen Marvel put out in a long time – and as the beginning of a potentially very exciting career in the American industry, it’s well worth getting onboard now.

This week: news and capsule reviews, including Amazing Spider-Man #574, Angel: After the Fall #13, Daredevil #112, Thunderbolts #125 and X-Factor #36.

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The Wildcats franchise embodies any writer’s nightmare: trying to follow genius. Joe Casey turned a standard superhero team book into a brilliant corporate espionage tale, as the Halo Corporation gave the fruits of its alien technology to the world, in the face of opposition from every source of political or financial authority. Low sales forced the conclusion of Wildcats Ver 3.0 after its second year, but it was obvious that there could be no mere regression to what had gone before. This need for outstanding creative direction was resolved in the most obvious fashion, by getting Grant Morrison to write the book. Morrison’s run proved both visionary and entertaining- for the single issue it consisted of. Although there’s recently been talk of remounting the writer’s take as a limited series, the book has now clocked up its fifth incarnation, following on from Wildstorm’s “World’s End” event.

With the world almost destroyed by one of the weaponised post-human armies that appear to be available to every borough council in the Wildstorm universe, humanity is scrabbling for survival in the remains of civilisation. Halo was better placed than most organisations to weather the apocalypse, but doing so cost omnipotent CEO Jack Marlowe his powers, leaving him a shadow of his former self. The Wildcats team is now holed up in the company’s LA headquarters, trying to come to terms with the end of everything. With his page count reduced by a back-up story, Christos Gage works with economy, using the rescue of a group of civilians to introduce us to the team, before focussing on their internal conflict. It’s just as well that the setting is such a gripping one, as this incarnation of Wildcats would struggle to succeed on the strength of its characters. Only Grifter and Hadrian are of any interest in themselves, with remainder of the cast either too absurd to take seriously, or part of the army of near-identical generic alien warrior-women which Casey quickly jettisoned during his run.

The book’s appeal is immensely increased by some spectacular art from Trevor Hairsine. His mange-influenced style may be an unconventional choice for a book with such a bleak concept, but his hiring may well be intended to prevent the book becoming too dark. If so, it succeeds admirably, preventing the standard superhero clash that closes the issue looking remotely incongruous. Gage works well given the material he has to play with, using the strong pull of the post-apocalyptic setting to draw the reader through a considerable amount of exposition on both the World’s End concept and recent Wildcats miniseries. The characters’ skirting round some aspects of their predicament means that their nemesis’ attack at the end of the issue comes as a relief rather than feeling contrived, as the pieces of the puzzle slide into place. Despite their bunker existence, the Wildcats look in reasonable health. The biggest test for the World’s End direction comes later this week, when The Authority joins the party.