Ed Brubaker’s latest Criminal TPB - Lawless - gets looked at by James, there’s some scary news about the future of Buffy Season 8, a tip about one of comics’ up-and-coming artist offering cut-price commissions, some speculation about just what’s going on with the GL Corps’ new rivals and a little more about Morrison’s Batman.

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The first X-title to come out after Messiah Complex has a lot of weight to bear in terms of setting the tone for the rest of the line in the post-crossover universe, so it’s a bit strange to see Uncanny X-Men not just ignoring, but almost contradicting large elements of Messiah Complex’s conclusion.

Firstly - it seems that Cyclops’ claim that “there are no X-Men” wasn’t quite as final as it sounded, because what’s actually happened is that the X-Men are all taking a holiday while they decide what happens next. Secondly, and rather more bafflingly, it’s made totally explicit in this issue that the X-Men don’t believe Xavier is dead and that Cyclops has sent Beast out to look for him. A strange thing to do, considering we last saw Xavier’s corpse slumped on the ground after being shot in the head (ah, but did you notice Xavier’s mysteriously disappearing body in that last panel?! No, me neither.) I suspect the cause the confusion is that the gap between the last panel of Messiah Complex and the first panel of Uncanny #495 is going to be filled in by X-Men: Legacy #208 which regrettably isn’t due out until later this month.

Those are two fairly big flaws, but it’s not like they ruin the comic. In fact, the globe-trotting structure of this issue really feels like a throwback to the X-Men’s heyday, where the characters were rarely in the same place together, and were usually investigating entirely separate plots - so we get Cyclops and Emma vacationing in the Savage Land, double-dating with Shanna and Ka-Zar while trying to decide where the X-Men go now that Xavier and his dream are no longer relevant, and we get Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler heading out to visit Russia. Meanwhile Angel turns up in San Francisco and discovers that it’s unexpectedly become the 60s, and manages to contact Cyclops for help just before he too succumbs to whatever’s going on.

What we’ve actually ended up with is a really decent issue that could slot nicely into any era of X-Men. The light-hearted road-movie feel of Logan, Kurt and Piotr pranking and brawling their way across Europe is pure 80s Claremont, in a good way. The Angel plot suggests that the other X-Men are actually going to do some genuine, non-mutant focused superheroics which hasn’t happened in years and might actually make a nice change of pace.

The thing is, as good as this issue is, after a massive crossover like Messiah Complex… it’s hardly the new direction we were promised. Perhaps it’s intentional - X-Men, Cable, X-Force, Young X-Men and X-Factor all appear to be dealing far more directly with the fallout, so perhaps Uncanny’s “place” in the X-Line is to provide a refuge from that. For now I’m just enjoying it as a nice, light X-Men story and assuming that the real meat of the post-Messiah Complex situation will be digested elsewhere.

So, let’s check in with Daredevil, shall we? Haven’t done that in a while, though as you might learn, there’s a good reason for that…

As I’ve said in the past, Brubaker is a writer who blows my mind in one comic and then disappoints me massively in another. His Daredevil run is, somehow, one of the weaker series he’s writing. It’s hard to fathom why, he feels like a perfect fit for the title, and he’s cut from exactly the same mold as Bendis, so it should at least be as good as that, right? Wrong. I have no idea why but Daredevil is one of the few titles that I’m almost ready to drop. Perhaps it is just because Bendis’ arc was character and career-defining work, and this is just, well, Daredevil being Daredevil.

Now, don’t mistake me. I’m not saying it’s bad. Quite the opposite. It’s intricately plotted and packed with suspense. Lark’s pencilling echoes all the best aspects of Maleev’s. But dear christ, I’m bored. So very bored. Perhaps it’s the constant use of Lily Lucca, a character who does nothing for me and has a very strange gimmick of smelling like Karen Page to Matt. Or perhaps it’s the heavy focus on Milla, the wife without a personality. Whatever it is, I feel like this arc especially is as tedious as it’s ever been. Brubaker is successfully stacking the odds against Matt, but… I just don’t care if he wins or not. Milla has a lot of potential as a character (Daredevil, unlike Spider-Man, is free to marry!) but one Milla-centric issue aside (the fantastic Daredevil #94) her potential hasn’t really been realised as she’s reduced time and again to either damsel in distress or nagging obligation.

Still, if being a comics reader has taught me anything, it’s that you have to stick with a title regardless of any drop in quality, lest your numbering get ruined! In reality, I’m going to keep giving Brubaker chances, largely because Daredevil’s a great character and Brubaker’s a great writer, so if any part of the equation isn’t matching up, it’s probably me. Maybe the next arc will interest me more…

Well, here we are. Captain America is officially back. And yes, it’s not Steve Rogers, but his former child protege, Cold War brainwashing victim and the most unlikely badass in Comics, James “Bucky” Barnes, aka, the Winter Soldier. As if you hadn’t heard that by now.

I have to say, I find Brubaker a bit hit and miss. I enjoy his X-Men no more or less than most writers. His Daredevil teeters on the brink of losing me for good. His Captain America? Utter genius. From start to finish. This might seem like a big event to some, but to others it’s merely another chapter in one of the most sprawling, ambitious arcs ever to be done with - or more recently, without - Captain America.

After all, there’s a lot going on in this issue that doesn’t involve Cap. Much of it comes from the Red Skull and his alliance of Nazi hold-outs who have been plotting and planning insidiously, engineering the collapse of the economy and infiltrating SHIELD, brainwashing its agents and causing them to murder civilian protesters at the climax of the issue.

But, let’s be realistic. Most people are going to be picking this one up for one reason only. The new Captain America is out of the bag. He’s got a gun, a shiny (literally shiny) new costume, and he’s, er, accidentally wearing the Puerto Rican flag, apparently. How embarrassing. After agreeing, last issue, to take on the identity, we find Bucky heading out on a mission with the Black Widow, donning the costume and giving us all what we wanted to see - Captain America, back in action. He admits he’s not as strong as Cap, and he can only use the shield because of his robotic arm, and perhaps most controversially, he makes definite use of the pistol he’ll be carrying. It’s Captain America, alright, but not the one we’re used to.

Which is great, really. I found myself genuinely excited to see someone back in the costume and kicking ass, even if it’s not Steve Rogers. Sure, he’ll be back eventually (I’m going to call it now: Cosmic Cube) but today, Bucky is Captain America, and it feels right. Tony Stark even gets some measure of redemption out of this development when he allows Bucky to take the costume, keep the shield and act independently as an unregistered hero. If there aren’t any double-crosses snuck into that deal, well, he’s almost making up for spending the last year as Tony Stark, the Insufferable Iron Dick. Another top-notch issue of Captain America, and up until a few months ago, I never would have expected to ever be saying that.

Well, it wasn’t Predator-X who stopped Bishop, but instead the Marauders made their re-appearance at a fortuitous moment, taking the baby for themselves. This is the first time it’s significantly changed hands during the arc, and presumably signifies the point of the final chapter - rescuing the baby from the Marauders.

At this point, I’m wondering if Bishop won’t become the main antagonist in Cable’s new series. His role in Messiah Complex just become far more important, and once his apparant betrayal comes to light it feels like the only really payoff can be death or exile, in the grand tradition of previous X-Traitors.

Speaking of which, Gambit’s appearance in this issue can’t fail to disappoint Gambit fans. Sometimes a character shows up and suddenly they’re just acting how they should, and you realise that for years they’ve been mis-written - This is one of those moments for Gambit, in my opinion. Tan’s artwork contributes to that, as he continues to improve massively. There’s a brilliant panel later in the issue where Wolverine squares up to a disobediant (and much taller) Warpath, that Tan deserves credit for rendering, because it’s an excellent little Wolverine moment.

The final twist in the issue sees Cable contact the Professor for help - as expected, the Professor’s about to play a big role in Messiah Complex which explains the earlier attempts to put him down. There’s going to be a triumphant return for one Charlie Xavier, but the question should be whether the X-Men will be pleased to see him or not. A few threads remain to be wrapped up - Predator X really has to do something big to justify his inclusion in the series, and Layla has to get back to the past somehow (though part of me wonders if this isn’t part of a plot thread introduced in X-Factor… I’ll elaborate if anything comes of it.)

Once again, the best thing you can say about Messiah Complex is that, Morrison’s run aside, the X-Men haven’t been this exciting or urgent in years. Only a few chapters left and I’m still as gripped today as I was at the start. I’m just hoping they manage to buck the trend for climaxing with a damp squib like most of Marvel’s recent big stories.