The future has arrived. And it spells doom for the remnants of our favourite band of mutants.
‘Ultimate Comics: X-Men’ #1 is the latest series in the relaunching of the Ultimate Comics universe, and in the aftermath of the events of ‘Ultimatum’ and ‘Ultimate Fallout’, this is a very dangerous backdrop for mutantkind.
Due to Magneto’s attack [...]

Superhero team books are a big part of Marvel and DC’s publishing schedules, but does their style of storytelling stand up when taken out of the weekly churn of periodical publishing?

Bub’ll squabble.

A true evolution, or a load of old Ratners?

Peter Milligan wrote both the best, most consistent ongoing series DC Vertigo ever produced and one of the twin pillars, with Morrison’s ‘New X-Men’, of the most remarkable aspect of the Marvel revival.

The Pulse #10, Spider-Man: House of M, and The Incredible Hulk #83-85.

So far, when it comes to this year’s two big summer crossovers, at concept level Marvel’s ‘House of M’ is grabbing the Shelf’s attention more than DC’s ‘Interminable Crisis’…

As a fluffy holiday diversion, Marvel has published five ‘What If…’ one-shots, exploring alternate histories of familiar characters. The four reviewed here are strangely grim but lightweight, dealing with dark stories in a fluffy and inconsequential wa

I hate this sort of thing. I should probably be disqualified from commenting on comics this year on account of only really reading ‘Astonishing X-Men’. Likewise my lit reading is woefully behind with only ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ being published in 2004. I very nearly [...]

I’m not one of the those people who derides ’spandex’. I love The Flash. I love Golden Age heroes. I have no difficulty looking at pages of people wearing big collars and capes. This, however, I have a problem with.

I’ve only just been able to catch up with the most recent ‘X-Statix’ storyline, and to my great delight the title is back to its old self…

I’m not sure what Marvel promise the big writers to take up the core X-Men team, but whatever it is, it’s worth it…

This is Grant Morrison’s last story arc writing ‘New X-Men’. Unsurprisingly, he isn’t going quietly…

Unluckily, he says, hitting cliche instantly, #13 shows, for the first time, ‘X-Statix’ dropping the ball.

If this issue had featured Princess Diana, as it was intended to, it would have gone down as one of the greatest, most audacious comic books in Marvel’s history.

It has become almost an annual tradition to lambast the quality of Hollywood’s summer output. Key to this is the guaranteed use of the phrase ‘Summer of Sequels’, with all the associated critique of laziness, complacency….

I love weeks like this, when there are two comics you want to read first. Two comics that in almost any other week, in almost any other situation you’d read before doing anything else…

In what sense this Bendis scripted Spidey centric treat is ‘Ultimate X-Men’ rather than, as it seems, ‘Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Volume 2′, is so unclear as to be opaque.

There are people out there, mad and probably stupid, people, who believe that ‘Spider-Girl’ is an accessible, all-ages superhero title which will appeal to ‘the kids’.

At the risk of sounding greedy, does our regular dose of ‘X-Statix’ have to be postponed so that this can come out?

Film franchises shouldn’t function like television series, everyone knows that…

Less a triumphant return to power as a decline and fall, the recent ‘Return of the King’ storyline, spinning out of the risible ‘Ultimate War’ mini-series, represents an exciting new low…

While sister title ‘Uncanny X-Men’ has changed writers and haemorrhaged artists with alarming frequency in recent years ‘New’ has, despite its own artist-related troubles, pursued a steady course.

Well, they’ve gone and done it. This month the price of an issue of ‘X-Statix’ has gone up from $2.25 to a whopping $2.99…

‘X-Men 2′ has an overall dramatic tone which, like that of its predecessor, is exactly right. Neither cripplingly earnest nor floridly tongue-in-cheek, the movie imbues its fantasy elements and SF conventions with utter conviction.

As this title has been in creative flux for the last nine issues, it seems futile to try and analyse any trends…

I picked this up when Mark told me that Evan Dorkin was doing a run on it. I’m a big fan of Dorkin’s work – I’d buy a ‘Gambit’ mini-series if he was on scripting duties…

Philip Bond! Philip flippin’ Bond! Check it out. There’s no doubt that when Mike Allred decides to take time off from this title the top-drawer talents really are queuing up to fill in for him, is there? Paul Pope, Darwyn Cooke, now this.

And the point was…?

Anybody who caught these issues first time around will remember the letters pages…

‘X-Men Unlimited’ is an anthology title showcasing the breadth of Marvel’s mutant universe, as well as the talents of a diverse set of creators…

X-Statix is, of course, Pete Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force in all but name and number. As expected, the writing is as smart as ever, the artwork is as eyeball tingling good as we’ve become used to, and the combination of satire and soap…

The team of writer Frank Tieri and penciler Sean Chen have been on this title for some time now. Tieri’s run has been pretty solidly violent throughout and given us a few fun story arcs…

Cassandra Nova has already stolen Charles Xavier’s body and laid waste to the Shi’ar Empire, and now she’s heading for Earth to destroy all mutantkind. Can the X Men save the day against such implacable odds?