New Comics - May 24th

Here's a quick start to this week's batch...

• X-Factor 7 (Marvel) - This series has seesawed through artists — inker became penciller and now a different penciller. Ariel Olivetti (right) is the fill-in for this issue, but that's not a bad thing, because he does a great job and I, for one, would love to see him as the regular artist. Ahhh, such is the life of a Marvel Comics reader: you get what you ask for. This is a title that might not make it through too many more issues for me, but it's entertaining for now.
• Nextwave 5 (Marvel) - My comments regarding last issue still hold. This title is still getting its sea legs. Wobbly, but no vomiting yet. And I'll give them credit for the best variant edition in quite a while. This issue shipped with a variant coloring-book style edition title the "Crayon Butchery Variant". Printed on newsprint so that you practice coloring between the lines. Novel, at least.
• Batman 653 (DC) - Unfortunately, this title that held so much promise is devolving into another punch-em up without much punching. The main percentage of this issue is a dialogue between the halves of a dual personality (that's way more spoiler than I like to offer). The first week link yet in this story arc that has been so well put together. I hope it's a mior glitch that starts the third act of this story and writer James Robinson moves back into the pulp gem he's brought us so far.
• Powers 18 (Icon/Marvel) - This is a title that will probably bump its way onto my annual top ten that you can find in the right sidebar as soon as I can decide which book needs to be cut. Writer Brian Michael Bendis is pushing the characters of this title to new places every issue. Thank god for someone who writes so many company characters being able to do as he pleases with his own creations. That makes for a good genre book. The idea that a character can go through real change is such a bright spot for a mainstream superhero book. Unlike...
• New Avengers 19 (Marvel) - Another Bendis book, but such a different feel. How long before Hawkman comes back, or is this issue the story that sets up the return of some mutant that lost their powers in the House of M storyline. This title is barely keeping me as a reader, and the above gripe is only the start of it. The real problem here is that artist Mike Deodato. I thought I would get as snarky as I will allow myself and reproduce a couple panels that are just off. First, why is Iron Man's head so small and where exactly is that right arm coming from?Second, why is Luke Cage wall-eyed?Third, my foot cramps if I just think about putting it in a position like this: Anyway, decide for yourself. I'm sure he can draw a page in an afternoon, and that's what makes him so popular among Marvel editors. I just wish it didn't look like he drew several pages a day. Seriously, what the fuck?
  

Oh well, that's way too much snark for one day. This isn't a goddamn message board.