In Passing...Eternals to Civil War

Eternals #2 (of 6) - The second issue of Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr's mini-series on the Eternals kicks things into highgear. Sersi throws her first professional party where some unexpected things happen, as Mark Curry deals with the consequences of his actions from the previous issue and...strange things happen to him too. Well, he's at Sersi's party, so he's involved in all of the strangeness. Anyways...the series becomes much more interesting as the Eternals slowly meet and are put in the face of danger. I haven't been impressed with much of Neil Gaiman's comics work recently, so it's nice to be surprised with a really great issue. And I really like that Rick Berry cover. A

Manhunter #24 - The "Can't Get You Outta My Head" storyline comes to a conclusion this week amid chaos. Dr. Psycho gets loose in the courtroom, so it's him versus Kate Spencer in a spectacular fight. Superhero books don't get much better than this. A

Uncanny X-Men #476 - "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" continues as Professor Xavier and his X-Men break into a hidden Shi'ar base to steal a spacecraft in order to follow Vulcan into the depths of space. Of course things don't go as planned. Having a student tag along on the mission with the seasoned players was a good idea on the writer's part, I think, since we can see things like space travel through his eyes and feel that it's really cool again. And Darwin is one of my favorites on the team really (after Polaris who the creative team write really well). This book may not be shaping up to be much competition for Astonishing X-Men in terms of quality, but it's still a pretty good book. Before Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men, I think it would have been seen as an impressive debut for the creative team, but the X-Men have just seen too much good material as of late, so Brubaker and Tan will have to be content with being labeled "better than their predecessors on the book." At least for now. B

Civil War #3 (of 7) - Most of this issue is pretty much a big throw-down between Cap's team and Iron Man's. Little is dealt with in term's of last issue's big shocker - Spidey's outing himself. However, the underground team of heroes are seen in light of events from the previous issue, mainly that they've gotten themselves new identities. And of course, there's another big surprise at the end of this issue to keep people gasping for the next issue to hit the stands. Tony Stark also makes a stop by the X-Mansion to try to rally up support from the mutant front and has a little chat with Miss Frost. I like how the mini-series is focusing on two characters primarily: Iron Man and Captain America. With all of the characters drifting in and out of the book it helps to stay a little grounded through it all. C+

X-Factor #9 - This was another really great issue. Quicksilver and X-Factor have a confrontation about what has gone on since House of M and now with the whole Civil War. This is where the team must decide whose side they are on. Oh and in the end, it's X-Factor vs. the Astonishing X-Men as they fight over Quicksilver and the half-truths that have been fed between the groups. Guess who wins? A