In Passing...Ms. Marvel to Fables

Ms. Marvel #2 - Who knew Ms. Marvel was this popular? The debut issue of the series came in at #17 on Diamond's sales chart for the month of March, selling more than Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-man, Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four... Those are some damn high profile titles. It can't be the creative team - Brian Reed and Roberto De La Torre? Very strange. But speaking of De La Torre, the art of the second issue was really bad in light of the poor fight sequences. You really can't follow what's going on and that's really kind of vital when half of the issue depends on the battle between the protagonist and the Brood. Not that the art's much better when fights aren't occurring... On the bright side, I love that Frank Cho cover, and the storytelling's decent (nothing spectacular, but entertaining). 7/10

Ultimate Spider-man #93 - I'm not really too keen on the "Deadpool" storyline. It's kind of fun, but it's a little too silly and strange. In this particular issue, I wasn't very happy with the heavy dialogue and Augustus Beezer's play-by-play that ran through mostly every page. It was kind of irritating. But, cool surprise at the end of the issue and it seems like it's leading to a nice payoff. 5/10

American Virgin #2 - I really like Becky Cloonan's pencils on this series. Not that the Frank Quitely covers hurt either, but I really wasn't expecting to enjoy the art of the book much. It's a nice surprise. And I'm growing pretty fond of the main character, Adam Chamberlain. 7.6/10

Fables #48 - Part one of the new "Wolves" storyline has Mowgli (from The Jungle Book) tracking Bigby across the globe, while back on the Animal Farm, Snow and Red watch the wolf cubs grow quickly before their eyes. It's cool to see Bigby through the eyes of other wolves in this story, as a god, a real force of nature. It was really kind of beautiful and mythic. And the action of the issue really put the fight scenes in Ms. Marvel to shame. 8.3/10

The Portent #2 - What began as a series that could go either way, has really shaped up to be a good story. Full of unique ideas and imaginative storytelling, Peter Bergting tells a compelling tale of a world without much hope and the evil that is slowly infecting it. A chosen few heroes stand in the face of what has proven to be a very powerful force. The Mike Mignola-influenced art stands strong in the face of all of the crazy monsters introduced so far, as well as the dark atmosphere that oozes from the pages. 9.1/10