- Houses of the Unholy HC
- Rifters #3
- Sensational She-Hulk #10
- Jonny Quest #1

I got kind of busy and ended up not going to the comic shop last week. Which wasn’t any big deal because I only had one comic on my list, and that was Birds of Prey.

This week was pretty slim as well, with only She-Hulk.

However, while I was browsing, I looked at Gotham City Sirens and I really liked the deluxe cover for the second issue. I’ve been cutting down a little bit on comic books, plus there’s no Catwoman and Harley Quinn this month, so I decided to grab both issues of Gotham City Sirens. It’s a four-issue mini series that will be concluded in two weeks, so why not?

Birds of Prey #12
Gotham City Sirens #1
Sensational She-Hulk #10
Gotham City Sirens #2

I’ve been very hot and cold on Birds of Prey. I really like the line-ups, but the stories are so obviously written for the trade, and they tend to drag on more than a little bit. However, I liked #12 quite a bit. Very amusing, and they seem to have moved the story forward enough that they can wrap it up next issue. Hoosier X likes that!

It’s the last issue of this volume of She-Hulk. What a mixed bag it’s been! There was stuff I liked and stuff that I didn’t like. The romance with Jack of Hearts never worked at all!

I’m so glad I picked up Gotham City Sirens! What a breath of fresh air! I didn’t like it that they were trapped so easily at the end of the second issue. When I open up the third issue, I’m going to pretend that the last few pages of the previous issue weren’t very lazily written.

Unlike my disappointment with Flash Gordon, Joe Kelly really did Johnny Quest right. It really does feel like an authentic continuation of the old show and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

I thought Flash was pretty good... I like they are doing something different. It could definitely go south, and there were some really silly things in it (just the fact that Flash was able to get up after being tied down for some long period of time and be an action hero, never might that he STOPPED TO SHAVE BEFORE ESCAPING)

I can see that being off-putting, but I'm curios where they will go and the art was good.

Kinda reminds me of the Nottingham series as far as being content you don't expect with a long running property.

That's fair... perhaps more Flash-ness is coming

X-Factor #1 by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn

What Happened Before: The mutant island state of Krakoa is gone, mutants are back to living among humans (mostly). X-Factor is a team, partly owned by Angel that works for the government while also being mutant celebrities.

Plot: Rodger Broderick is a TV producer who has convinced the U.S. Government that mutants are both becoming popular and are powerful assets to be used in their wars. He has recreated the team of X-Factor, co-owned by Angel who functions as its leader, with members Feral (formerly of X-Force), Rusty Collins (ward of X-Factor and former New Mutant) and new characters (as far as I know) Xyber (a mutant with electric powers and Cameo (a shapeshifter). The team is not quite as popular as Rodger hopes, lacking the more reknown mutants and are seen as sell-outs by other mutants. On the first mission, most of the team is killed leaving only Angel and Xyber alive. Angel is wounded and needs to recover, Xyber is immediately assigned to the replacement team lead by Havok with members Frenzy, Pyro, Cecilia Reyes and new character Granny Smite.

Does this sound familiar? A team of superheroes that are heavily marketed and merchandised running into a lethal mission and being immediately replaced leaving their surviving members depressed and disillusioned? It's almost point by point the plot of X-force #116, the first issue of the Pete Milligan and Mike Allred run which later was renamed to X-statix. Except this lacks the humor of Milligan and Allred's art and designs. This felt like somebody went, what's the most popular X-Factor run? Peter David's government team. What's the most popular X-Force run? (Arguably) Milligan's celebrity superheroes. Let's mix those two together even though that makes very little sense.

Art: Bob Quinn is a capable artist, but nothing in this book stands out. The designs of the new characters are rather boring. Oh and the cover is by Greg Land, so that's a turn-off as well.

Overall: This was really disappointing. Everything else I read by Mark Russell was very good, but I can't recommend this in any way. A big deal is that this seems just like a lesser version of X-Force/X-Statix.
There are some continuity quibbles:
- Havok and Polaris are back together (after being apart for 10 years and Havok being with Madelyne Pryor last we saw), just to break up again in this issue.
- Angel is disappointed by the quality of his team, but scoffs at Frenzy as one of the potential recruits, though Frenzy has been on the main X-Men team for several times now and has proven to be both powerful and reliable.
- Cecilia Reyes volunteers for this team, but she has always only been interested in being a medical doctor, not a superhero.
- Rusty Collins (using his rarely used codename Firefist) is insulted when a reporter asks him if being a member of the team is a lifelong dream, and retorts that he was a member of the original X-Factor team (he wasn't, he was being trained by them but I'd say that's a big difference).
Oh and another nitpick: Most of the team and their opponents are killed when a stray bullet hits the plastic explosives X-Factor placed to blow up their target's base. Plastic explosives don't explode when being hit by bullets (and no, they didn't hit the detonator, they hit the plastic mass itself)
Now all of these are minor complaints, but they add up and generally if somebody has a more interesting take than continuity established, than go with it, but I'm noticing all these small things, because there is nothing here to make up for it.

There is also a weird scene where Darkstar asks Havok to join her team, where they are both in a house that is carried by a helicopter to their secret base with no explanation given.