As Messiah Complex moves forward, I can only hope that the other X- writers follow suit with Brubaker, by focusing the story not on full- scale battle, but rather on the reassembling of a team in turmoil. House of M completely destroyed the X-Men as we knew them, which I took issue with. Now after two years, the pieces are starting to be put back together, and for the first time in a long time, I'm hopeful at the shape they seem to be taking.

Seriously people, you need to be buying this book. There are so many titles out there that feel so rushed, that I can't help but feel I'm being taken advantage of by companies that can basically count on my money come hell or high water. To me, Criminal should be a top ten selling comic, if not only based on the merit of its fantastic stories, than on the respectable amount of effort Brubaker and Phillips put into it to make a product of the utmost quality.

Obviously, I've really enjoyed the main Breakworld story that has effectively book-ended Astonishing X-Men with two classic story arcs. Whedon's television history has served this book incredibly well, as he has basically created a “season” of the X-Men, of which we are rapidly approaching the finale. Unlike many creator runs, especially on superhero titles, he has managed to weave plotlines throughout the entire series that reward those who have pledged allegiance since issue one, with a sense of epicness that a 12 issue stay on a book could never have come close to providing. This kind of meticulous plotting is rare in comics. Every single story arc from the past two years of Astonishing plays a vital role in this, the author's penultimate chapter- making every issue, every story, increasingly relevant and worthy of a second read.