For more of Paul's commentary, reviews and publishing statistics, visit The

When my faith in the X-Men mythos was at its lowest ebb, Bendis has made me care again. I cant wait to read what happens next. My heart is full.

Dont wait for the trade on this one. Support such original, engaging, meaningful work.

Dont let the low sales numbers fool you. Team Zero displays the modern comic craft at its finest. Next time I see Chuck Dixon and Doug Mahnke together in the cover credits, Im buying the book. Man, think of what these guys could have done for that Marvel flop telling the true stories of G.I.s in Iraq last year.

The issue ends a bit on the goofy side, with the villain ready to dismember the buxom heroine after gassing yes, gassing her and her teammates. But for the first time in quite a few months, I actually care about seeing how this X-crew gets out of another fine mess. Unfortunately, Ill have to suffer through X-Men #176 before I get to enjoy what promises to be a far more engaging final chapter to Wild Kingdom in Black Panther #9.

As long as Im not insulted by poor logic, Ill keep reading Squadron Supreme, and appreciating the opportunity to explore a political position other than my own through this great medium of the comic book. I hope Straczynski doesnt let me down.

All in all, a quite fun magazine the past few months.

For more of Pauls commentary, reviews and publishing statistics, visit The Comic Glutton.

The last panel of the issue certainly suggested hes got some interesting plans.

I feel like I just finished off a perfectly cooked steak.

Grey and Palmiotti are orders of magnitude better comicsmiths than this issue suggests. Pity the sola Marvela drones who might have thought this to be a jumping on point. They wont be back.

Of course, this matter is not necessarily Straczynskis fault; blame Millar for thinking it made sense to portray American law this way.

Im thinking of leaving something now, too.

Jemas said in an interview a few months back (attached to the advance preview copy I received) that 360ep decided to release their inaugural product as a double-length packaging of issues #1 and #2 because they thought their plan to release variant covers just wasnt cool enough. Um, well, I think the real reason was that issue #1 alone wasnt cool enough. Guess what? Neither is issue #2. Tasty as tap water.

Me? Im going to go pray for cleansing.

For more of Pauls reviews, commentary and publishing statistics, visit The Comic Glutton.

Well, at least theres fully 24 pages of ads to pick up the slack. Will Marvel please fire the person responsible?

When the comic industry ultimately dissolves in the mists of history and all accounts are one day settled, this issue will be nothing but chaff blowing away in the wind. Utterly, unforgivably pointless. And it didnt have to be.

The issue gets one bullet because, well, I know Ive read worse.

Im so pissed I could break the Internet in half.