Upon my first read, I truly did not like this comic book. Pledged to valiantly give you the best opinion (and because my editors make me), I read it multiple times. I can honestly say it gets better upon repeat readings. The cyclical nature of the bookend sequences necessitates this, but it isn't enough to overcome some glaring faults (like how can future technology teleport people, but not come up with a better version of Siri?). Though you'll be thrilled by scenes of seemingly living entities of robotic matter (the provoking images callback memories of Xorn, the machine that turns Bill Bixby into Lou Ferrigno and the haunting eye of HAL9000), there simply isn't enough else here to bring most readers back for that second read. 

In some ways, we know what's going to happen in next three issues of Batman Inc. It's Batman's voyage into the Inferno, the Dark Knight's dance of death at the end of the world. If you've ever read a comic by Grant Morrison, you know little is as it seems. Even after so many Batman stories, Morrison is showing no signs of letting up or slowing down. This issue does a solid job of setting up what comes next, while still revealing the edges of a few aces up Morrison's sleeve.

Brian Michael Bendis' X-Men story continues to be interesting and this book just helps him expand and focus his large cast of characters in different places, even if that focused angle makes things a little more plain.

No one is paying me to say this, but I'm such a fan of creators making money that I have to plug for a book if I like it. So buy this issue. I'm putting the Official Comics Bulletin Stamp of Approval on this issue, so if you don't like it, we'll refund your purchase.

This was the best issue of Superior Spider-Man yet. Hopefully it continues to get better. Though the changes initially stunned many, the best thing I can say about Superior is that everyone knows what will happen eventually, but few know how the story will get there. And that makes this book worth reading.

Vaughan is a great writer and his manipulation of the language to create an exciting landscape is a marvel in of itself, but it's the man creating those landscapes that brings the book to life. For most of the book, Marcos Martin is simply showing off.