Two things:

1) I have been recovering from seriously major dental surgery so I haven’t been able to get my head together properly in order to review last week’s comics. Of the stuff that came out, though, I definitely recommend Ares, Detective Comics, Incredible Hercules and Avengers: Initiative.

2) Hooray, the postal strikes are over, so I can cover this week’s books! For the first time, well, ever, it’s time for THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

ASSAULT ON NEW OLYMPUS: We don’t know whether we’ll be doing a podcast for certain this weekend, or what we’ll be covering if we do, but this could be in with a shout. It’s the first part of a big event story that’s happening in the pages of Incredible Hercules, which for some reason they’ve chosen to put out in a format that looks like a random team-up one-shot, with the Herc and Spidey logos given equal space (which, to be fair, isn’t much) on the front page. Given that random team-up one-shots tend to sell fewer copies than the parent title, it seems a strange choice, but whatever floats their boat, I guess. This issue handily recaps the last year or so of Hercules issues as well as Oeming’s Ares mini, and sets up the new twin threat of Hera’s Continuum project and the return of nasty god chappie Mikaboshi. After the last half-dozen issues, where the threats were alternately non-Earthbound and personal to the protagonist, it’s good to see a return to proper world-shaking problems for Marvel’s Butch and Sundance. A theoretically-not-unwelcome appearance by Spider-Man seems to do little other than pad out the pages with They Fight And Then Team Up shenanigans, although it’s refreshing to see the reason for the fight being, essentially, ‘Are you looking at my girlfriend?”. There are also some flashes of the humour this book has become known for, particularly in a moment when Spidey is trapped under some heavy machinery, as seems to happen to him relatively frequently. The Agents of Atlas backup is a welcome addition to the book, and the Venus vs Aphrodite plotline is set up neatly in the main story, giving a plausible reason for this backup to feature in this title. A good package, then, with a slightly baffling publication format.

THE GREAT TEN 1: Nothing like striking while the iron’s hot, eh? Three years after being featured in 52 and then promptly forgotten about, China’s super-team get their own maxi-series, by Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel. It doesn’t seem like it should be a must-buy, but Bedard brings his team book skills to bear and sensibly concentrates on introducing the characters in small units. We only really get a lot of panel time for four of the team in this issue, with the spotlight and narration focusing on Accomplished Perfect Physician, giving his origin and history in an economic fashion and setting up his rivalries with August General in Iron and Ghost Fox Killer. This really seems the best way to go when you’re dealing with a team this size; I presume each of the team’s members will be featured in turn over the course of the ten issue series. Scott McDaniel turns in some of the best art he’s produced since his work on Nightwing, and manages to make even conversational scenes dynamic. A pleasant surprise overall.

DOOM PATROL 4: Well, I’m glad that there was a recap in the first couple of pages of who the sort of Detroit Doom Patrol were, because I’d have no clue otherwise. This is a fairly obvious attempt to boost sales of Doom Patrol by tying it in to Blackest Night, and in that respect it’s unfortunate, as it’s probably the weakest issue of this series so far (although the Black Lanterns who turn up do have one nice twist to them). Regular artist Matthew Clark steps off this issue for whatever reason (you’d think that if you were doing an issue designed to bring in new readers and show them what you do, you’d want to show off the regular team, but I’m no publisher), and Justiniano steps in to little effect – his work is less sharp than Clark’s and is a bit of a disappointment. The Metal Men backup is, as usual, the best thing in the issue, and benefits from not trying to shoehorn in the whole team. If you’ve been curious about Doom Patrol, I don’t think this is the issue I’d recommend trying to see what the fuss is about – which seems to defeat the purpose of the exercise, really.

DOCTOR VOODOO 2: I understand that we’re seeing a novice Sorceror Supreme at work here, but aside from the Dormammu smackdown in the first issue, we’ve basically been witnessing Jericho Drumm get punked by a variety of sources for the first two issues, and he’d better get his act together or this could become wearing. The villain of this issue is apparently Marvel’s flavour of the months, turning up in the last issue of Avengers: Initiative and this week’s Deadpool Team-Up too, which I presume is just poor scheduling, but it’s good to see some of Strange’s old villains gallery get some face time. Palo’s art continues to impress, with a JH Williams-esque art style shift for the flashbacks to Drumm’s childhood, and while the story is a little shaky at the moment the whole package shows enough promise to keep me coming back.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 610: Guggenheim’s weakest Spidey story wraps up, and there’s nothing really to it that makes this final part any more worthwhile than either of the preceding two. You could almost plot this yourself – final showdown, villains turn on each other, burning building, weak excuses for absence from Peter, inexplicable and completely pointless Screwball appearance. A complete waste of time – here’s hoping the Gauntlet turns out to be better than these three issues.

So, yeah, that’s what I read this week. What about you?