The downside to buying comics on a weekly basis is that sometimes you have off-weeks. Where the books you pull are okay, but not the best. Especially weeks where you’re not pulling Saga or Hawkeye. This week was as such.
Uncanny X-men #11 (Marvel, $3.99, 20 pages) had no business having that great of a cover, unless it’s made into a print immediately. I love Phil Noto’s work a ton, so having him on the cover and then following it up with Frazer Irving and Kris Anka on the internal art was a little disappointing, mostly because I’m a big fan of Noto amd their respected styles are oh-so-different. It’s not that bad of an issue actually, but it definitely feels a little rushed in places, as even Bendis’ usually strong dialogue feels a little weak. I blame it on Marvel forcing an artist who’s not really a monthly guy to double ship in a month with a writer who puts out like 5-6 books a month as is. And for the record, I would have totally read an all Anka drawn issue.
That being said, it’s still not a bad comic. Bendis does some nice character building with Cyclops and Maria Hill, and the Dazzler situation ties into a plot developed over in All New X-men. And while Frazer’s art does look weird in some places, it also excels in others, working more times than not. And props to Bendis for that ending, as he pulls out a character who we haven’t seen in a decade. UXM 11 is still a flawed comics, but a fun one none the less.
A+X #11 (Marvel, $2.99, 20 pages) is series that I don’t bug regularly, but will pick up if there’s creators or characters I dig involved. I’m glad it exists too, because it’s a nice little throw back to Marvel Team Up, seems very creators first, character second and has often results in some cool little stories. This one has a Cyclops/Superior Spider-Man team up, in addition to Thor & Magik, so I decided to give it a pull. The Cyclops/SSM team up was a tad cliche though, as we’ve seen this story with Ock-Spidey a half dozen times, and it’s been done better. The Thor/Magik lead-in story was neat, and played off some events that happend in AvX quite nicely. My only beef with that tale is that Mark Texeria apparently forgot how to draw Magik’s current get up half way through the story. Your enjoyment mileage may vary with this one folks, which is pretty much my opinion when buying this series in general. It was okay, but there’s been better issues.
Wrapping up my pulls this all Marvel week is 
Captain Marvel #15 (Marvel, $2.99, 20 pages) in which Kelly Sue Deconnick gets a helping hand from Jen Van Meter and Patrick Olliffe. Issue is neat, telling the events from last week’s Avengers Assemble from Cap Marvel’s P.O.V. and her status quo post-Enemy Within gives Carol a unique perspective on the situation, and explains some events that happened off panel in AA. I can see this being problematic if you’re not reading both titles, but I am, so I’m digging it. Pat Oliffe, a great veteran artist, gives this boom a very old school look, and I liked it. It definitely fits the epic feel of this event and given his tenure on Spider-Girl, Pat definitely know how to draw great looking female characters. I just don’t understand why Hawkeye is wearing sunglasses in space, something that’s been drawn in every book tied into this event. But overall this is another fun issue, I’m just excited for KSD to be able to write this book and not have it tied into events and cross-overs again.
That’s all for this week. Next time, we take a look of the big X-event of summer/fall and check in on Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley’s Invincible.