Happy New Year, people! Welcome to the slightly retitled “KFR Comics Reviews Roundup,” where we try and tell you what’s good, what’s not, and what’s in-between.

Civil War #6
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Steve McNiven
$2.99

A few folks, both online and off, questioned why I named this one of the worst books of 2006. Allow me to offer Civil War #6 as evidence of this series’ bloated plot, unnecessary hyper-violence, and poor characterization. Here, we see the following insanity: Iron Man leads a group of government-registered supervillains (?!) to take down people who were his friends thirty seconds ago; Captain America beats the Punisher, a supporter of his cause, to a bloody pulp; Reed Richards, in psychotic Re-Animator style, operates and cuts open clones on operating tables. None of it makes much sense — not when you consider how these characters have behaved and interacted for about 50-plus years. Steve McNiven’s work is brilliant, but Civil War is an overwrought piece of fluff pretending to be something important.
KFR Rating: C-

X-Men #194
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Humberto Ramos
$2.99

While Astonishing X-Men became the flagship title of the X-Universe, and Uncanny X-Men remained the classic X-series, the adjective-less X-Men was left out in the cold. Enter Mike Carey, and problem solved. Under Carey’s guidance, X-Men has established itself as the action-oriented X-comic, with threatening new villains (The Children of the Vault), interesting additions to the team lineup (Cable, Sabretooth, Mystique, and others), and lively fights. Issue #194 keeps up the momentum, including a great opening, scary bad guys, and a nice cliffhanger. It’s a little lacking in the humor department, but this is basically Aliens meets Die Hard, and it’s lots of fun.
KFR Rating: B+

New Avengers #26
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev
$2.99

While New Avengers plunged to the depths of mediocrity after its first arc (most notably with the poor Magneto-Xorn retcon in issue #20), Brian Michael Bendis has impressively reinvented the book with issue #26. Most astonishing is the comic’s dreamlike feel, thanks to Alex Maleev’s realistic pencils, draped in an other-worldly watercolor look. Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch are back, and there’s a great air of mystery surrounding their return, as well as the entire issue. From the eye-catching opening shot of Hawkeye waking up face-down in Central Park, to the stunning love scene between him and Scarlet Witch, this doesn’t feel like a superhero comic at all; rather, Bendis has achieved the tone, weirdness, and smarts of a great Vertigo comic. A huge surprise.
KFR Rating: A-

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