Unreachable Star Reviews January 4th, 2007 (SPOILERS)

This is our 201st edition. Only two bookst his time around, and, well,
it's going to be a fairly short review.

This week we have...

Civil War #6 (of 7) - 3 Stars
newuniversal #2 - 3.25 Stars

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Civil War #6 - "Part Six of Seven" (Writer: Mark Millar, Penciler:
Steve McNiven, Inker: Dexter Vines, Colorist: Morry
Hollowell)

As the Pro-Registration side begins assembling new batches of heroes
to send out all over the world, the Anti-Reg side plans to make an
assault on the Negative Zone prison to rescue their comrades.

It's probably already been said by this point - either you buy the
premise, or you don't. I don't (at least, I don't buy the premise as
they're portraying it. The idea of a superhuman registration act
dividing heroes is fine - it's how everyone's behaving thanks to it
that doesn't). This is pretty much par for the course for the mini -
there are some great moments, some hard to believe character
motivations,
some nice action and art, and, overall, an empty feeling.

It's okay, if you're willing to ignore the conceptual problems that
have plagued Civil War. You could move that up to 'good' (still with
the 'if you're willing to ignore...') if it felt like there was more
to each issue and that key portions of the story weren't being left out
in favour of a string of isolated moments.

Review: 3 stars

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newuniversal #2 - "Trauma" (Writer: Warren Ellis, Artist: Salvador
Larroca, Colorist: Jason Keith)

The new Nightmask gets this new paradigm shift explained to her, while
she and other individuals affected by the White Event adjust to their
new powers and abilities. We also see the Spitfire project, where Dr.
Jennifer Swann is working on an experimental exoskeleton.

As a fan of the old New U, I'm torn. It's pretty clear now that almost
everything I loved about the original New U is going to be tossed by
the
wayside - if I'm lucky, I might see some of my favorite characters
(none
of them have shown up so far, though). Nightmask's briefing by an
alien
intelligence shows that pretty clearly. In short, the New Universe has
been all Ellis-ed up. Which you might expect, considering it's Warren
Ellis writing it, but there are ideas here that will probably feel very

familiar, particularly to those who've read his Wildstorm work.

And yet, despite that, I find myself drawn into the story. It's a
little
more violent than the New U was (at least, on an individual basis, it's

going to take a while for this book to catch up to the overall
bodycount
of the original line), and, of course, slower. But I'm at least still
interested in what's going to happen next. It's just hard to silence
that voice within that wants a more faithful adaptation to the original
New U concept.

But still, overall, I enjoyed reading this more than Civil War, so it
becomes my Pick of the Week.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, there's just one book. That's the somewhat delayed
Runaways #23.

See you next week...

Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion