Unreachable Star Reviews September November 7th, 2007 (SPO..

This is our 240th edition, with two books. Don't really have anything
to say before we start, so we might as well get right to it.

This week we have...

Astonishing X-Men #23 - 3.25 Stars
Mystic Arcana: Sister Grimm - 3 Stars

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Astonishing X-Men #23 - "Unstoppable, Part 5" (Writer: Joss Whedon,
Artist: John Cassaday, Colors: Laura Martin)

As the X-Men regroup and try to defeat the forced of the Breakworld,
the true scope of Cyclops' plan from the last issue is revealed.

Well, we're on the second last part of the arc. The issue doesn't
really do much to get over the fact that the Breakworld remains
relatively uninteresting as a threat, and the longer it goes on the
less interested I seem to become. Whedon is normally good at
creating compelling villains, but his run on Astonishing is a serious
misstep in that regard.

That said, this issue did a pretty good job of keeping my interest in
other ways, particularly some scenes which shed new light on some
events
of last issue, and a conclusion that was perhaps not surprising, but
visually exciting at least.

So Astonishing becomes my Pick of the Week.

Review: 3.25 stars

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Mystic Arcana: Sister Grimm #4

"To Try In Vein" (Writer: C.B. Cebulski, Artist: Phil Noto)

An old acquaintence of the Minorus tracks down Nico in order to
get a mystical artifact.

This was a little disappointing. The story was pretty scant, without
much to make it memorable, and a lot of the narration felt pretty
stilted.


"Ritual of the Sphinx - Conclusion: Crossroads" (Writer: David Sexton,
Artist: Eric Nguyen)

Having finally assembled the four magical artifacts, Ian McNee
completes
tries to resurrect the soul of Heka-Nut.

I haven't read the whole series, so I can't really give a detailed
impression of it... and in fact I won't be factoring this story into
the issue's score at all. But, I get the impression that the
conclusion
to this wouldn't really satisfy much to someone who was reading it
for
the story, as it seems to be mostly a setup to some other event that
may
or may not ever happen.

(Overall) Review: 3 stars

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Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, there'll be two books. There's Avengers: The
Initiative
#7 and X-Factor #25.

See you next time...

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