piratescratch on the Marvel comics for the week of October 15th.

Amazing Spider-Man #573 - New Ways to Die comes to an end. Dissapointed would be the word I'd use to describe this. Maybe I had my hopes set too high after all these stellar issues. Where was the big bang? Where was the climatic finale? The arc wraps up with a few loose ends for future story arcs no doubt. But all in all New Ways to Die is probably the best thing thats come out of Brand New Day. Oh the backup story with Colbert, I think ended up being more of a dissapointment.

Astonishing X-Men #27 - I'm still not warming up to the art and colouring, it's just not doing it for me, I find it inconsistent and well downright hideous at times. Other then that it was a good read, I like the dialogue between Brand, Beast and Cyclops, "Xenophiliac experimentation parter?". Whilst it feels a bit slow, doesn't feel like much has happened in the past few issues, I'm looking forward to seeing where this story arc takes us.

Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #34 - Once again we're going through the Secret Invasion motions. War Machine takes out some Skrulls, gets no help from Russians, get's captured by Skrulls. I mean it's a solid issue but frankly I'm getting a bit tired of seeing the same old same old Secret Invasion scenarios that the heroes are being put through but they this is a lot better then the previous story arc, I much prefer this over that.

Mighty Avengers #19 - And how is this related to the Mighty Avengers? Next issue however is the final issue of Mighty Avengers, hopefully it'll end on a high note.

Uncanny X-Men #503 - What the hell has happened to Pixie? "I'm dark! I'm goth as hell!", seriously what? I liked her in The Quest for Magik arc in New X-Men but I'm not caring for this "new" Pixie here in Uncanny. It's not a bad read but it's just been a totally forgettable ride since #500.

Young X-Men #7 - Probably my favourite X-Men title out this week. After a shaky series start Young X-Men has began to pick up, we're still going through the transition stage, setting up status quo and what not. Still hoping that we see some more New X-Men/Academy X characters join the fray, I still feel a bit shafted after it's cancellation with the big Messiah Complex event and no those Divided We Stand issues were crap.