Although we’ve now reached the penultimate chapter of The Death of Captain America, Ed Brubaker’s intentions for the series are still something of a mystery. Elements from the writer’s entire run, even predating Steve Rogers’ shooting, are being called in, but an unexpected twist means that the conclusion of this epic may not be as definitive as many imagined.

The issue opens with Captain America and the Falcon on the trail of the broken Grand Director, when a tip-off from Dr Faustus puts them in a position to thwart the Red Skull’s plans with more precision than they expected. Like so many parts of this storyline, the mesmerist’s defection is a shock development that makes perfect sense when viewed in retrospect. Faustus’s errors have been slowly accumulating throughout the arc, and the physiatrist’s long-term health would not be guaranteed even if the Red Skull were to triumph. However, it’s unfortunate that this plot twist overshadows the issue. With Bucky and Sam already hot on A.I.M.’s trail, the information volunteered only slightly accelerates the plot, with the result that the writer is a little to obviously putting the moustachioed megalomaniac into storage for future use. Faustus could have slipped away unnoticed in the chaos that is undoubtedly in store next month, but presumably the page count for issue forty-two is already stretched to the limit…

Despite the hype behind events such as Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, the next issue of this book has been in the making for just as long, with the writer having to remind readers of old plot elements such as the Skull being present in the body of Lukin and the mysterious apparatus which he went to such pains to obtain from Dr Doom. However, the demands of the Marvel Universe, desperate to play with its literally shiny new toy, require a break in the narrative for Bucky to undertake a meet & greet exercise. In surrendering to the inevitable, Brubaker has set himself a very demanding test, as the entire four-year story now hinges on the revelation of the Skull’s actual plan and the purpose of the Doom-constructed device. It’s hard to see how it can unify all the elements we’ve been introduced to into a coherent agenda, but Brubaker’s plotting hasn’t disappointed so far. The writer’s rock-solid grip on the title has taken it into new territory, and it’s something of a relief to realise that the end of this particular saga won’t signal the end of his approach. Whether the slow progression of a multiple story strands is to your taste or not, it’s hard to think of another book like it.

James is away at Reading this week, so TSP is left in my hands. Muah hah hah hah hah. It’s a quiet one as a result, but some of our favourite creators - Gillen/McKelvie and Bryan Lee O’Malley - have put excellent and/or teasing things online this week, plus there’s the rather bizarre statement by that bloke at Warner Bros. about DC movies, and some infuriating spoilers courtesy of Kick-Ass movie news…

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After last month’s prototype, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction deliver the finished article. With a more focussed plot and a unified art style, the writers’ injection of some CSI-style gloss into the X-Men’s world clicks into place, although it’s still too early to be sure whether they are willing to grasp the full potential of their ideas.

After an arc which felt as if Brubaker was just marking time, there’s a noticeably more secure grasp of these iconic characters. The writer makes Cyclops in particular his own, showing a more rational reason for his steely “protect mutants” policy than those offered by Warren Ellis. The light-hearted team banter manages to underline just how long the core cast have known each other, a vast improvement on the somewhat stale characterisation seen in the book post-Messiah Complex. Adding to this, we have the arrival of the poster girl for Brubaker & Fraction’s younger, hipper Uncanny. Pixie’s promotion to the X-Men’s a-list has been trailed for so long that the novelty factor has long since worn off, with a Brubaker interview giving the game away last year. New X-Men’s comedy character is considerably more interesting than the transparent Kitty Pryde-replacement making up the numbers in Astonishing, with a power-set that boarders on genius, but it’s hard not to have some reservations. Under Joe Quesada, Marvel has acquired a habit of prematurely seizing and flogging to death the neat little ideas its writers come up with, such as Marvel Zombies, instead of allowing them to grow organically. Hopefully Megan will avoid becoming the next Doop.

The X-titles have been addicted to banner tags lately, but while Endangered Species, Messiah Complex and the less-successful Divided We Stand all sprang from identifiable events and then explored their themes, Manifest Destiny is still at an embryonic stage. I’m confident that a coherent story will emerge across the X-titles over the next few months, but for now, the tagline feels like an imposition, constraining a reconceptualised book that is buzzing with energy. There are still some glitches in the storytelling, such as a seriously-injured Pixie walking several miles to Graymalkin Industries instead of heading to the nearest hospital, and the “shock” revelation of a mysterious redhead leading the Hellfire Cult only two issues after Mystique was seen plotting the X-Men’s downfall. More seriously, the usually brazen narration falls noticeably silent on the subject of whether the partying teens on the first page have been drinking. It’s a curious little piece of censorship, and raises some doubts about the ability of the book to do justice to the lifestyle its heroes have adopted.

The writing team is throwing new ideas out at a tremendous pace. In only two issues, we’ve seen classic series events used as the basis of modern art, a new political liaison methodology for the team, the injection of flashiness into the X-Men’s M.O., a bondage cult on villain duties and the possibility of an unofficial mutant breading programme. The pace of change is putting the series’ flagship book to shame, but parallels with the title exactly one hundred issues ago raise a question mark. Joe Casey’s Uncanny run added new concepts to the X-Men’s vocabulary, but the writer was unable to truly get to grips with the elements he referenced, using them as mere window-dressing for his plots. If Brubaker & Fraction can keep up this innovation while fully riding-out the shockwaves of what they’ve brought to the book, then this will be a title-defining run. But for now, it’s merely very, very, promising.

I’ve bought some crap Spider-Man comics over the years for the sake of John Romita Jr artwork. I persisted with J. Michael Straczynski’s run long after it ran out of inspiration, and I’ve even got Howard Mackie-written Clone Saga issues that I don’t feel an urge to take out and burn. So it’s no surprise that although I’ve been on the fence for most of the Brand New Day relaunch - there have been good stories, but also some pretty bland ones, and nothing yet has made me want to commit to forking out three issues’ worth of cash each month by putting it on my pull list - if there’s one thing guaranteed to get me buying the series regularly again after a long absence, it’s JRJr’s name.

And from that excellent cover onwards, he doesn’t disappoint. He’s joined by regular cohort Klaus Janson, who impressively reins in his inks so that they’re closer to Romita’s pencils, rather than his usual, somewhat looser style. It’s about halfway between the classic Romita/Janson look and the tighter one established in the days of Scott Hanna inking during JMS’ run - and it works brilliantly, aided by a strong colouring job. Romita Jr’s Spidey just feels like the character as he should be, twisting and contorting off walls - and a sequence in which our hero frees himself from a pile of rubble before taking a tired moment of reflection is a particular highlight. As with almost all of Romita’s work, it positively leaps off the page with its energy, and it’s a visual delight.

Not that there isn’t still work to do with the title as a whole. The bitter taste of One More Day still hasn’t been fully washed away, primarily because barely anything has been done so far that couldn’t have been by tweaking, rather than scrubbing, the previous status quo. And there are still countless unanswered questions, particularly surrounding Harry Osborn - such as Why Is He Alive and What’s The Point? And I’m not sure whether the reintroduction of Norman O into Peter’s life at the end of this issue - when he’d been happily carving out a niche of his own over in Ellis’ Thunderbolts - is deliberately designed to tackle said questions head on, or if it’s going to awkwardly draw further attention to them.

Still. If we’ve been able to take one thing from the relaunch so far, it’s that of all the “Brain Trust”, it’s Dan Slott who can really do his Spidey. Argue with the details of the setup if you want, but you can’t argue that he nails the character beats, the blend of action and humour, and the sheer vibrancy that all good webslinger stories need. Perhaps the first truly interesting aspect of the new setup - Peter joining Ben Urich and Robbie Robertson at their ‘underground’ paper - is established here, and it’ll be intriguing to see where Slott takes it. Then there’s the fact that all that Aunt May soup kitchen stuff is finally given a point, as an old villain makes a surprise (cover notwithstanding) reappearance - and it remains to be seen just how deliberate a choice of target for Mr Li-slash-Mr Negative’s “healing” Eddie Brock is, but I got the sense that the re-emergence of Venom just might have wound up being an accidental side-effect, and if so, that’s a neat twist.

There’s almost too much going on in this extra-long issue (extra-priced, too, a cheeky move when you consider that fans are already paying three times as much every month just to keep up) to adequately cover, but Slott rolls on with the Menace “mystery”, a bit of Thunderbolts, a bit of Osborn, a bit of Dexter Bennett and so on in swift and assured fashion, while also finding time to give us a two-page recap (complete with lovely retro JRJr art) of just who this Spider-Bloke is. You know, in case you weren’t sure. And because there haven’t been enough jumping-on points recently.

And six hundred words in and I still haven’t even got to the backup story - which sees Mark Waid and Adi Granov fleshing out Brock’s story a bit, infusing it with further tragedy (people wanting to do the right thing but having it all go wrong appears like it’s something of a theme for this story thread). It’s a solid little character piece, although it draws perhaps a bit too heavily on the sort of thing DC have been doing with Two-Face for years. And while Granov is technically a very gifted artist, there’s something a bit waxy and static about his people - and so a story consisting largely of talking heads isn’t really the best showcase for him. It’s in his flash shots of a creepy and very alien Venom that he really excels.

There’s a definite spark to this, perhaps more so than in any of Brand New Day. You can put it down to Slott being the best of the current bunch of writers, Romita’s brilliant art, the return of some more classic foes or the coming together of various slow-burning plot threats - or indeed any combination of all the above. I still can’t say the series is a must-buy, and I reserve judgement on the use of both Osborns, but the art alone means this was no waste of money for me - and the fact that the story is on the up is a bonus, really.

Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

During the “Heroes Reborn” event, the Hulk title was reportedly scheduled for cancellation so that the character could be used by the Image guys in those comics. At the last minute, the book was saved and Peter David’s legendary run on the character was given a stay of execution, although he was now writing a version of the Hulk who had been split from Bruce Banner by Onslaught’s reality-warping power, so as to leave Bruce free to become the Hulk in the Heroes Reborn universe.

By all reports, David hastily came up with a bunch of stories to fill the gap, re-inventing the Hulk’s personality once again as a thuggish loner unable to contain his own power. In what one expects might’ve been an attempt to bolster sales of the almost-cancelled title, David was eventually teamed with former X-Men/Wolverine artist Adam Kubert and immediately used the opportunity to bring the industry’s most popular characters in for a short guest-run.

Following a fight with Wolverine in the Savage Land, the Hulk’s unconscious body has been brought back to the X-Mansion. David’s mastery of comedy takes prime position during the issue, as the X-Men present are individually shown realising what’s going on and Wolverine has to explain his decision.  Eventually, the Hulk wakes up and tries to escape, and the X-Men’s plan to contain him in the Danger Room fails. In the ensuing fight, the Hulk is faced down by Forge, who has a weapon he believes can harm the Hulk. Forge shoots him, and as he does the Hulk disappears. As Forge explains to a horrified Storm that the weapon isn’t possible of disintegrating him, it’s revealed that Hulk has, in fact, been teleported to safety by… Apocalypse!

Peter David’s Hulk run is full of enjoyable action-comedy issues along these lines, and David manages to nail the X-Men’s characterisation in a few short scenes. The humour mixes perfectly with the action, and Kubert’s depiction of the same is faultless. The later years of David’s turn on the title are often forgotten, but the short X-Men related run which began with the Savage Land fight and included run-ins with both Apocalypse and Juggernaut, before it ended with Hulk accidentally crippling Rick Jones a few issues later, is a particularly enjoyable arc in a classic Marvel tradition. The amount of X-Content does make it fairly certain that it was designed to grab a few extra readers, but when the stories are that memorable purely on the strength of their writing, it’s easy to forgive such a gimmick.

The run begins with Incredible Hulk #454, and is well worth tracking down - especially if you’re looking to read some great Hulk stories and feel like saving a little cash on all this Red Hulk nonsense.

After an enjoyable introduction last month, Ellis takes a more focussed route for this second issue, throwing the characters straight into the plot. It’s a masterful example of how to make a chapter of a multi-part comic read like a full story.

The over-arching plot does feel a bit like stock Ellis-Sci Fi with the X-Men dropped in - whatever a “Ghost Box” is, we can be fairly sure it’s not mutant-themed - but there’s still a strong threat at work that makes the story engaging. The X-Men, as an organisation, handle this situation in a noticeably differently manner to any other Marvel Universe team, so in that respect they’re well-placed for Ellis’ tone, if not necessarily his themes.

Ellis manages to continue the sharp dialogue and character moments that elevated Whedon’s run even when the story faltered. Wolverine, as ever, is the focal point of the best jokes, though it’s nice to see a writer not afraid to use the character sparingly - when Wolverine is in a team book he can overpower the other characters, but under Ellis he has a definite function - even if he’s used as a bit of a crowd-pleaser, there’s never too much.

Elsewhere, Cyclops’ new gimmick of telling everyone how he’ll kill if he has to is both a justifiable and entertaining direction for the character, though in this issue it seems a little misplaced. By Scott’s “protect mutants at any cost” reasoning, anyone who attacks the X-Men is automatically eligible for death - admittedly, the guy they’re tracking killed one mutant unprovoked, but it’s not like he’s a mutant serial-killer.

Bianchi’s art is still amazing to look out, and looks unlike almost any other artist in the industy - his work certainly resembles no other superhero artist. Unfortunately, the art is still directly at odds with the printing, and the muted colour pallette combined with Bianchi’s detailed shading causes everything to bleed into one giant, dark mess on the page. Hopefully this has been noticed, and there’ll be some correction within an issue or two, because at this point it’s really the only flaw in an otherwise A-List title.