X-files/30 Days of Night #1

(No Spoilers)
X-files and 30 Days of Night. When I first heard of this crossover it made me think, ‘why not?’ Why hadn’t this been done before? Well, I guess it was a matter of timing. X-files ended its run in May 2002 and the first 30 Days of Night mini-series came out later that year. X-files had lost a lot of steams towards the end so I guess doing a crossover with it at the time didn’t make much sense. But with the 2008 movie “X-files: I Want to Believe” and the comic series Wildstorm published that same year, X-files has had some exposure once again.

Sparta U.S.A. #5

(Possible SPOILERS)
If this series had started out the way this issue did, I might be enjoying it more. In fact, I feel like I’m reading a completely different comic now.

The one thing that’s frustrated me the whole way through this series is that Lapham has spent so much time setting up mysteries, he’s waited too long for the pay-offs. Even knowing he only had 6 issues to tell the story, he kept the mystery of Sparta going for more than half the mini-series. We don’t have all our answers in this issue, but it was definitely a much more exciting issue than any of the previous.

The Authority #24

“Mondregon-Part 2” (No Spoilers)
I’m glad this was labeled as a “Part 2” because you really have to read the previous issue to understand what’s going on here. I think the old “every issue could be someone’s first” thing can be fudged a little when you outright number the parts of your story.

The issue heralds the return of artist Al Barrionuevo who had been off the title for two issues. We originally thought he’d left with the previous writing team but it seems they just brought in artist Mike S. Miller for the past two issues to give Barrionuveo a chance to get some issues in the can (especially since the solicits for the next two issues list him as the artist). It is bittersweet because I love both Barrionuevo’s and Miller’s artwork. Their style is way too different to pick one over the other. But Barrionuevo returns in full force with some amazing work.