Holy crap there are a lot of Marvel books this week - Matt pre-reviews for 6/23

There are a ton of books in the Marvel Preview Pack, an absolute TON -- and even more of them on the advance shipping list. It's a HUGE week, Marvel Fans, and a suprising number of the books (the ones I've read, anyhow) are really good. Anyhow, given the volume of books and the always SPOILER-FREE nature of these preview reviews, let's see how quickly we can knock these out.

۞ Uncanny X-Men #499 - Wraps up the SF story and the Russia story adequately, and clears the decks for an interesting run with the updated creative team. Perfectly sound.

۞ X-Men Legacy #213 - Very interesting twists here. I'm really growing to dig this storyline a lot.

۞ Runaways #30 is so late that I have no recollection what's happening, but I get the sense that I would really like it if I did. Stupid late books.... I'm NOT looking forward to the new creative team, though.

۞ Wolverine First Class #4 - Fun. Not my usual cuppa tea, but if you like this sort of thing (Kitty Pryde transformed into a cat warrior, for example), this is a well-executed version of it.

۞ Ultimate Spider-Man #123 - Not quite as appealing to me as last issue, but a suitably creepy introduction to this storyline, and one that has me at least a bit intrigued.

۞ Thor Reign of Blood One-Shot - This is the second of three linked Matt Fraction Thor one-shots, and, like the last one, this one is AWESOME. Captures the violent, sleazy tone of true myth and just goes to town with it.

۞ Captain America #39 - Consistent like the sun, taxes, and traffic. This is good stuff.

۞ Thunderbolts #121 - A lively but slightly rushed wrap-up to the Ellis run. Good, but I was hoping for something sublime.

۞ Fantastic Four #558 - Promising start to the new storyline, this feels like a much denser read than the last one. I hate the fuzzy panel edges, though. Not sure why that drives me so nuts, but it does.

۞ Immortal Iron Fist #16 - Snif. Matt Fraction bids goodbye to Iron Fist the way it deserves. Great stuff. I'll give the new creative team a shot, but they've got a lot to live up to. (And, if there are any other Fraction junkies out there, he's the writer on the Young Avengers Presents issue shipping this week also.)

۞ Wolverine Origins #26 - I'm predisposed to hate this book in general, but replacing the dependable Steve Dillon with a much lesser artist (think Lenil Yu + Mark Texiera + someone who has no clue how to layout a page) really takes it to alarming new lows.