New comics 11/8

Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #4 (Zeb Wells/Stefano Caselli, Marvel)
Well, this was a waste through and through, and I'm kind of ashamed to have bought the whole thing. Wells wraps things up limply, having told only a rudimentary superhero story with no character insight or lasting impact on its main players; in fact, the entire purpose of this series seems to have been to bring Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy character back into continuity, not that Wells does anything interesting with him, or that other writers are likely to pick up on his return. Only the most cursory connection to Civil War is even mentioned in this issue, like Wells suddenly remembered why this series existed in the first place. And Caselli's art, while serviceable, still can't distinguish enough among the many teenage female characters to easily tell them apart. It's too bad that Young Avengers is still on hiatus and this is all we get to read of the characters, because it doesn't exactly do them a great service.

Doctor Strange: The Oath #2 (Brian K. Vaughan/Marcos Martin, Marvel)
More lively than the first issue, and thus more entertaining, although I'm not sure all the flashbacks to Strange's origins are completely necessary. I still don't much care about the character, but Vaughan is writing a fun adventure tale with some twists, and I very much like what he's doing with the Night Nurse character. She's a bit of a Mary Sue at times, but she's sharp and funny and her continued presence is unexpected; clearly the concept has potential for all sorts of different stories, and once this series is over I think it'd be cool to see Vaughan launch one for Night Nurse.

Fables #55 (Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham, DC/Vertigo)
Like last issue, sort of an info dump, but beautifully illustrated, especially a fantastic two-page spread on the hypothetical war between the Empire and the mundies. Willingham manages to get some nice character moments between Boy Blue and Rose Red in there as well, and a cute little backup story with the three blind mice. Even though this issue debunks the gruesome war detailed last month, the Adversary himself is still creepy and the ending is ominous about his future plans.

Y the Last Man #51 (Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra, DC/Vertigo)
The more the reasons behind the plague are explained, the less interesting they become, honestly, although I suppose that was inevitable no matter what the explanation turned out to be. This issue has a cool fight scene between 355 and Toyota and another good cliffhanger, but overall lately this book has seemed like it's going through the motions to wrap everything up by the end with issue 60.