New comics 1/17

Cable & Deadpool #36 (Fabian Nicieza/Reilly Brown, Marvel)
I'm glad to see that Deadpool's quest for redemption isn't going to be some serious, epic tale. Instead, this issue is full of jokes and quips and the breaking of the fourth wall. Cable doesn't even show up at all, given how busy he is in other books, so this is just a big fight sequence for Deadpool setting up another fight sequence in the next issue. It's light and fun and very entertaining, just what this book does best.

She-Hulk #15 (Dan Slott/Rick Burchett, Marvel)
Despite Slott's assurances that this latest arc would be very serious, there's still plenty of the book's trademark humor here, which is good, because it'd be a shame to lose it. It's a little disappointing to see She-Hulk away from the law firm and into a more conventional superhero story, but Slott does well to show how she fits in with the Marvel universe as a whole, and the character development toward the end is promising. I hope we'll see some of the old supporting cast again soon, but for now this is a nice change of pace, and not as drastic as I had feared.

Y the Last Man #53 (Brian K. Vaughan/Goran Sudzuka, DC/Vertigo)
Yet another stand-alone vignette, with a very minor character that I'm not even certain has shown up before (if so, it was a while ago). Unlike the origin sidebars, which felt like pointless tangents to me, this tells an interesting and novel story about one of the elements of the gendercide while maintaining a connection to the main narrative. An odd diversion so close to the series' conclusion, maybe, but a welcome one.

Notes from last week: My shop was sold out of the Warren Ellis debut issue of Thunderbolts, so I probably won't pick it up unless there's a second printing. Ellis' straight-faced superhero work doesn't usually do much for me, anyway. The second issue of the Peter David Wonder Man series still has atrocious art, a baffling sequence set in the future and an odd tonal imbalance, but something makes me curious to see where it's all going, so I reserve the right to buy the rest of it anyway and continue to complain.