Randomly, and amusing if you're a comics fan and have read more than one story by a certain British writer: Paul Cornell coins the best unexpected!description ever of Warren Ellis in his report on the London Expo last weekend: On the Saturday night, I met Warren Ellis, and found him to be very sweet, like Santa with an edge.

This reminds me: haven't written a review on the most recent AXM. In short, I do like that Storm finally gets something to do instead of just hanging around, the scenes between her and Scott were great, either Emma or Warren Ellis haven't done their research on hotels in the Serengeti, and the team interaction is fine, but the art, it burns, it burns, precious. Did I complain about the SWORD art? It's a marvel by comparison, no pun intended. Never have I beheld such ugliness in an X-Men title, and that's saying something. Plus: it feels bizarre that Ellis didn't use the start of a new arc to finally bring AXM in tune with the rest of the Marvelverse, timeline wise, because the action still takes place pre-Dark Reign. Maybe he just doesn't want to lose Hank as a team member?

Apropos: did I read that right in the recent Avengers issue or ( was too something spoilery taking place? ) BTW, re: Avengers, Brian Bendis, roughly speaking, comes in two editions, initimate character stuff and overblown crossovers; he seems to be going for happy medium here, with an ensemble but room to breathe for character interaction as well, whether these are the awkward-yet-touching Tony-Steve scenes, Maria Hill's appearance after a certain line of Steve's (which caused a huge grin on my face, as did Tony's reaction) or Thor's honestly baffled "who are you again?" to Bucky (since he missed the entire Winter Soldier saga). The basic Back to the Future ploy isn't original, but who cares as long as it's pulled off in style? Also, loved Tony's first thought when asked about time travel is DOOM.

Fanfic recs, Lost edition:

( All spoilery for the finale, and thus under a cut )