More comic book reviews – it’s like they keep publishing them on a regular basis or something. At least there are only three this week, I think I can cope with that.

Fables #85
Part 7 of the The Great Fables Crossover, which at least means that this is nearly over. This issue is all about Jack: meeting his son, Jack meeting Bigby and Snow’s kids, Jack being revealed as not being the reincarnation of Blue, Jack, Jack, Jack – thank God the next Fables issue will be back to Fables. Jack is so irritating I’m amazed that Willingham and Sturges can bear to write him, let alone think that people want to read him. I don’t blame you for trying, guys, but I’m not going to be buying Jack of Fables.

The Unwritten #2
After the excellent first issue, Carey and Gross keep up the good work with a strong second issue: our protagonist, Tommy Taylor, seeks out information to understand what’s happening, visiting the woman who was having an affair with his father; another Tommy Taylor novel appears at its publishers; we see hints of bad guys and mystery to the past of Tommy’s father. The blurring of reality and fantasy is great, and geography of fiction is fascinating. This is a good comic book – more please.

X-Factor #44
‘There’s no crying in noir.’ Peter David keeps things funny and moving, switching between the future story and the present – I’m not quite sure what happened at the end (are we supposed to recognise the transformation?) but it did ruin the hotness of ‘Dirty Sexy Monet’. This is a book that enjoys the month-to-month dynamic of a comic book rather than the ‘write for the trade’ approach to arcs that are more prevalent, and I’m enjoying proceedings.