Down in Tallahassee, FL, there's this little sandwich shop across the street from where I used to live. And at least twice a week, I'd stroll in and ask for a Bootlegger with Cheese, hold the tomato, on fresh french bread. Oh, and add in a bag of dirty chips and a root beer, eh? There really is nothing like a good Bootlegger to get you going in the afternoon. One day, though, a friend of mine called me up and said that he was on his way over - did I want something from the shop? "Sure," I said. "Get me the usual."

When he arrived, however, I found that I was not looking down at a delicious Bootlegger with Cheese, hold the tomato, on fresh french bread. I was looking at a Hunter Club. I think I even saw a rogue tomato, the bastard. With a sigh, I shrugged, and made do. It wasn't bad, mind, you - the shop makes good sandwiches, regardless - but it wasn't the greatness that I'd become accustomed to.

With Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi on Astonishing X-Men, #25 feels a lot like a Hunter Club. Though I'm not a big fan of Bianchi's art, I don't mind it as much as others seem to, and Ellis is hardly Busch League, but it just doesn't match up to the magic that Whedon and Cassaday made with each and every issue. The X-Men are in San Francisco now, and don't seem to mind taking Hisako with them, despite the fact that they're all in their 30s and she's, to the best of my knowledge, the equivalent of a high school student with a mere one intergalactic incident under her belt (kids these days). The mission at hand seems to be deducing the identity of a murderer with a peculiar X-gene mutation, and the gang are off to Indonesia to sniff him out. Oh, and they've ditched their costumes again, though this time they're favoring Poacher Chic over Fascist Fashionista. Hello, rogue tomato.

I'll be keeping up with this book for the duration of the arc to see if Ellis is going anywhere interesting. Still, I miss my dear Bootlegger with Cheese.