Very pleasantly surprised by this one. I like Millar enough but I always approach with trepidation when reading his stuff, like Bear Grylls handling a Black-Tailed momba on Discover Channel. I’m really impressed that despite the far-flung idea for a story – Marvel villains suddenly emerging in an Earth Prime-like setting – he has managed in just 2 issues to make me care about a father-son dynamic over anything else. Parts of this felt very real, like the opening up by the boy about his mother that she fears he will become a know-it-all layabout just like his dad. For all of Millar’s spectacular attempts in comics storytelling this read as something very personal and honest, and it works. Name another Millar book that gives you that feeling? (that’s more than rhetorical seeing as I haven’t read all of his stuff).

Tommy lee Edwards is a fine actor but his pencils are in a class of their own. I love seeing his sketchy half-formed takes on the Secret Wars covers and his art adds a severity that triumphs in such a alt-world tale as this. Can he do Daredevil when Lark gets tired of it?

Top 5 book this week, and that’s saying a whole lot.