This week's comic expectations

Pay no attention to the thin list of Marvel Comics releases this week, we're getting some quality out of the "House of Ideas," even if the third installment of "One More Day" was pushed off.

Leading the way is, of course, Messiah CompleX #1, the one-shot that kicks off the first true X-Men crossover in a decade. Being a huge X-Men fan (who lived and died with each of those yesteryear crossovers growing up), I could not be more excited about this release. Sure, I'm nervous about it, since Marvel doesn't seem to have a clue lately on how to write the X-Men. And Sure, I'm not too happy that Chris Bachelo and Humberto Ramos are penciling about half of it. BUT, my man Cyclops is playing a central role in a story that promises to reset the direction of the whole X-Men line, so you better believe I'll be reading.

By the way, while I would also recommend New X-Men #43 after last issue was so strong, you should know that this is NOT a Messiah CompleX book, just an issue that was pushed back a week.

Now, if not for Messiah CompleX's debut, Justice Society #10 would be the ace of most any week of releases. Geoff Johns' JSA is the most consistently great book on the market, and the addition of one of my favorite heroes of all time, Kingdom Come Superman, the book is sure to be interesting at worst and phenomenal at best. Sure, this book has been pushed back for a while, most likely because we have a few Alex Ross painted pages inside, but it's better late than never.

Speaking of painted pages, I'm kind of interested to see Mythos: Fantastic Four. Marvel's line of painted origin re-tellings are typically pretty good, and I'm interested to see how the Fan Four's first meeting with Mole Man looks as real artwork.

Batman #670 kicks off the "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" storyline with a "prelude" issue. Generally, prelude issues end up as a giant recap of any recent contact between characters, in this case Batman and Ra's, so this is likely the perfect issue to pickup if you're a casual Batman fan simply looking to jump on for this one big Batman event.

Another big issue to begin a storyline this week is Action #858, the start of Geoff Johns' Legion of Superheroes arc. Personally, I was never too knowledgeable on that original Legion before the "Lightning Saga," but I've been dying for more info ever since. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the surprise hit arc of the year.