This week's comic expectations

So, you all do know that Astonishing X-Men #23 is THE must-buy book of the week, right? The penultimate chapter to Joss Whedon's story will (hopefully) reveal more of this mystery surrounding Colossus and will (hopefully) reveal that Scott Summers is still alive. Despite the horrible shipping times of this book, it's been near flawless.

But, there is more to this week that will Astonish you. For one (or two, depending how you look at it), we have two second parts to two long-awaited crossovers.

Uncanny X-Men #492 is the second part of "Messiah CompleX," and after last week's dynamite scene-setting one-shot by Ed Brubaker, I'm thrilled that he also gets to pen this second issue as well. Hopefully, we'll get to see which group has the mutant infant, and hopefully we'll get to see what the X-Men plan to do about it. And, I'm guessing Cyclops and Prof. X may have differing views on this...

Robin #168 is the second part (last week saw a prelude issue) of the "Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" storyline. You shouldn't have needed "Batman Begins" to tell you that Ra's is one of Batman's best villains, and I have high-hopes for this Batman event, as it really starts rolling this month.

This week, we also get the final issue of the three-part "Third Kryptonian" arc in Superman #670. While the first two parts have been solid if not a little slow, we should see plenty of Kryptonian vs. Kryptonian-Killers action in this installment, and we should actually see the Third Herself in combat.

Dwayne McDuffie's final Fantastic Four arc begins this month with Fantastic Four #551. While McDuffie's work has been VERY up and down, normally with fun stories but highly-questionable arcs, I am actually looking forward to his take on Dr. Doom in this arc. It's obvious that he cut-down his last intergalactic arc just to have enough issues to tell this story, so it better be worth it!

Lots to like this week, from some of comic books' most classic heroes. Enjoy it, people!