[Since these reviews are coming out a day in advance, they're spoiler -- but not opinion -- free. Just the way you like 'em.]

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS: JACKPOT #1: Well… This is easily the best work Marc Guggenheim has done for Marvel since the back half of Young X-Men. Fun, funny, and surprising, this makes a good case for Jackpot as a name, a character, and sets her up as the Marvel equivalent of Animal Man (minus the meta-textual-Morrisoness). Plus, the last page shows the return of a villain that perfectly hits my ’80s/’90s Spidey fan buttons. Only thing I’m not crazy about is Adriana Melo’s art, which is a little too Dabel Brothers house style for my taste (very posed characters), but it’s serviceable enough for Guggenheim’s enjoyable story. This was a nice surprise.

CABLE #22: We’re getting to the end here with one of Comic Book Club’s Best Comics of 2009, and its making me pretty sad. This, more than anything else, reads like a final chapter in what is the world’s most hardcore Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote battle. Hope is finally standing up, Cable is falling down, and Bishop just won’t stop. Here we’re getting Swierczynski revisiting themes and ideas from his entire run. I can’t say I’m happy that this, one of my favorite recent plotlines in comics, is coming to an end, but Mr. S is writing it as well as ever.

DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #897: Deadpool “teams up” with the Ghost Riders, and there are so many missed opportunities here, it made me sad. I’m not going to go into my Deadpool over-exposure rant, or my Deadpool narration rant, as those are shouts against the wind, but this is a lesser issue in the Deadpool canon. Hopefully the next, which pits DP against killer raccoons, should be better.

MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN #1: Well this is a delight. There was a lot of head scratching as to why you would want a spin-off mini-series about an Agents of Atlas character, when the title itself has floundered, but Jeff Parker plays with continuity here in a similar way to how he did in The Age of the Sentry, and it works like a charm. It also reminds me of Omega The Unknown, another excellent series from Marvel, with it’s setting and (not quite as exaggerated as) Farel Dalrymple-esque art. Hopefully this will live up to those title’s legacies, and so far, it’s off to a great start.

NATION X: X-FACTOR: X-Factor goes to visit the X-Men’s Utopia, with predictably cantankerous results. It has Peter David’s trademark humor, and some great, great character moments (including some pay-offs for fans of Claremont era X-Men). It also has some silly meta-writing nonsense, but that’s also par for the course. That aside, X-Factor is excellent even in one-shot form, and for those looking to get into the series, this is a great intro.

NEW MUTANTS #9: So… Doug Ramsey is back. But I refuse to believe its Doug Ramsey. It’s a different character. It’s not him. IT’S NOT. Not MY Doug at least. Sob.

PUNISHER MAX: GET CASTLE: There’s a really great emotional concept at the center of this story (which I won’t spoil here), but it gets a bit lost in Frank Castle’s European Vacation, which is, otherwise the bulk of this story (and a pretty rote Punisher tale at that). If there was a connection between the two, I’d like this quite a bit more, but as is, the two ideas feel like two separate Punisher stories that got smushed together.

SIEGE #1: These are spoiler free reviews, right? Well, then, I’ll say that Olivier Coipel’s art is great, as usual, though I think the panel layout (minus some big-arse splashes) is a little more cramped than it should be, given the epic scale (or purported epic scale). And Bendis’ script, though well written, suffers from exactly the sort of compression/decompression he’s been criticized of in the past. Meaning, big things happen very quickly, and the majority of the issue is spent on chatting about it. This works, I think, in a title like Powers or Ultimate Spider-Man, not so much with big event comics. Look, there’s clearly a level of craft and care in this issue that clearly puts it heads and tails above most comics; Coipel and Bendis are great at their jobs, and know what they’re doing. But I’ve got to judge this issue on its own merits, and not the span of comics history. I’m willing to give this one more shot, but the first issue of this “event seven years in the making” isn’t exactly rocking my world.

SIEGE: EMBEDDED #1: Man, I’m a total sucker for these Frontline (now Embedded) series that go along with Marvel’s big events. This one is a little cheekier than usual (the Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, and Civil War ones were all a little grim), but I just love the fact that Marvel is selling a Ben Urich mini-series, and making it work. In fact, I would even say I liked this better than the main series OH MY GOD I’M JUST SAYING.

SPIDER-MAN NOIR: EYES WITHOUT A FACE #2: Okay, I think I’m starting to get a handle on this Noir line thing a bit better… They’re not actually Noir books (well, most of ‘em), they’re actually the Marvel Universe’s version of DC’s Mystery Men, who the JSA were before they were the JSA. Basically, if yoyu rebooted the Marvel U, but set it twenty years before it really started. With that framing, it’s not a bad thing, as in this issue you’ve get a tough as nails Spider-Man fighting a mad scientist in a gritty underground New York City. I can get into that, and I can get into this. It’s still not sending me over the moon with joy, but taken as as Elsewords type title, it works just fine.

ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #6: …And on a similar subject to Siege, up above: this is what I’m talking about. Actually, this is NOT what I’m talking about, as Bendis has figured out how to pack every issue of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man so far chock to the brim with humor, character development, awesome action set pieces, great mysteries, and, on top of all of that, new, innovative page layouts. It may be working with David LaFeunte, who, as usual, knocks it clean out of the park with this issue, or it may be that Bendis just feels freer to do what he wants with this title, but my heart aches a little every time I read it, it’s so good. These past six issues are as good as Ultimate Spidey has ever been, if not better.

X-MEN NOIR: MARK OF CAIN #2: Okay, never mind what I said about Spider-Man Noir, it totally doesn’t apply here. Last issue was a bit all over the place (literally, all over the globe), finally getting focus at the end of the issue. And it keeps that focus for the entire issue, bringing to bear intriguing riffs on X-Men history, a good, actually Noir-esque story, and Dennis Calero’s perfect art. Even if you skipped the last issue, this one is worth picking up; you won’t miss a beat. Easily the best the Noir universe has to offer.