New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Dungeons & Dragons #11:  This issue is awesome, the culmination of all the storylines Rogers has kept going over the last 12 issues.  As expected, he does indeed pull a rabbit (actually, several) from a hat in this issue.  The "guy," as I referred to him last issue, who I initially confused to be the Seneschal's master, turns out being a golem assigned to protect the Guide of Gates.  Last issue, when the Seneschal told Fell's Five (or, Four, at that time) that he was going to consult with his master, he was lying.  He was really just going to check to make sure the Guide was still in the vault, being guarded by the golem.  That makes much more sense.  Moreover, I'm clearer now that Thrumbolg stole the Guide AFTER the debacle in the dungeon from issue #5.  I think I knew that, but Rogers makes it more explicitly clear here.  Rogers gives us a great ending as well:  Toveliss gets his comeuppance when it's revealed that N'Ehlia, who he was willing to leave phased forever, is the long-lost Lord of Al'Bihel.  Adric gives him the Guide (which he promptly destroys), denying Toveliss the win.  I love that Rogers left their "relationship" as fraught as it was in the beginning, if not even more so.  The whole theme of this series so far is that, no matter how often Fell's Five win, they're almost always in a worst place than they were when the story started.  This issue is a great testament to that, showing just how attentive and tight of a storyteller Rogers is.

However, Rogers does border on some unbelievable events here.  The first appears to be an error.  In this issue, we discover that Trasgar is blind and his shout of recognition from the end of last issue is because he recognized Varis' voice (and not Adric himself, as implied).  However, Varis never says a word in his presence, not in this issue, nor in the end of issue #10.  Second, I'm still not sure why Adric mentioned N'Ehlia's name in the first place when they were fighting the golem.  If I remember correctly, the two of them were in each other's presence for all of five minutes or so in issue #5 and an even shorter time in issue #9.  So, I don't understand why Adric immediately thought that N'Ehlia would've known the shutdown word, even if Adric knew N'Ehlia knew about the Guide.  Finally, the fact that Thrumbolg's men carry out the Guide because Bree stashed it in the golem, who Fell's Five just happened to know the Seneschal would demand be removed from the premises, crossed into the deus ex machina territory for me. 

For the most part, though, this issue does such an amazing job of wrapping up the loose ends and tying together various storylines, all while giving us great dialogue and fast action, that I'm more than willing to overlook these oversights.  I'm intrigued to see what the next arc will be.

X-Men Legacy #256:  OK, honestly?  I'm just not a fan of Mike Carey.  Similar to the last arc on this title, I should be LOVING this story, given that it involves some of my favorite characters and a cool premise.  But something about his writing just leaves me cold.  This issue seems to lack emotion, so I have trouble really feeling the key moments, like the tour of Friendless' memories of torment or the fear over Rogue (and, to a lesser extent) Frenzy's well-being when they enter Kythri's Highway.  I mean, otherwise, the story is pretty solid.  I'm not entirely sure that I previously understood that the station contained close to a billion people, but everything else pretty much fits with what we knew.  I don't really want to cancel this title, but, honestly, I think I'm close, given that we're now going to have FOUR core X-Men titles.