Daniel X: Alien Hunter by James Patterson (and Leopoldo Gout).

‘From the No 1. International Bestselling Thriller Writer’ proclaims the front cover of this title. True, James Patterson has written some successful thrillers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s good at comics too. Actually, he didn’t necessarily write this one – one ‘Leopoldo Gout’ is credited as a co-writer on the thing. This is a decent enough yarn, about a boy, Daniel, with mysterious powers, whose father was an alien hunter and (not surprisingly) was killed by a nasty alien. Daniel is therefore out to get all of the aliens his father was hunting – and in this volume he’s after number 7 (Number 1 is the toughest). This is a readable comic, with exhilarating pacing – like a thriller, in fact – but without any features that might distinguish it from any other title that might catch your eye. Daniel X can make anything he can imagine appear in front of him, but the book lacks any imagination in the way it treats this ability. It passes the time, but it’s too humorless to do more than that. [Ryan Agee]