Warren Ellis writing a story about a team of cranky experts in fields both esoteric and technical investigating scary incursions and outbreaks around the world? Must be the nineties again! Except it's not, it's the now, Ellis has always surfed as close to the leading cutting edge of thought and tech as he could with often startlingly original results. Here he's joined with Declan Shalvey on art with amazing results as Professor Marie Kilbride reassembles her old team while dealing with a strange occurrence to do with a missing archaeologist and two security men, a rock with strange acoustical properties and, possibly, spriggans. It may all be her fault. She and her team injected a strange consciousness into the internet in the hopes that it would prevent development and innovations from stagnating. Instead something out there is is using ancient folklore and modern technology to make the century interesting. Because the century so far has been such a yawn.

With Ellis in top form in terms of storytelling and cutting-edge ideas and Shalvey's frankly astonishing art, beautifully coloured, and a terrifically spooky mix of alien AI and old British folklore this makes for a great read, even the various instantly identifiable Ellisisms in terms of character and dialogue seem refreshed and renewed and fit for purpose. Bits of it are even set in Dublin, and the Big Smoke never looked so good.