Also this week...

NEW EXCALIBUR #19 - Uh... hmm.  Halfway through this issue, I broke off to check that I hadn't missed issue #18, which is never a good sign.  The plot seems to be moving on fast forward, and half of the issue is a fight between Excalibur and Shadow-X.  There's some reasonably interesting subplot material with Nocturne rehabbing from her stroke, but otherwise it's all fairly standard.  Claremont is still plainly in love with the character of Sage, and I can't say I share his conviction.  It's okay for what it is, though, and Jeremy Haun turns in some very solid work as fill-in artist.  B

WOLVERINE #54 - More pretentiously mysterious nonsense with nice art.  The thing about mysteries is that they only work if you care what the answer is.  I don't care what the answer is, because it's clearly going to suck.  Pretty pictures aside, this has very little to commend it.  If the only thing you can think of to do with Wolverine is to screw up his back story even further, don't bother writing him at all.  This was actually worse than I'd expected, and I wasn't exactly getting my hopes up to start with.  Will somebody, for god's sake, start editing star writers with something more effective than an awestruck expression and a rubber stamp?  Surely nobody can seriously think this is any good.  D 

There's more from me at If Destroyed, and if you're desperate for more Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth Art.

Next week, Uncanny X-Men #487 returns to Earth and begins a new storyline that, hopefully, will be lighter on feathers.  And... oh.  That's it.  Mystic Arcana: Magik was meant to be out too, but it doesn't seem to be on the shipping list.

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