Also this week...

WISDOM #3 - It's a shame nobody seems to be buying this series, because it's really good.  Manuel Garcia takes over from the perennially-delayed Trevor Hairsine on art, and the results look just fine.  Shang-Chi guest stars so that Wisdom can get somebody else to handle the boring business of fighting bad guys on his behalf.  And there's a nice gear change at the end which shifts from comedy to genuine emotion in a way that not many writers this side of Peter David can pull off.  Good stuff.  A-

WOLVERINE #51 - If you enjoyed issue #50, then good news - here it is again.  Of course, everything looks good when Simone Bianchi is on art, but there's little in the way of story, and no discernible point.  At a panel this weekend, Loeb observed that the reason other TV writers fail to get their scripts in on time is because they're trying too hard to make them perfect.  He may be right, but there is such a thing as going too far in the other direction.  C

X-FACTOR #16 - Jamie Madrox continues the task of hunting down his stray duplicates and reabsorbing them.  After last month's slightly disappointing HYDRA story, this is a real return to form, as Jamie drops in on a duplicate now living as a priest in Vermont.  Peter David has got incredible mileage out of the metaphorical possibilities of Madrox's weird power, and this story has also really helped to widen the book's claustrophobic horizons.  One of the best stories Peter David's written in quite a while.  A+

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 #484.  Yes, just the one.  And if you're wondering how lopsided Marvel's scheduling is, thanks to some late running books, they've currently got eight X-books on the slate for 21 March.  God help us.

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