Also this week...

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #4 - Much as I've enjoyed Christos Gage's work on some other superhero comics this year, Quasar hasn't really done much for me.  Moondragon turns into a literal dragon?  A "power of love" ending?  Oh dear.  And while I can see some potential in the new Quasar as a character, Gage is really pushing his luck by having her fret about living up to the incredible heroic legacy left by her predecessor.  Let's be honest, he was never much more than a poor man's Green Lantern, and it just doesn't ring true to have characters talking about him as though he was Superman.  Still, the coda is nicely handled, and the art's quite attractive when it remembers to make sense.  But I don't think this really worked.  C+

DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1 - In a particularly odd piece of character rehabilitation, Ed Brubaker spends an issue revamping the Black Tarantula, a little-known Spider-Man villain from the late 1990s.  Really, what's happening here is that Brubaker wants to tell a story about an ex-crimelord, and he's chosen the Black Tarantula because he's got an adequate back story, but nobody's going to miss him.  This is Brubaker's home territory, and unlikely as it may seem, he makes the character work.  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, "Messiah Complex" continues in Uncanny X-Men, and Joss Whedon's storyline finally reaches its penultimate issue with Astonishing X-Men #23.

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