Also this week...

DAN DARE #2 - This is Garth Ennis at his most restrained, but that often works to his advantage.  There's a nice balance here between Dan Dare as a traditional, straightforward hero returning to save the day, and a gentle background acknowledgement that, yes, perhaps he's just an anachronism.  To be honest, the Treens don't quite fit into the visual style of this series; they're a little bit too basic and feel like they've wandered in from a different series.  But that aside, I'm impressed with the way that Ennis and artist Gary Erskine have made this rickety old character come together.  A

HOWARD THE DUCK #4 - I think this may be a first.  A Howard the Duck story which isn't by Steve Gerber, but which is still genuinely funny, intelligent and satirical?  Expectations are usually understandably low when someone other than Gerber touches the character.  But with this miniseries, Ty Templeton did live up reasonably well to the character's reputation, and Juan Bobillo is a great artist for absurd comedy scenes.  Howard himself is perhaps not the best vehicle in 2008, but I'd certainly like to see the creators do more among these lines in future.  A-

UNCANNY X-MEN #494 -  "Messiah Complex", part ten of thirteen, so the end is now in sight.  My head says that there's an awful lot of running around and fighting in this storyline, for a relatively slight plot.  It looks like the pay-off to this storyline is simply going to be the revelation of who gets to keep the baby, and what its significance is.  And yes, yes, I know, Bishop's timeline was invalidated back in "Onslaught", so he can't possibly be from "our" future.  But despite it all, I'm still enjoying this.  It's light, it's well paced, it's got direction, and it's got some fun little character moments dotted along the way.  It's entertaining and unpretentious, and it's succeeding at what it sets out to do.  B+

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, Wolverine #61 completes the afterlife storyline, and "Messiah Complex" continues in X-Factor #27.  Although next week also sees the first issues of "Brand New Day", Hulk and The Twelve, so most of the attention will be elsewhere...

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