Also this week...

NEW EXCALIBUR #14 - The penultimate Frank Tieri issue, and the mid-point of his Juggernaut arc.  Considering the unavoidable limitations, this is perfectly fine stuff.  There's nothing earth shattering, but it does the job of nailing down the Juggernaut's character (which has been kind of hazy since he stopped being a villain), and there's a cute idea about his origin story to the effect that Cyttorak was actually kind of hoping Xavier might get the gem.  That's the sort of retcon I like, since it doesn't actually screw up previous stories.  There's also some woefully unsubtle intra-team squabbling which brings the book down a peg, but overall, not bad at all.  B

ULTIMATE VISION #1 - Er... yeah.  The Ultimate Vision is one of the imprint's weirder relaunches; it's basically the name of the Vision nailed onto a completely different concept that bears a faint passing resemblance to the Silver Surfer.  With no personality to call her own, and a character design that looks like it's escaped from an airbushed cover to an early eighties metal album, this version of the Vision is a singularly uninteresting character.  Mike Carey gives her an adequate, workmanlike story, but can't actually go the extra mile to make her interesting.  Brandon Peterson's art is certainly very pretty, but beyond that, there's not much here.  C

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, after a quiet fortnight, it's back to the glut.  In the first ever Exiles Annual, the current team meet the original line-up.  X-23: Target X #1 begins a second miniseries about her backstory, while New X-Men #33 optimistically promises to deal with the fallout from the miniseries even though it's barely started.  Wolverine #49 is a double-sized Christmas special (or, in plain English, a fill-in issue).  Jamie Madrox, Agent of SHIELD returns for X-Factor #14.  Ultimate Cable's debut story continues in Ultimate X-Men #77.  And X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong, which is looking increasingly ill-advised, reaches issue #4.

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