Also this week...

NEW X-MEN #34 - The book returns to the important business of fighting murderous maniacs, but something tells me that we have left the gratuitous slaughter era behind us.  Instead, we get to read more straightforward action stories.  Although not as strong as the X-23: Target X miniseries, which gets to play with a more compelling central character, this story still works quite nicely.  One major glitch: Paco Medina's versions of Kimura and X-23 look pretty much identical to one another, and since they also happen to wear rather similar costumes, it doesn't look ideal.  Otherwise, perfectly fine.  B

STORMWATCH PHD #3 - After a slow start, Christos Gage and Doug Mahnke's series is growing on me.  Of course, the concept of a police unit specially designed to deal with superhumans has been done before.  But some neat little subtleties to the characters are starting to emerge, and I rather like the way that these characters are neither a killer military strike team, nor a bunch of hapless police officers left in the dust while the superheroes get on with the real business.  Purely in terms of the plot concept, I suppose the nearest precedent might be Tom DeFalco's Code: Blue, but stylistically it's miles away.  For that matter, it also manages to seem entirely different from Gotham Central or Powers.  The book has a unique feel to it, always a plus.  B+

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

Next week, Chris Claremont returns, to start his delayed run on Exiles.  The Taskmaster shows up in Cable & Deadpool #36.  Thor guest stars in X-Men: First Class #5.  The much delayed Wisdom #2 finally hits the shelves, and Robert Kirkman ploughs on with his somewhat inadvisable-looking storyline in Ultimate X-Men #78.

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