Also this week...

CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD: THE LAST ENEMY - Chronicles of Wormwood was precisely the sort of series you'd expect Garth Ennis to take to Avatar.  It had the Antichrist as an antihero, a viciously obnoxious take on the Catholic church (complete with degenerate Australian pope), and lots of really childish comedy.  It was also quite good fun in its own way, but it's still a little surprising to see Ennis producing a 44-page sequel already.  This is typically over the top, and to be honest, much of this is just an exercise in baiting the devout.  There isn't really much pretence of being anything more.  But Ennis does it with such verve that it can't help raising a smile.  Artist Rob Steen is a little inconsistent, but the issue entertains on the strength of sheer ridiculous excess.  B+

UNBEATABLE - This is a self-published graphic novel by writer Matthias Wolf, with art from Carlos Gomez.  The high concept is a guy being locked in an asylum and tormented with dreams that are supposed to be teaching him to fight.  In fact, it takes most of the book to get to that point, and the set-up is the best part.  Some of the earlier scenes are very nicely paced, and the relationship between the lead character and his father is well written.  The asylum material works better than you might expect.  On the other hand, there's also a cipher girlfriend, and an ending that (although admittedly foreshadowed) doesn't feel very satisfactory.  The art is largely fine, but has some issues with scale and perspective, and badly botches a major page-turn reveal by inexplicably doing the next page in landscape format.  It's a decidedly hit and miss affair, but there are definitely some good moments, and it certainly shows potential.  B-

WOLVERINE #60 - The penultimate chapter of the bizarre "Logan Dies" story, which seems to be degenerating into yet more continuity clutter.  Was anyone really crying out for the return of a minor villain from the 1980s, out of nowhere, two thirds of the way through a storyline about something completely unrelated?  No, me neither.  I'm starting to wonder whether I've been too optimistic about where Marc Guggenheim is heading with this storyline, which is turning into something of a train wreck.  The odd thing is that Guggenheim does write quite a good Wolverine, and there's something curiously appealing about Chaykin's admittedly ungainly art.  But the premise of Wolverine fighting angels of death in the afterlife is just silly, and doesn't work.  C+

X-FACTOR #26 - Introducing the new X-Force, who seemed thoroughly contrived in the promotional material.  This issue doesn't exactly provide a clear answer for why we need an X-Force series either, but perhaps it doesn't need to answer that just yet.  I can understand the logic of putting all the tracker characters together or this story.  How that translates into a premise for an ongoing series, I have no clue, but they've got some time to get there.  Despite my misgivings about the new team, the characters are all well written, and the wider crossover storyline continues to develop in a satisfying way.  X-Factor manage to avoid being entirely shoved to the margins of their own series, and overall "Messiah Complex" continues to keep up the quality level.  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, Exiles is notionally cancelled with issue #100, although it's being relaunched almost immediately; Wolverine: Firebreak is a one-shot by Mike Carey and Scott Kolins, so it'll probably be good; "Messiah Complex" continues in New X-Men #45; Storm features in Ultimate X-Men #89; Deadpool teams up with Brother Voodoo in Cable & Deadpool #48; and the World War II storyline finishes in Wolverine: Origins #20.

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