Also this week...

ALL-FLASH #1 - It's the world's fastest backpedal!  In a bad year for DC's superhero line, the disastrous performance of their Flash relaunch was a particularly glaring failure.  So, after only a year, Wally West is back in the costume, and Mark Waid is writing the book - effectively DC's way of saying, "Hey everyone, remember when you liked this book?"  Despite the "issue #1" billing, this is essentially just a transition issue into Waid's storyline.  But it does the job very well, ploughing through the necessary plot points as quickly as they can, while taking it for granted that the bad guys aren't really that much of a threat.  After all, that's not what you read a Mark Waid Flash comic for.  It's more a signal that the book is being set back on track than it is a story, but it sends that signal loud and clear, and fairly convincingly.  I think I'll stick around for a while and see where they're going with it - although the moment it starts crossing over with Countdown, I'm out of there.  A-

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #1 - If you haven't been keeping track of Annihilation, then you may need to be told that the new Quasar is Phyla-Vell, Captain Marvel's daughter.  The angle is that she's a rookie hero struggling to live up to the legacies of two heroes at once.  It's something to work with, and despite a rather generic plot, Christos Gage scripts it effectively.  Artist Mike Lilly is another matter.  The drawings are just fine, but the page layouts are simply bizarre, with panels blurring into one another, and characters seeming to appear at multiple parts of the same landscape.  I don't know what he thinks he's doing, but it's really not working at all, and seriously undermines what's otherwise rather attractive art.  B

NEW X-MEN #40 - The Quest for Magik, part 4: "Is This Still Going?"  This is just a horrible mess.  On a first reading, frankly, it was almost impenetrable.  A second reading gives a clearer idea of what they're trying to do, but it really doesn't work.  This is an utterly one-note issue in an utterly one-note storyline.  There's no pacing, no light and shade, no tension, no nothing.  It's the storytelling equivalent of somebody screaming in your ear at the top of their voice.  And not even screaming words.  Just screaming, without pause, for months on end.  It's both annoying and tedious, and I wish it would stop.  Skottie Young's art provides moments of interest, but that's about it.  I remain incredibly frustrated by Kyle and Yost's work on this book, since they've written such good stories elsewhere, but their New X-Men is just not happening.  C- 

SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP: M.O.D.O.K.'S 11 #1 - Kicked out of AIM in a recent Ms Marvel story, MODOK begins his comeback by recruiting the dregs of Marvel villainy - Armadillo and the Spot, for heaven's sake - for "the greatest heist in the history of the multiverse."  This is one of those endearingly silly projects that they throw out from time to time as a bone for the more traditionally minded fans, and traditionally they get good reviews and sell six copies.  To be honest, it's good fun rather than anything outrageously great - but it is still good fun, and any book with MODOK as a lead character has to be great.  If you're looking for something lighter and more enjoyable from Marvel's output, well, this is it.  B+

WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN #2 - The ridiculously gratuitous tie-in miniseries continues, and it's now plainly apparent that the series is simply a three-issue fight scene.  But hey, if you're going to do something as pointless as this, you may as well do it properly.  Christos Gage goes through the motions of giving the story a little more weight, with references to Deadly Genesis that aren't actually explained properly for new readers.  Not that it matters.  It's the Hulk beating the crap out of assorted X-characters for a whole issue, and it'll be the same next month.  As good as you could ever realistically expect from something like this.  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, the Marauders' storyline continues in X-Men #201.  The Silver Age X-Men visit Monster Island in X-Men: First Class #2.  The godawful Romulus storyline concludes in Wolverine #55.  And Wolverine guest stars in Cable & Deadpool #43.

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