Also this week, a ton of other X-books...

CABLE & DEADPOOL #30 - Yet another Civil War crossover, but I can't complain too much - it's a good book that could use the sales, and it holds onto its identity here.  While Cable wanders off to assist in Civil War itself, Deadpool signs up to hunt down renegade heroes because... well, it'll be fun, won't it?  Setting his sights typically high, he begins with the Great Lakes Avengers.  Staz Johnson does a generally decent job on fill-in art (one truly awful Daredevil panel excepted), and it's a fun little story that does what it needs to do.  B+

NEW X-MEN #28 - Bizarrely, this is both the second part of "Nimrod" and an unlabelled Civil War crossover, as Ms Marvel shows up to argue with Emma Frost about the Superhuman Registration Act for four pages.  The timeline of this book is getting utterly confused, for reasons too convoluted to explain here (broadly, in terms of the internal action of this series, we're still only a few days from M-Day and can't possibly have reached Civil War yet), but I'll leave that aside.  A bigger concern is that the title seems to be losing sight of its lead characters, who stand around politely on the fringes waiting for the guest stars to stop arguing.  There's a worrying loss of focus here.  B-

ULTIMATE X-MEN #72 - The first part of "Magical", as Robert Kirkman continues to put his new pet character the Magician at the centre of the plot.  However, as I'd suspected, Kirkman seems to be aiming for that effect deliberately, willing us to dislike him by making him so irritatingly perfect.  We've now reached the "all is not what it seems" moment, and even though I can't stand the character, Kirkman's still holding my interest - because I'm pretty sure this is exactly how I'm supposed to be responding.  Meanwhile, in a rather incongruous back-up strip, there's a second "Masked Marvel" eight-pager.  In the manner of such things, it ends by shamelessly begging us to lobby for a miniseries.  I quite enjoyed these back-up strips, but they don't leave me wanting more - sixteen pages seems about right for the concept.  B+

UNCANNY X-MEN #476 - The second Ed Brubaker issue, and once again the back-to-basics approach is paying dividends.  Last issue, Professor X recruits his team.  This issue, they steal a spacecraft.  Next issue... and so forth.  This is a twelve issue storyline, which would normally imply a ton of padding, but instead Brubaker seems to be pacing for the single issues, providing a complete sub-story in each one, and working some character hooks around that material.  It's a good old fashioned superhero story, and it's working wonderfully.  Billy Tan's art impresses during the action sequences but struggles a little in conversations; his faces are awfully similar, and not very expressive.  Aside from that, a great issue.  A-

X-MEN: FAIRY TALES #3 - A series that continues to confuse me.  C B Cebulski and Bill Sienkiewicz bring us a sort of Brothers Grimm tale crossed with the Dark Phoenix Saga.  There's no doubt that it succeeds at what it's setting out to do, but it still leave me wondering what the point is.  The strength of the underlying story, combined with Sienkiewicz's art, carries the book.  But grafting on elements from the X-Men, once again, seems like sheer gimmickry.  Is this a better comic in any way for using the X-Men rather than just telling the stories straight?  I can't see how.  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, if you're excited about the (ahem) "wedding of the century" - and I suppose somebody must be - then you'll be thrilled to know that next week sees the conclusion of the Storm miniseries, as well as the wedding itself in Black Panther #18.  Civil War continues, both in the wedding issue and in Wolverine #44.  Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo continue their "Supernovas" storyline in X-Men, and Tony Bedard is still writing Exiles.  There's also a first trade paperback collection for the troubled New Excalibur.

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