Also this week...

CIVIL WAR: CHOOSING SIDES - One-shot rushed out to fill the Civil War void.  And you've got to love the way Marvel announced those - "Hey, now that we've got a few more months to kill, we're going to rush out some tie-ins that we previously didn't think were worth bothering with."  Basically, it's a bunch of adverts for upcoming titles - Ant-Man, Iron Fist, Omega Flight and the revamped Thunderbolts.  DC tried something like this with the low-priced Brave New World, and it didn't achieve a great deal.  Then again, maybe people just didn't like the comics.  The Civil War tie-in is tenuous in the extreme, and ironically, the only story to use it as something more than a backdrop is a passable Howard the Duck story by Ty Templeton and Roger Langridge.  Shoved in the back, presumably on the basis that they had to put it somewhere, is a tie-in with Guiding Light, a show that doesn't air in the UK.  From the look of this, it must really suck.  Cynicism aside, this is marginally better than you'd expect for a promo book, and the Iron Fist story has decent art.  Interestingly, the Thunderbolts story is by a creative team who have nothing to do with the book now or in the future, presumably because they happened to be available at short notice.  Could have been worse, but we'd have got by just fine without it.  B-

EXILES #87 - It's a universe where Galactus works the other way around and brings life back to barren planets.  Not a bad idea, but by this stage you can practically hear Tony Bedard thinking "How much longer do I have to keep this up?"  Serviceable enough, but there's nothing particularly memorable.  B

IMPALER #1 - Image book with vampires in New York, and a protagonist who's a cop taking early retirement after the death of his wife, but with one last case etc etc.  It's technically sound, and perfectly readable as far as it goes, but doesn't appear to bring anything new to this well-trodden territory.  B-

PLANETARY #26 - The final issue, I believe, although there's nothing on the issue to say so.  Then again, it's also missing credits.  And a cover logo.  Warren Ellis and John Cassaday go through the business of finishing off the story, and it's all much as the last few issues would lead you to expect.  Beautiful artwork, perfectly decent plot, but not even in the same league as the early issues of this title which deconstructed genres and archetypes so wonderfully.  It's a book that started off excellent, and has drifted slowly down to merely pretty.  B+

X-MEN #192 - Mike Carey finally unveils his new roster, and even after five issues of careful build-up, it still looks like the result of a terrible error with the random team generator.  (Lady Mastermind?  Really?) But since it's meant to be a deliberately oddball team, Carey gets away with it, and I'm intrigued by the possibilities in this ridiculous collection of characters.  The pacing on this arc is a little slow for my tastes, but not excessively so, and it's all built around good strong characters.  Bachalo's in one of his more accessible moods this month, and it's all good solid superhero work.  A-

There's more from me at If Destroyed - which, honestly, will be updated in the next few days - and if you're desperate for more Article 10 columns, you can always hunt through the archives on Ninth Art.

Next week, Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan's epic Shi'ar storyline continues in Uncanny X-Men #480, and the Phoenix storyline continues into X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong #3.  The first issue of the Max imprint's Wisdom miniseries was solicited for next week too, but it doesn't seem to be on the shipping list.

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