Also this week:

ANGEL: REVELATIONS #2 - Warren's revised origin story continues, and it's certainly the oddest looking X-book in ages.  For the most part, in fact, Adam Pollina's weirdly elongated figures are strangely graceful and effective.  But I'm not so sure about the design for the girlfriend, Amanda; there's a lack of subtlety there, shall we say.  Still, Pollina's work brings interest to what otherwise seems a fairly standard boarding school story, albeit a well-executed one.  B+

WOLVERINE: ORIGINS #26 - The first half of a two-part story, largely devoted to the origin of Wolverine's son Daken.  The art, by guest penciller Stephen Segovia, reminds me somewhat of Larry Stroman, and once it gets going, it's really quite appealing.  As for the story, it's a serviceable origin, but doesn't really do much to humanise Daken.  Basically, it's the early life of a psycho, and I've never found that sort of character especially interesting.  Admittedly, I've never been particularly keen on the character, but even trying to keep an open mind, I just don't see much in him beyond a collection of stock villain behaviour.  Still, Way does it well enough, and at least manages to make Daken seem disturbed rather than contrived.  B

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #13 - Another of those guest star stories, as Machine Man shows up.  And yes, you're right, Machine Man wasn't around in the sixties - so this is set before his debut.  There's a slight awkwardness here, as the story is mainly trying to be consistent with the original Machine Man character, but apparently feels compelled to chuck in the occasional allusion to his reinvention in Nextwave and Ms Marvel.  With Angel still missing after being "written out" last month, First Class seems to be drifting in the direction of longer term storylines.  But this is all good fun, as the teenage X-Men react to the possibility of Warren getting replaced by a robot.  A-

X-MEN: LEGACY #213 - Marvel's most continuity-heavy book finally gets to explaining the threat.  And boy, does this series reach into the backwaters.  Mike Carey has evidently waded dutifully through all previous stories touching on Alamagordo, and ends up using even such little-known villains as Amanda Mueller, from Fabian Nicieza's run on the Gambit solo series.  Carey is making the best of this, and it's good fun for readers like me who remember the original stories and enjoy immersing themselves in the details as he tries to knit them all together into a coherent whole.  Of course, this hasn't been a fashionable way of doing things in recent years, and I'm not sure it's necessarily getting the best out of Mike Carey either - or at least, the stories with the broadest appeal.  But I'm rather attached to it, if partly against my better judgment.  B

There's more from me at If Destroyed, and apparently the Ninth Art archive is going to back online at some point...

Next week, Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi take over Astonishing X-Men with issue #25 - and it's on time, which is a good start.  Meanwhile, Cable #5 wraps up the book's opening arc.

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