I think Howard did a pretty good job with the book... much better than her work in Excalibur. BUT like Excalibur the writing is disjointed and gets confusing when the art isn't properly paced with it. And yeah, the art is a problem. This kind of corporate wheeling and dealing series needs a more streamlined/efficient artist like David Aja... who incidentally is doing the covers. Too bad, but it seems like the X-Books can only land a few superstar artists at a time.