X-STATIX

. Superheroes as squabbling egomaniacs playing for publicity, money, and groupies: Writer Peter Milligan has taken a ragtag bunch of ''mutants'' formerly known as X-Force and turned their tale into a razor-sharp media critique with hyperbolic dialogue (''We should be the team that dilemmas forgot, Vivisector. Dead Girls's right''). The art by Mike Allred is equally original: intentionally flat, stiff figures in static panels that can look like small paintings. Pop art for now people