Also this week:

CAPTAIN UNIVERSE & THE HULK #1 - This is the first in a series of Captain Universe one-shots shipping throughout the month.  One of them's technically an X-book, because X-23 is in it, so I'll get back to the whole project later on.  Apparently this is all leading up to a Captain Universe series in 2006, which boggles the mind.  Still, at least they're doing something to promote the book, which is a positive change.  And admittedly, the concept of an all-powerful thingy which goes around randomly turning people into Captain Universe for the day is certainly distinctive.  As for the actual issue, though, it's a fairly generic affair, with the Hulk becoming Captain Universe and then fighting an evil scientist.  It's not bad by any means, but nor is it especially memorable.  C+

SEVEN SOLDIERS: BULLETEER #1 - Another week, another Seven Soldiers launch.  This is the sixth of the seven miniseries, and the first one to open with a good old-fashioned origin story.  Alix Harrower gains superhuman powers after her husband's experiments go horribly wrong, which is standard enough.  There's a cute twist, though, based around his motivations and her total lack of desire to be a superhero in the first place.  She's a strong character with obvious potential.  Unfortunately, Yanick Paquette's art overdoes the cheesecake by a good 50%, which doesn't help the book at all.  I'd rather have seen somebody like Mike Allred take a crack at it, personally.  Still, the good ideas survive the art problems.  B+

X-MEN: COLOSSUS - BLOODLINE #3 - This is as good a time as any to mention that we're now into the January 2006 comics and, as promised, Marvel have indeed done something about the insane quantity of adverts.  They've moved them to the back, which means that issues like this now have ten straight pages of advertising after the actual story.  We're down to thirteen pages of adverts interrupting the story itself, which is tolerable.  Bloodline, meanwhile, is steadily losing my interest, as we spend an entire issue learning how Mr Sinister met Rasputin, who was apparently a mutant.  We're in the realms of historical fanfic here, and at this point in the series, I really don't see what it's adding to the character of Colossus, or how it's leading to a good story.  Not working.  C

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art, and other stuff from me at If Destroyed.

Next week, the post-House of M fallout begins in earnest.  The Decimation one-shot sets out the lay of the land, New Excalibur #1 kicks off Chris Claremont's new title, and New X-Men #20 reveals who's... well, who's still around.  Meanwhile, Exiles #72 follows up on Beak, and Cable & Deadpool #22 is still dealing with its incomprehensible macguffin.

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