Also this week:

HARD TIME: SEASON TWO #1 - The sole survivor of the ill-fated DC Focus line returns for a second run.  Okay, so this stunt didn't do anything for the sales on Sleeper, but at least it ought to guarantee another year of material from this very interesting title.  Basically it's Oz with superpowers, as young Ethan Harrow is packed off to jail after participating in a practical joke that turns into a thinly-disguised Columbine massacre.  It's a well-constructed jumping on issue since, luckily enough, the plot provides some natural opportunities for Ethan to recap the story for the benefit of new characters.  Oh, and we're finally rid of that ill-conceived monochrome colouring idea from the early issues of the DC Focus books.  A lovely little title which deserved more attention the first time round, and might just do a little better now that it's been separated out from a dead imprint.  A-

NEW EXCALIBUR #2 - In which the future members of the new Excalibur fight, er, evil X-Men from another dimension.  As an opening storyline, this really isn't working.  There are a couple of decent character moments scattered along the way, but the evil X-Men are one-dimensional non-characters.  They're just not interesting to read about, because there's nothing to them.  More to the point, though, after two issues of this series and a four-issue intro arc in Uncanny, we still haven't come anywhere close to establishing the premise of the series, if indeed it has one.  Is there a point to this book other than "a bunch of characters who weren't doing anything else form a team"?  If so, can somebody tell us what it is, please?  C-

SENTINEL #2 - Juston continues the hunt for his mother, while scheming supporting characters try to make money off the media interest in him.  Meanwhile, villains want to destroy his lovely Sentinel, which is terribly inconvenient.  It kind of feels like two completely unrelated stories are jostling for space in the same comic.  But it works better than you might expect, with Juston gloriously oblivious to everything outside his own pet storyline, and staggering into danger through chronic tunnel vision.  Good reading.  A-

X-MEN: COLOSSUS - BLOODLINE #4 - Oh dear.  David Hine did such good work on District X, too.  I had high hopes for this series.  But god, this is just getting stupid.  Apparently, Rasputin's spirit is divided among all of his descendents, so the big plan is to kill them all in order that he can be reincarnated in the sole survivor.  Somehow or other this leads to Colossus and Mikhail Rasputin fighting in an extradimensional cave, which is crazily at odds with the tone established in earlier issues.  And it's not like it's a good plot idea to start with.  Horrid, and dreadfully disappointing.  D+

Last week's Article 10 is still up at Ninth Art.  And there's more from me at If Destroyed. 

Next week, Peter David's X-Factor series finally gets under way - the Madrox miniseries was good stuff, so this should be promising.  "Decimation" also continues into Son of M #1, New X-Men #21, X-Men #179 and Uncanny X-Men #467.  What If?: Wolverine is the X-books' contribution to a month of What If? one-shots.  And "Bosom Buddies" concludes in Cable & Deadpool #23.

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