Also among this week's comics...

CAPTAIN MARVEL #18 - Well, the insanity storyline is over - or at least, substantially toned down.  Much as I liked the idea, I have to admit that eighteen issues might have been pushing it a little.  Peter David endears himself to continuity obsessives by explaining away the contradictory appearances of the Absorbing Man, on the interesting basis that Captain Marvel has caused the Marvel Universe to become riddled with continuity errors.  So if you've been wondering why the Marvel Universe has looser continuity these days, now you have an in-story explanation: Captain Marvel has broken the universe.  By the way, artist Paul Azaceta has been doing some beautiful work on this title, which has gone largely ignored by everyone because it's Captain Marvel and nobody's reading it any more.  So I'll just draw it to your attention.  B+

CEREBUS #298 - And the end is near.  If you hate decompressed comics, you'll really hate this comic.  It opens with a virtually silent tracking shot around the grounds of Cerebus' castle, and lasts eleven pages.  Beautifully drawn, but for god's sake, it's an eleven-page tracking shot.  The letters column, however, continues to provide tremendous entertainment.  This month, Sim decries the outrageous modern practice of writing "Cerebus's" with an S instead of just an apostrophe, and argues that this heretical form of punctuation is a form of Orwellian Newspeak.  He also explains that he doesn't leave the house much these days.  C

COMMON GROUNDS #1 - A slightly odd project for Top Cow.  Basically, it's an anthology title of stories written by Troy Hickman, built around the common concept of superheroes and villains meeting up on the neutral ground of the Common Grounds chain of coffee shops.  Features art by Dan Jurgens and Michael Avon Oeming, and it's not often you can say that.  I'm a little underwhelmed by it, though.  It's not so much that it's bad, merely that I can't shake the feeling it could have been better. "Beyond the Speed of Life", for example, is a story about a speedster superhero explaining the ways his powers make him miserable.  Somewhat similar themes have been done better in Astro City and, for that matter, in Peter David's treatment of Quicksilver in X-Factor.  This version isn't bad - but it's overshadowed by other work which dramatised the same idea more effectively.  B-

INCREDIBLE HULK #65 - You know, this title really is disappearing up its own arse.  When Bruce Jones started on this title, the conspiracy angle worked.  Over time, it's sprawled out into a ludicrously convoluted storyline which long since degenerated into self-parody.  I'm still not entirely sure to what extent it's meant to be sending itself up - but it's certainly become far too convoluted to hold up any effective tension.  It's past time to clear the clutter and get back to basics on this title.  C

PUNISHER #1 - Yes, #1.  This would be volume seven for the Punisher, and it gets a new number by virtue of decamping to the Max imprint.  Basically, this marks Garth Ennis shifting tone to take the character more seriously, and going back to the early days.  However, much of this issue is just setting up the premise again - and you really don't need all that much time to set up the premise of the Punisher.  It's not like it's all that complicated.  Not one of the better Ennis Punisher stories, but the upcoming Microchip storyline sounds more promising.  B-

SEAMONSTERS AND SUPERHEROES #2 - Yes, Scott Mills is serious - he's really doing an anthology title entirely about seamonsters and superheroes.  And, of course, none of his stories are proper seamonster or superhero stories at all.  The comedy skews a touch to the adolescent this issue, and it's hard to imagine that this bizarre format can be sustained for all that long.  Even so, it's perversely entertaining.  B

SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #1 - Because you demanded it!  Spider-Man Unlimited, in its original incarnation, ran from 1993 to 1998 and was the Spider-Man line's equivalent of X-Men Unlimited.  Now, it's meant to be a vehicle for new writers.  This first issue is better than I'd expected, but then my expectations were rather low.  Joseph Goodrich turns in a "little girl dying of leukaemia" story which tugs at the heartstrings with grinding obviousness.  Lovely art by Takeshi Miyazawa, though.  Brian Lynch dusts off obscure villain Slyde in order to take a swipe at gratuitous revamps, and it's fairly amusing.  B-

ULTIMATE ADVENTURES #6 - Ultimate Adventures finally grinds to a halt, after taking an almost ridiculous length of time.  I reviewed issue #1 back in September 2002.  It's almost impossible to believe now that at the time, Marvel were seriously trying to push this series as a major event.  In fairness, it's actually a better series than Ron Zimmerman's reputation might suggest.  But it leaves the awkward impression that it thinks it's really fantastic.  A footnote to a footnote in Marvel history.  C+

There's a new Article 10 on Monday at Ninth Art.

Next week, Exiles #41 starts a two-part storyline, this time written by artist Jim Calafiore.  "Here Comes Tomorrow" continues in New X-Men #152.  Austen and Larroca continue to revise Romeo & Juliet in Uncanny X-Men #438.  And the coyote storyline continues in Wolverine #10.

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