Comics for March 22

[dvandom]

                    Dave's Unspoilt Capsules and Awards
         The Week's Picks and Pans, plus Awards of Dubious Merit

Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups.  Recommendation does
not factor in price.  Not all books will have arrived in your area this week.
Transcribing interviews is a real pain.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

First Looks:
     My comics shop subscribes to the First Looks program, in which a
selection of titles from DC and Marvel for the next week are shipped a week
early for preview purposes.  I usually have time to read some of them while
the comics are sorted, although they don't always arrive on time.

March 29, 2006:

     Warlord #2: DC - The revision of the origin continues.  Bart Sears's
rougher style is appropriate to th whole sword and sorcery genre, but is a
little TOO rough at times.  Jones's writing has its moments, but no great
shakes in general.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Sentry #7 (of 8): Marvel - Electroconvulsive therapy is for depression,
not dissociative disorder.  Other than that, I really don't have much to say
about this rehashed cliche.  Except that it also has a really implausible
plot device nuke.  Bleh.  A turkey.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Untold Tales of the New Universe: PSI-Force #1: Marvel - I only ever
read the first issue of the original series, so I come in pretty blank.  On
the one hand, this does a good job of filling in all the blanks for new
readers.  On the other, it's rather exposition-heavy.  The political nudge
nudge wink wink gets a bit excessive at times too.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America 65th Anniversary Special: Marvel - Sort of an Annual,
written by Brubaker and with several artists.  Mostly a WWII flashback story,
but with some connection to the current Bucky arc.  Okay, but nothing I wanna
own.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     New Avengers: Illuminati #1: Marvel - A lot of talking heads in murky
art, setting up more retconned secret society stuff and running over some
other recent events they've more clearly been behind.  Ehn.  Also has a
teaser preview of Civil War #1 with the New Warriors.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     FF #536: Marvel - Civil War tie-in.  But once that bit of angst is out
of the way, it's clobberin' time!  Heh.  Recommended for the non-CW stuff.
$2.99/$4.25Cn


Capsules:
     Short, relatively spoiler-free reviews of books I actually bring home
(as opposed to reading in preview form in the shop or online).  If I get a
book late due to distributor foulups or whatever, I'll put it in the Missing
section.

     Gold Digger v3 #72: Antarctic Press - A couple of pages of interesting
plot bookend a whole lot of ninja pirate Voltron parody leprechauns fighting
while spouting lines in deliberately badly transliterated accents.  I really
hope this is the last of the leprechauns for a while.  Neutral.
$2.99/$4.05Cn 
     Ares #3 (of 5): Marvel - New artist, very different look.  As befits the
middle chapter, there's a fair amount of infodump, but it's well told.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Amazing Fantasy #19: Marvel - Guh.  Main story is deliberately out of
order, but this is one of those times it doesn't work.  It's just turgid,
focusing too much on the Not-Death's-Head characters that I simply have not
come to care one whit about.  At least there's a faint glimmer of how this
will end and why we're even bothering with Ray Hidalgo.  The backup is a New
U short story with Spitfire (who didn't rate a full book, sadly) testing out
the MAX suit before the events of Spitfire and the Troubleshooters #1.
Neutral.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Black Panther #14: Marvel - The interest that was sparked by the
Shang-Chi issues is about to die out for me.  While this issue isn't really
bad in any new way, neither does it fan the flames.  This is going back off
my pull.  Neutral.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Supreme Power: Hyperion #5 (of 5): Marvel MAX - An almost completely
pointless issue, an extended fight scene that's just there to pad out the
trade and get Hyperion to go home.  This really was a 4 issue series, or even
a one-shot.  Neutral.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Squadron Supreme #1: Marvel - And while Hyperion #5 was mainly fight
scene padding, this is mostly intro summary padding.  Almost the entire issue
is just "here's each member of the new team, and a short bit of character
business so you know who they are and what they can do."  There's, like, ONE
plot point in the whole issue, and it just serves to negate what little plot
there was in the first 18 or so pages.  Not an auspicious start.  Neutral.
Yes, I'm not having a good comics day.  $2.99/$4.25Cn  [Late note: Arcanna
Jones's new costume has a cleavage hole, meant to mention that initially.]
     X-Factor #5: Marvel - New art team, but just as murky.  Story is
something of an interlude, pausing in the A plot to examine the effects of
DeciMation on the little people.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #78: Marvel - Geez, the Squadron Supreme seems to drag padding
around with it this week.  Lots of flashbacks and exposition, but at least it
ends with a few pages of actual story.  Just not a very riveting one.  Very
mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     She-Hulk v2 #6: Marvel - Art by Will Conrad is a bit wooden, but it gets
better as the isse progresses.  Not Slott's strongest writing effort, but
still good enough for a Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     The America Way #2 (of 8): DC/Wildstorm - Good followup to the first
issue, straddling that line between feet of clay and the best of intentions.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #16: DC - 1001 Years Later.
Heh.  Relativity rears its complicated head behind the scenes here, and while
Supergirl's addition to the book may or may not have been mandated from on
high, Waid and Kitson do a good job of bringing her in.  No backup stories or
lettercol this time.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn

Gone Missing:
     Stuff that came out some places this week and that I wanted to buy, but
couldn't find for whatever reason, so people don't have to email me asking
"Why didn't you review X?"  (If it's neither here nor in the section above,
though, feel free to ask, I might have forgotten about it!)

     Current list as of 3/22:

     Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards GN, Exalted #1, Keif Llama
V2.1, Captain America and the Falcon: Secret Empire TPB, PS238 #14 and 15,
Flare #32, and Essential Godzilla.  Add OHOTMU A-Z #3 and Alice In Wonderland
#2 (Diamond shorted the store on both, and pulls are done in alphabetical
order, sigh).  I'm probably going to give up on Diamond ever shipping the
Bone Sharps GN and order it direct from the publisher.

Awards:

Best Book: None.  Bleh.

"Sometimes, The Cover Being An Accurate Portrayal Of The Insides Is NOT A
     Good Thing" Award to Gold Digger v3 #72

"How Oedipal" Award to Ares #3 (of 5)

"Vril Dox Wants His Schtick Back" Award to Amazing Fantasy #19

"I Just Don't See Ororo Doing That" Award to Black Panther #14

"Did Infectious Lass Get Loose In The Squadron Universe?" Award to Lamprey
     in Squadron Supreme: Hyperion #5 (of 5)

"I Don't Need To Know More About The Gloves" Award to Squadron Supreme #1

"Could We PLEASE Hide The Inkpot?" Award to X-Factor #5

"How Conveeeeeeeenient" Award to eXiles #78

"When Did Pug Turn Into Alec Baldwin?" Award to She-Hulk v2 #6

"A Different Sort Of X-Man" Award to The American Way #2 (of 8)

"So, Korugar Is Only A Light-Week Away?" Award to Supergirl and the Legion 
     of Super-Heroes #16

   Dave Van Domelen, "And did you explain to him there...is absolutely no way in hell he'd be immediately accepted as a hero?" "I did. Then he suggested I visit Hell to confirm things." - The American Way #2

Comments

[precrisisyertle.livejournal.com]

I thought Jenkins was writing this Sentry series still? Though I could be wrong considering I've been purposely avoiding this series since I hate the Sentry and his non-presence in New Avengers.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Jenkins, Bendis...I honestly can't tell the difference between their writing.