![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
FCBD arrivals slowed pull sorting today. 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.
May 3, 2006:
Sentinel Squad O*N*E #5 (of 5): Marvel - Ooookay. I thought this was
set before M-Day, given the entries in the 198 Files, but I guess it's not.
Whaever. So-so ending, not horrible but neither do I regret not getting this
series. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Annihilation: Silver Surfer #2 (of 4): Marvel - Well, a justification of
sorts is given for the Annihilation Wave. Story's a bit chatty in general,
but not completely static. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Marvel Team-Up #20: Marvel - Not exactly a team-up in even the loosest
sense, but at least the plot is moving forward. Not loving Kuhn's art.
Mildly recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
FN Spider-Man #8: Marvel - Heh. Nice to see we're not being left
hanging on the true identity of the Mysterious Figure from last month. And
it's not a Civil War tie-in, all to the better. Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
eXiles #80: Marvel - When the origins montage leads off an issue of this
book, you know the character whose origin is being shown is about to buy it.
:/ Anyway, the stakes have been upped in time for the final stage. Mildly
recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Justice League Unlimited #21: DC - Decent little relationship story.
Recoommended. $2.25/$3.00Cn
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.
Flare #33: Heroic Publishing - This should have been fun. The cover has
dinosaurs, robots, alien gorillas, flying saucers, volcanos and a nuclear
explosion. In the style of Julie Schwartz, they started with this whacked
out Scott Shaw! cover plan, and wrote a story around it. But...it just sort
of ran through the motions. Like, you could see that the ideas where there,
and could be turned into a fun story, it just wasn't ACTUALLY a fun story.
It had the quality of bad fanfics where the author is so in love with the
plot that he doesn't realize that no one else is going to see how cool it is
because the scripting just isn't there. Neutral. $3.25/$3.99Cn
Red Sonja vs. Thulsa Doom #3 (of 4): Dynamite Entertainment - Speaking
of cool ideas with less than cool execution, I couldn't shake the feeling
that this should have impressed me a lot more than it did. Mildly
recommended. $3.50
Conan #27: Dark Horse - I think the lesson to take away from both Conan
and Red Sonja is this: save yourself time and execute your vizier NOW, before
the inevitable betrayal. :) Anyway, the framing device continues to take
center stage, with Conan himself merely providing moral examples. Still
interesting enough, though. Recommended. $2.99
Invincible #31: Image - More of a relaxing issue, continuing to catch up
after the big space adventure...although there's still a fight scene or two,
and subplots get some time. Recommended. $2.99/$3.50Cn
Blue Beetle #2: DC - The time-jumping is a bit...well, not really
confusing per se, since every scene change is timestamped. Perhaps jarring
is a better word. I don't feel any sort of flow here, any particular reason
to swap between "now" and "then" other than a style flourish. The individual
pieces are good reads, but it gains nothing by alternating between the two
story parts every couple of pages. Merely recommended this time out.
$2.99/$4.00Cn
Villains United Special #1: DC - This is essentially Infinite Crisis
#6.5 or something, in terms of story placement. Simone does a very good job
of building from the sinister little things we've already seen into a Big
Damn Boom, and Eaglesham's art supports her. My only real problem with this
issue is that it's very much NOT a standalone. They should have made IC an 8
issue series and made this #7, because the climax is in the final issue of
IC. Otherwise, recommended. $4.99/$6.75Cn
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17: DC - Hee. Okay,
Supergirl's "thing" will probably get old pretty fast, but until then it's
quite fun. And somewhat miss terious. Recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
The American Way #3 (of 8): DC/Wildstorm - Another good issue teetering
on the knife's edge between optimism and cynicism. Bad things happen, but
good people try to overcome them, and I get the impression that while things
are going to get pretty bad, they WILL turn out alright. For some value of
"alright," of course. But I don't get the feeling that it'll just spiral
into despair and crap, which is a big selling point for me. Strongly
Recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
Amazing Fantasy #20: Marvel - Final issue of the series. Goes out on
something of a whimper. The Death's Head story ends, and never really
impressed me. The Steam Rider backup has potential, but reads pretty stilted
and "trying to be camp" in places. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Annihilation: Ronan #1 (of 4): Marvel - Simon Furman generally does
good cosmic doom, which is why I ordered this. Interesting parallel with the
Super-Skrull series, and as one might expect, Ronan acts a little Grimlocky.
Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
X-Factor #6: Marvel - There's one joke in here that I wonder how long
it's been sitting in PAD's brain, waiting to come out onto the page. :) Art
is still iffy, but the story is good. Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
The Thing #6: Marvel - Dwyer does a good job on the art, and Slott is in
fine form, taking excellent advantage of both long-established continuity and
current events. Strongly recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
OHOTMU A-Z #4 (of 12): Marvel - Damon Dran (Daredevil villain) to
She-Hulk's current law firm. Not much I can say about this issue that I
haven't said about the previous ones, although it's probably telling of my
age that when I saw the two page entry for Flag Smasher I was surprised that
such a new character merited two pages. :) Gamecock only got half a page,
though, and he makes me reconsider my desire to read the Nomad issues that
followed the Secret Empire arc in Captain America and the Falcon. Oh, and
Fight Man gets an entry, yay! Recommended. $3.99/$5.75Cn
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 4/26:
Still missing Exalted #1, Keif Llama V2.1, PS238 #14 and Big Max #1
(argh). Add Tron #1.
Awards:
Best Book: The Thing #6
"Humping The Shark" Award to Flare #33
"I'm Not Just A Member Of The Hair Club For Snakes, I'm The God Emperor"
Award to Red Sonja vs. Thulsa Doom
"Easily Lies The ****Head Who Would Wear The Crown" Award to Conan #27
"Rocks Fall! Nobody Dies!" Award to Invincible #31
"Dude Needs Some Unstable Molecules" Award to Blue Beetle #2
"Solomon Grundy, ASID" Award to Villains United Infinite Crisis Special #1
"Sing A Song Of Walls" Award to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #17
"I Want A Stasis Stick Too!" Award to The American Way #3 (of 8)
"Galaxy Rangers Alpha Version" Award to Amazing Fantasy #20
"That Chair CAN'T Be Comfortable" Award to Annihilation: Ronan #1 (of 4)
"Sometimes They Fall Through The Cracks, Sometimes They Jump" Award to
X-Factor #6
"Painting The...Town...Red" Award to The Thing #6
"Dude, FROG-MAN Got Two Pages" Award to OHOTMU A-Z #4 (of 12)
Dave Van Domelen, "Guys, I'm sorry. I had NO idea he'd show up." - The Thing
Bonus Quote: "Fortunately, I keep alla' my bricks numbered fer just such an emergency." - Also the Thing, student of the classics.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject