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Comics for May 3, First Looks May 10
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.
Someone beat me to Alt.Prime at the shop. Rants, Capsules can be found on my
homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
Free Comicbook Day is May 6. Assuming things go smoothly, I should have
a stack of comics from it to review, and will probably post reviews either
the 6th of the 7th.
First Looks:
My comics shop subscribes to the First Looks program, in which a
selection of titles from DC, Marvel and Image 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 10, 2006:
Fantastic Four: First Family #3 (of 6): Marvel - Well, looks to be an
Earth's Mightiest Heroes treatment sort of retcon, rather than an Everything
You Know Is Wrong sort. It's okay, but still not enough for me to want to
buy it. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Last Planet Standing #1 (of 5): Marvel - the latest big sendoff to the
M2 setting. DeFalco does a decent job of introducing everyone, but it leaves
little room for the actual story. Moderately interesting, but not enough to
hook me. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Cable & Deadpool #28: Marvel - I was a bit miffed at an unrelated thing
as I read this, so that probably colored my perception. A decent issue, but
the art was pretty average and I disliked one of the plot points. Mildly
recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Annihilation: Super-Skrull #2 (of 4): Marvel - Where last issue showed
more of SS's noble side, this time out emphasizes that it is *only* a side,
and he is indeed rightly called villain by many. Mostly an action issue,
searching for a plot device to help in his quest, but it's a good action
issue. Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Thunderbolts #102: Marvel - The Squadron Sinister plot is back on the
front burner, with an in depth look at the life of Joystick (so she's
probably doomed soon). Grummett's art is at its usual good quality.
Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
She-Hulk v2 #7: Marvel - A good issue, but not a great one. Slott
manages to get some of the meta-textual issues into the actual text without
it being awkward or forced. Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Captain Atom Armageddon #8 (of 9): DC/Wildstorm - Another big fight
scene, another tiny step in the plot. And at least one thing likely to be
undone. Eh. $2.99/$4.00Cn
Firestorm #25: DC - Certainly ambitious and even cosmic, without
requiring a four month long megacrossover...nice to see people can still do
that. :) $2.99/$4.00Cn
Cartoon Network Action Pack #1: DC - PPG, Samurai Jack and Megas
XLR...all shows fans like, but aren't being made anymore. Sadly, none of
these 8 page stories really gets much of anywhere, being told with more
modern pacing than such a page count requires. $2.25/$3.00Cn
Lions, Tigers and Bears v2 #2 (of 4): Image - It's kinda disturbing how
Disney the animals are in the book...I suppose the artist worked for them at
some point. It's a good comic, but for whatever reason doesn't grab me
enough to buy. $2.99/$3.50Cn
Truth, Justin, and the American Way #2: Image - Okay, it has some fun
bits, but it's veering too much into cliches. Still, recommended.
$2.99/$3.50Cn
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.
Doc Samson #5 (of 5): Marvel - The somewhat patchwork series hobbles to
an end. It's looking like the stuff I liked about New Mutants/New X-Men
didn't come from Di Fillipo, or he's suffered a downturn. Don't bother with
this title. $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
Outsiders #36: DC - Almost entirely a single fight scene. A fairly
entertaining one, though. The Big Reveal kinda depends on people not reading
other OYL books, though...read the right ones, and you know the villain can't
actually be who it seems. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
Teen Titans #35: DC - Tony Daniels's pencils are nice eye candy in some
places (mostly female places), but disturbingly distorted in others. And
then there's the deliberately disturbing stuff, like someone's ribcage being
pried open "on camera"...perhaps a tad beyond the range of a book without a
mature readers label, I think. There's some promising stuff in the writing,
although it feels like Johns is trying to make this a WB teen drama. Mildly
recommended. $2.50/$3.50Cn
Infinite Crisis #7 (of 7): DC - Speaking of gratuitous on-panel violence
and gore...yeah, other stuff happened, there were some important character
moments and all that, but the blood and maiming are what stand out in this
issue, and what it'll likely be remembered for. In fact, this entire series
seems to be a superhero splatter film. Blood, guts, melted flesh, all
overwhelming the actual story. And, frankly, if you really want
splattergore, there's better places for it. Can't really recommend bothering
with this, just find an online summary and read that. $3.99/$5.50Cn
JSA #85: DC - You know, it's possible that in all the IC gore, I missed
an important death or two. Or maybe it happened off-screen and will be
revealed in 52. Frankly, I'm not finding myself caring much, which
definitely hurts the impact this story's trying to have. Sorry, but after
the arterial spray right in my face that was Infinite Crisis, I'm kinda numb
to DCU deaths. Still, there's some good bits, and I loved the "complicated"
case. Recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
PS238 #14: Dork Storm Press - Very late issue. In terms of the main
plot, the recaps and in-story stuff in #15 did catch me up very well, but I
find that it was still very much worth reading this one. A lot of things
happen that weren't directly picked up on in #15, and are of significant
interest, such as the revelation of the powers of one of the teachers. I
suppose I don't really need to be non-spoilery here considering how late this
was, but hey. :) Recommended. $2.99
Tron #1: Slave Labor Graphics - Slightly late issue. I'm guessing this
picks up after the events of the recent Tron 2.0 video game, since the "what
has gone before" page just made me shake my head and say, "Who came up with
that crap? I hope not the writers of this comic!" Premise aside, this is a
very murky comic, with black filling over half of almost every panel.
Unremitting darkness may establish a mood, but it also makes it hard to bring
any contrast to a scene when you DON'T want it to be all angsty. All in all,
it's...okay. If it doesn't get better fast, it's going off my pull.
Hopefully, now that they've got the video game plot setup out of the way, the
writing will improve. Very mildly recommended. $3.50
Rod Espinosa's New Alice in Wonderland #4 (of 4): Antarctic Press - This
one felt a bit more abridged than the other issues, perhaps because it was
tackling scenes that were so long and involved in the Disney movie version,
and so focused on action. And that's even with Espinosa taking every page
available, even the inside back cover...no ads except on the outside back
cover (and that's an ad for Rod's other works). It looks lovely, though, and
it's still worth picking up. Recommended. $3.50/$4.75Cn
Gold Digger v3 #75: Antarctic Press - Special covers aside (I got the B
cover), this is mostly an examination of how Dr. Peachbody got in the state
we alst saw him in a few issues ago. I think the continuity has gotten
slightly scrambled, regarding Gina herself. Recommended. $2.99/$4.05Cn
The Devil's Panties #2: Silent Devil - 44 more pages of webcomic
archive, plus two more paper dolls (including PPG costumes) and two of
annotations. Fun, freaky stuff, with a scary amount of it being
autobiographical. Oh, and the Secret Origin of the name of the strip is
revealed in the endnotes! Recommended. $4.95
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 5/3:
Still missing Exalted #1, Keif Llama V2.1 and Big Max #1 (argh).
According to Previews, Exalted #1 is being resolicited in July, so maybe I'll
see it then....
Awards:
Best Book: Nothing really stands out. Maybe I'm just in a blah mood.
"The Inventory Story That Walked Like A Man" Award to Doc Samson #5 (of 5)
"Remember The Monkey!" Award to Marvel Team-Up #20
"With Great Power Come Great Paychecks" Award to FN Spider-Man #8
"Montage Of Doom" Award to eXiles #80
"It Takes A Rogue" Award to Outsiders #36
"Just An Eyepatch And A Smile" Award to Teen Titans #35
"Try Preparation H For That Bloody S" Award to Infinite Crisis #7 (of 7)
"Naked Ghost?" Award to JSA #85
"Do They Always Carry Help Wanted Ads?" Award to PS238 #14
"I Suppose It's Marginally Better Than 'Jethro'" Award to Tron #1
"The High Never Lasts As Long As The First Time" Award to Rod Espinosa's New
Alice in Wonderland #4 (of 4)
"Dogged Pursuit" Award to Gold Digger v3 #75
"The All-Purpose Dance" Award to The Devil's Panties #2
Dave Van Domelen, "Oh, it's true what the Brain says. You're VERY cute." - Goldilocks to Robin
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I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like IC. I quit the whole thing after starting with #4 and the disposable Titans tie-ins (the recap of 4, didn't even add anything substantive!). Really, the violence and darkness are getting completey ridiculous, and the whole thing nearly killed my interest in comics, much less DC's stuff. I'm still waffling on picking up Teen Titans, one I used to be really excited about and followed regularly. What really pissed me off and disturbed me was the violence bordering on snuff porn happening to characters that didn't deserve it, and showed up to be immediately killed off, not set-up, no closure, nothing. I've got one of my favorites in the icon, and she, Pantha, was particularly killed off in a campy, jokey manner (it's supposed to be a tragic scene, right Geoff? Or can't you tell the difference between camp and tragedy?) without any resolution to her character. She becomes just another Woman in a Refrigerator. And meanwhile Kid Devil goes on the Titans, and Rose is just the Sexy Bad Girl/femme fatal stereotype, so it's not a matter of obscurity.
Anyway, I wanted to ask (a poor excuse for random complaining) if you were the same Dvandom over at Plastic?
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And yeah, Rose is just a big ol' pile of bad female character cliches. Bad girl, sex kitten, insecure about her place on the team, trying to sleep with the leader as a means of securing that place, drinks and smokes, and treats the one guy who seems to like her like dirt because he'll put up with it and she needs some way of bolstering her self-esteem.
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picks up after the events of the recent Tron 2.0 video game, since the "what
has gone before" page just made me shake my head and say, "Who came up with
that crap? I hope not the writers of this comic!"
Yes, it's picking up after the events of Tron 2.0 (though I haven't finished the game yet). Maybe if you're familiar with that, you like it better, as I dug that issue.
And IC...yeah..it was just bad. random deaths, bad art (who the hell was in the pannel with Mad Dog...why was Mad Dog in a comic, and not sacrificed on the altar of Didio's hate of 80's B-Characters, and why couldn't they even bother to have the series artist do the glamour shot of the "new" DC stars (oh look Batgirl Beyond and Morison's 7S crap...).