Comics for May 17, First Looks May 24

[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.
Ah, a week off from classes, more or less.  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, 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 24, 2006:

     Negative Burn #1: Image/Desperado - The old borderline-indy anthology is
back under a new publisher.  It almost feels like a FCBD offering, as many of
the pieces are more ad than actual story, or are the middle part of
something.  And the price is a bit steep for what bits I did like...always a
danger with anthologies.  $5.99/$6.99Cn
     The American Way #4 (of 8): DC/Wildstorm - Just in case things didn't go
badly enough last issue, things really hit the fan this time.  Building up
nicely.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Iron Man v5 #8: Marvel - Eh.  Not really interested in this one.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     New Excalibur #7: Marvel - Mostly slugfest, but some good interaction
scenes and a moderately intriguing mystery.  $2.999/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four: A Death In The Family one shot: Marvel - Sigh, guess
I'll grit my teeth and get through this bit of event-driven stuff.  It is
amusing to note that the "in the" in the logo uses the font from The
Prisoner.  Turns out to be totally unrelated to Civil War, and kinda
ambiguous.  Also reprints an old Byrne issue of FF and has a Franklin
backup.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     Annihilation: Ronan #2 (of 4): Marvel - The actual Annihilation Wave is
really just background so far, with the immediate threat revealed on the
final page.  Not Furman's best writing, but passable.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #81: Marvel - It's time for the Liefeldverse!  Well, not really.
They're on Counter-Earth in the 616 reality.  Close enough.  The World Tour
is almost over, and it does at least seem to be going out with a bang.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     X-Factor #7: Marvel - Normally the letterer's job is background,
unintrusive and functional.  Cory Petit does a good job of making the
lettering an important part of the story this time out.  As for the art,
Olivetti's pencils mesh reasonable well with Villarrubia's finishes, and the
murk levels are minimal.  Recommended.  $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.

     Exalted #1: Udon Comics - Finally managed to get the first issue,
although it's not really the first issue, as the storyline started in #0.
Still, it's a good enough start, laying out the big picture conflict as well
as the viewpoint hero's situation.  Cary Nord draws a brief historical backup
in his disctinctive style.  Recommended.  $3.49Cn
     Fallen Angel v2 #5 (of 5): IDW - I guess I shouldn't be surprised that
it's a limited series without any indication (other than ending) on the
actual comic that it's limited...IDW seems to be allergic to ongoings.
Anyway, I was amused to find a bit of gonzo theology contained in here that
I'd come up with myself a while back (and suspect many others have as well).
There's certainly room for further stories, but this arc made for a good coda
to the DC series.  Recommended.  $3.99
     Bomb Queen #4 (of 4): Image - The problem with this series, I think, is
that it had about two issues of ideas but three or four issues of plot
(without invoking decompression).  So it all feels kinda stale as the
necessary storyline elements finished playing out.  Oh, and obligatory bare
breasts, of course.  I think this would have worked a lot better as a
double-sized one-shot.  Neutral.  $3.50/$4.15Cn
     Retro Rocket #2 (of 4): Image - Big ol' fight scene and plot device
whammy that does pretty much what was foreshadowed last issue.  :)
Recommended.  $2.99/$3.50Cn
     Conan #28: Dark Horse - A done-in-one story with a tragic hero and guest
art ably supplied by Eric Powell.  Recommended.  $2.99
     52 #2 (of 52): DC - I'll cover the backup first.  Jurgens and Thibert
seem to be deliberately recapitulating the old History of the DC Universe,
down to formatting and some of the events chronicled, at least at first.  It
does seem they'll depart from the homage later, though, which is a good idea.
Keeping too close to HotDCU increases the odds of comparing unfavorably to
it.  In the main story, Booster continues to be the temporal canary in the
coal mine, Ralph's scenes are excessively mysterious, and the Question
demonstrates that he can be cool outside of the animated setting.  While the
whole thing does have a necessarily scattered storytelling style, it works
fairly well within that flaw.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Shadowpact #1: DC - Willingham writes and draws, something he doesn't do
as much lately, and does a generally good job (although some of the scenes
are a bit visually confusing).  He does borrow at least a little from his old
Elementals work, but as long as it remains at the level of motif and doesn't
rise to self-plagiarism, I'm okay with that.  He's set up a potentially
dangerous storytelling device in terms of timelines, but at least it's set
among a company-wide device and is unlikely to come off as the worst of the
year even if Willingham flubs.  Provisionally recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Green Arrow #62: DC - Oh yeah.  Granted, it's another issue long
slugfest, but there's a big difference between it and the ones pre-OYL in
this book.  I quite enjoyed it on its level, although McDaniel's art didn't
always support the writing as well as it could have.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.00Cn 
     Aquaman #42: DC - More traveling around, making friends and enemies (not
necessarily in that order).  Kinda fluffy in terms of plot density, but a
decent read.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Ms. Marvel #3: Marvel - Somewhat scattered, almost anticlimactic despite
the big explosions.  Moderately annoying Civil War tie-in.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Adventures Avengers #1: Marvel - While it doesn't have an
obviously different art style, the Marvel Adventures imprint is a belated
counterpart to DC's animation-based subline.  I'll admit to ignoring it for a
while, in part because the initial launch was uninspiring.  But Parker and
Garcia turn out a good done in one story here, capturing a lot of the feel of
the lighter side of the Silver Age in the process.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Legacy: 1970s Handbook: Marvel - Another fun look back at the old
days, and now we're caught up to when I first started reading comics, with
stuff like the Royalist Forces of America, Mr. Zodiac (who only appeared in a
chunky little young readers illustrated storybook I had as a kid) and loads
of werewolf and vampire supporting characters.  Unfortunately, there's a goof
in the entry on Nomad, with the last paragraphs of his history in place of
his abilities/equipment.  Still, a groovy book.  Recommended.  $4.99/$7.00Cn
     Dork Tower #33: Dork Storm - The ongoing MudCon storyline continues,
with a major development in the life of one of the supporting characters,
oooooh.  There's also a Slayer's Guide to Chickens supplement for Kobolds Ate
My Baby, a parody of the various D20 system Slayer's Guides floating around.
Backups also include Dr. Blink and Lethargic Lad.  Oh, and it's still all in
color.  :)  Recommended.  $3.49
     PS238 #16: Dork Storm - Only one week late, a red letter day for
Diamond.  :/  Anyway, despite the cover, the main story focuses on the kids
trying to get home without anyone getting blown up, and it's a very good
story on multiple levels.  Strongly recommended.  $2.99


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 5/17:

     Still missing Keif Llama V2.1 and Big Max #1 (argh).  Add in Ares #4,
although I read the First Look so I'm not exactly broken up.


Awards:

Best Book: PS238 #16 (Green Arrow #62 gets my nod for favorite book that was
     actually supposed to ship THIS week, though.)

"The Reincarnation Blues" Award to Exalted #1

"Shut Up Already!" Award to Fallen Angel v2 #5 (of 5)

"With A Whimper" Award to Bomb Queen #4 (of 4)

"Downshifting" Award to Retro Rocket #2 (of 4)

"Crom Knows...Too Bad He Doesn't Care" Award to Conan #28

"It's As If Someone Was Building A Theme Deck" Award to 52 #2 (of 52)

"Ew, Blood Blister" Award to Shadowpact #1

"Arresting Development" Award to Green Lantern #62

"Not So Little Mermaid" Award to Aquaman #42

"Perfect Cell" Award to Ms. Marvel #3

"One If By Land, Two If By Sea, Three If By Robot Armada" Award to Marvel
     Adventures Avengers #1

"MOOOOOOHAHAHAHA!" Award to Marvel Legacy: 1970s Handbook

"Eet Mor Chikn" Award to Dork Tower #33

"The Ultimate Super-Power: MONEY!" Award to PS238 #16

   Dave Van Domelen, "Hulk not remember getting paid..." - Marvel Adventures Avengers #1, followed later by, "Bet puny Banner taking Hulk's checks!"

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Claremont DID stay in the 80s, that's the problem.

Had he retained the innovation and fun he brought in the 70s, this would be less annoying, but he fell into self-mockery without knowing it.