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.
Would you believe four fists of science?  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.

June 7:

     No formal reviews.  I skimmed Last Planet Standing #3 and read
Annihilation: Silver Surfer for next week while waiting for the last bit of
comics to be set ou, neither inspired me to want to buy 'em.


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.

     Red Sonja vs. Thulsa Doom #4 (of 4): Dynamite - Ehn.  Lots of fight
scenes, some good thinking on the part of one of the heroes, and the
inevitable "it's a prequel so you know the title characters survive" ending.
All in all, I don't think I would have minded too much if I'd never found out
about this book.  Neutral.  $3.50
     Ultimate Extinction #5 (of 5): Marvel - As a Galactus story, it's pretty
weak.  As a Z'Nox story, it's not too bad.  And names and chrome aside, this
really is more of a retelling of the Z'Nox invasion tale from the 1970s
X-Men than a retelling of Galactus's coming in 1960s FF.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn  
     All-New OHOTMU A-Z #5 (of 12): Marvel - The usual mix of the obscure,
the updated and those who didn't quite fit into the previous themed issues.
Recommended.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     Thing #7: Marvel - Sadly, this is the pemultimate issue.  More sadly,
the guest art by Kieron Dwyer is kinda bad.  Still, an amusing and
light-hearted done-in-one story, and I'm afraid we won't get many more like
it for a while.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     52 #4 (of 52): DC - The Dibny plot has taken a sharp left turn into WTF
land in a bad way, while Steel seems to be visiting that country as well, but
maybe not in the bad part of town.  And the Question demonstrates that he
needs his own book again.  The history backup pretty much just summarizes
Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn 
     Action Comics #839: DC - The things that attracted me to this arc have
pretty much vanished, replaced by elements that...well, aren't interesting me
as much.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Transformers Stormbringer Ashcan: IDW - I've already seen all these
pages online, but my store pulled it for me today, so I'll comment now rather
than waiting for #1 to come out.  This is the first 11 pages of Stormbringer
#1, the second IDW series set in their G1 continuity (and has at least one
page making it clear the non-flashback events of the book take place at the
same time as Infiltration).  Furman's building a new backstory here, fleshing
out some of the implications made in Infiltration, and setting up a
mysterious cosmic-level threat that HOPEFULLY won't be Unicron again.  :)
Figueroa's art is good as usual, although the ashcan size makes it a little
busier.  
     Transformers vs GIJoe III #3 (of 5): Devil's Due - A mix of exposition,
fight scenes, and a little OTP fanwank.  It looks nice thanks to Ng and Raiz,
but the story itself felt a little flat to me.  Got cover A (mini-poster
component).  Mildly recommended.  $2.95
     Transformers Infiltration #5 (of 6): IDW - Well, most of the mysteries
are explained in this issue and the stakes are raised.  Several things make
it clear that we're not in the old G1 continuity (any of them, really)
anymore, especially the way the issue 4 cliffhanger resolved.  :)  Good art,
good story.  Got cover C (Wildman).  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 6/1:

     Still missing Keif Llama V2.1 and Big Max #1 (argh).  Add Five Fists of
Science.  


Awards:

Best Book: None.

"Well, Gotta Kill SOMEONE" Award to Red Sonja vs. Thulsa Doom #4 (of 4)

"It's Raining X-Men, Hallelujah" Award to Ultimate Extinction #5 (of 5)

"I Really Didn't Need To See Howard The Duck With Breasts" Award to All-New
     OHOTMU A-Z #5 (of 12)

"You Could Try Locking The Door" Award to Thing #7

"Do Not Shoot Food" Award to 52 #4 (of 52)

"Crystal Locution" Award to Action Comics #839

"Global Warming Got Nothing On This" Award to Transformers: Stormbringer
     Ashcan

"Ah, Cybertronian Innuendo" Award to GIJoe vs. Transformers III #3 (of 5)

"Power Surge" Award to Transformers: Infiltration #5 (of 6)


   Dave Van Domelen, "This would probably be a good time to duck." - Alicia Masters, Thing #7
.

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