Comics Capsules for July 28

[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.
Summer classes are over for me, yay.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

     Go check out http://www.whiterose.org/HowlingCurmudgeons/ when you're
done here. 

     News Notes: Today I gave my final exam and spent the afternoon with my
TA grading it, so I got to comics later than usual.  I haven't even gotten
around to reading the back issues of Serenity Rose and Amelia Rules that came
in, I may do a special post for them tomorrow or something, but don't count
on it soon, because...
     I'm also getting ready to go to a professional conference in Sacramento
next week, where I will have severely limited net access (yes, the conference
is at a university with lots of computer labs and a wireless network...but
it's all passworded up for students/staff only, so they almost might as well
not have any internet connection as far as I'm concerned...won't even be
turning on the phone jacks in the dorms, so I can't bring a laptop and AOL
disk).  There will be no reviews from me next week, although I'll try to put
next week's comics in with the week after.  Or maybe review some First Looks
on Friday if I have time this week.

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.

     Heaven Sent #4: Antarctic Press - Stuff goes cosmic as the Big Plot is
revealed.  A bit of an abrupt transition, but I suppose it's better than
dragging out the "just a kid with a guardian angel who has strange
adventures" phase too long.  A few parts felt kinda retread-y.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     NHS #118: Antarctic Press - A bit confusing in places (balloon placement
issues didn't help), and the climactic scene takes a reread or two before the
conclusions reached in it don't seem to be completely out of nowhere, but
it's certainly an interesting portrayal of a character.  And now I have to go
back through previous issues to see if it actually works.  :)  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.05Cn 
     Transformers Energon #26: Dreamwave - The art by Alex Milne is okay when
it's not REALLY obviously using scanned in images, but the storytelling of
the first few pages could use some work.  The grown-up kids (Rad and Alexis
to be specific, Carlos doesn't appear) look too young here, which hurts the
serious scenes Furman puts them in.  Oh, and Cruellock's appearance, while it
looks pretty bad artwise, is cute.  Overall, I'm *reading* a serious story
that interweaves several plotlines while heading towards something, but I'm
*seeing* a lot of disconnected goofiness thanks to Milne's art.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.95
     Ultimate Fantastic Four #9: Marvel - Big running battle, the four
working as a team (albeit haltingly).  Excellent characterization, although
the humor (which I loved) does kinda make it hard to see the menace as, well,
menacing.  Strongly recommended anyway.  $2.25/$3.25Cn
     Fantastic Four #516: Marvel - Really good fight scene issue.  Not a
whole lot more than that, but sometimes that's enough.  Recommended.
$2.25/$3.25Cn 
     Legion #36: DC - There's an odd mix here of on-screen and off-screen
violence and lethality that makes me highly suspect ANYTHING the antagonists
do in this arc.  And especially anything they say.  I'm definitely expecting
some sort of zinger to end the arc (and the title), and really hope Simone
isn't planning to zing us by NOT having a zinger...because then this is just
a guest appearance by Pointless Death Man from the Legion of Net.Heroes
universe.  Oh, and Andy Smith's own style (which is essentially Bart Sears
Lite) shows through more clearly this issue over Jurgens's breakdowns.
Cautiously recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Justice League Another Nail #3 (of 3): DC - As a story, it's a mess.
But it's really just an excuse to let Davis and Farmer draw a lot of modified
versions of various characters, and in that respect it's a resounding
success.  They even work in THUNDER Agents (or a reasonable facsimile).
Recommended pretty much just for the visuals.  $5.95/$9.25Cn
     Planetary #20: DC/Wildstorm - A lot of scenery and build up to the Big
Reveal, followed by an almost offhand resolution.  Looks nice, does advance
the plot, but given that we get an issue only every three months, it does
feel a bit fluffy.  #19 got away with it because of the sheer cool factor of
some of the scenery and that issue's Big Reveal, but this time it's more of
the same, and the new stuff isn't as impressive.  Mildly recommended.
$2.95/$4.50Cn
     Conan #6: Dark Horse - Conan kicking butt, taking names, and getting his
hinder handed to him anyway.  Decent climax (in the sense of 'things really
can't get much worse, right?').  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!)

     Nothing from this week's stack.  Have the first Amelia Rules TPB and
Amelia Rules #12, plus Serenity Rose #2-3 sitting in a bag waiting to be
read, though.  I also picked up the 2005 Dreamwave Transformers G1 calendar,
but might not even open that up for a while, and will review that over on the
Transformers newsgroups when I get around to it.

Awards:

Best Book: Ultimate Fantastic Four #9

"At Least His Name Isn't Victor" Award to Heaven Sent #4

"Constellation #36?" Award to NHS #118

"Odd How The Flags Don't Wave At All, Just Sit There Perfectly Flat" 
     Award to Transformers: Energon #26

"Ninja Rubber Band!" Award to Ultimate Fantastic Four #9

"Kirbytech Sippycup" Award to Fantastic Four #516

"Persuasive, Isn't He?" Award to Legion #36

"Wasn't This A Star Trek Episode?" Award to Justice League Another Nail 
     #3 (of 3)

"Illuminati Man" Award to Planetary #20

"This Is Only Gonna Make Crom Look Better, You Know" Award to Conan #6

   Dave Van Domelen, "Door's open. In a, y'know, broken kinda way." - Ben Grimm, Ultimate Fantastic Four #9

   P.S. Mutants & Masterminds Annual 2004 didn't hit my store today. Anyone out there get it (i.e. Alliance screwed up our preorders again), or is it actually delayed?