Comics for July 19

[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.
I am now officially 36 years old, whee.  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.

July 26:

     I had a bit of a wait for comics to be all ready, but I grabbed what was
ready of my pull and started reading it.  So no First Looks this time either,
sorry.
     Also, I will be away at a professional conference next week, and then
playing catch-up on my final exam grading and other teaching duties when I
get back, so I may just do a two-week chunk all at once on August 2.


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.

     Gold Digger GD-ROM: Antarctic Press - A two-DVD set collecting 140
issues of Gold Digger.  Not quite "40 Years of", but hey, the book's only
been around for 15.  It's in pretty much the thickest possible 2-DVD case, I
may transfer mine to something slimmer.  The table of contents image does not
list by what's on which disc, though, splitting things up by the three
volumes of publication.  Disc 1 has the original miniseries (vol 1), various
one-shots or two-shots (like A Science Affair), NHS Time Warp, and all 50
issues of the vol 2 B&W book, plus the cover images for the Gold Bricks 1 and
2.  Disc 2 has the entire vol 3 color series, Peebomanga, MPG and AVI
formatted previews of the Time Raft 3 anime, and "trailers" for a bunch of
other Antarctic comics  (not just Fred Perry ones).  The two discs have
circular chunks of the two vol3 #75 cover images, and the case has the entire
image joined together.  Everything's available as PDFs (or JPGs in some
cases), and disc 1 has copies of the Adobe reader for Mac and Windows in case
you're the one person whose computer can run that software and doesn't
already have it.  :)  Not as much of a bargain as the 40 Years collections
from Marvel, but still not shabby.  Recommended.  $39.95
     52 #11 (of 52): DC - A little bit of Ralph going slowly insane, and a
lot of Question and Montoya, yay!  Okay, maybe too much Question can be a bad
thing, as he's best in small and enigmatic doses, but it's still fun.  The
history backup is pretty much just Infinite Crisis, feh.  Recommended.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #43: DC - Kinda talky, although the story
title "Conversations with Vulko" would pretty much let you know that going
in.  Pacing's slow, but otherwise good.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Shadowpact #3: DC - Willingham's only drawing the cover this issue, I
guess he's still not up to writing and drawing a monthly for an extended
period these days.  Things wrap up awfully quickly and conveniently, with a
trick I can't decide if I think it's cheap or clever.  Probably both.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #20: DC - While the Brainy
subplot continues with a nice nod to the past, a new arc begins on the main
plotline (plus a bit of somewhat hamfisted comedy relief politics on the
side).  Colossal Boy's origins are finally revealed, and I think Waid is
working from one of those "Is your character a Mary Sue?" checklists
regarding Supergirl.  Which could be hilarious, or could fall completely
flat, but it's not really either yet.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Cable & Deadpool #30: Marvel - This is worth getting just for the first
few pages where Deadpool faces the Great Lakes Champions (see Thing #8).  But
the rest is pretty good too.  Nicieza continues to twist the Event ot his own
ends, which I suppose is easier when you're writing books about badguys
(reformed or no).  Staz Johnson's art is pretty good, but kinda a letdown
after the Amanda Connor cover.  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #10: Marvel - Good story from Peter
David and Mike Wieringo, although the final page is perhaps a bit more
confusing than intended.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     X-Factor #9: Marvel - Another Civil War tie-in, but when your book is
about mutants, it's fairly familiar ground to tread.  Nice to see a
semi-obscure 90s superhero show up in a CW book without either dying horribly
or accidentally killing someone, too.  Villarrubia's love for the "fill:
black" button continues to do horrible things to the art, though.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     She-Hulk #9: Marvel - Woo, serious guest artist spread.  Paul Smith on
the lead story, Frenz and Sal Buscema on the backup.  Slott does his usual
good job on writing, and while there's Civil War stuff going on, it's mainly
back to Shulkie's own plotlines.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Adventures Avengers #3: Marvel - This time out, Parker and Garcia
bring Baron Zemo into the MA-verse.  From the way the story goes, I'm
guessing the Red Skull won't be showing up...a bit harder to do him well for
all ages these days anyway.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Conan #30: Dark Horse - Part 2 of 3 of Mignola's adaptation of "The Hall
of the Dead".  Decently done, although as a middle part it does have some
slow parts (well, slow for Conan) and unresolved weirdness.  Recommended.
$2.99 
     Transformers Stormbringer #1 (of 4): IDW - The Neo-G1 storyline shifts
to Cybertron's ruins, showing that maybe the Ark crash-landing on Earth in
the original G1 storyline was a Good Thing for the rest of Cybertron.  Furman
is at his most portentous here, setting up a new Big Cosmic Threat who isn't
Unicron.  Figueroa's art is as good as usual, although some of the layouts
are deliberately muddled.  Mildly recommended on its own merits, although it
could end up looking better in retrospect.  Also has a very long preview of
Hearts of Steel #1.  I got cover A.  $2.99.
     Twisted ToyFare Theater vol 7: Wizard - More collected action figure
whackiness.  Low humor, but generally funny low humor.  Recommended.
$12.99/$15.99Cn 


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 7/19:

     Still missing Keif Llama V2.1, Five Fists of Science and Stinz Tribals.
Gold Digger DVDROM came in, but now Gold Digger Perfect Memory v5 is missing.
And Anthem #3 didn't come in either.


Awards:

Best Book: Cable & Deadpool #30

"Well, THAT Secret Identity Lasted About Five Seconds" Award to 52 #11 
     (of 52)

"It's What I Do" Award to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #43

"Nice Goat" Award to Shadowpact #3

"Speaking Of Things The Science Police Wouldn't Approve Of" Award to 
     Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #20

"Caption This!" Award to Cable & Deadpool #30

"Uncle Ben Converted Me" Award to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #10

"Seriously, Can We Do That Again?" Award to X-Factor #9

"Family Traditions" Award to She-Hulk v2 #9

"They Do Respect Her, But..." Award to Marvel Adventures Avengers #3

"SUCH A Tongue-Lashing" Award to Conan #30

"But Does He Have The Matrix?" Award to Transformers: Stormbringer #1 (of 4)

"I Wish My iPod Did That" Award to Twisted ToyFare Theater vol 7

   Dave Van Domelen, "SHUT YOUR EVIL, EVIL PIE HOLE!" - Squirrel Girl, Cable & Deadpool #30

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

In Thing #8, they introduce themselves as GLX, and are "convinced" telepathically to choose a new name. They try GL Defenders, but Dr. Strange shoots them a stern look. Then GL Champions, which pisses off Herc, but he's restrained and they get to keep the name.