Comics for August 16

[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.
The heavens above conspire against me.  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.

August 23:

     None.

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.

     Shadowpact #4: DC - A done in one story of Blue Devil having a bad
night.  Willingham's not on art, but it looks like he's doing character
designs, at least, and Steve Scott does a good job on the pencils.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Thunderbolts #105: Marvel - Civil War.  All the moral ambiguity and
questionable choices made in the main event are grist for the mill here, as
the Thunderbolts take advantage of the situation to line things up for their
own plotline.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Marvel Adventure Avengers #4: Marvel - Another excellent story from
Parker with good art from Garcia.  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Retro Rocket #3: Image - A bit of a darker turn, and a setup for a
potentially deus ex machina ending (pun intended).  Bedard slows down for
some characterization and maybe a tiny bit of politics.  Recommended.
$2.99/$3.40Cn
     Conan #31: Dark Horse - Mignola finishes off his first three-issue arc,
and it's okay.  Rather anticlimactic, with the main menace being somewhat
blah.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99
     Transformers Evolutions Hearts of Steel #2 (of 4): IDW - The "Keep Prime
and Megatron out of it until later" plan is in full force here, and we don't
even see them, although they are referred to.  Anyway, this issue is about
the two "contact" humans and how they interact with and are treated by the
Autobots and Decepticons.  Dixon does set up an interesting mirroring here,
where the Autobots seem initially threatenining and the Decepticons seem
initially benevolent, but both humans discover things are the other way
around.  Guidi's art is generally good, and the nighttime scenes are fairly
clear without looking too "shoot day for night"-ish.  I do have one quibble,
though, and that's the fact that the alt modes don't really feel clear from
the robot modes.  Some of that is the fantastic nature of the alt modes, but
there's also a fair amount of kibble-erasing.  A few pages of the reprint of
G1 #17 (Bridge to Nowhere) are included at the end.  I picked up the B cover
this time, since I didn't really care for the A cover and wanted at least one
of the wraparound design sketch covers.  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 8/16:

     Still missing Keif Llama V2.1, Stinz Tribals (which Diamond's system
says "will come in" June 14, and nothing else), Gold Digger Perfect Memory
v5, Anthem #3, Gold Digger Tangent #2, Gold Digger Throne of Shadows #3,
Devil's Panties #3,  Elric #4 and the Transformers Beast Wars poster.  Add 52
#15 (our store got more of #14 instead, apparently not an isolated problem). 


Awards:

Best Book: Marvel Adventures Avengers #4

"Me Grimlock Have Backache" Award to Shadowpact #4

"When The Radioactive Man Questions Your Belief In Human Rights, It May Be
     Time To Reassess Your Position" Award to Thunderbolts #105

"HERE 2 HIT" Award to Marvel Adventures Avengers #4

"One Lump, Or Two?" Award to Retro Rocket #3 (of 4)

"Raising The Bar" Award to Conan #31

"Propeller Problems" Award to Starscream in Transformers Evolutions Hearts
     of Steel #2 (of 4)

   Dave Van Domelen, "HAS GLOATING CONCLUDED SUFFICIENTLY THAT SPIDER-MAN CAN BE DESTROYED?" "Yes. Thanks for waiting." - Ultron and Baron Zemo, MA Avengers #4

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