Comics for August 30

[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.
Noisy partying neighbors moving out soon.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

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.

     Cable & Deadpool #31: Marvel - Civil War tie-in, which is very coy at
one point about not giving away the events of the main story.  The usual
amusing Deadpool dialogue and internal monologue, and some kinda forced
political stuff from Cable.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     X-Factor #10: Marvel - More pencillers, same murky inker.  At least the
pencillers are tight enough that the splotched of black fill have less
effect.  Amusing bits here and there, but largely about tossing out the
beginnings of threads.  Provisionallly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cb
     She-Hulk v2 #11: Marvel - One mystery resolved, another deepens.  A more
serious story than Slott usually delivers, although not totally without
humor.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     All-New OHOTMU A-Z #8 (of 12): Marvel - Nekra (one of my favorite
costumes as a 13-year-old when the original OHOTMU came out) to Quoi (the emo
animal/plant hybrid son of Mantis), including...Priapus.  If you experience
this plotline for more than four hours, consult a physician.  :)
Recommended.  $3.99/$4.75Cn
     52 #17 (of 52): DC - A bit of Luthor's team and its inevitable and
cliche'd falling apart, then the rest focuses on the space plotline.  A bit
expositiony, but generally good.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Teen Titans #38: DC - The Teen Titans cartoon starts to bleed into the
comic a bit more, as the team goes on a macguffin hunt and Ravager keeps
taking "Stupid Aggro" pills.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Action Comics #842: DC - The neo-Cluster storyline continues, and has
some good dialogue, even if the plot is fairly by-the-numbers so far.  Good
art from Woods, and clever cover.  Recommended.
     American Way #7 (of 8): DC/Wildstorm - It gears up for the end.  There
are smaller losses and victories here, and it's definitely the ethical climax
of the series...people finally decide where to stand, whether they have
anything worth dying for.  Definitely getting set up for some dying, that's
for sure.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Anthem #3: Heroic Publishing - More skirmishing, bickering, and partial
exposition stuff, all with art reproduced from old CDROM backups with some
graininess.  All told, I think they could have done the story of the first
three issues better in two.  Mediocre Lady Liberty backup.  Mildly
recommended.  $3.25/$3.99Cn
     Gold Digger v3 #77: Antarctic Press - Continues the multiple running
fight scenes of the prison break plot, feeling more than a little
decompressed at this point.  The focus of the end of issue shocker barely
gets time on screen before that, for instance, which hurts the impact of it.
Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Transformers Evolutions: Hearts of Steel #3 (of 4): IDW - Pretty much
the entire issue takes place at night, which is portrayed in a washed out
sepia tone.  It's not murky in the "hard to follow" sense, but it does rather
mute the emotional impact of the art.  Mark Twain steals the show, which is
only fitting for such a personage as he, but there's generally a good balance
between the humans and the robots (although Starscream kinda goes through a
repeat of his spiel from #2).  The writing is, I think, a bit unnecessarily
mysterious about the destination for the final showdown in #4, unless Dixon
is engaging in a major red herring.  Recommended.  $2.99
     GIJoe vs. Transformers III #5 (of 5): Devil's Due - Lotsa fighting, a
false climax, and then the actual climax that is pretty much given away by
the A cover.  Cute flashforward sequence at the very end, though.  All in
all, I'd say this was technically proficient, but didn't really move me in
the way I expect Seeley might have hoped.  The array of artists kinda hurts
things as well, especially the way some of the pages look like they're
designed for original art sales at conventions, rather than trying to tell
the story.  Mildly recommended.  $2.95


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 8/30:

     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, Gold Digger Tangent #2, Gold Digger Throne of Shadows #3, Devil's Panties
#3, Elric #4 and the Transformers Beast Wars poster.


Awards:

Best Book: None.  Lots of decent books, no great books.

"Neither Boxers Nor Briefs, Varlet!" Award to Cable & Deadpool #31

"One Strong Cellphone" Award to X-Factor #10

"Same Surface, Different Design" Award to She-Hulk v2 #11

"Okay, So They Changed His Official Codename After Doing The Covers" Award
     to All-New OHOTMU A-Z #8 (of 12) (I'll explain ths one: Orphan is on 
     the cover, but he's in an earlier issue as Mr. Sensitive.)

"We're On A Mission From God" Award to 52 #17 (of 52)

"Mas Y Menos Sin Podemos!" Award to Teen Titans #38

"Accursed Snipers" Award to Action Comics #842

"A Clock That Could Stop A Face" Award to American Way #7 (of 8)

"Die Grauer" Award to Anthem #3

"War Of The Background Characters" Award to Gold Digger v3 #77

"Yes, Science Definitely IS Bigger" Award to Transformers Evolutions: Hearts
     of Steel #3 (of 4)

"Cue The Queen Soundtrack" Award to GIJoe vs. Transformers III #5 (of 5)

   Dave Van Domelen, "Ductwork is UNIVERSAL. Ductwork goes EVERYWHERE." - Nightwing, Action #842

Comments

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

Finally someone did something about that faux-Chosen One, Rodimus.

TILL ALL ARE JOE!!!
THE JOESPARK!

Dukimus Prime!

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Ductimus Prime! Ductwork is universal!

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Dick has been taking lessons from Orable. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=P83FGtPCuvc)

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Bwuh? "Mas y Menos, SI! Podemos" ... the other way translates as "Mas Y Menos" Without they can do it.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it always sounds like they say "sin". :)