Comics for September 7

[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 

     Galaxion is coming back to life on Girlamatic.com, in the free section,
yay!  http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/galaxion.php (it also has "Spring
Break" there in complete form).

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 Throne of Shadows #4 (of 4): Antarctic Press - And still no
#3 from Diamond, whee.  Not that I'm missing it all that much.  There was a
decent twist this issue, but the story as a whole didn't really sing to me.
And the art leaves me cold, especially the general lack of backgrounds and
the minimal screentoning, that make it look like the final files got lost in
a crash and someone pulled an all-nighter trying (and failing) to restore
them from old backups.  Neutral.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Ninja High School #141: Antarctic Press - A gear-shifting issue that
doesn't quite shift smoothly...basically, while recent issues have been
emulating Naruto in surface features, now the pacing excesses of the show are
being copied too.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Transformers Stormbringer #3 (of 4): IDW - Given all the frenetic
action, very little actually HAPPENS in this issue, and the few interesting
things that do happen, occur mostly off-stage...we'll see it about to happen,
then later we see the aftermath, but not the actual event.  Meanwhile, lots
of fight scenes that go nowhere and could have been left off-stage without
loss.  Not one of Furman's better storytelling efforts.  About the only good
thing about the issue is seeing Don Figueroa's redesigns.  Mildly recommended
pretty much just for that.  $2.99
     Manifest Eternity #4: DC/Wildstorm - Ooookay.  This probably should have
been #2.  It's one thing to try non-sequential storytelling, but quite
another to succeed, and this series is failing miserably.  The art is getting
uglier and harder to follow every issue, to the point where I can't even tell
who's supposed to be doing what half the time.  And worse, the writing is
relying on the art to convey subtle hints, which it is utterly incapable of
doing.  This is dropped now.  Avoid.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     52 #18 (of 52): DC - Speaking of bad sequencing, it'd have been nice to
make it clearer who Tim Trench was nearer the beginning of the issue.  Or
ever, really, as I still don't know.  And it's kinda important.  I'm not too
keen on the rest of the issue either.  Neutral.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Outsiders #40: DC - About 8 pages of story stretched out over an entire
issue, but at least it makes sense and things actually happen, which puts it
ahead of a depressing number of this week's comics.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.00Cn 
     Marvel Team-Up #24: Marvel - Meh.  I can see what Kirkman was shooting
for here, but it fell flat for me.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     1602 Fantastick Four #1 (of 5): Marvel - Turning into a week of
disappointments for me, it seems.  On the one hand, the fact this is my first
1602-verse reading didn't cause me any problems, as there was plentiful
exposition.  On the other, the art doesn't really do it for me, and Peter
David gives in to his gag reflex a bit too often...he's funniest when his
humor is restrained, and it ain't here.  Mildly recommended.  $3.50/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19: Marvel - Ah, things starting to look
up.  The story's a bit "after school special" in places, but is otherwise a
fun if somewhat bittersweet romp.  Done-in-one, and free to evoke Marvel
continuity without having to worry about being part of it.  Recommended.
$2.99/$3.75Cn
     Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12: Marvel - Here, on the other hand,
he's largely trying to be spooky, so it's much funnier.  And, of course, it
helps that Nauck has worked with PAD before (on Young Justice) and is able to
mesh well in terms of storytelling.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Agents of Atlas #2 (of 6): Marvel - A fair amount of retconning going
on, but hey, the base material was a What If issue, so all's fair.  And Jeff
Parker's definitely retconning in the service of a good story here, enhanced
by Leonard Kirk's art.  Doesn't pop quite as well as #1, but still quite
good.  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Beyond #3 (of 6): Marvel - I kinda wish I hadn't seen the solicited
cover for #4, because it really did blow the big secret at the end of this
issue.  Still, McDuffie turns in a strong story that doesn't depend on its
Big Reveal and has some great dialogue.  There's still aspects of Kolins's
style I don't like, but he does a good job other than that.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn

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 9/7:

     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.  Add Fred Perry's
S-Guild #1. 


Awards:

Best Book: Tie between Agents of Atlas #2 (of 6) and Beyond #3 (of 6)

"%^&$&%^$" Award to Gold Digger Throne of Shadows #4 (of 4)

"So, Who Gets The Curse Mark?" Award to Ninja High School #141

"Losing Face" Award to Transformers Stormbringer #3 (of 4)

"When Giant Statues Come To Life And Start Attacking, And You Can't Tell 
     That's What Happening Until You're Told After They Stop, There's 
     Something Horribly Wrong With The Art" Award to Manifest Eternity #4

"Flooded Trenches" Award to 52 #18 (of 52)

"If Suspense Requires You NOT Read A Sister Title, Is That Considered
     Anti-Continuity?" Award to Outsiders #40

"I Don't Feel Like Making A Ring-Based Pun Here" Award to Marvel Team-Up #24

"So, We Know What Powers He WON'T Have" Award to 1602 Fantastick Four #1 
     (of 5)

"The Trunks Of Royalty!" Award to Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19

"Thanks To Kraven's Skull Club For Men..." Award to Friendly Neighborhood
     Spider-Man #12

"Monkey's Paw Wish" Award to Agends of Atlas #2 (of 6)

"Who Knew Biology Class Could Be So Fun!" Award to Beyond #3 (of 6)

   Dave Van Domelen, "Did everything work out okay, Ken?" "Uh...yes. Yes, that did it." - Agents of Atlas #2 (okay, so it's only funny in context, but it's worth seeking out the context thereof)