Comics for Sept 13

[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 didn't move out.  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.

     Flare #35: Heroic Publishing - The big mega-arc that's been running
since before the relaunch comes to an end this issue.  An end that really
doesn't merit the buildup.  The backup story is mediocre, and the cover art
is on the ugly side.  Don't bother with this, I doubt I will be getting any
more issues.  $3.25/$3.99Cn
     Transformers Spotlight Shockwave #1: IDW - It opens a little too
infodumpy, but picks up nicely after that.  The story takes the nub of the
Dinobot origin from Marvel G1 #8 and fleshes it out to fit into the new
Furmanverse, linking War Within to the neo-G1 storyline.  I'll admit that the
rampant interlinking and referencing in this story appeals to my own views of
the TF mythos, but I think that this story will work well even for fairly new
readers.  Recommended.  $3.99 (Yeah, the price breaks on TF books are over,
we're up to IDW's standard pricepoint.)
     52 #19 (of 52): DC - The three plots this time out are the Skeets/Time
Travel one, the Lobo/Space Team one, and Supernova.  And there's a certain
amount of dovetailing as well.  I like how the space plot is going, and how
Lobo has changed without being untrue to himself.  But the Skeets plot has me
warily annoyed (there's a number of ways it could go that wouldn't suck, but
my faith in DC's editorial mandates is exactly zero these days).  The two
page origins backup this time is Animal Man, with Bolland art and a balance
between mainstream and proto-Vertigo origins.  Mildly recommended.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #44: DC - There's all sorts of important plot
points this issue, but the thing that sticks in my mind is King Shark's love
life.  :)  For some reason, though, the title doesn't really come together in
my head...each issue has felt disconnected, like I keep missing installments
or something.  It's hard to put a finger on exactly why, though, because if I
think about it carefully it does all fit together.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.00Cn 
     Green Arrow #66: DC - Since 52 is ignoring Ollie and crew, Winick gets
to do his own flashback sequence to fill in the missing year.  Unfortunately,
he still has McDaniels on art, bleh.  Some decent bits, but pretty by the
numbers otherwise.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Civil War Files: Marvel - Another "In Character" guide, but better in
terms of clarity and information than most of that ilk.  It helps that the
art framing is a cue to where each character stands in the conflict (SHIELD
badges for pro-registration, wanted posters for anti, plain pictures for
neutrals, postage stamp headshots for group members, and a special "fugitive"
style for Cap).  For the most part, the text is white on black and quite
readable.  Unfortunately, the headshots (both in groups and on the final page
apendix) have teeny tiny white or yellow font on brown or reddish brown
backgrounds...the appendix text is almost totally unreadable.  And when did
the Phone Ranger appear outside of What The?  A good guidebook, even if it's
in service of a bad story.  Recommended.  $3.99/$4.75Cn
     Ms. Marvel #7: Marvel - Civil War.  Carol's practically a guest in her
own book, which is more about Arana and Arachne (in what has to be an attempt
to play "what if" with how things would have gone for Spider-Man had this
happened at different times in his life).  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Thunderbolts #106: Marvel - No Civil War banner, and the huge army from
the CW issues seems to have vanished (they're mentioned in the recap page,
but never appear this issue).  Anyway, we're back to the Wellspring plot, the
stakes are clarified and the beatdowns commence, with a big cliffhanger at
the end, naturally.  Nothing astonishing, but a decent issue.  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 9/13:

     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, Devil's Panties #3, Elric #4, the Transformers
Beast Wars poster, Fred Perry's S-Guild #1.  Add Flare Adventures #17,
although I may just take the occasion to drop it.  Told the store to stop
bothering to try to get Throne of Shadows #3.  Also dropped Truth Justin and
the American Way, which is why it's not above.


Awards:

Best Book: None.

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore" Award to Flare #35

"Truly It Is A Savage Land" Award to Transformers Spotlight Shockwave #1

"The Pope of Greenwich Village" Award to 52 #19 (of 52)

"Did I Err?" Award to Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #44

"Gonna Need A Montage" Award to Green Arrow #66

"I Only Hope The Prison Rape Straightens Him Out" Award to Civil War Files
     (aka "Tony Stark Is A Total Tool" Award)

"Yeah, 'Capekiller' Just SCREAMS 'Good Guys'" Award to Ms. Marvel #7

"I've Got A Pocket Full Of Kryptonite" Award to Thunderbolts #106

   Dave Van Domelen, "Maybe I should worry more about you than I should worry about her." - Arana's father, Ms. Marvel #7 ("you" is SHIELD, "her" is Arana)

Comments

[1boringperson.livejournal.com]

I thought Phone Ranger appeared in MARVEL AGE ANNUAL #2. (I think that's the right number. Too lazy to check.)

[opmegs.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I got the distinct impression while reading Throne of Shadows that the story was intended to be stretched out a bit more but compressed possibly due to other obligations on the artist's part.

ToS #3 certainly FELT like it would have been much better suited as a '5 of 6' instead with a couple issues of further plot in there.

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

In Civil War files, there were some cute touches like in Punisher's entry about it being like he lives in 2 different worlds and She-Hulk talking to someone who isn't there sometimes.


Anyone else find it funny that Iron Man pays more attention to what happen in Fabian Nicieza's books than anyone at Marvel does? He actually recognizes how much of a threat Cable is, being that he's the leader of 2 countries. That he's offered sanctuary to any super-being. That he's the most charasmatic world leader around. And that him and Zemo are very much alike. (Hopefully, they don't zap Fabian before he can do the Zemo/Cable throwdown).

Also, very interestingly, is the amount of Priest content in there. Much references to his Panther series showing that despite many appearances in the books, it hasn't been retconned out. Also references to his Deadpool run, The Crew, and CAF.