Comics for November 22, 2006

[dvandom]

Big week to start with, and add on several old comics finally coming in on reorder.

                    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.
Week off from teaching, getting lots done.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

First Look Comments:

     Books I read over the weekend as First Looks, but didn't buy, so can't
really say much in detail about.  DC has stopped having First Looks, so it's
just Marvel and Image...and there's word that Diamond doesn't want to bother
with the program at all anymore.

     None this week.


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.

     Books of Note (Strongly Recommended or otherwise worthy): Blue Beetle #9 

     Conan #34: Dark Horse - A decent issues, some good action and some
laughs.  Nothing really stands out, but being unremarkably good isn't a bad
thing.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Transformers the Animated Movie #2 (of 4): IDW - From Prime's death to
Hot Rod landing in the drink on Quintessa.  Fewer weird transition issues
than #1, although I'm slightly sad that the infamous "Spike curses" bit got
left out.  I didn't notice any bad balloon placement, but there was at least
one footnote with no asterisked "source" panel, so it's still being edited
by, well not necessarily monkeys, but inattentive people.  Looks nice,
though.  Recommended.  $3.99
     Transformers Spotlight #2: IDW - A month late, but thanks to #3 also
being late, at least I don't get them out of order.  :/  Great to see
M.D. "Doc" Bright back on Transformers, and his first actual issue (he did
the cover to the original G1 #5) to boot.  Either he resisted the temptation
to toss easter eggs into the high-density techy background though, or they
were simply too obscure for me.  While not the best I've seen from him, nor
the best TF art out there, it's quite good.  The story is a little
disappointing, in that it's all beginning and no ending, instead being mainly
there to set up another Cosmic Mystery and long term plot regarding the True
Origins of Cybertron or something like that.  Now, maybe all of these
Spotlight issues are really meant to tell one big story, simply with a
rotating star, but right now it just feels like Furman's tossing out threads
to pick up eventually.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99
     The Devil's Panties #6: Silent Devil - Still no #3 or #5, though.  This
issue starts with a transition, as the two friends who were the initial
supporting cast drift away and the autobio strip shifts to being more about
Jen, her boyfriend, their pets and the whole comics business thing (although
there's an extended visit to Boston to meet with one of the drift-offs).  As
usual, the annotations explain the background real life stuff, which is often
just as strange as the fiction.  Recommended.  $4.95
     Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #2 (of 8): Marvel - Mainly delving
into the matter of whether the Vision can be trusted, it does however set up
an actual on-screen conflict for next issue.  I like these backstage looks at
the stories between the stories, though, so I don't really mind that it took
two issues to actually get its own plot set up.  :)  Penciller Rosado either
has a very similar style to Palmer, or Palmer's inks just completely override
the details.  Recommended.  $3.99/$4.75Cn
     eXiles #88: Marvel - Second half of the "Good Galactus" story, complete
with fannish pokes at the Legion of Super-Heroes and a fairl elegant solution
to the problem.  And while it doesn't actually happen in the actual issue, I
appreciate the cover's depiction of Power Princess in Hussar's outfit.  ;)
Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     X-Factor #13: Marvel - I got the variant cover.  :) It's the return of
Doc Samson interviewing the team, a chance to catch up on how everyone's
dealing with recent events and also set up foreshadowing for future stories.
Plus one amusing revelation about Peter David's previous X-Factor run (well,
I think it's a revelation...it's been a long time, it may have been revealed
back then).  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     All New OHOTMU A-Z #11 (of 12): Marvel - Stranger to Ultimo, and it
includes not one but two cellular collectives present since the dawn of life
on Earth.  :)  One complaint, though, it's unfair to mention Strong Guy's
"Captain Capitalism" alias but not actually explain it in the summary.
Recommended.  $3.99/$4.75Cn
     52 #29 (of 52): DC - JSA angst about the new Infinity Inc, and the
island of mad scientists this issue.  No origins backup, or backup of any
kind, so two more pages of story.  Effective use of topicality (i.e. it's
Thanksgiving week in-story) and JSA history.  And while Egg Fu is still
silly, he's a slightly scary silly now.  Recommended.
     Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #24: DC - Year Two comes to a
close, but it looks like they're holding out for #25 to do the big boom, as
there's a lot of holding action this issue.  The cover's a bit deceptive,
though.  Lots of good bits, even if the actual plot is on the slow-moving
side.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Blue Beetle #9: DC - While I don't like Rouleau in general, he does okay
this issue, and I liked the little jab at Feedback worked into the background
of one panel (from Who Wants To Be A Superhero).  More revelations are
trickled out (such as Peacemaker's identity), Jaime gets his own Oracle-lite
equivalents, and Giffen and Rogers are generally in fine form.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Ninja High School #142: Antarctic Press - Ah, a trip back in time to
fill in the hole.  While everything that happened here was well-summarized in
later issues, it's well-told.  It's also an issue that's not quite so heavy
on the Naruto, which is a nice break.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Monkeybug Madness #1: Antarctic Press - Only one week late for this
one.  The Monkeybugs are little margin-inhabiting critters that infest Kantz
and Reid's other Antarctic work, and also get the occasional webcomic or
backup strip.  This collects one long "coherent" storyline and a bunch of
one-shot bits.  Sick fun, the sort of thing you get when serious (more or
less) creators just cut loose and free-associate onto paper.  Recommended.
$3.50/$4.75Cn 
     Gold Digger Perfect Memory v5: Antarctic Press - On the other hand, this
one is many months late.  But it's in full color, woo.  I'm not going to have
time to fully read this until later, but I am generally in favor of such
books.  Sure, I now HAVE all of Gold Digger on DVDROM, but this sort of thing
can help me prioritize where to look in back issues.  And, I admit, every
issue covered here (v3 #51-75 and various specials to come out in that time)
has come out since I started reading the title regularly, but I didn't
necessarily GET what was going on all the time, so reading this can...ah,
just leave me alone with my preciousssss guidebooksssss....  Recommended.
$4.99/$6.75Cn 


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 11/22:

     Still missing Keif Llama V2.1, Stinz Tribals (which Diamond's system
says "will come in" June 14, and nothing else), Gold Digger Tangent #2,
Devil's Panties #3 and 5, Elric #4, the Transformers Beast Wars poster, Fred
Perry's S-Guild #1, Dr. Debunko: the Short Stories, Transformers Spotlight:
Hot Rod.  Add Transformers Timelines Featuring Beast Wars #1.  The Amelia
Rules TPBs didn't come in, but I've given up on them for now, maybe I'll
reorder once I stop spending so much on prescriptions.


Awards:

"It's Not the Having, It's The Getting" Award to Conan #34

"We've Lost Them...For Three Panels" Award to Transforemrs the Animated
     Movie #2 (of 4)

"An Angle On An Ark Sign" Award to Transformers Spotlight #2

"That's INDIGENOUS, Simon, Not INDIGENT" Bonus Award to Transformers 
     Spotlight #2

"Meat Onna Stick!" Award to The Devil's Panties #6

"To Sir With White Gorillas" Award to Avengers Earth's Mightest Heroes
     II #2 (of 8)

"Where There's A Whip, There's A Way" Award to eXiles #88

"Mmmmm, Donuts" Award to X-Factor #13

"I Take Care Of The Place While The Maarins Are Away" Award to All New
     OHOTMU A-Z #11 (of 12)

"Somehow, A Giant Inflatable Luthor Is Apropos" Award to 52 #29 (of 52)

"Legion of Substitute Villains" Award to Supergirl and the Legion of 
     Super-Heroes #24

"So, What Do We Call Them...The Magic Eightballs?" Award to Blue Beetle #9

"And Another For Jenny And The Wimp" Award to Ninja High School #142

"God IS Inordinately Fond Of Them" Award to Monkeybug Madness #1

"Yep, Definitely Gonna Need To Read This To Figure Out What's Going On"
     Award to Gold Digger Perfect memory v5

   Dave Van Domelen, "'Cuz if there's ONE clear rule in this world...it's do NOT stick your finger in the ancient alien coffin." - Peacemaker, Blue Beetle #9