MANY Comics for December 6

[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.
Seventy bucks AFTER 20% discount today.  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.

     Nothing 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): Welcome to
Tranquility #1

     Bought but not reviewed yet: Essential Luke Cage Power Man v2, Akiko:
Pieces of Gax (both are too long to read tonight, will cover them next
week). 

     Welcome to Tranquility #1: DC/Wildstorm - Simone is in fine form here.
High concept: Tranquility is a community founded as a place for "Maxis",
Maxihero and Maxivillain alike, to retire and live peacefully after they've
served either their country or their time.  A lot of Legacies live in town as
well, helping keep things running.  It's played for humor to a large extent
(i.e. senile old aviatrix insists on building and flying planes despite
lacking the ability to do so safely anymore), but it's not farcical.  Rather,
the humor is just part of a lighthearted but reasonably realistic setting (as
realistic as a superhero setting can be, of course).  Things do turn serious
as the opening plot complication, of course, but a series about the day
everything went smoothly wouldn't be as interesting.  Googe's art takes some
getting used to.  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     52 #31 (of 52): DC - The space plot comes back to the front again, for
the most part, with a brief Infinity Inc. scene and some Ralph to break
things up.  The DCU seems to be getting invaded by the Chronicles of Riddick.
There's also some flaying involved, if you're squeamish.  The one thing about
this issue that would otherwise have annoyed me is blunted significantly by
the crawl along the bottom of the cover, as well as in-story cues that it's
not a permanent thing.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Outsiders #43: DC - The curtain is pulled aside and the big metaplot is
revealed.  And revealed.  And revealed.  It's more than a little talky.  The
art by Randall and Mhan is okay, and Winick does at least have a gift for
writing Sivana.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Justice Society of America #1: DC - Initials are so passe.  As is being
comprehensible, apparently.  World War III?  Am I supposed to know about this
from reading another comic (oh, for the days when people actually used
footnotes to indicate where to go to find out about this sort of thing), or
are we in an alternate Earth?  Or worse, is this gonna be a Five Year Gap
situation, where everyone in-story knows what happened but the readers are
left in the dark?  It's really annoying...there's so much to like about this
book (especially for LSH fans), but the whole "did I miss a reel?" issue
really bugs me.  Mildly recommended on the balance.  If they'd just put in a
single caption about the WWIII issue, even if was just "Confused?  Keep
reading, and all will be revealed," I'd be significantly happier with this
issue.  $3.99/$5.50Cn
     Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #3 (of 8): Marvel - While a little
of the Black Panther plot happens on-screen, almost the entire issue is
devoted to the Super-Adaptoid problem, both prep and actual conflict.  It's
okay, if nothing astounding.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99/$4.75Cn
     Marvel Holiday Special (2006): Marvel - I ordered this entirely on the
strength of Shannon "Narbonic" Garrity and Andrew "Floating Brains" Farago
writing one of the stories.  And their AIM Christmas Party story, despite
being chopped up and used for spacing between other stories, is quite good.
The Fin Fang Foom story (same sub-continuity as Fin Fang Four, as opposed to
Nextwave, or as opposed to FFF as a Makulan and serious threat) is okay.  "A
is for Annihilus" was kinda dull.  Santa Claus gets an OHOTMU-style entry
four pages long, and I'm not sure why he gets an Energy Projection rating of
6.  There's also a cover gallery of previous Holiday Specials, and cut-out
ornaments of various Events.  A Civil War ornament strikes me as more than a
tiny bit tacky, so I heartily approve of it.  Mildly recommended overall.
$3.99/$4.75Cn 
     The Irredeemable Ant-Man #3: Marvel - Speaking of tacky, you're soaking
in it.  This is something of a filler issue, in the sense that almost nothing
really new comes up.  It fills in more of the gap between the crash of the
Helicarrier and current day, but doesn't really add much to the characters.
Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     newuniversal #1: Marvel - Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca re-envision
the New Universe, but leave out one of the core conceits.  Namely, prior to
the White Event, this is NOT meant to be the world "outside your window".  In
fact, it's clearly established as a counterfactual (of sorts...a "proper"
counterfactual only has one change to history and follows from there, this
one has at least two: the one that happens before the White Event, and the
White Event itself).  Anyway, the two page spread at the end of the neo-
Nightmask scene pretty much shouts out loud that this is an Ellis book.  :)
And the unity of creative vision means that the disorganized start the
original New U had with concomitant massive retcons won't be a problem here.
Tentatively recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Beyond #6 (of 6): Marvel - Hey, Kolins?  Dirty pool drawing a character
looking completely unlike himself at the end of #5, to make it look like he
was someone else.  Because the story doesn't even try to act like it's
someone else here.  Anyway, everything is revealed, makes sense, is
interesting, and McDuffie gets bonus points from me for using the term
"indeterminacy" when talking about Heisenberg.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn 
     Agents of Atlas #5 (of 6): Marvel - Time for another retconned origin,
and this one works pretty well too.  I liked the subtle cameo by the Ancient
One, and otherwise tying the team further into established Marvel history,
rather than trying to just pretend the old Atlas stories would fit without
modification.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     MetaDocs: Code Black #1: Antarctic Press - Man, this one is late.  July
06 cover date and solicitation date.  That beats the Spider-Man Family from
last week, which was solicited for August.  Sadly, Rod Espinosa isn't on the
art this time, and while Babiar's better than he used to be, it's still not
the same.  Another done in one story, focusing on the idea of an alien plague
and the steps that need be taken to contain it.  Recommended.  $3.50/$4.75Cn 
     Gold Digger v3 #79: Antarctic Press - A side story with Penny, Ace and
Charlie, albeit one that will dovetail back into the main plot soon enough.
Plenty of easter eggs and the like (although the Invid trooper in a suicide
bomber vest was more than a little tacky), as tends to happen whenever Ace is
on screen.  Fun little piece, in any case, even if it goes way over the top.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Gold Digger 2007 Calendar: Antarctic Press - Clever!  Rather than going
to a dedicated calendar printer, they just made this as a regular comic that
you turn sideways to hang.  I'll need to punch holes for it, though.  And
it's too narrow for the hooks I already have up, so I guess I'll use binder
clips instead or something.  In addition to the usual real holidays for
U.S. and Canada, it's full of birthdays and anniversaries (like the
anniversary of Gina's first lab) from in-story.  The pinup art all looks to
be brand new (if sometimes clearly based on previous non-pinup pieces), and
at least one may be a look ahead to the epilogue of Gold Digger.  It's a 16
month calendar, January 2007 through April 2008.  Recommended.  $5.95/$8.05Cn 
     Gold Digger 15th Anniversary Special: Sacred Library #1: Antarctic Press
- This series summarizes the series in the form of a "Quest Log", listing the
starts and ends of plots, subplots, "party members," etc.  It does NOT cover
out-of-story stuff like issue numbers or artists, beyond the use of cover
reproductions from the relevant stories.  Given that I DID get a lot out of
reading Perfect Memory v5 despite having read all the issues it covered, I'm
on this like Brit on tuna.  This issue makes it to v3 #12, and includes
relevant crossovers such as Asrial vs. Cheetah and Time Warp (which is
accidentally called "Time Raft" at least once).  Recommended.  $4.95/$6.80Cn
     Invincible #37: Image - Well, the Reanimen plot gets wrapped up about as
quickly as it deserves, plus there's the usual batch of subplots getting
advanced, and some Dark Underbelly stuff.  I especially like the weirdly
awkward Robot/Monster Girl romance.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.40Cn
     The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe #1 (of 2): Image - More
guidebooks!  MUAHAHAHA!  The cover design and general layout are pretty much
as close as they could get to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
Deluxe Edition of the 80s without being a direct copy.  :)  Although, unlike
those, it's square bound.  Also, the artists AND writers for each entry are
credited on the inside front cover, with short bios of all of them on the
inside back cover, very classy.  The last several pages are a guide to the
setting in general.  About the only thing it lacked was entries for teams,
and it's possible those will be in #2.  Recommended.  $4.99/$5.65Cn


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 12/6:

     Still missing Stinz Tribals (which Diamond's system now finally shows as
available, so the store has reordered it), 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 Timelines Featuring
Beast Wars #1. 


Awards:

"Oh, Poop" Award to Welcome To Tranquility #1

"Incoming Game!" Award to 52 #31 (of 52)

"We Had To Destroy The World To Save It" Award to Outsiders #43

"That's Not The Only Reason They Call Him Hourman" Award to Justice Society
     of America #1

"Who's The Big Man Now?" Award to Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #3
     (of 8)

"Coulda Been Worse, Coulda Been Missle-Toe" Award to Marvel Holiday Special
     2006

"P = F / A" Award to The Irredeemable Ant-Man #3

"No, No Points For Honesty" Award to newuniversal #1

"Once I Might Have Stayed To Share A Pizza, But Now I Cannot, For I Am A...
     Wait, Wrong Universe" Award to Beyond #6 (of 6)

"Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto" Award to Agents of Atlas #5 (of 6)

"Could Be Worse, Coulda Been An STD" Award to MetaDocs Code Black #1

"Charlie The Angel" Award to Gold Digger v3 #79

"It's Okay, Joel, We're Wearing Ear Protection" Award to Gold Digger 2007
     Calendar

"Yellow Were-Cheetah Needs Tuna, Badly" Award to Gold Digger 15th Anniversary
     Sacred Library #1

"The Jawbone Of An Ass" Award to Invincible #37

"Intensive Regular Exercise" Award to The Official Handbook of the 
     Invincible Universe #1 (of 2)

   Dave Van Domelen, "This is a paradigm shift. Everything you know has changed. Please remain calm." - newuniversal #1, wallowing in its Ellisness.

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Well, in this case it's a fairly cool thing.