Comics for September 1 (oops, forgot to do last night)

[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.
Someone stole ANOTHER of my flamingos.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

     Go check out http://www.whiterose.org/HowlingCurmudgeons/ when you're
done here. 

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.

     Alpha Flight v3 #7: Marvel - This really feels like "open RP" on a
superhero MUX (text multiplayer game, for you noobs) between structured
scenes.  People wander around, shoot the breeze, try to get lucky, etc.  And
then some staffer drops in on a social scene with a goofy-ass villain.  Dave
Ross's art is okay (and where are the Daleks?).  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     eXiles #52: Marvel - For the most part, this is a decent story by
Bedard, with Calafiore at his usual level.  But the Big Fight Scene only
happens because someone is acting phenomenally stupid (and it's not anyone
involved in the fight).  It's explained why Character A couldn't go explain
things and prevent the fight, but Characters B, C and D do not seem to be
similarly constrained.  Bleah.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America and the Falcon #7: Marvel - Heh.  Priest is making
really good use of the mindgames aspect of Avengers Disassembled.  And while
it's pretty clear that this tie-in is why one character is acting funny,
Priest leaves it deliberately very vague as to whether the other is acting
strangely because of the crossover events or for reasons totally unrelated.
And Cap & Falc's interaction regarding the whole Scarlet Witch thing, while
short, is priceless.  Plus, of course, Bennett's art is lovely.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Transformers Energon #27: Dreamwave - Oops, the murk is back, and not
just in scenes where it's supposed to be dark and spooky.  Of course, with
four colorists working on the book, you're bound to get oversaturation on
SOME of the pages.  The story gets a little stretched thin, as it jumps
between no less than four major plotlines (Prime/Megatron, Mirage/Omnicons,
Rad/Alexis, Jetfire on Cybertron) and a few minor ones.  Furman juggles these
reasonably well, but there's only so much you CAN do with so many threads in
a single issue.  He also resorts to a few cliches, not all of which work (the
Rad/Alexis scene was particularly groanworthy).  Mildly recommended.  $2.95 
     Gold Digger v3 #55: Antarctic - Normally when Perry jumps over to a
bunch of normally background characters in his GDverse, he does a good job of
bringing them in so that newer readers don't feel lost.  This time...so-so.
This is a real march of the c-list characters issue, with the only major
appearing being Cheetah, and she's not really herself (a few b-listers get
screen time, though).  Nifty as the several page Neotopia v4 preview was, it
would have been nice to devote at least one page to explaining who all these
"supporting characters not seen in months or years" are.  And Perry is trying
too hard to be serious and plot-driven here.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.05Cn 
     Neotopia v4 #1 (of 5): Antarctic - Big battle issue as the forces of
several nations clash in the skies.  So the emphasis is more on the art than
the writing this issue, and Espinosa makes a more obvious use of computer
techniques than in most issues (I was going to say heavier use, but he does
use CG a LOT anyway...it's just a little more subtle when he's not filling
every panel with dozens of airships).  Recommended, because the art is still
very nice.  $2.99/$4.05Cn

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!)

     Still no Transformers Poster Book or Legion #38.  I read JLU #1 as a
First Look, and while it's not bad, it doesn't meet my "new title" criteria. 

Awards:

Best Book: Captain America and Falcon #7

"Pucking Around" Award to Alpha Flight v3 #7

"Deep Thoughts" Award to eXiles #52

"Wanda What's Going On" Award to Captain America and the Falcon #7

"Yeah, THIS Is Gonna Work" Award to Transformers Energon #27

"Dragon's Horde" Award to Gold Digger v3 #55

"Where's Synthia When You Need Her?" Award to Neotopia v4 #1 (of 5)

   Dave Van Domelen, "No -- Sam -- We -- we didn't --" "Yeah, well, figures. *I* woulda. *Twice.*" - Cap and Falcon

Comments

[liabrown]

Alpha Flight v3 #7: Marvel - This really feels like "open RP" on a
superhero MUX (text multiplayer game, for you noobs) between structured scenes. People wander around, shoot the breeze, try to get lucky, etc. And then some staffer drops in on a social scene with a goofy-ass villain. Dave Ross's art is okay (and where are the Daleks?).

Is that the Canadian Dave Ross I kept seeing at the con all weekend?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

No clue, sorry.