Comics for January 24, 2007

[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.
Under 100kg first time since 1987, woo.  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): Nothing
specific, but it's certainly a good week for fans of guidebooks, innit?

     Transformers Escalation #3 (TF #13): IDW - We get a bit more into the
relationship between the Decepticons and their human-like "facsimiles" as
Megatron uses one to enact his escalation plans.  It is nice to see
Decepticons using intelligent strategies and tactics, although we have yet to
see how those directly impact inter-Transformer combat.  Yeah, it's a bit
slow in getting going, but it does seem like things will finally get booming
next issue.  Recommended.  I got cover A.  $3.99
     All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1 (of 4):
Marvel - Okay, rather than trying to anticipate an entire year's updates at
the start and do A-G or whatever this time, the full alphabet is covered.
This series will come out quarterly, with each issue going over the updates
needed for the past three months.  There is a certain frontloading to this
issue, though, since it also has to cover anything significant early in the
alphabet from more than the past three months.  In between issues will be
eight of the topic-based guidebooks like the upcoming Spider-Man: Black
handbook.  Also, in addition to updates, each issue will be fleshed out with
characters who have yet to get any entries, like Brynocki (seen in the sadly
short-lived Thing series, but first seen way back in 1975).  This time out,
there's also events getting entries, not just people and groups.  For
instance, the Contest of Champions gets a page.  (For at least one person
reading this who I expect would care, the Nextwave squad gets a page, which
covers things through the most recent issue.)  I should note that the update
enties, like Norman Osborn, are full entries, not just "what's happened since
the last OHOTMU Spider-Man book".  There's also a short glossary and a
profile entry for the head writer.  :)  Recommended.
     X-Factor #15: Marvel - A largely all-Madrox issue, but there's plenty of
him to go around.  There's also a bit of quality time for Siryn and M, and
I'm not sure which plotline is most likely to cause an international
incident.  Heh.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     52 #38 (of 52): DC - Most of the issue involves the trip to Nanda
Parbat, but there's also bits of the World War III foreshadow and some more
Everyman stuff.  It's okay.  The backup is on the Red Tornado, who we haven't
seen in this book for a while now...and it gives away a major development for
the character that apparently happened in a different title entirely, without
saying how it came about or where.  Probably the new Justice League book,
though.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26: DC - Nice FF #1 cover
homage, with a camera angle twist.  The origin of the Ranzz powers is the
main focus this issue, told via multiple viewpoints and to multiple audiences
in a nice little narrative device.  The plot is a bit slow-moving, but the
scripting is good.  There's some weird spacing issues with the lettering,
like they were trying to force-justify the lines too wide, and it can get
irritating at times.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Invincible #38: Image - This one is almost all about the ominous
foreshadowing, both internal and external.  Although there's a nice quiet
followup on the ReAnimen plot.  And once again, cosmically powered people are
shown to be jerks.  It struck me this issue how much Ottley's women look like
the women in the Venture Brothers cartoon, but a quick check of IMDB
indicates that he's not on the art crew for that show, at least not first
season.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.45Cn
     The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe #2 (of 2): Image - This
is so up to date that you shouldn't read it until after reading Invincible
#38.  :)  There's no appendix this issue, but the inside front cover has
profiles of all the creators involved in the book.  Anyway, if you have fond
memories of the 1980s OHOTMUDE series, or the slightest interest in the
Invincible setting, you should get this.  One thing does irk me a little
about this issue, though.  A couple of characters have their first appearance
line qualified with a parenthetical "(first Invincible universe appearance)"
tag.  This implies they appeared somewhere else before that, but the entry
doesn't say where.  Probably copyright/trademark issues, but still kinda a
tease.  Recommended.  $4.99/$5.75Cn
     Gold Digger v3 #81: Antarctic Press - The Midtown list didn't have any
of my AP books listed for this week, but that's been happening lately.  So,
bigger week than I'd been expecting.  :)  Regarding the cover image, isn't a
ninja Peebo an exercise in futility and explosions?  This issue is a sort of
semi-open trainwreck mystery, in which you are essentially told at the start
that things will end badly, but the details are revealed slowly.  There is a
certain darkly flattering aspect to the way in which it goes to hell in a
handbasket, though.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.40Cn
     DinoWars #2: Antarctic Press - Hm, on the last couple of pages, one
character's eyes go solid green a few times...coloring goof or intentional?
Anyway, the basics of the conflict are laid out this issue, and are suitable
for a toy line.  Heh.  Some of the Big Impact stuff is glossed over a little
too quickly, though, robbing it of its potential power.  There are more than
a few parallels to at least one other book on this week's pull for me, but
I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.  Nice bleedover of the story
onto the back cover.  Recommended.  $3.50/$4.05Cn
     The Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe #2 (of a WHOOOOLE
lot): Antarctic Press - Barbarians through Charlotte.  Not much to say that I
didn't say last time, although for the benefit of those who don't read the
later archived version of my reviews, I'll restate that this is intended to
run fairly long, on the order of 20 issues, although the exact number isn't
fixed in stone.  Also, the alphabetical rules being followed took a couple
issues to hash out, and I'm told that various things are being considered to
help clarify things (and have suggested a couple :) ).  Recommended.
$3.95/44.55Cn 
     Gold Digger Sacred Library #2: Antarctic Press - #15-73 of the current
volume, so we're probably not gonna see #3 for a while.  The plot density is
definitely going up, though, sine this is only 59 issues' worth, while #1 had
all fifty of volume 2, 14 of volume 3, the opening mini and several crossover
issues and spinoffs.  Definitely worth getting, especially if you're a
guidebook fan like me.  Recommended.  $4.95/$5.70Cn
     Penny Arcade vol 3, The WarSun Prophecies: Dark Horse - All of the
strips from 2002, plus commentary and so forth.  There's not much non-text
bonus material, mainly blown up images from select panels, but there's also
concept art from an upcoming PA computer game at the back.  You can see the
art style slowly inching towards its current form in this volume...it starts
out pretty close, but even by the end you can see distinct stylistic
differences between the character designs and how they look on the web
today.  Well, a certain juicing device looks the same then as now, but the FF
is eternal and unchanging, it is we who change around the fixed point it
forms in reality.  Recommended.  $12.95


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 1/24:

     Still missing Gold Digger Tangent #2, Fred Perry's S-Guild #1,
Dr. Debunko: the Short Stories, Devil's Panties #7, #8, Cthulhu Tales #1.
Add Fallen Angel #12, argh.


Awards:

"Just the Fax, Ma'am" Award to Transformers Escalation #3

"Raney Doesn't Usually Suck, But OHOTMU A-Z Covers Seem To Require That
     Quality" Award to All-New OHOTMU A-Z Update #1 (of 4)

"Cut Off One Limb, And We Shall Ruin Your Carpet" Award to X-Factor #15

"Darkseid's Dermatologist Gets Around" Award to 52 #38 (of 52)

"Piro, NOOOO!" Award to Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26

"When The Alien Armada Is Not The Most Ominous Thing In The Issue, You
     Know The Fit Is Gonna Hit The Shan" Award to Invincible #38

"Square-Binding And Wraparound Connectable Covers Don't Play Well Together"
     Award to The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe #2 (of 2)

"Vexed And Lexed" Award to Gold Digger v3 #81

"Pinged" Award to Dino Wars #2

"Sorry Boss, She Just Sneaked Onto This Cover" Award to The Official Handbook
     of the Gold Digger Universe #2

"I Want My Own Official Handbook!" Award to me

"Acres Of Booty" Award to the covers shown in Gold Digger Sacred Library #2

"For Juice That's Absolutely ****ing Fresh" Award to Penny Arcade vol 3, 
     The WarSun Prophecies

   Dave Van Domelen, "If you're stealing Legionnaires and you're NOT starting with that Brainiac kid, I have a problem with that!" - Supergirl

Comments

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Yep, Reddy now being biological is the main plot thread in JLA. (not what I consider a spoiler as it's been several months now since it happened, and, well, you probably aren't going to see Reddy in any other book, at least for a while (sans 52 flashbacks)).