Comics for Jan 31, 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.
I am dentally macho, no novocaine for me.  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
#11. 

     Ninja High School #146: Antarctic Press - A nice little single issue
story to let some of the subplots simmer without needing to put any longer
term stuff on the front burner in the meantime.  A little heavier on the fan
service than usual, and if you have a problem with panty shots you're
probably better off not reading this.  :)  Otherwise, recommended.
$2.99/$3.45Cn 
     Cthulhu Tales #1: Boom Studios - Turns out it came in after all, but
didn't make it to the shelf, but someone who had it in their pull had gotten
the first printing, so it went back out and I got it.  This is an anthology
of several short Mythos tales, mostly involving Cthulhu in some way, but not
all.  The first two have the darkest tone, while third one (Witch Hunter)
comes across more as a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying session.  The fourth one
is a mix of dark and light (okay, heavy on the dark, this IS Mythos) with art
by Andy Kuhn that's even more cartoony than his stuff on Marvel Team-Up, but
it works a lot better here.  The last two pieces are in the goofy vein, I
suppose to keep people from finishing the book on a downer.  Make of that
what you will.  Recommended, but a bit expensive at $6.99 for what feels like
48 pages. 
     Ms. Marvel Special #1: Marvel - I have to wonder why this is a special,
as it's the regular writer (Reed) and seems to be set about now in continuity
(so it's not a decaying old inventory story that needs to get out the door).
Anyway, it's a done in one story that doesn't really involve Civil Bore,
instead touching on the old Binary days.  But not really.  Rather than
telling an untold story of Binary's career, it centers on a fictional Binary
story written by Carol Danvers.  Lots of weird choices all around.  The story
itself is nothing special, though, even if it does potentially set something
major up for later (odds are it gets ignored, though).  Camuncoli's art is
iffy...good layout and backgrounds, but the faces all look copied from
stereotypical Image/Wildstorm/etc studio stuff, which is offputting.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Transformers the Animated Movie #4 (of 4): IDW - While I didn't
fine-tooth-comb it for the kinds of errors that have plagued previous issues,
this one definitely had better pacing than those, and did a pretty good job
of conveying the climax.  Granted, it manages this in part by skipping a LOT
of the time spent monkeying around in Unicron's guts.  I do have a bit of a
quibble with the art, though...Figueroa does such a good job capturing the
cel feel of the a movie that the lettering and FX stand out like sore thumbs,
like cel fumetti or something.  Recommended.  $3.99
     52 #39 (of 52): DC - While several plots get little bits and pieces,
this is mainly an Everyman issue, bringing the third quarter to a close with
a Big Reveal that's kinda spoilered by the cover.  The origin backup is for
Mr. Terrific...huh, I thought his tech-invisibility was an inborn power, not
a device.  Looks like every other comic I've read with him in it neglected to
bring that up.  Mildly recommended, mainly because the Everyman plot kinda
bores me.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Teen Titans #43: DC - The menace foreshadowed previously hits with full
force now, and fans of the Cassandra Batgirl will be very interested to know
about a particular revelation made herein (presuming it IS a revelation, and
not a repeat of something already brought up in a Batbook I didn't read, or a
totally new thing with the previous problem already resolved, etc).  There's
some occasionally odd characterization, but generally promising.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Blue Beetle #11: DC - Rogers and Albuquerque's second issue without
Giffen, and still going strong.  Just big piles of rollicking fun (and a few
pages here and there of serious plot stuff) and quotable quotes.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn


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 1/31:

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


Awards:

"I Think That I Shall Never See" Award to Ninja High School #146

"Night Stalkers" Award to Cthulhu Tales #1

"A Reading Rainbow" Award to Ms. Marvel Special #1

"Grimlock's New Plan" Award to Transformers the Animated Movie #4 (of 4)

"Power Girl Pulls It Off Better" Award to 52 #39 (of 52)

"We Had To Kill The Sidekick To Save The Sidekick" Award to Teen Titans #43

"Yes, That IS His Answer To Everything" Award to Blue Beetle #11

Bonus Spoiler: It's revealed that Deathstroke has been using drugs to control Cassandra, hence the whole evil thing in Robin OYL. Presumably.


   Dave Van Domelen, "You've got a forehead full of justice? What does that even MEAN?" - Blue Beetle

Comments

Re: spoilers

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Drugs?

When was accumulated bovine excrement something that required a prescription?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

It's also in the form of a big syringe (about a half liter, it looks like!) that Cass is brainwashed into injecting into herself. She clearly stores it in the Utility Belt Dimension.

[megaspork.livejournal.com]

Crap, I'm low on funds again this week... Dave, could you give a recap on BB#11?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Metron shows up and acts all Metronny. BB and Lonar fight for a few pages until the "helpless damsel" recovers her wits enough to tell them to both cool it. Metron explains that Devilance found the "bolthole" planet and turned it into a trap by hacking its terraforming systems. He also points out that the BB armor is supposed to be extremely nasty and isn't supposed to have a non-lethal setting. BB and Lonar fight off the various traps and stuff while Metron takes everyone else (which includes the cannibal eepers) inside to unhack things. Then he sends the humans home without bothering to really answer Jaime's questions about the scarab, other than to give him a name of the group that made it (and that was more in the way of musing aloud rather than actually answering).

Back in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a...er, I mean, we find out that the Mother Box's owner died and she's in mourning. Paco shows a rather large amount of spine, impressing La Dama.