Comics for September 22 (or so)

[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.
UPS truck from Colorado broke down again.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

First Looks:
     Every so often, I will take my PDA and its folding keyboard down to the
comic shop on the weekend and type up reviews of the stuff I read out of the
First Looks pile.  Books I end up buying will be moved down to the Capsules
section on Wednesdays.  If I don't say I'm not buying it, then I'm planning
to buy it.

     Avengers #502: Marvel - You know, back in his infamous review of an
X-Men quarterly, David R. Henry pointed out that when the characters start
complaining about the plot, you know you're in trouble.  But what happens
when the entire POINT of the plot seems to be that the characters are
complaining about the plot?  Because that's what's happening for much of this
issue.  Doesn't really inspire confidence, eh?  Not gonna buy this,
unsurprisingly.  $2.25/$3.25Cn

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.

     Ultimate Fantastic Four #11: Marvel - Not a lot happens...I could
describe the plot in good detail in maybe three or four lines.  But there's
plenty of good dialogue and of course the lovely Immonen art.  Recommended.
$2.25/$3.25Cn 
     Transformers the War Within v3 (The Age of Wrath) #1 (of 6): Dreamwave -
I picked up the variant cover that gives away the last page.  Oops.  Joe Ng's
art is generally good (if a tad bulky), but at least one of the three
colorists is solidly mired in murk.  The other two are okay.  In terms of the
story, things pick up some time after The Dark Ages, with Ultra Magnus
demonstrating quite conclusively that he can fill Optimus Prime's boots in
every way, including the angst.  Of course, things fall apart pretty quickly,
or else we wouldn't have a conflict for the arc.  :)  I do like how Furman
managed to set things up at the end so that it's not clear whether everything
is part of one person's plot, or if two are kicking in at the same time to
the dismay of the plotters.  Recommended.  $2.95
     Conan #8: Dark Horse - Greg Ruth takes over on the art for an arc
concerning Conan's childhood, and I miss Cary Nord already.  Oh, Ruth isn't
that bad, but his painted style often loses detail and makes it hard to
figure out which figure is which character.  The story itself is decent, but
it feels like filler, even though it's the start of an arc.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99
     Teen Titans #16: DC - Oh dear.  That's a whole lotta Azteks.  Um,
anyway.  I'm kinda mixed on this issue.  Johns puts in a lot of cool
whiz-bang stuff, and it's clear he intends to help the current Legion go out
with a bang.  The idea behind the threat is kinda neat, and scary.  On the
other hand, there's places here and there where it doesn't quite feel like he
"gets" the Legion, and we're in for an Abnett/Lanning-style "everything turns
to dross" ending.  The "next issue" blurb is...interesting.  McKone's art is
generally at its usual high quality, except for an oops in which Cyborg's
right hand is a left hand.  Provisionally recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Elric: The Making of a Sorceror #1 (of 4): DC - Moorcock writes a
prequel to the first Elric novel, illustrated by Walt Simonson.  It covers
how Elric proved himself worthy to rule, which we know worked out SO well in
the novels.  :)  The storytelling is a bit fragmentary at times, but once I
got into the rhythm it was a good read.  Recommended.  $5.95/$9.25Cn
     Tom Strong #28: DC/ABC - Brian Vaughn and Peter Snejberg turn in an
excellent story from the viewpoint of Pneuman.  Even on a second reading, the
ending has the same emotional impact.  Strongly recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn

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!)

     Savage Henry Powerchords #3 was on the Diamond list, but I've yet to see
#2, and #3 didn't ship to my store.  Oh, and I did get Marvel Previews, but
there weren't enough pages of any one thing to make any kind of judgements,
so I didn't include it above.

Awards:

Best Book: Tom Strong #28

"It's Random Power Night!" Award to Ultimate Fantastic Four #11

"Dyno Might!" Award to Transformers the War Within v3 #1 (of 6)

"There Are Better Times To Attack Someone, Doofus" Award to Conan #8

"How I Learned To Stop Being Literal And Love The Axe" Award to Teen 
     Titans #16

"Hey, Baby, Wanna See My Dragon?" Award to Elric: the Making of a Sorceror
     #1 (of 4)

"Poor Choice Of Last Words" Award to Tom Strong #28

   Dave Van Domelen, "She's a Jackson Pollock painting now." - Tom Strong