And now for something more cheerful...comics!

[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.
Forgot I removed JLU from my pull, heh.  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.

     Justice League Unlimited #2: DC - Bleah.  It's like, all the pieces are
there, but they're put together badly.  Beechen's story doesn't feel right,
and Beaverd's art captures the individual characters without flowing as an
actual story.  Glad I removed it from my pull last month.  $2.25/$3.50Cn

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 #8: Marvel - Uuuuugly cover.  Of course, what else would
one expect from Skottie Young?  The story inside runs along three main
tracks, each of which is...okay, I suppose.  Lobdell is trying too hard to be
hip and self-referential or something.  There is one subplot that interests
me, though, and I hope it's handled in a serious manner instead of as a
running gag.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #53: Marvel - Well, a fairly satisfying close to the two part
arc, and we see what makes Beak a valuable member of the team, something that
makes him unique among the eXiles.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America and the Falcon #8: Marvel - Guest art by Andrea DiVito.
He does a fairly good job of making the villain of the piece look scary
instead of silly, although I vastly prefer Bennett's art.  The story
is...confusing.  As in, it's clearly supposed to be confusing, as assumptions
get kicked over the the start of a new arc.  Things that seemed fairly clear
last issue are cast into serious doubt.  And I mean this all in a good way.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Teen Titans/Legion Special: DC - Waid and Johns work together to devise
a pretty good conclusion to the "Fatal Five Hundred" threat, using the sort
of plot devices that fit the setting well without being deus ex machinae.
(Dei ex machina?  Whatever.)  The lead-in to the new Legion book works nicely
in terms of plot devicity (okay, now I'm just deliberately mangling words)
although the choice of...well, that would be spoilery.  Let's just say I can
understand the choices they made, but don't necessarily like all of them.  I
will say that I appreciate how Waid didn't make things utterly final and
irreversible, though.  The final eight pages of the book are a peek at Waid
and Kitson's new take on the Legion, and I can certainly see how they could
go interesting places with this.  Recommended.  $3.50/$5.25Cn
     Neotopia v4 #2 (of 5): Antarctic Press - Biiiig fight scene issue.
There are a few character bits here and there, and some lovely scenery, but
this is the sort of issue that I think will work better read as part of the
entire volume.  The climactic battle is necessary, of course, but it does
take the book away from some of what I consider its strengths.  Recommended.
$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 Savage Henry: Powerchords.  Looks like How Not To Draw Manga
got pulled from the schedule for this week.

Awards:

Best Book: Teen Titans/Legion Special (mainly for the Bart & Brainy Show)

"Sasq Should Have That Looked At" Award to Alpha Flight v3 #8

"Well, There Goes Ohio State's Bowl Chances" Award to eXiles #53

"That One You Saw In The Other Cap Book Was Designed Only for Cameos"
     Award to Captain America and the Falcon #8

"Anyone Else Thinking Of The MysteryMen Movie?" Award to Teen Titans/Legion
     Special

"Weapons Of Mass Distraction" Award to Neotopia v4 #2 (of 5)

   Dave Van Domelen, "Who let Brainiac 5 have a nail gun?" - Kid Flash