Comics for October 13

[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.
Ordered the huge DC Encyclopedia.  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.

     X-Force #3: Marvel - Well, they keep putting this in the First Looks
pack, so I'll keep watching the trainwreck.  Speaking of which, the star of
the first scene is a female martial artist in an improbable (if fully
covering) costume with painfully bad dialogue and the codename/title...Lady
Anime.  Is it really necessary to read further?  Well, no, but that won't
stop me.  There are just the tiniest hints here and there of good writing, of
interesting ideas.  But they're smothered by Idiot Plot and standard Liefeld
art.  I wouldn't take this home for free, but it costs $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Iron Man v3 #89: Marvel - Part four of the Singularity arc.  It's got
some good points to it, and offers an okay resolution (although it has to be
cagey about the cause of AD since it doesn't come out after the end of AD),
The "voice" of the writing is too unvaried, though, everyone seems to talk
like Happy Hogan.  Oh, and there's a bizarre coloring error in the very last
panel...a character's gums are colored as teeth and his teeth as open mouth.
Heh.  Not picking it up, in any case.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America #32: Marvel - Part four of THIS book's AD tie-in.
It's...okay.  The big Shock Twist was pretty much what I expected after
seeing the end of #31, and the main villain wasn't really as impressive as he
should be.  Store forgot to put it in my pull and I didn't bother grabbing it
off the shelf.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Justice League Elite #4: DC - Back to the subject of covers, this one's
very good.  It's symbolic of events in the issue, even has a passing
resemblance to a specific scene, without actually being a literal take on the
issue.  Excellent.  The issue itself is okay.  I think it relies a bit too
much on reader knowledge of pre-Elite history for the characters (something
that could have been fixed with a few more words here and there).  Still not
picking this series up, but it's decent.  $2.50/$3.85Cn

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.

     Flare #1: Heroic Publishing - Not really sure what the case is with
this, I've seen reviews up for it going back several weeks or more, maybe
those were copies sold at conventions or something.  Anyway, on hearing that
the rabid political crap that drove me from the Hero comics in the 90s was
gone, I decided to add another slab to my stack and give this book a try.
The opening splash page felt like an issue of Astro City...mostly because
Deschesne clearly bought that font package.  :)  Anyway, Wilson Hill does a
pretty good job at writing for a new audience while hinting at the rich (and
sometimes convoluted) backstory of the character, which is a good thing,
since the short background piece in the first backup is pretty superficial.
The second backup focuses on Flare's sister, as she tries to set up a
civilian life.  The writing overall was pretty good, I liked the "feel" of
having backup stories and not necessarily writing to the trade.  The art is
generally good.  Recommended.  $2.95/$4.25Cn
     She-Hulk #8: Marvel - Captain Ultra keeps appearing on these covers...so
does Howard the Duck.  It'd be nice if the covers had any relationship to the
story inside.  Okay, I finally found something to really like about Bobillo's
character redesigns...Guardsman armors redesigned to evoke three-piece
suits.  MUAHAHAHAHA.  Although I hope the visual changes to one of the other
characters fade soon.  Anyway, not the best story in the series, but a good
one nonetheless.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Transformers Energon #28: Dreamwave - A lot of scene-switching here, so
there's very little advancement on any one front.  It's the sort of thing
that will probably read better in the inevitable trade paperback, with the
focus splitting to a half dozen or more fronts to give an impression of the
scope of the conflict before narrowing down to the pivotal actions that
resolve things.  The coloring could be better, but Milne's art on its own is
reasonably good at conveying what needs to be conveyed (Convoyed?).  Lots and
lots of toys show up as characters, for those who look for such things.
Somewhere between mildly recommended and recommended.  $2.95
     GIJoe vs Transformers II #2 (of 4): Devil's Due - Looks like they're
playing around with issue length to turn a 6 issue story into 4, not into 3,
since this is only 22 pages long and they list an issue 4 on their schedule
now.  :)  Pacing can be a glitch, eh?  Anyway, the "split into teams on a
scavenger hunt" plot continues in the 1930s, and the nameless (well, okay,
he's named Percy) Cobra goon really steals the show.  Jolley's dialogue is
fun all around this issue, and Su & Seeley do a good job on the art (and how
did that Race-Bot BETA get in there?).  Recommended.  $2.95
     Green Arrow #43: DC - It can be really hard showing how badass your new
villain is without resorting to some bad cliches (i.e. killing the
subordinates, committing horrible crimes against humanity, etc).  But
Winick's doing a very good job of building Brick up into a very credible foe
without indulging in the cliches.  It's really all a matter of assuming that
Brick has been paying attention to the way things work, and planning around
it.  No cheating, and while he uses his powers fairly creatively, he doesn't
depend on them.  I like that.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     JSA #66: DC - Okay, I admit it...given Johns's track record, I really
expect a number like 66 to go with something significant and mystical or
apocalyptic.  :)  And, well, it was pretty big, yeah.  A retcon that may or
may not stick, and promises of a big whoop-de-doo later on.  Too bad next
issue gets sacrificed to the Identity Crisis crossover thing, so we have to
wait until #68 for this story to be continued.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Astro City: A Visitor's Guide: DC/Wildstorm - This is a real mix of
stuff, kind of like the DC Secret Files (a short story, lots of pinups, a few
articles), but with the addition of the sort of stuff (maps, ads, etc) you'd
find in a regular visitor's guide.  There are page numbers, but this is
deceptive...we only get about half of the pages from the 'real' guide, and
there's a torn-out-page design to most of the pages.  The articles tend to
cut off with a "continued on p.XX" (although in at least one case, the page
it's continued on DOES exist, and does NOT have the rest of the article).
Oh, and the herocopia.com webpage mentioned in the gallery section does
exist, and is an Astro City database.  Anyway, it's a good guidebook, and has
the class to exhaustively list the art and writing credits on the inside back
cover.  Recommended.  $5.95/$9.25Cn
     Fallen Angel #16: DC - Well, according to Peter David, the free #1 thing
last month has had the desired effect.  Sales are up, and the book has had a
few more issues added on to its "guaranteed lifetime" to see if the sales
upswing continues.  Despite the cliffhanger of #15, this is more of an
origins issue for one of the supporting cast (although the cliffhanger does
get resolved, of course).  Worth picking up, and probably even mostly
comprehensible to a new reader.  Recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Tom Strong #29: DC/ABC - Fairly hot on the heels of #28, eh?  Anyway,
the story itself is a fairly standard twisty-plot of the sort you just knew
Tom Strong would have to get around to someday, and now's that day.  More
impressive is how the art team manages to so totally shift the tone between
the two sections of the story, mostly by using inks and color.  Recommended
for the structural fun.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Gold Digger v3 #56: Antarctic Press - This is mostly a big battle
between second and third tier characters, so it's a bit hard to follow for
someone who isn't a hardcore long time reader.  But it brings enough of "the
Funny" to make for a good read.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Neotopia v4 #3 (of 5): Antarctic Press - Woot.  While there's still
fighting to do and stuff to resolve, this is definitely the climax of the
series.  And, ironically, it's a quiet climax amidst all the sound and fury
of war.  Well done!  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     How Not To Draw Manga: Antarctic Press - This could also be subtitled "A
field guide to overused manga cliches."  Most of the book is done by Reid &
Kantz of "Legends from the Darkwood", and the hosts are mostly from that
comic (the little goblins).  Sherard Jackson (of the How To Draw Transforming
Robots and Giant Robots books) kicks in a few pages for the robot section,
although it's largely just a gloss.  The art is generally pretty sketchy, and
I think Antarctic may have bitten off a bit more than it could chew this year
on the big drawing books (most of which are or have been behind schedule),
and it shows here.  Still, it's a fun snarky book, and a good guide on what
to avoid.  Mostly.  There is actually some good advice hidden here and there,
often stuff that's simply overused rather than actually bad, or things that
are good in principle but taken to stupid extremes in manga lately.  Of
course, as you might expect, there's also an entire chapter devoted to panty
shots.  There's a fine line between pointing out the excesses of a style and
reveling in them, and this book is, um, eating that line.  Or something
goblinny.  Recommended.  $19.95/$26.95Cn

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!)

     Nothing new.  Still waiting to see if the copy the store got in of the
DC Encyclopedia was ordered by someone (if the person they think ordered it
bails, I'll buy it, but I don't want to have them order me one before finding
out, lest they be stuck with an extra).  I considered getting the AP voting
comic, but my stack was already pretty frelling thick.

Awards:

Best Book: Neotopia v4 #3 (of 5)

"Sabado Gigante" Award to Flare #1

"PIPES!" Award to She-Hulk #8

"Rad Gendo?" Award to Transformers Energon #28

"So, How's The Dental Plan?" Award to GIJoe vs Transformers II #2 (of 4)

"A Lovely Brick Facade" Award to Green Arrow #43

"Men Of The Hour" Award to JSA #66

"Continued On Page Whatever" Award to Astro City: A Visitor's Guide

"Boxed In" Award to Fallen Angel #16

"Death Breath" Award to Tom Strong #29

"Mmmm, Donuts" Award to Gold Digger v3 #56

"Leap Of Faith" Award to Neotopia v4 #3 (of 5)

"Black Bars Of DOOM" Award to How Not To Draw Manga

   Dave Van Domelen, "For some reason, the audience is willing to accept a semi-feral, ADHD teenager at face value." - Meeko, How Not To Draw Manga, regarding what they call the Moongirl (i.e. Radical Edward ripoff)

P.S. Kryptonite Gatorate Love Potion Number Nine? Gah. Inkmo, sic 'em.