First Looks for January 26, 2005

[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.
Went 2-1 in Pirates league today.  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 give it a recommendation, I'm probably not
buying it. 

     Amazing Spider-Man #516: Marvel - The story's picking up steam, albeit
mostly in the flashback sequences (in which the art still looks kinda off,
Deodato's style is not looking Silver Age and the zipatone black does NOT
look like old style coloring).  There's a *very* JMS-y conversation between
Peter and M.J. at one point, amusing but feeling a bit "we need some humor
here", if you know what I mean.  Oh, and Uncle Ben rocks.  :)  $2.25/$3.25Cn 
     New X-Men #9: Marvel - The ghost story plot more or less wraps up, but
leaves some ambiguity for later study.  This book continues to be pretty
good, but not good enough that I want to have to worry about X-continuity
damage.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four #522: Marvel - The plotting has some clever bits to it,
tying in to both older continuity and the previous arc's resolution.  The Big
Shocker of the final page is interesting, and I think Waid should be able to
get a good story out of it before he has to undo it.  Yeah, it's one of those
big plot points you know won't be allowed to stick.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #2: DC - Rather than trying to go with the
broad sweep of #1, or even really deal with the consequences of that issue,
this one shrinks the focus down to a handful of characters and a new
situation (after a quick fight scene including an unnamed villain I'm pretty
sure is a preboot reference, but I'd have to go through my backissues to be
sure).  I don't mind this approach so long as Waid plans to move this tight
focus around the team, spotlighting a few at a time.  It'd be a shame if the
book becomes all about just a few characters, with everyone else just
carrying spears.  Provisionally recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Planetary #22: DC/Wildstorm - Well, there's about a page of plot
advancement this issue, the rest is all the family history of one of the
characters, homaging a few classic vigilantes.  It's a decent read for the
art and the ideas, but it's a summary of the stories that we're not going to
get to see.  Mildly recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     
     Unsurprisingly, they didn't put Black Panther v3 #1 in the First Looks
packet.  I've already gone ahead and cancelled my order for it, though.

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.

     http://www.midtowncomics.com/eshop/weeklyrelease.asp has the following
for me: JSA Strange Adventures #6 (of 6), LSH #2, Planetary #22, Avengers:
Earth's Mightiest Heroes #6 (of 8), Fantastic Four #522, Ultimate Fantastic
Four #15, Conan #12, Gold Digger Adventures Stand-Alone Special #1, Flare #3
(not that I've seen #2 yet).

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 1/19:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2,
Serenity Rose #5, OHOTMU Golden Age, Invader Zim action figures. 

Awards:

Best Book: Pending.

   Dave Van Domelen, "I wish you'd allowed me to simply TRANSMUTE the wall, you BARBARIAN." "It IS transmuted. I changed it from solid to...more RUBBLY solid." - Element Lad and Karate Kid, LSH #2