Comics for January 26

[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 guess Black Panther comes out next week.  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

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 #3: Heroic Publishing - Well, still don't have #2, but the
"Previously" page does a pretty good job of catching things up.  Three
stories in this issue...four if you consider that the Flare lead story is
really two.  :)  The first bit is interesting in light of established
characterization for Flare, as it might be a retcon or might just be
someone's biased viewpoint.  Both the Flare story and the Sparkplug story
have some interesting bits but are otherwise merely competent.  The third
tale, concerning Dolf (a character created by the sisters when they were
little) is so-so.  All in all, mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Conan #12: Dark Horse - Another one of those stories that demonstrates
that Conan is not for the squeamish.  Not so much for the gore (although
there is that) but for the events that are referred to but not explicitly
shown.  It's a good story and well drawn, and finally brings to the fore a
character who's been lurking around in the background for a few issues.
Recommended.  $2.99
     Gold Digger Adventures #1: Antarctic Press - Well, it's called a stand
alone special, but it reads like it's to be continued.  Unlike the main Gold
Digger comic of late, this is purely B&W with no tones and a bare minimum of
shading, demonstrating that Perry's work really needs color or at least tones
to work...kinda hard to follow even when nothing's moving.  Also, "stand
alone" may have been intended as irony, since you really need to know a fair
amount about the characters to appreciate this, notably Cheetah's teenage
superheroing phase.  Finally, this one is at the "stupid goofy" end of the
Gold Digger spectrum, which I find doesn't work as well.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     JSA Strange Adventures #6 (of 6): DC - Well, stuff blows up, characters
make decisions to not change their lives, and the Spectre finally does
something.  I found the ending kinda perfunctory, like Anderson figured he'd
played with his toys enough and now had to put them back the way he found
them while tossing in some explosions.  Mildly recommended.  $3.50/$5.25Cn
     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
     Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #6 (of 8): Marvel - On the one hand,
the original lineup change definitely could have used some fleshing out.  On
the other, Iron Man's kinda annoyingly whiny this issue.  Until Thor gives
him an attitude adjustment with Mjolnir, anyway.  :)  However, one thing I
unreservedly liked was the application of modern art techniques to the death
of Zemo, making it feel bigger, more climactic.  Recommended.  $3.50/$5.00Cn 
     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 
     Ultimate Fantastic Four #15: Marvel - Despite the slow plot movement,
despite the loads of exposition, this was a great read.  Ellis doesn't always
pull this sort of thing off, but he's definitely in the groove with UFF.
Kubert's getting the chance to define the new Negative Zone, and while I
think he tries a little too hard to be Bryan Hitch a la Authority, he does a
decent job of getting across the "weird and magnificent" idea without simply
copying Kirby.  Strongly recommended.  $2.25/$3.25Cn

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 1/26:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2,
Serenity Rose #5, OHOTMU Golden Age, Invader Zim action figures.  Black
Enchantress #1 never showed up either, but I didn't actually order that.

Awards:

Best Book: Ultimate Fantastic Four

"Robot, My Butt" Award to Flare #3

"Always Check The Brochure First" Award to Conan #12

"I'd Be Embarrassed To Have Her As My First Supervillain" Award to Gold
     Digger Stand Alone Special #1

"I've Got Lightning Between My Legs" award to JSA Strange Adventures #6 
     (of 6)

"Manual Transmutation" Award to Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #2

"The Lone Homager" Award to Planetary #22

"Why Does Jarvis Look Like A Thug?" Award to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest
     Heroes #6 (of 8)

"All Big Kirbian Hat And No Cattle" Award to Fantastic Four #522

"Hypospace Bypass" Award to Ultimate Fantastic Four #15

"Where'd The Other Head Go?" Award to the Zaphod Beeblebrox action figure
     shown in the new issue of Previews.  And the other arm, for that matter.

   Dave Van Domelen, "Okay, tell me if I'm following this: the N-Zone's a dying universe, you think. Right?" "Could be." "So this 'could be' a space station full of people who've stayed alive in a dying universe. Now, here's my bit o'science: do you think the people left standing at the end of a game are the *nice* people? Or do you think they're the *vicious jerks*?" - Ben Grimm and Reed Richards, Ultimate FF #15

Comments

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

You really don't want to know where the other head went...sigh...

I'm not seeing Cable/Deadpool here...ahem!

I liked LSH...But then Dream Girl has always been my favorite...
So what's the deal with Braniac 5? Is he Braniac Boy? Braniac Kid? (Well that and he's more Vril Dox2 then Querll)