Comics for Feb 2, plus First Looks for Feb 9

[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.
Joy, Kansas gets to look iggerant 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 give it a recommendation, I'm probably not
buying it. 

For Feb 2:

     Phoenix Endsong #2 (of 5): Marvel - Well, the art is still pretty
typical Greg Land, while Pak's writing is rather wanting in the coherence
department when it comes to stitching scenes together...it's the sort of
thing that really needs the captioning that has been banned at Marvel.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     New Avengers #3: Marvel - Heh, they included two copies of this one.  To
be honest, this one is a lot beter than the first two.  Bendis is
concentrating on personality and dialogue rather than plot, playing to his
strengths.  If things keep trending this way, I'll probably start picking the
book up soon.  $2.25/$3.25Cn
     The Intimates #4: DC/Wildstorm - Interesting focused issue, although the
footnote feed at the bottom seems to think this title won't make it past the
first TPB's worth...or even get a TPB.  Ah well.  $2.95/$4.50Cn

February 9 (comics came late, so I read the new First Looks while I waited):

     JSA #70: DC - All of the plot threads advance nicely, and Johns uses the
social mores of the time to good effect without getting bogged down in
condemning our elders.  Kramer's art is really working well this issue.
Recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Captain America #3: Marvel - On the cover, it looks like Cap's armor
shirt is made of roofing shingles.  Inside, there's a couple of good scenes
(mostly flashbacks), and then oh joy, loads more killing off of established
characters, and more assurances that the Skull really is dead, honest.  They
can't retcon this arc away fast enough for my tastes (and there's a ready-
made plot device for doing it, too).  Oops, forgot to write down the price.
Not like I advocate buying this.
     Alpha Flight v3 #12: Marvel - Kinda sad, really.  It's the final issue,
and Lobdell almost visibly throws up his arms and says, "It doesn't matter
what I do now, no one's reading anyway."  He does wrap up the plot stuff,
more or less, but also breaks the fourth wall and makes claims about
characters that you know will be ignored by the next writer to come along.
It was funny, but in a despairing way.  Nostalgically recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Fantastic Four Foes #2 (of 6): Marvel - Reed being obsessed with
something to the point of overlooking obvious flaws is, well, kinda old hat
for FF stories.  But Kirkman brings along enough weirdness to satisfy.
Recommended.  $2.95/$4.25Cn
     New Thunderbolts #5: Marvel - Fun running combat scene with side
stories, and some good character bits.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Hulk #78: Marvel - Hot Hulk-on-Hulk action!  A good continuing set-up,
plus the humor is just restrained enough to avoid some of Peter David's
tendency towards pushing a joke too hard.  Weeks's art works well with the
story.  Recommended.  $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.

     eXiles #59: Marvel - Very much a bridging issue, catching up on a
previous arc while preparing for the Big X-Event next month.  Sakakibara's
art does okay for this story, and Bedard's writing is okay, if necessarily
expositiony.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #5: Marvel - Whee, X-23.  Anyway, as with last issue, the
cover "team up" doesn't really happen this issue, although I continue to
enjoy Kirkman's efforts to show that the Marvel Universe is actually all one
place and not a half dozen or so editorial fiefdoms that don't interact.
Recommended.  $2.25/$3.25Cn
     Supreme Power #15: Marvel MAX - This issue mostly deals with the
aftermath of the big fight in #14, with a little bit of side story character
development unrelated to the big fight (mind you, there's a fair amount of
character development wrapped up in this aftermath).  JMS almost manages to
make it seem like a good thing to do what the government does in this issue,
which is a neat trick.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Superman: Strength #2 (of 3): DC - Amancio sucks at drawing kids, and
there's a big chunk of this issue that involves kids.  In fact, the art in
general is really dropping my overall enjoyment of the book.  Storywise, this
feels more like it should have come out as six regular-sized issues.  While
the total cost would be the same that way, it'd feel less like the format was
too fancy for the story.  Mildly recommended.  $5.95/$9.25Cn
     Bugtown #2 (of 6): Aeon - The book continues to read as a "new reader
friendly" sort of thing, working in a lot of the basics of Bugtown itself and
its most notorious inhabitants through the time-tested device of the New Guy
In Town, but it also has a lot of skullduggery (Bulldaggery?) for long-time
readers.  And I think it works better on both levels than #1 did.
Recommended.  $2.95/$4.25Cn
     Grimjack: Killer Instinct #1: IDW - There's always a worry when creators
come back to a long-fallow but much-loved property of theirs that the revival
will just be a hollow shell, the heart no longer there.  Or that it'll be too
dumbed down for new readers, or made too obscure for the benefit of the old
fans.  I'll cop to sort of being an old fan, mostly reading scattered issues
I got out of the quarter bin, or got because of a crossover of some sort (for
instance, I have the original 8 Grimjack stories solely because they're
backups in Starslayer, and I made a point of getting the Dynamo Joe guest
shot).  All that out of the way, I'm happy to say that it doesn't suck.  :)
It's too early to say if this will be on the level of the best of the old
John Gaunt stories, but it's at least good.  The two (well, one and a half,
cliffhanger ending) stories here are set in the old Gaunt days, each at what
might be considered the end of a chapter in Grimjack's life.  And while it's
been over a decade since my spotty reading of the old book, I had no problem
jumping right in.  For extra nostalgia, John Workman letters and Mike Gold
edits.  And Lovern Kindzierski colors, which is nostalgic for me, but that's
just because it's probably a guy I went to high school with (seriously, how
many Lovern Kindzierskis are there likely to be?).  Recommended.  $3.99
     Gold Digger v3 #60: Antarctic - Despite the level of action in this
issue, this is mostly exposition of the "characters figure out what the
readers already know" type or the "clarifying what the readers should have
managed to figure out by now" type.  :)  Of course, it's merely a breather,
since this is labeled as part one of a four part arc, and there's at least
four different "sides" each thinking they're in control of the situation.
Good intrigue.  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!)

     Current list as of 2/2:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2,
Serenity Rose #5, OHOTMU Golden Age, Invader Zim action figures, Bill and
Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB.

Awards:

Best Book: Grimjack: Killer Instinct #1 by a nose

"Timebroken" Award to eXiles #59

"This Has Got To Be A Case Of Red Kryptonite!  Or Wolverite?" Award to 
     Marvel Team-Up #5

"Superman Is A Dick" Award to Supreme Power #15

"Project: Paperclip" Award to Superman: Strength #2 (of 3)

"Okay, Maybe Four ISN'T The Magic Number" Award to Bugtown #2 (of 6)

"Just Keep Grinning" Award to Grimjack: Killer Instinct #1

"Even The Dragons Have Nice Butts" Award to Gold Digger v3 #60

   Dave Van Domelen, "I told you we needed him alive." "He got carried away and died." - Russ and Ron Post, Bugtown #2