dvandom | Comics for Feb 23

                    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.
Got me a new Tungsten C palmtop.  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. 

     The First Looks packs were delayed until Tuesday for some reason.  I
read a couple while waiting for the pulls to be done.
     X-Force: Shatterstar #1 (of 4): Marvel - Well, looks like X-Force is
retrenching as a series of minis.   This time Brandon Thomas does the
scripting over Liefeld's heavily labored plot.  Marat Mychaels does the
interior art, so this could be nothing more than a quick outline Robgoblin
sold Marvel.  The story appears to be a prequel, mostly with Shatterstar
complaining about his lot.  Not particularly good, but also not
entertainingly horrible.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Amazing Spider-Man #517: Marvel - Heh, pseudo-cameo by Bruce Campbell.
I just now realized that this arc could be considered an homage to  one of
Spidey's old villains, the Molten Man.  Anyway, decent penultimate issue,
with only one "art doesn't quite work" flashback scene.  $2.25/$3.25Cn

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.

     Hardy Boys #3: PapercutZ - The first arc ends in a reasonably satisfying
manner, but with Lea Hernandez not being on the next arc, I'm dropping the
book.  Lobdell's writing here is not bringing me back for more.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.95/$3.95Cn
     Outsiders #21: DC - D'Anda's art may fit the dark murky Bat-feel, but I
don't really care for it.  And, unfortunately, a really important point in
this issue refers to events happening in another book, and the art is
expected to carry the meaning...and doesn't.  Some good scenes, but the
overall *story* has problems.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #3: DC - Hmm, new meaning to the term Legion
Espionage Squad.  Interesting backstory stuff, and we get a better picture of
how long the Legion has actually been active before the start of the series.
There's a few plot elements I'm reserving judgement on, and I can see how
fans of certain characters may be howling for blood after reading this, but I
liked it overall.  Recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Spider-Man India #4 (of 4): Marvel - Well, this certainly came out a bit
differently than the usual Spider-Man origin, although different doesn't
necessarily mean better.  It was okay, though, and the blah feeling I had
with #3 was not present here.  If there's a second mini or an ongoing,
though, I don't really plan to get it.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #8 (of 8): Marvel - Wrapping up with
the passing of the torch to the second roster.  This really isn't a story per
se, with beginning-middle-end.  Rather, it's been an exploration of themes in
the background of other stories.  There's closure, but not climax.  Still,
worth reading.  Recommended.  $3.50/$5.00Cn
     Fantastic Four #523: Marvel - Final part of the Rising Storm arc, but as
Waid seems to be doing lately, it segues right into the next arc without
slowing down.  Good not-quite resolution, funny last page.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Spider-Man/Human Torch #2 (of 5): Marvel - Templeton continues to
chameleon his art into the style of classic Spider-Man stuff, which has a bit
of a mismatch with modern computer coloring, but generally good.  While not
as outright hilarious as the previous issue, it has a lot to recommend it.
Thus, recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Flare #4: Heroic Publishing - Still don't have #2.  Heh, looks like they
can't use Foxbat anymore, and retconned him into someone else (although I
have vague memories of having learned this previously, hm).  The main story
is a bit too obsessed with HLA (that never actually happens).  The second
story shoots for Golden Age and hit camp.  There's also a two page "Sunday
strip" which is a few years old and seems to have inspired parts of the main
story.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Conan #13: Dark Horse - An extra-creepy issue of Conan, full of
SAN-blasting stuff, yay!  Nord's art slips a bit this issue IMO, but is still
generally good.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink #1: Dork Storm - First full-length issue of
his own (#0 was a shorter piece and some reprinted strips), Kovalic writes
while Jones draws.  It's in color, and looks better than the similarly-
treated Dork Tower #30.  Felt a bit fluffy after the more tightly-written
four-pagers, though.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Grimjack Killer Instinct #2: IDW - I did not need to see Bob in the
situation he was in this issue.  Good chase story in the first half, okay
intrigue stuff in the second half, plus a little full frontal that probably
shoulda been enough reason to put a Mature Readers label on the book.  Yes,
there's exploding body parts in this series, but the sort of overprotective
person who likes to sue comic shops into oblivion is a lot more worried about
a nipple than a red smear.  Oh, there's also a text piece by Dan Taylor in
the back, on the subject of vampire hunting.  But I didn't read it...if
nothing else, when a quick skim shows that every other sentence includes some
grammatical variation on a single unimaginative four-letter word, I tend to
shy away.  Recommended overall, though.  $3.99.
     Ninja High School #124: Antarctic - The storytelling breaks down a bit
here.  Not just the time-shifting stuff, but the fact that you really need to
re-read the previous issue or three in order to follow what's going on.  I'm
not asking for extensive exposition every issue, it's just that it was hard
to jump in and follow things the way they were presented.  At least it had a
clear subplot climax in it.  Mildly 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 2/23:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2, Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB, Livewires #1 and Essential Luke Cage
v1.

Awards:

Best Book: None.  Nothing really stood out above "good".

"I Say, Old Bean" Award to Hardy Boys #3

"Enough With The Avengers Disassembled Parody Cover Logos" Award to 
     Outsiders #21

"I Think I'll Just Bite My Tongue Here" Award to Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #3 

"Die Twice!" Award to Spider-Man India #4 (of 4)

"Disco Ball Mania!" Award to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes #8 (of 8)

"Galactus Is A Dick" Award to Fantastic Four #523

"Whitest White Boy Ever" Award to Spider-Man/Human Torch #2 (of 5)

"I'm A Lumberjack And I'm Okay" Award to Flare #4

"God Is Inordinately Fond Of Beetles" Award to Conan #13

"I Suppose It's A KIND Of Entropy" Award to Dr. Blink Superhero Shrink #1

"Mayfair Games" Award to Grimjack: Killer Instinct #2

"You SURE You Want Into That Family?" Award to Ninja High School #124
Dave Van Domelen, "And how is this NOT freaking you out?" "Because we have a term for this in the FF. Right, Ben?" "Yup. It's called 'Thursday.'" - Spider-Man, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, in Spider-Man/Human Torch #2
Comics for Feb 23

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