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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 just love spending Spring Break sick. Rants, Capsules can be found on my
homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
First Looks:
Every so often, I'll have the time (either while waiting for comics to
be sorted on Wednesday, or over the weekend) to pull out my PDA 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.
If I read the First Looks on Wednesday, I won't include them in the next
week's review. But if I don't get around to them until the weekend, I'll
include them in the next regular post.
For March 30 -
X-Force Shatterstar #2 (of 4): Marvel - Like I've said before, they keep
printing 'em, I'll keep shooting 'em down. The fact that this is a prequel
robs it of what tiny amount of suspense Liefeld can inject, although it's
amusing that he incorporates his inability to draw backgrounds into the
story. $2.99/$4.25Cn
X-Men: Phoenix Endsong #4 (of 5): Marvel - Same principle as above. The
literal and symbolic graverobbing and necrophilia continues. Land's art
looks nice as panels, but doesn't really tell a story very well. There's
some good lines here and there, mostly sounding like Pak is trying to sound
like Whedon, though. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Pulse #8: Marvel - More Secret War stuff. Lark's art is better than the
"worst Immonen art I've ever seen" from the last couple of issues, but he's
too in love with nonstandard panel layouts. Good dialogue from Bendis, but
my utter disinterest in the Secret War thing keeps me from buying this.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
Fantastic Four #524: Marvel - Nice wrap-up to Waid's run, with a
character-driven story that ties up loose ends and reminds us what the FF are
about. Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Otherworld #1 (of 12): DC/Vertigo - Grabbed this to read because of the
Jimenez art, and despite the Lanning name on the cover (turns out he's just
the inker). This issue keeps saying it's starting in the middle, but it
feels fairly beginningish to me. It *does* do a good job of setting up all
the players and then throwing everything for a loop. I'm intrigued enough to
pick it up. And I'm now informed that I ordered it months ago anyway, heh.
Recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
Legion of Super-Heroes #4: DC - Leonard Kirk is the penciller this
issue, and Blythe's colors try to obliterate said pencils. Not cool,
colorist. Good story, and interesting backup focusing on a couple of the
kids. Recommended. $2.99/$4.00Cn
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.
Fillerbunny #3: Slace Labor - Unlike the first two issues (which were
done in very short spans), this one was done in bits and pieces over the
course of months. As a result, there's more attention paid to the art, not
to mention a couple of COLOR pages, woo. The story is no more coherent, of
course, because Fillerbunny isn't really about coherence, sanity, taste,
etc. This one is a little more bitter than the previous ones, which I think
is even *possible* because Jhonen has time to recharge his venom ducts during
the breaks in working on this. Anyway, if you've heard of Jhonen Vasquez,
you probably already ordered this. And if you haven't, but you like things
like Serenity Rose or Arsenic Lullabies, you will want to pick this one up.
Recommended, if not for the weak stomached. $2.95
Heaven Sent #8: Antarctic Press - Gotta admit, I loved the DeBurgh
joke. :) Things are continuing to come together and move a lot better than
some of the mid-game issues. Recommended. $2.99/$4.05Cn
NHS #125: Antarctic Press - Special oversized issue with lots of
redemption and big explosions and stuff. With Fred Perry coming on in #127,
Bevard and Bair play out their swan song here, with next issue for wrapping
up loose ends and rolling credits. It's been a good two years, I hope they
get another project at AP. Recommended. $2.99/$4.05Cn
Gold Digger v3 #62: Antarctic Press - Okay, big improvement over the
stumble of last issue. A lot of Perry's mythology is coming together here,
but he's doing a good job of keeping the stakes personal as well as cosmic.
Recommended. $2.99/$4.05Cn
Conan #14: Dark Horse - Speaking of personal-meets-cosmic, Busiek
delivers that quite well in the resolution of his first Thoth-Amon arc.
Conan gets to be himself in spades. Strongly recommended. $2.99
Livewires #2: Marvel - Diamond STILL hasn't shipped #1 to my store.
Anyway, less boom and break this issue, but still plenty of action and
datadumping. Quite funny too, in a macabre and overintellectual way.
Recommended. $2.99/$4.25Cn
Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (of 5): Marvel - MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Okay, the
fact that I'm familiar with Marvel comics of the 1970s (even if I didn't read
many of them at the time) helps in getting the jokes, but even for people who
don't know all that stuff I'd still strongly recommend this book. This is
how Spider-Man should be written. Buy this book. $2.99/$4.25Cn
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 3/23:
Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2, Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB, Livewires #1, Essential Luke Cage v1,
Love as a Foreign Language v2 (also back-ordered v1).
The Best of Arsenic Lullabies TPB is supposed to be out this week, but
my store didn't get any (not sure if they ordered any...I forgot to
specifically ask for it, since they usually order copies for AL for the
shelf).
Awards:
Best Book: Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (of 5)
"GIR! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Award to Fillerbunny #3
"It's A Dog's Life. Death. Whatever." Award to Heaven Sent #8
"Blowing The FX Budget" Award to NHS #125
"Jade Crush!" Award to Gold Digger v3 #62
"If It Leads, It Bleeds" Award to Conan #14
"Happy Little Starfish Metaphor" Award to Livewires #2
"The Ghostest With The Mostess" Award to Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (of 5)
Dave Van Domelen, "For the record, I would just like to point out...that the *orangutan* can parallel park." - Human Torch
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