Comics for March 30, First Looks for April 6

[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 feel like Roscoe.  HEE-YACK!  Damn cold.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

     R.I.P. Girl Genius.  I will not be reviewing the webcomic format, and
may or may not be buying the webcomic reprints.  I'm saddened to see yet
another book flee from the printed comic format (which, by the way, is NOT a
pamphlet, a term I find derogatory when applied to something that's more than
a single folded sheet of paper).

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 April 6 - 

     Power Pack v2 #1 (of 4): Marvel - This reads like it is set a few months
after the end of the original Power Pack comic's first arc, ignoring
everything that has happened since.  A worst of both worlds scenario, it
trades on the past while ignoring it.  I don't feel bad about not ordering
this.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #7: Marvel - New logo, without the often misleading
headliners.  More good wallowing in continuity from Kirkman and Kolins.
Recommended.  $2.25/$3.25Cn
     Hulk #80: Marvel - More mindgame fun, including a final panel that SOOOO
many fans probably wish wasn't just another game.  :)  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Great Lakes Avengers #1 (of 4): Marvel - Yay, Slott and Pelletier
togetjher again!  This is actually played fairly straight, aside from the
squirrelly "chorus", and it mostly focuses on Mr. I's origins.  Good read.
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.

     Countdown to Infinite Crisis: DC - Okay, I'm a sucker for a dollar book
that's 80 pages, and I'm willing to trust two of the three writers (Johns and
Winick...Rucka doesn't have my trust, or my distrust either, really).
There's a few purposeful retcons, and several of them make it clear that the
Final Page Shocker may not be anywhere near permanent.  That aside, while
this story does skirt a number of my pet peeves (but doesn't automatically
invoke them), it's a good, tense mystery story that succeeds in its aim to
kick off an Event with a bang.  Recommended.  $1.00/$1.35Cn
     Outsiders #22: DC - I like how the cover uses an old-fashioned lure,
even though regular readers know that it's a lie (after all, regular readers
are already reading the book, y'gotta hook the new readers with your cover).
Overall, I liked this issue, especially how the hero survives the fight.
Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     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
     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
     Ultimate Secret #1: Marvel - Okay, I don't really follow most of the
Ultimate Universe, but the previews in various places did their job of
getting me intrigued.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot more here than in the
previews, aside from some reused frontier science (and some bad history).
Ellis tries a little too hard to make the hokey 70s Mar-Vell stuff un-hokey
with variant spellings and stuff, and of course this is one of his exercises
in leisurely plotting.  Mildly recommended.  $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
     Grimjack Killer Instinct #3: IDW - You know, there's good points and bad
points throughout this issue, but the final page of the actual comic
(ignoring the text piece I didn't read and the reams of ads) is one of those
moments worth buying a comic for.  Recommended.  $3.99
     Bugtown #4 (of 6): Aeon - A newcomer of sorts is introduced again this
issue, but unlike previous issues of this mini we don't really follow the
story through his eyes, as Howarth gets down to brass tacks and starts
weaving his plot threads together.  The not very mysterious mystery set up in
#3 is revealed, which is good...never a good idea to try to be all mysterious
about something your readers figured out ages ago.  Recommended.
$2.95/$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 3/30:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2, Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB, Essential Luke Cage v1.
     Livewires #1 came in, but I already reviewed that.  Love as a Foreign
Language v1 and v2 came in, but I haven't had time to read them yet, may do a
special on 'em or something.


Awards:

Best Book: None.  I'm leaning towards LSH or FF for sentimental reasons, but
     can't really say any of the books I bought this week stood out.

"WAY Too Much Cosmic Stuff For It To Be Over" Award to Countdown to Infinite
     Crisis #1

"Batman Is A Dick" Award to Outsiders #22

"Blood Work" Award to Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #4

"Maybe I'll Compromise My Principles A LITTLE" Award to Otherworld #1 (of 12)

"Infinity Inc. II" Award to Ultimate Secret #1

"The Rocks Were Never INSIDE His Head" Award to Fantastic Four #524

"Fire The Ninja Interior Decorators" Award to Grimjack Killer Insinct #3

"Synonymous Bosch" Award to Bugtown #4 (of 6) (And yes, I may have given this
     to another Bugtown book in the past, cut me some slack, I have a fever.)

   Dave Van Domelen, "The last thing I remember in my face was a giant elbow." "Sorry!" - Star Boy and Colos...Micr...ah, sprock it.

Comments

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

AWESOME! New Great Lakes Avengers?!?

You know...I think I may have all of their appearances...they are why I picked up Thunderbolts originally.