Comics for December 24, 2008

[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 am now on knitting junk mail lists.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

"Other Media" Capsules:

     Things that are comics-related but not necessarily comics
(i.e. comics-based movies like Iron Man or Hulk), or that aren't going to be
available via comic shops (like comic pack-ins with DVDs) will go in this
section when I have any to mention.  They may not be as timely as comic
reviews, especially if I decide to review novels that take me a week or two
(or ten) to get around to.

     DC Universe The Question: Mattel - I got the JLU-style Question a few
months ago and was pleased with it, so I snapped this up so he could have a
little brother.  I regret doing so.  The sportscoat is rigid plastic!  That
means that while the toy has waist and hip articulation, it can't actually
move those joints because the coat's blocking it.  And I have white stress
marks on the toy's thighs from trying to move the legs.  Plus, the arms are
disproportionately bulky and the head is tiny, plus the color match between
face and neck is poor.  The knees bend weirdly, probably to compensate for
hip movement that can't happen.  Avoid this piece of junk.  $4.99 at Target.

Comics 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.

     Books of Note (Strongly Recommended or otherwise worthy): Farscape #1
(of 4), Atomic Robo Dogs of War #5 (of 5)

     The Brave and the Bold #20: DC - Green Lantern and Phantom Stranger
continue this final arc of the title before the namespace is given over to a
tie-in to the really good new cartoon.  Ehn.  Hine's story has its moments,
but for the most part it plods along its allegorical path, with Braithwaite's
art neither helping nor hindering.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99

     Ms. Marvel #34: Marvel - Lots of unanswered questions, and only the
barest connection to #32-33...not that ignoring those issues makes me sad.
Rather, this picks up more closely from the Annual earlier this year, and
Reed gets another shot at playing with Spider-Man, something he does very
well.  Plus, Aaron Stack gets a short but important scene.  Recommended.
$2.99 

     New Warriors #19: Marvel - After the Big Reveals of last issue, the gaps
get filled in (more or less) and everyone moves towards the final
confrontation, with fairly predictable twists and turns.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99

     Thor #12: Marvel - Well, Thor's on the cover, but that's about all he
does this issue.  It's Loki time, and JMS pulls a Babylon 4 with Loki.  Yeah,
it's a bit too pat, and has echoes of an episode of Power Rangers Jungle
Fury, but it's a decent read.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99

     She-Hulk v2 #36: Marvel - More than a little bondage-and-traps this
issue, although the metaphorical bondage (i.e. can't escape the situation, no
matter how many people you hit) is stronger than the physical.  Sadly, this
is mostly set-up for character development that's being shut off when the
title ends soon.  :/  Recommended.  $2.99

     Invincible #57 and The Astounding Wolf-Man #11: Image - This is a
crossover, and since it's the same writer (Kirkman) in both cases, I'm just
going to cover this as a single review.  In terms of advancing the long term
plots of either book, this crossover doesn't really do much, although it
establishes a few things about both books more clearly.  And each part
manages to establish both titles' situation so that those coming in from just
one of the titles gets a good look at who's who and what's what.  So, in the
sense of trying to hook readers of one into reading the other, Kirkman
manages a good classic crossover.  But I'm still not all that interested in
Wolf-Man, sorry.  Both recommended, though.  $2.99 each.

     Farscape #1 (of 4): Boom! Studios - Boom!'s really going nuts on the
licensed properties this quarter, Eureka #1 should be out soon as well.
Series creator O'Bannon plotted the story out, and adaptation veteran Keith
DeCandido provides the script.  The art by Tommy Patterson is serviceable,
the usual "get the faces right" sort of guy who gets work on licensed
properties but isn't all that inspired an artist otherwise.  On the other
hand, KRAD's script pops, sparkles, whatever descriptors you care to toss
around.  It's good.  Very good.  And the story finally picks up one of the
plot threads that's been Gilliganning since the very beginning of the series:
returning Rygel to Hyneria.  Which, naturally, goes really badly, as one
would expect from anything this crew is involved with.  Strongly
recommended.  $3.99 

     Gold Digger X-Mas Special #2: Antarctic Press - The usual mix of short
stories and pinups.  Perry provides the lead story, which takes place during
the first Christmas season of the Five Year Gap...I mean, between Gold Digger
#100 and #101.  J.L. Anderson provides a somewhat naughty story with more
censor bars by weight than Adam Warren's dialogue balloons and a cute if
predictable payoff.  The other shorts are fairly forgettable, though.  One of
the pinups picks up from a story in the recent Halloween special, and
promises to become a running gag, heh.  Recommended.  $3.50 US/Cn

     Atomic Robo Dogs of War #5 (of 5): Red5 - And what better way is there
to celebrate the holidays than with a tale of WWII and robots?  None, I tell
you!  And Clevenger and Wegener deliver just that!  A translation guide to
the scotsman would have been nice, though, if only as an endnote.  The main
story is only loosely bound to the rest of the series, and that mainly by the
recurring villain Skorzeny.  For once, the backup story actually ties
directly into the main story, offering an afterword to the miniseries and the
final fate of Skorzeny.  Strongly recommended.  $2.95

     As an aside, I am amused that the back covers of all the Marvel books I
got this week have ads for The Dark Knight.  :)


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 12/24: Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe
#22, Love & Capes TPB, Transformers Maximum Dinobots #1, Transformers Return
of the Fallen Prequel #1, Doktor Sleepless #10.

Awards:

"Way To Give Away The Twist On The Cover, Guys" Award to The Brave and the
     Bold #20

"I Shudder To Think What He'll Do With The Rest Of The Head" Award to Ms.
     Marvel #34

"And Counter-Betrayal In Three...Two..." Award to New Warriors #19

"No, I Think You Definitely Need Some Therapy Still" Award to Thor #12

"The Invisible Woman And Lady Lawful Should Compare Notes" Award to She-Hulk
     v2 #36

"The New Multi-Tasking Man" Award to Invincible #57

"I Refuse To Member Any Join That Would Have Me As A Club" Award to The 
     Astounding Man-Wolf #11

"Rebound And Gagged" Award to Farscape #1 (of 4)

"D'oh, Dao" Award to Gold Digger X-Mas Special #2

"Not Even Craig Ferguson Understood That" Award to Atomic Robo Dogs of War
     #5 (of 5)

   Dave Van Domelen, "You're AWFULLY flippant for someone who walked into YET ANOTHER trap." "And YOU'RE awfully confident for someone who just seriously used the phrase 'weather cannon.'" - Skorzeny and Atomic Robo

Comments

[zqadams.livejournal.com]

Wow, glad I hadn't been able to find the Infinite Heroes Question then. I picked up the Atom (since it may be the only Ryan Choi figure we get outside the DC Direct one with the early Byrne costume) and thought it was okay, but nothing special. I feel sorry for anyone paying $7 each for these at TRU though.

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

"The Invisible Woman And Lady Lawful Should Compare Notes" Award to She-Hulk v2 #36

In fairness to Deedee, I'm pretty sure he's more easily distracted than Reed.