Comics May 4, First Looks May 11

[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.
My teaching duties over for the semester.  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 May 11 - 

     Rann-Thanagar War #1 (of 6): DC - Slow week all around, so I decided to
give this a look.  It's okay, a lot of summary stuff and I don't find it
particularly engrossing, but the setup has to go somewhere.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #8: Marvel - Meanwhile, in an entirely different plot,
Blade and Punisher chat.  I presume this will dovetail later.  It's kinda
slow and plodding, sadly, despite some good bits of dialogue.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four #526: Marvel - Pacing speeds up, not necessarily for the
better.  Some good bits, but a bit of a letdown.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America and the Falcon #14 (FINAL ISSUE): Marvel - Well, it
could have been better, but needs must when the impending cancellation
drives.  Decent resolutions to some loose ends.  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.

     Flare #5: Heroic Publishing - Heh, a little research I did for my own
writing explains a bit about the current take on Flare.  :)  The lead story
somewhat impatiently wraps up one plot so it can move on to a new one that
will involve a certain 1980's character Heroic got the rights to use (if only
in a guest role, dunno the details).  The backup story has one character
react to the dialogue by saying he thinks he's going to hurl, and that's a
pretty accurate assessment.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.99Cn
     GLA #2 (of 4): Marvel - Significantly heavier on the humor this issue.
The Swordsman scene alone is worth the price of admission.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Ultimate Fantastic Four #18: Marvel - This had me laughing for the right
reasons in many places, and had a good plot resolution.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.25/$3.25Cn
     Villains United #1 (of 6): DC - Oooooooh, five months until Infinite
Crisis, according to the banner across the top of the cover.  I do believe I
will have to buy this book, if only because Mike the Parademon is in it.  Not
to mention scads of other obscure characters.  However, I didn't care for the
"kill a classic character off just to show they're hardcore" thing.  Other
than that, though, a good start.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Fallen Angel #20 (FINAL ISSUE): DC - One of the book's great mysteries
is solved.  Well, I suppose two, but Benny was kinda obvious once we knew
what the city was.  :)  a decent ending with plenty of room to pick it up
later.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn

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 5/4:

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

Awards:

Best Book: Ultimate Fantastic Four #18

"Most Of Hera's Power Must Be Invested In Maintaining Various Curses" Award
     to Flare v3 #5

"When CAPTAIN ULTRA Turns You Down..." Award to GLA #2 (of 4)

"I Wanna Be Your Sledgehammer" Award to Ultimate Fantastic Four #18

"Where's Sidne?" Award to Villains United #1 (of 6)

"Sister Act" Award to Fallen Angel #20

   Dave Van Domelen, "I'm nuking little alien guys with big guns! I don't know who they are or where they came from or why I'm in Las Vegas! Rock!" - Johnny Storm, UFF #18

Comments

In re: Villians United

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

I miss Suicide Squad...

*sigh*