Comics for May 25, First Looks June 1

[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 have nothing to say here today.  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.

June 1:

     Last Hero Standing #1 (of 5): Marvel - Fairly typical DeFaco writing,
with lots of captions and stuff.  Tries to capture the spirit of the Silver
Age, mostly  just gets the gloss.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four Foes #5 (of 6): Marvel - Well, the flailing plot changes
SEEM to have settled down, although there's some bits that seem to be
careless continuity errors.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #9: Marvel - A whole issue of 'meanwhile' stuff again.
Some good bits, but still feels like marking time.  Mildly recommended.
$2.25/$3.25Cn
     eXiles #65: Marvel - Some fairly clever bits here, most of them well-
foreshadowed.  Calafiore goofed a bit on the cover.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Incredible Hulk #82: Marvel - Quick followup for this one issue buffer
story.  Jae Lee's art is about as murky as usual, and his visual storytelling
leaves a lot to be desired.  Decent story from Peter David, tho.  Recommended
despite the art.  $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 v3 #6 (aka #25): Heroic Publishing - On the one hand, there's some
good examinations of the ways a "deep" superheroic universe (i.e. one that
has had heroes since at least WWII) works, plus a lot of philosophical
wrangling between heroes and villains who may not necessarily have differing
goals, merely differing methods.  On the other hand, a lot of scenes read
like Hot Lesbian Action breaks out as soon as the camera shifts elsewhere,
kinda counteracting the maturity of the rest of the book.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$3.99Cn
     Otherworld #3 (of 12): DC/Vertigo - Big steaming piles of exposition
that time-shift for no readily viable reason between three or more points in
the timeline, plus flashbacks a-plenty.  Just in case the overly large cast
and deliberately chaotic scenes didn't already leave most readers scratching
their heads.  It's like Jimenez had so many ideas rattling around in his head
that he couldn't wait and get them out over the course of a few books, they
all have to go here.  That said, the actual plot does shape up a bit, and it
looks kinda tedious.  It doesn't have to be, but Phil hasn't really been
giving me much reason to think otherwise.  Some lovely art is the only real
reason to pick this up.  Very mildly recommended.  Mature Readers (aka
obligatory breasts).  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Outsiders #24: DC - From lovely art in service to way too much story, we
go to hideous art in service to almost no story at all.  Characters mostly
just fight to no conclusion and then stand around and angst about the events
of Teen Titans #24, and another villain gets tossed into the mix on the last
page, but it's otherwise a completely skippable issue if you got Teen Titans
last week.  And not so great even if you didn't.  Neutral.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     JLA #114: DC - The Crime Syndicate/Qward storyline finally wraps up,
with some nice silver-age-y touches, but sadly still with lackluster Ron
Garney art.  Recommended.  $2.25/$3.00Cn (DC is clearly paying closer
attention to the exchange rate than Marvel is...80 cents American equals a
dollar Canadian lately)
     LSH v5 #6: DC - 22 page main story, 7 page backup that reveals who's
behind everything, and then a 3 page illustrated lettercol with Cham and Cos
answering letters.  Lots of meat for a comic in this day and age.  The main
story is a bit heavier on "tell rather than show" than I'd like, but does
take Princess Projectra in a new direction that has definite possibilities.
While the art on the 7 page backup doesn't work for me, it's a good book
overall.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Fantastic Four #527: Marvel - JMS and Mike McKone take over as the
regular team.  JMS drags the Poverty Plot back in, but with enough of a twist
that I don't mind.  And the opening bit, even if it's just a throwaway and
doesn't become relevant to the main storyline, is cool on its own.  But these
are all subplots, and JMS kicks off with a nice juicy main plot that just
screams "hubris!" on the part of the instigators.  You just KNOW it won't go
the way they think it will, but the fun is in how it will break and who will
figure out how to pick up the pieces.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Incredible Hulk #81: Marvel - Tempest Fugit wraps up, probably.  This is
the sort of story where even when all the cards are laid on the table, you
get the distinct impression that you weren't playing the game you thought you
were.  And while I didn't care for the real life link that gave rise to the
plot device, at least Peter David was coy enough about details that the story
can stand the test of time (pun intended).  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn

Late Stuff:
     Due to a bit of chaos last week, I missed a couple books.  Plus I picked
up a few things I feel like reviewing, but that came out last week or
earlier.

     Spider-Man/Human Torch #4 (of 5): Marvel - The weakest issue so far, but
still pretty good.  The She-Hulk cameo was the highlight.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Teams 2005: Marvel - Rather
uneven in quality and coverage.  Some major teams are covered, even though
they get their own books, others (like the FF) are not.  A few really obscure
ones must have gotten in because they were personal favorites of the
editors.  The proofing is uneven (Freedom Force rescued Harvey Kurtzman?),
and sometimes the page count is unfair (the 100 issue run of the original New
Mutants gets one paragraph in a single-page entry mostly focused on the
current team, while Power Pack gets two full pages that doesn't even mention
their current series), but it's a decent read, and the references section in
the back is useful as always.  Recommended.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     Spider-Man's Pal Gus Beezer (Marvel Age edition): Marvel - The local
Target finally got this edition in stock, with all four Gus Beezer issues
from last year collected in an inexpensive pseudo-TPB.  It's a bit uneven, as
not all of Gail Simone's humor works, but it's a good deal in this slightly
oversized format.  Recommended.  $4.99 (Target exclusive)
     Fantastic Four Novelization: Pocket Star Books - Peter David once again
comes to bat to provide the adaptation for a Marvel movie, and he does his
usual good job.  As he is known to do, he adds in a number of easter eggs,
"deleted scenes" and Tuckerization (an artist he worked with for a while gets
a significant role, won't spoiler it).  While the movie never turns out
exactly like the novelization, the book can give useful clues to the pacing
of the movie, and I'm now looking forward to the movie itself.  As for the
book, Recommended.  $4.88 at Wal-Mart, $6.99/$10.50Cn list price.

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 5/25:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2 and #0,
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB, Essential Luke Cage v1.
     Add on Transformers: Aspects of Evil, which didn't ship, and DC
Presents: The Return of Donna Troy, which shipped but I didn't order and
forgot to look at on the shelf.  And I stared at the new releases shelf
twice, so its trade dress must not have been that great.

Awards:

Best Book: LSH v5 #6

"Hey Baby, Wanna Engage In A Dialectic?" Award to Flare #25

"Exposition Park...Of Course" Award to Otherworld #3 (of 12)

"You'd Think Someone Would Have Gotten Around To Destroying Those" Award 
     to Outsiders #24

"Drag Racing" Award to JLA #114

"Had To Be The Opera House, Didn't It?" Award to LSH v5 #6

"The Not-So-Grand Canyon" Award to Fantastic Four #527

"Heathers 2.0" Award to Incredible Hulk #81

"Let Me Get My Green-Tinted Sunglasses" Award to Spider-Man/Human Torch 
     #4 (of 5)

"What, Me Worry?" Award to OHOTMU Teams 2005

"Suffer The Little Children" Award to Spider-Man's Pal Gus Beezer

"Good Thing None Of Them Were Scratching Their Butts" Award to Fantastic Four
     Movie Novelization

   Dave Van Domelen, "Damned right, 'uh-oh.'" - Bruce Banner, Hulk #81