Comics for November 18, 2009

[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.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 
                        6 4 2 + 2 4 0.  B C N U

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None

"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.

     None this week, but I just ordered the Dr. Horrible DVD, so that might
be in next week's review.


Late Books:
     These are comics that were not listed as shipping during the week they
were reviewed.  Sometimes someone recommends a book to me that's already out,
and I grab it over the weekend.  Sometimes it's a trade paperback I ordered
online rather than trusting Diamond.  Sometimes the store screwed up or I was
inobservant and I missed something I meant to get.  USUALLY, though, it's
because Diamond didn't ship what it was supposed to ship and I had to
scrounge around or wait on a reorder.

     City of Heroes TPB: Image - Several years ago, a friend suggested I try
City of Heroes #4.  I did, and didn't care for it, although a lot of that was
due to a lack of any connection to the characters or setting.  Now I know the
characters and setting, so I figured I'd give the whole thing a shot in TPB
form.  I still don't much like it, but now I have different reasons.  :) And
no, it's not because Waid and Hickman turned most of the characters into
jerks...in fact, I found that amusing.  With Manticore the archer as the
viewpoint character, everyone else behaves like the kind of players you run
across in a Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO).  But being an MMO is the
core problem here.  An MMO requires a lot of suspension of disbelief in the
setting beyond whatever the genre conventions involve...for instance, the
superhuman population outnumbers the normals in most (if not all) parts of
the city during peak play hours.  No one would EVER choose to live somewhere
that has neo-Nazis preaching on every other street corner and mutant gangs
grabbing purses on every block.  The only way the setting makes sense is if
you selectively blind yourself to the players not on your team and to the
opponents you're not currently fighting.  There's other things, but the point
is that there's a lot of stuff in City of Heroes that you have to just shrug
and go along with.  This means that an attempt at telling a straight story in
Paragon City is has a tough row to hoe, and a writer does not help his cause
by deliberately poking at the setting conventions.  But both Waid and Hickman
spend a fair amount of time yanking at the curtains, turning attempts at
serious scenes into more of a farce, pointing out to the readers how dumb
some things are.  This is not an indictment of the game, like I said earlier
any MMO will require this sort of suspension of disbelief due to the
"massively" part of MMO.  But you can't go drawing attention to that if you
want to tell a straight story.  (By contrast, the Eric Burns-White's "League"
stories have turned Boston into a parody of Paragon City, but the
parody-heavy nature of the Superguy setting makes it easier to mock things
without losing the ability to tell an otherwise serious tale.)  I've since
read a few more issues at the official download site with PDFs of the series
(http://www.cityofheroes.com/media_and_downloads/official_comic_archive/) and
it doesn't get better, although they do seem to stop poking at the suspension
of disbelief so much once Manticore's creator starts writing.  Neutral.
$14.99 cover price, $13.49 at deepdiscount.com, or you can just read all the
PDFs for free.

     Farscape D'Argo's Trial #4: BOOM! Studios - Well, the actual trial is
shown, kangaroo court that it is.  The main storytelling purpose of the trial
is to add a bit of depth to Crais to mesh with the changes he went through
over the course of the series.  The framing sequence wraps up in a "to be
continued in D'Argo's Quest", but I won't be there for it.  It's been an okay
series, as have all the BOOM! Farscape books, but none have really been worth
the hassle of trying to wrest them out of Diamond's hands, and the decision
to collect them only in $25 hardcovers for 4 issue minis has convinced me
it's worth neither the hassle or the money.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     Models Inc. #2 (of 4): Marvel - A good "we have a plot complication, now
what?" transitional issue, establishing the depths of the complication(s) and
starting the character on the path to dealing with it.  Good writing and art,
recommended.  $3.99

     Ninja High School #171: Antarctic - Diamond claimed to have #169-171 all
in stock, but when it came time to ship there was just #171.  Hm, shouldn't
Ricky be barefoot on the cover?  :)  The dialogue is oddly stilted in many
places, and not just from the characters who are supposed to have odd speech
patterns.  A lot of this issue is foreshadowing, and since I've already read
the payoff I don't get to speculate, bummer.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99
     

New Comics:
     Comics and comic collections that I got this week and were actually
supposed to be out this week, as far as I can tell.  These reviews will
generally be spoiler-free, but the occasional bit will slip in.

     The Transformers #1: IDW - Officially, it's just The Transformers #1, no
volume number or anything, but colloquially it's called Transformers
Ongoing.  Much has been made of Figueroa's new designs, which are mostly
Classics/Universe2 toy designs...with teeth.  More teeth than we've seen
since the Generation 2 comics.  I wish he'd redesigned his humans too, I
still don't much care for how he does human faces.  The story picks up after
a two year gap and Prime is doing what he does best...angst.  Mike Costa's
writing is okay, but a bit too given to cliche.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant #1: DC - Several loosely-bound
stories spotlighting various members of the team and tied together by a
mystic macguffin and a fairly thin framing story.  Most of the stories are
pretty mediocre, although the Wildcat Jr. story was fairly interesting.  The
framing stuff is drawn by new series regular Freddie Williams II, who looks
to be emulating Bart Sears but not very well.  Mildly recommended.  $5.99

     Adventure Comics #4: DC - Blackest Night banner, the main story involves
Superboy Prime, Comics Troll of Earth-Prime.  A rather fourth-wall-breaking
story, as the Black Lantern du jour mocks Prime as a fictional character.
The backup Legion story picks up on the Black Witch thread and does a decent
job of working with the premise, even if the premise is kinda 90s-cliche.
Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     Thunderbolts #138: Marvel - Jeff Parker picks up writing and infests the
book with Atlas.  Well, at the very end.  This issue is mainly showing off
what everyone in the current team can do (although not going too deeply into
their backgrounds).  A bunch of psychos, plus Paladin and Ant-Man (who, while
not psycho, only barely looks good next to these guys).  Mildly recommended.
$2.99 
     Dark Reign - The List: the Amazing Spider-Man #1 (one-shot): Marvel -
New story by Slott and Adam Kubert, and then a reprint of The Pulse #5.  #8
on Osborn's list is a little present to himself: kill Spider-Man.  Naturally,
since Dark Reign is wrapping up soon and there's a long line of people over
in Spidey's main title who have dibs on killing him, the wheels come off that
particular plan faster than you can say "naked Belgians".  More importantly,
it's not just Spider-Man who gets to thwart Osborn (although he does some
pretty good thwarting), in the end it's Peter Parker the average citizen.
Recommended.  $3.99

     The Amazing Spider-Man #612: Marvel - The Gauntlet begins, but it begins
subtly.  Well, there's lots of exploding things, but I meant subtle in the
sense that if there wasn't a framing page or two at the start and the whole
cover banner thing, there'd be no suggestion this was part of a bigger
story.  Just Electro finding a new angle.  The political commentary side is a
little heavy-handed, but for the most part it fits the story.  The backup
confused me for a little bit into thinking it was a flashback story,
especially given how Niimura's art makes everyone look like high school
students, but it picks up on the current-time Black Cat threads.
Recommended.  $3.99

     Dr. Horrible #1 (of 1): Dark Horse - I only watched the first
installment of the Sing-Along Blog when it came out...I really don't like
watching long videos on my computer, so I didn't watch the rest.  But as
mentioned above, I just ordered the DVD ($8.65 with free shipping from
DeepDiscount.com), so I'll catch up in a bit.  Anyway, this comic is not an
adaptation of the blog, instead it's the origin of Dr. Horrible and the story
of his first clashes with Captain "Ball Peen" Hammer.  The writing from Zach
(not Joss) Whedon goes a bit too deliberately camp in places (yes, even by
the standards of the Sing-Along Blog), but it's a good tale of becoming a
(somewhat ineffectual) villain.  Recommended.  $3.50

     Invincible #68: Image - Back to the title character.  :)  And we now
need a guest shot by Atomic Robo just so that Dr. Dinosaur can team up with
Dinosaurus!  Even if Dinosaurus is secretly a filthy mammal.  Or, at least,
wearing a filthy mammal.  Mind you, the real threat this issue is not
Dinosaurus, it's Eve's parents...aiiie!  Oh, and the Sequids and Conquest and
there's something about the name "Young Omni-Man" that does not fill me with
confidence (although "Kid Omni-Man" would be more omni-mous).  Recommended.
$2.99 

     Gold Digger Tech Manual #9: Antarctic Press - Starts with more Penny
Pincer stuff, and then goes to various flavors of Saurians (and I suspect
there will be more Saurians in #10, they're one of the major Plot Device
races of the setting).  Interesting artistic contrast between the new picture
of Penny on the cover and the older drawing on the first page, wearing the
same outfit (more or less) but with her current hairdo.  Perry's style has
changed a LOT over the years, and these guides help show that pretty
clearly.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Gold Digger v3 #112: Antarctic Press - Something tells me the final
print version of the book doesn't look exactly like the proofs...Kia's
dialogue balloons are dark blue with black letters, nearly unreadable without
the help of a flashlight (well, sunlight would probably work too, but it's
well after sundown as I read this issue).  Anyway, despite the overt Space
Adventure trappings, this is very much a followup to #111 and Penny trying to
deal with Skippy's insidious plot.  Fortunately, she's helped by a bit of
parallel evolution.  Recommended.  $2.99

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 11/18/09: Official Handbook of the Gold Digger
Universe #22, Ninja High School #169-170, Gold Digger Tech Manual #3, Gold
Digger v3 #105, Farscape Gone & Back #3, Official Marvel Index #11.  Add
Mighty Avengers #31 (it was on the store's invoice but not in the box).


Awards:

"Tsk, Should Know Better Than To Go After The Thorns Without Some Break 
     Frees" Award to City of Heroes TPB

"I'm Afraid The Nazi Metaphor Is Too Subtle For Me To Notice" Award to 
     Farscape: D'Argo's Trial #4 (of 4)

"Lynx Looks Like A 1990s Captain America Supporting Character" Award to
     Models Inc. #2 (of 4)

"Leeroy Feeple" Award to Ninja High School #171

"He Was Getting Too Long In The Tooth Anyway" Award to The Transformers #1

"Changing Relations" Award to Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant #1

"YHBT.  YHL.  YHBTIABL.  HAND." Award to Adventure Comics #4

"Does The BPRD Know You're Moonlighting?" Award to Thunderbolts #138

"The Curse Of Alphabetical Order, I Know It Well" Award to Dark Reign: The
     List - The Amazing Spider-Man #1

"And He Drives The Wall Street, Lookin' In The Sun For A Spider-Man To Beat" 
     Award to The Amazing Spider-Man #612

"With Great Power Comes Gr-OOH, SHINY THING!" Award to Dr. Horrible #1

"Wonder How Badly The Sequids Get Jobbed?" Award to Invincible #68

"The New Gigliathon Bar Has A World Full Of Caramel!" Award to Gold Digger
     Tech Manual #9

"Parakeet's Company, Three Keet's A Crowd" Award to Gold Digger v3 #112

   Dave Van Domelen, "Oh my! So nudism DOES run in the family." - Ma Hunkle to Wildcat Jr.

Comments

[zqadams.livejournal.com]

Both the Blue King and Image versions of the CoH comic had problems, but for very different reasons--I think that the BK series was probably more creatively successful, if only because it used heroes who could easily be player chars instead of the Phalanx. The two novels (Web of Arachnos and The Freedom Phalanx) work better, if only because they both take place before the explosion of superhumans in the Paragon area. I especially liked the latter since it fleshed out Positron (who at the time had had little development in the game world and materials) and Synapse (who as of this summer had STILL had very little development in-game).