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.
Got a research paper rejected, bleh.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

     http://www.dvandom.com/breakdown is my new webcomic, whee!

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 22:

     Black Panther v3 #5: Marvel - Yes, America and its government suck, we
KNOW.  Big fight scene with anti-climactic battles and desecration of the
dead, whee.  Nosing down, hard.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain America v5 #7: Marvel - Well, it's not enough a supporting
character got killed a few issues back (presumably), but this issue is all
about making that character pathetic too.  Joy oh joy.  Bleh.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     New X-Men #15: Marvel - Nice to see the Madrox series recognized in
another book.  Good issue in general, and a decent ending before the book
goes on Hiatus of M (yes, I expect issues will still be coming out, but it'll
effectively be on hiatus plot-wise).  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four Foes #6 (of 6): Marvel - Okay ending, anti-climactic but
usually in an amusing way.  The return to status quo is a bit too blatant,
though, even though it was inevitable.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Spider-Man House of M #1 (of 5): Marvel - Waid and Peyer do a good job
with Peter Parker's "Mary Sue" story.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Livewires #5 (of 6): Marvel - Well, this is one Limited Series with a
big emphasis on the "Limited".  Ablative, even.  But fun.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Otherworld #4 (of 12): DC/Vertigo - Still very infodumpy, but more
coherent, and more clearly building towards something.  Overuse of cussin'
though.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Astro City the Dark Age #1: DC/Wildstorm - Innnnnteresting.  Busiek
used the same sort of montage and man-on-the-street stuff he usually uses for
Astro City, but to different effect.  Very promising start.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.00Cn 

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.

     Heaven Sent #11 (of 11): Antarctic Press - Well, the real climax was
last issue, this is just cleaning up the "side effects" if you will.  It's
pretty good, though.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Gold Digger v3 #64: Antarctic Press - Boom, big revelations infodump
issue.  Fortunately, I've read enough old issues in TPB form (as well as the
story summaries in the various Perfect volumes) that this all means something
to me.  A tad dry at times, though, despite Perry's insertion of bits of
"show, don't tell" sequences.  And it ties together some pretty disparate
stuff, things I was surprised I even remembered (like mysterious characters
frmo NHS crossovers).  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     GLA #3 (of 4): Marvel - Ahhhh, delightfully tacky.  And the Serious Plot
is revealed, to boot.  Recommended.  $2.99/$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 6/15:

     Savage Henry Puppet Trap, Savage Henry Powerchords #2, Flare #2 and #0,
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures v1 TPB, Essential Luke Cage v1,
Transformers: Aspects of Evil TPB, Peebomanga and How To Draw Chibi.
     (Note: Peebomanga and How To Draw Chibi may have been listed by mistake
last week, as I am told Antarctic only just got their copies from the
publisher.)

Awards:

Best Book: None.  Yeah, slow month so far.

"Bet On God" Award to Heaven Sent #11 (of 11)

"Split Infinities" Award to Gold Digger v3 #64

"Petty Vengeance" Award to GLA #3 (of 4)

Dave Van Domelen, "...dogs do NOT know how to play chess." - Dreadwing, Gold Digger v3 #64