Comics for February 10, 2010

[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 
     Yes, I STILL have that cold.  At least it's not strep throat.

     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.

     Planet Hulk DVD: Lions Gate/Marvel - Okay, I never read the original
comics, most of what I know about the plot is summed up nicely in the pre-
credits sequence of this movie ("Hulk, you're too dangerous, we're sending
you somewhere with no intelligent life so you can be alone...hey, stop
breaking the guidance system!").  If it weren't for the toy line, I wouldn't
even know they did a substitution (Silver Savage is out, probably due to
licensing entanglements, but a cleverly retconned retold Journey Into Mystery
#83 in one of the flashbacks sets up the replacement nicely).  All in all,
it's a Flash Gordon/Edgar Rice Burroughs style story told with the Hulk in
the protagonist slot (and everyone's general level of toughness ramped up to
let them survive being around him).  It moves briskly, and if it leans a bit
too hard on cliches sometimes to fill in for things that aren't told
explicitly, that's what cliches are for.  They do NOT try to set up World War
Hulk in here, which is a good thing...I'm not sure it'd even be a good idea
to try to adapt that monstrosity to a single movie or even a series of
movies, so just telling Planet Hulk on its own is the best move.  I got the
2-disc edition at Target that includes a CDROM with Hulk #92 (Planet Hulk
part 1), I believe the Best Buy exclusive has a hardcopy digest sized version
of the same issue.  The non-store-exclusive bonus disk has the usual
featurettes (although the two featurettes share a distressingly large amount
of footage), the episode of Wolverine and the X-Men where Logan and Hulk
fight, a preview of the upcoming Thor: Legends of Asgard cartoon and several
motion comics (meh).  Recommended.  I paid $15.99 at Target, but that was
first week sale, price will vary.


Time-Shifting:
     Sometimes I get a comic a week or two late because of Diamond's
combination of neglect and incompetence.  If it's more than a week late,
though, I won't review it unless it's very notable.  Additionally, I will
often get tradepaperbacks long after publication or even sometimes before
Diamond ships them, and those will go here.  If I'm reasonably sure I'm
reviewing something that didn't ship this week, this is the section for it.

     Amelia Rules! A Very Ninja Christmas: Atheneum - This is a smaller
digest-sized book that looks like it was intended to be given as a stocking
stuffer (for instance, there's a gift tag as part of the back cover).  I
think it says something about Diamond that I ordered this through them, never
saw hide nor hair of it, and ended up ordering a copy through a reseller in
ENGLAND and getting it with less hassle and at about cover price after
shipping.  This book is mostly reprints, with the "uncover the secret of
Santa" story from the first collection (with a flip-animation of Amelia and
Pajamaman dancing in the lower right corners), plus the "origin of the group"
story from the "Funny Stories" book.  For once, they identify previous
printings, probably because they can stick with other Atheneum books and
don't have to mention the dreaded floppies.  The very end has a bunch of
design sketches and process stuff, interesting to those of us who like that
sort of thing.  Recommended.  $7.99/$9.99Cn

     Iron Man vs. Whiplash #3 (of 4): Marvel - In recent years, by which I
mean since the 1980s, a recurring theme in Tony Stark's life has been trying
to protect his intellectual property.  Prevent the abuse of the children of
his mind, even though you can't practice safe inventing and he's had a LOT of
mind-kids.  You simply can't keep track of all that data, no matter how hard
you try.  Biometrics are certainly a start, but as Braga and Guggenheim set
up in #1, they're hardly infallible.  And this issue makes it explicit that
maybe there's code out there of Tony's that he hasn't been at ALL careful
about.  Heh.  Interestingly, rather than Evil Overlording, the villains of
this piece are giving Tony credit for being as smart as he's supposed to be,
plus they're not underestimating Whiplash either.  Oh, sure, given that this
is set months ago we know they can't win in any significant way, but it won't
be due to being overconfident.  Smart, inventive villains making Tony's life
hell WITHOUT requiring Tony's brain be shut off at key moments.  Recommended.
$3.99


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.

     Marvel Boy: The Uranian #2 (of 3): Marvel - Agents of Atlas Under
Different Names continues (they get their own regular book back in May).  The
main story progresses pretty rapidly, covering one spy-smashing adventure,
then Uranian intrigues that keep him off-planet for a year, followed by a
return with new powers and a more "traditional" superhero mission.  Along the
way, the real life Astonishing stories are brought into the story as the
stuff that Timely Comics sells based on Marvel Boy, fictions written to
compensate for the "dullness" of his actual activities.  Nice way to have
one's cake and eat it too...the retconned history is firmly in place without
totally denying the original stories.  And in the Marvel Universe, where
comics often tell modified versions of the truth (and are usable as legal
references, as per She-Hulk's comic), it's reasonable to think that anyone
researching Bob would mix up the "real" and the "fake" stories.  There's two
reprints from Astonishing, both with a mystic twist that's understandable
given the horror comics Marvel Boy was competing against.  Recommended.
$3.99 

     The Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #2 (of 3): Marvel - A good mix
of Jackpot continuing to learn the ropes, and the villains of the piece not
being chivalrous enough to let her rookie mistakes slide (although I'm a
little surprised Spider-Man didn't point out the rookie mistake of her
costume design).  The cliffhanger at the end is high on shock value, although
I don't really have a good enough read on Guggenheim to predict if he'll pull
out a Happy Ending plot device or simply let Jackpot wallow in the suffering
set up by the cliffhanger.  Provisionally recommended.  $3.99

     Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #20: Marvel - Cover-featuring the Vision,
although Diablo could make a case for being the feature character.  It's hard
to be sure, since the "emotions going nuts" arc has been rife with seemingly
independent causes, but we might have seen the root of it all here.  Or, at
least, a player high up enough to know who's the true root.  Tobin keeps
several other subplots rolling, including hints at a Captain America/Sue
Storm romance, something that could get REALLY messy even in an all-ages
book.  The art is cobbled together from three different listed artists,
and although I think it may be two main artists and a finisher (no inker is
listed separately), it still feels scattered.  Recommended.  $2.99

     The Amazing Spider-Man #620: Marvel - Demented Looney Tunes.  Seriously,
there's plenty of real death and dismemberment among all the fakery, but at
the same time the issue's loaded with Daffy Duck moments.  Normally, I'd
complain about incoherence, whipsawing between silly and serious, but Slott
manages to balance it quite well, resulting in very dark humor.  The art is
credited to Martin and Pulido, but there's no obvious style disconnects, so
either one is finishing over the other, or Martin works in the same style as
Pulido to a close enough tolerance that it's not obvious who did which
pages.  Recommended.  $2.99

     Adventure Comics #7: DC - Blackest Night banner.  This is fairly
disconnected from #6 and likely from #8, a side story in the big Blackest
Night finale.  It's a good intro to Superboy/Connor for anyone who might be
picking up the book for the crossover, summarizing his life and times (and
time travels) in such a way as to not make it TOO obvious what the plot
device at the end will be.  :)  And there's been enough Black Lantern stuff
in Adventure already that anyone not following the event will still be able
to figure out what's going on.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Secret Six #18: DC - Blackest Night banner.  Lots and lots of fighting
against Black Lanterns to not much effect, followed by Amanda Waller
generally being clever and...Wall-ish.  The biggest revelation of the story,
though, is made almost off-handedly...then again, since it concerns the new
Mockingbird who seems to have materialized out of nowhere in #16 when I
wasn't paying attention, perhaps off-handedly is the right way to deal with
it.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99

     Booster Gold #29: DC - Second feature Blue Beetle ends with this issue
(they're going back to $2.99 regular issues with #30).  The main story is
VERY talky, with everybody debating back and forth over the morality of
dealing with Hank Henshaw while simultanously setting him up to be the Big
Villain of some future Event (keeping it vague enough that I doubt they have
concrete plans, just recognizing that as long as he's in play he's gonna end
up a weak Darkseid stand-in again and kill loads of people in an attempt to
make readers take him seriously).  Also, I wonder if we've now met Rip
Hunter's mom.  Family reunions will be a hoot.  The Blue Beetle story wraps
up fairly cleanly, if abruptly and somewhat ironically self-awarely.  -ly.
Recommended.  $3.99

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 2/10/10: Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe
#22, Gold Digger v3 #105, Marvel Index #13.  Add SWORD #4 and REBELS #13.


Awards:

"Sometimes A Miracle Needs A Hand" Award to Amelia Rules! A Very Ninja
     Christmas

"Maybe You CAN Kill Him More Than Once" Award to Iron Man vs Whiplash #3 
     (of 4)

"Come Back To My Place, I Can Show You My Rocket" Award to Marvel Boy: The
     Uranian #2 (of 3)

"Nekra Should Sue For Idea Theft" Award to The Amazing Spider-Man Presents:
     Jackpot #2 (of 3)

"No, 8th Grade Poetry Is A Lot Worse Than That" Award to Marvel Adventures
     Super Heroes #20

"I Do This Sort Of Thing To Him All Through The Picture" Award to The Amazing
     Spider-Man #620

"Always Carry A Spare" Award to Adventure Comics #7

"Even Her Fingernails Keep Operational Security" Award to Secret Six #18

"Kids Today And Their Angst" Award to Booster Gold #29

   Dave Van Domelen, "The government is messing around with TIME TRAVEL? That is the single scariest thing I have ever, ever heard." - Booster Gold

Comments

[zqadams.livejournal.com]

I believe Mockingbird was offhand mentioned as early as #11 or 12--the people running the prison island mentioned him, which naturally confused the Six IIRC.