Comics for June 22, First Looks June 29

[dvandom]

News: Due to personnel scheduling issues and a new inventory system, my local shop will likely not be getting comics ready to sell until Wednesday evenings for the rest of the summer. Thus, at best, I will be posting these Capsules several hours later than usual. And at worst, any other issues that arise no longer have a "safety cushion" and may force me to wait until Thursday sometimes. Just so ya know. It also means that if my afternoon is still free, I'll probably read more of the First Looks than before. Starting this week.

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 29:

     Machine Teen #2 (of 5): Marvel - Like this one.  The art is good on
layouts, not so good on details.  The story is moderately interesting,
stretching out the "suspense" without being padded.  Not a bad book, but
neither does it particularly grab me.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     New X-Men Hellions #2 (of 4): Marvel - A pretty good exploration of the
premise, not cheesy or horribly cliched.  Much better than last issue.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Young Avengers #5: Marvel - Big ol' running fight scene, fun stuff.  A
few clunky bits, but none fatal.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Amazing Spider-Man #521: Marvel - Well, I still think Spidey is out of
his elemen dramatically speaking, but he's holding up well in terms of actual
events.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Fantastic Four #528: Marvel - Heh, JMS isn't running the Poverty Plot
after all, he's turning it on its head, while also bringing in plenty of
non-financial crises.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Spider-Man/Human Torch #5 (of 5): Marvel - This manages to wrap things
up AND have its own story in addition to the arc and the continuity wallowing
(and I mean wallow in a good way).  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Albion #1 (of 6): DC/Wildstorm - Well, this is already bound to be
incomprehensible to me because of the fact it's re-imagining Brit comic
characters I never heard of, but the storytelling is deliberately obscure to
boot, and largely seems an excuse for Leah Moore to practice transliterated
accents and slang.  I'm glad I didn't order this.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     The Authority/Lobo Spring Break Massacre: DC/Wildstorm - A bit behind
the calendar this time.  Giffen, Grant, Bisley and Flint, so you know it's
gonna get ugly.  In a fairly amusing way.  Not good enough to inspire me to
buy it, but worth a look at least.  $4.99/$6.75Cn
     Planetary #23: DC/Wildstorm - Another flashback issue, but it advances
the main story in a significant way.  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.

     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
     Supreme Power #17: Marvel MAX - First, a quick warning: the obligatory
breast level is REALLY high this issue, with topless women on a significant
percentage of the pages.  And it's not just the Usual Suspects, either.
Anyway, once you look past the acres of nipplege, there's some clever bits of
plotting and philosophical musings, plus some advancement of the Zarda plot.
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
     Teen Titans #25: DC - Yes, this ends up tying into Infinite Crisis too,
even though it lacks the banner on the cover.  And while there's some good
bits from Johns and decent art from Clark and Thibert, I'm a bit disappointed
that the story doesn't end here.  Why?  Because last month's Outsiders was
pretty bad, and I don't hold high hopes for this month's.  And making readers
go there to see the end of the story makes me less inclined to recommend an
otherwise decent issue.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #7: DC - Clever, clever, clever.  Several
characters show that Waid is giving them credit for being geniuses, and the
forgettable villain of last issue demonstrates some pretty nasty side uses of
his power.  Plus, there's some clever worldbuilding/worldchanging Waid does
that could result in some fun new directions for various characters.
Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Astro City the Dark Age #1 (of 16): 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
     NHS #129: Antarctic Press - The art on this third part of Perry's arc is
a lot easier to follow than the previous two.  The layouts are a bit cleaner,
and the use of "screentones" helps in differentiating things.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.05Cn 
     Bugtown #6 (of 6): Aeon - There's clever, and then there's clever.  The
seemingly random characters introduced in the first few issues come together
to help bring this arc to a satisfying conclusion.  Recommended.
$2.95/$4.25Cn 
     Grimjack #5 (of 6): IDW - Things really get rolling, on both a personal
character level and a city-stomping monster-moshing level.  A good read.
Recommended.  $3.99
     Conan #17: Dark Horse - Conan begins his education in earnest in the
City of Thieves.  This is definitely a "things go Conan's way" issue,
savagely triumphant and all that.  And things do need to go his way (as
opposed to him managing to survive them not going his way) once in a while,
yes?  Recommended.  $2.99
     Flaming Carrot Comics #3 (#35): Image - Ut!  Not only does Burden tell an
amusing done-in-one tale, but he also provides an essay on the process by
which the story came about.  This also seems to be a launching issue for a
new title (Dynamite Girl), but it works on its own merits.  Maybe not the
best technical work I've read, but it amused me more than any other book this
week.  Strongly recommended.  $3.50/$4.40Cn

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 6/22:

     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.

Awards:

Best Book: It's been a sparse week, I'll give it to both LSH v5 #7 and
     Flaming Carrot Comics #3

"Lady Of The Flies" Award to Fantastic Four Foes #6 (of 6)

"It's That 'Just One Vice' That Gets Ya" Award to Spider-Man House of M #1
     (of 5)

"De-Coyed" Award to Livewires #5 (of 6)

"15 of 22 Pages, By The Way" Award to Supreme Power #17

"All Too Human" Award to Otherworld #4 (of 12)

"The Golden Line Between Love And Hate" Award to Teen Titans #25

"Thinking Big...Or Not" Award to Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #7

"The Light In Darkness's Heart" Award to Astro City: Dark Age #1 (of 16)

"Dirty Pool" Award to NHS #129

"Laugh While You Can, Monkey Boy" Award to Bugtown #6 (of 6)

"Life Dies, And Then You Suck" Award to Grimjack Killer Instinct #5 (of 6)

"Bowl Cut" Award to Conan #17

"On A Wing And A Prayer" Award to Flaming Carrot Comics #3

   Dave Van Domelen, "No. I said EARTH was a [level] nine [intelligence]. The WHOLE Earth. In total." - Brainiac 5

Comments

[liabrown]

I just can't take Supreme Power seriously because of all the gratuitous female nudity. I'm not opposed to nudity in comics, but it's such blatant fanboy service that it makes me roll my eyes.

[megaspork.livejournal.com]

Dvandom, I have a favor to ask since you've seen the next Young Avengers... could you IM or email me spoilers on just what their true powers turned out to be? I've been so curious on this for so long, I can't wait til next week. ^^: