Comics for June 23, 2010

[dvandom]

I think my comics list this week may be trolling jarodrussell.

                   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 
            Wait, why is there an earthquake in Ottawa?

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None.  It's
been a kinda "meh" month, although the books Diamond can't be bothered to
ship might be better than what they have been shipping.

"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.

     Iron Man 2 Comic Series Titanium Man: Hasbro - The second wave finally
hit stores around here...most are reluctant to order the new toys because the
first batch is still clogging shelves ("horn mask" Iron Man is part of this
wave, but I got it online).  While the cardback describes Boris Bullski as
the wearer of this armor, it's the Armor Wars-era suit worn by the Gremlin,
more or less.  The snap-on accessory is a flaming fist...yeah, not
particularly fitting.  It looks pretty good if not necessarily comics-
accurate (it's got gray on the flexible parts, rather than being all green),
and the lack of a waist joint (it gets by on just the joint between chest and
abdomen) is a bit weird, but otherwise a solid figure.  Recommended.  $6.96
at Walmart.

     Iron Man 2 Comic Series Guardsman: Hasbro - A sort of companion figure
to the "horn mask" Iron Man, given that the look of that toy is closest to
the one used on the cover of Iron Man #98, which also featured Tony Stark in
the Guardsman suit.  The cardback has Kevin O'Brien as the wearer and has
Guardsman as an enemy of Iron Man's (although the armor's look on Kevin was
slightly different from how it looked in #98).  The design is a bit
simplified, though, without the boot details painted on (something of a
strappy look on the original), instead sticking largely with whole-piece
colors where possible.  There's swivels at the calf and upper forearm so that
the boots and gloves can simply be dark green plastic and they didn't have to
paint the hands or feet at all, but it does mean a loss of some of the
70s-style design elements.  The lighter green paint is closer to chrome than
the metallic green on Titanium Man, to the point of being a bit distractingly
shiny.  Mind you, it's still a lot better than the 90s Guardsman toy, and the
head is spot-on, but it almost looks knockoff-chromey.  The lack of wrist
joints hurts a bit too, and it has the same no-waist-joint problem as
Titanium Man.  Mildly recommended.  $6.96 at Walmart.

     The other toys in this wave are a Hulkbuster armor that looks more or
less like the large Legends version (not the World War Hulk suit, nor the
Hulkbuster from the 90s), and the John Romita Jr.-designed "smooth armor"
Iron Man.  I didn't see Hulkbuster on the shelf, still not sure I'll buy it.
But I'm not getting the JRjr suit.  Oh, and ironmancard.com still just
redirects to marvel.com.  At some point I may just use the cards I have to
work out my own set of rules.  :)


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.

     Nothing this week.


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.

     X-Factor #206: Marvel - Second Coming Revelations banner.  Well, the
gang gets back together and fights a giant mech.  There's some advancement of
the non-MRD plotlines, but it's mostly running fight scenes, which DeLandro's
art is only so-so in.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99

     Thunderbolts #145: Marvel - The Heroic Age banner.  Wow, Walker's art
didn't exactly thrill me last issue, but it's a lot worse this time around.
It's like he's swipefiling half a dozen different artists, most of whom
aren't in the superhero biz.  Ugly, ugly, ugly.  Seriously, Man-Thing is the
least uglified character...okay, I exaggerate.  Fixer gets to be kinda fey.
On the writing side, at least, Parker doesnt' disappoint.  There's even
footnotes to explain the use of continuity, gasp!  Oh, and we get a character
in a wheelchair who refuses to let Fixer outfit him with proper prosthetics,
but said character is a known blockhead who has understandable (if stupid...
and that too is in character) reasons to stick with a wheelchair and a hook-
style prosthetic arm.  Recommended only if you can look past the art,
otherwise mildly recommended.  $2.99

     Iron Man Legacy #3: Marvel - According to Van Lente (I asked him), this
storyline takes place some time between Heroes Reborn and when Tony Stark
became Secretary of State...a pretty broad swath during which I'm pretty sure
he didn't wear the classic armor, so I guess we can chalk that visual up to
art error.  Not that Tony spends any time in red and gold this issue, as he's
the captive of the Zmaj in Transia since the events of #2.  A few amusing
(and non-amusing) parallels to his origin story are added in, along with a
character I kinda hope survives the arc so she can show up in another story.
She does kinda have bullseyes all over her, though.  Recommended.  $2.99

     Namora One-Shot: Marvel - Eh, it's okay, but not Parker's most
compelling work.  Not even his best story this week.  It's a serviceable tale
of Namora out on her own, doing the hoary "seeking out lost colony of
Atlanteans" storyline that both Marvel and DC do pretty regularly.  It serves
to lay out who she is and what her backstory is without being too obvious an
infodump, but that's about it.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     Dynamo5 Sins of the Father #1 (of 5): Image - Things start out a bit
awkwardly as everyone exposits about who they are and how their powers
changed, etc.  The first half of the issue is pretty by-the-numbers
introductory material, but while that's better than just assuming all readers
are old readers, it's not up to Faerber's usual writing standards.  The
flashback sequence is rather better, at least, although it's short.
Hopefully he's gotten the exposit-itis out of his system and things will be
more like the flashback for the rest of the series, but for this issue on its
own I can only give a mild recommendation.  $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 6/23/10: Gold Digger Peebri's Big Adventure #2,
Invincible #72, Prince of Power #2, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #3, Gold
Digger v3 #118.  Add Legion of Super-Heroes #2, which Hastings didn't get
either. 

Awards:

"Maybe Titanium Man Is Catching Fire?" Award to Iron Man 2 Comic Series
     Titanium Man Action Figure

"He Stole Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon" Award to Iron Man 2 Comic Series
     Guardsman Action Figure

"Is Destro Supplying MRD?" Award to X-Factor #206

"Not As Hot As Oracle" Award to Thunderbolts #146

"Possibly As Hot As Oracle" Award to Iron Man Legacy #3

"Ia!  Ia!  Kraken fhtagn!" Award to Namora One-Shot

"Dating Blonde Legacy Heroines Is Always Dicey" Award to Dynamo5 Sins of the
     Father #1 (of 5)

   Dave Van Domelen, "Guess [Supreme] thinks HE'S Earth's champion." "You've met him right? Does that surprise you?" - Captain Dynamo and Omni-Man, Dynamo5 Sins of the Father #1 (of 5)

Comments

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Minor nit; Stark was Secretary of Defense, not State.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my mistake, not his. Will fix for the archive.

[z-gryphon.livejournal.com]

Iron Man did, in fact, wear the classic '60s/'70s armor for a while in Volume III, from issue 31 (cover date August 2000, the aftermath of the "sentient armor" story) to issue 40 (May 2001) - and then the even-more-classic Tales of Suspense "horn mask" model in issue 41, after which the "Under Construction" storyline started and the all-too-short-lived SKIN armor debuted. "The Best Defense" (the Tony-as-SecDef story) began in issue III/73 (December 2003).

And no, I'm not quite such an Iron Man nerd that I knew all that off the top of my head, but I have every issue up to IV/12 (conveniently, just before the really serious sucking began in the run-up to Civil War) on a handy DVD they put out around when the first RDJ movie dropped, so it wasn't much work to look it up. :)

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Aha, right about when I stopped reading. :)

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

Is the Namora one-shot going to give me an aneurysm?

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Doubtful. It was...okay. Didn't look like anything likely to annoy you, but also not sure there's much to hook you in.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Okay, thanks for clearing up when this is supposed to fit into Tony's life. The choice of armour for this arc and the whole secret ID thing was bugging me in that way.