Belated comics for Aug 10

[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.
I feel like crack-crazed glass, bleh.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

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.

     None this week.  

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.

     Tales of the Champions #1: Heroic - Really bad marketing move...they
solicit it as "Tales of the Champions", but the cover has that title in small
letters over a huge "Giant" logo.  So I didn't even get this in my pull,
thankfully there were still some on the shelf.  The writing is cornball, and
even with reading the text piece at the beginning it's hostile to new
readers.  Or even old readers who simply haven't re-read their copies in the
past few years.  Has some nostalgic value, but I really wouldn't recommend it
to anyone who isn't already a fan of the setting.  $2.99/$3.99Cn
     Outsiders #27: DC - Wow.  Even if I wasn't in a foul mood to start with,
this would put me in one.  Pointless failure stories tend to do that to me.
Avoid this turkey.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Green Arrow #53: DC - Messner-Loebs picks up the writing duties this
month.  Decent standalone story that takes advantage of recent events.  Eric
Battle's art is okay. Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     JLA #117: DC - Okay.  Pretty by-the-numbers dealing with the asinine
Identity Crisis fallout, although the last page needs to be a poster.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn   
     Villains United #4 (of 6): DC - Clever and amusing.  Recommended.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     Megamorphs #1 (of 4): Marvel - This is a followup to the pack-in comic
for the toy line...and while a couple of the toys have been spotted one or
two places, they haven't really hit wide release yet.  The high concept is
various Marvel characters piloting giant transforming mecha.  McKeever's
story is a bit weak in places, although he does have a good ears for Spidey
wisecracks.  Kang's art is okay, but his human faces are a bit too cartoony.
Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn  [Later note: I got two of the toys.  The
toys SUCK.  And the six parts of the comic aren't numbered, so you have to
kinda guess at the order of reading...not that all six are even available
yet.  Turdburgers.]
     Gravity #3 (of 5): Marvel - Ahh, Act Three, the emotional low point of a
standard "comedy" (in the Shakespearean sense, not necessarily the funny
sense).  Good turning point, it's clear that McKeever is shooting for an
actual story here, not just trying to fill five issues and hoping it gets
picked up for more.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Incredible Hulk #85: Marvel - HoM tie-in.  Fairly standard "serpent in
the garden" sort of story.  No Pyro appearances, so sad.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #68: Marvel - A bit predictable in some places, and I would have
like to see more of the kaiju fight, but a good issue.  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 8/10:

     Transformers Way of the Warrior TPB (which shows as "backordered" on
Diamond's system, meaning they're out).

Awards:

Best Book: eXiles #68

"Giant's Mom Has Got It Goin' On" Award to Tales of the Champions #1

"Trying To Kill The Nostalgia, Apparently" Award to Outsiders #27

"It Ruins In The Family" Award to Green Arrow #53

"Where's Captain Comet When You Need Him?" Award to JLA #117

"Catting About" Award to Villains United #4 (of 6)

"Rar, Hulk Need More Heat Sinks, PPC Too Burninating!" Award to Marvel
     MegaMorphs #1 (of 4)

"A Bridging Scene" Award to Gravity #3 (of 5)

"You Spray It WHERE?" Award to the Bod ad in Hulk #85

"But Can She Sing?" Award to eXiles #68

   Dave Van Domelen, "Fairy sidekick...? Where did you go?" - Fin Fang Foom

Comments

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Outsiders was TERRIBLE. I hope Winnick comes back soon. Was the dialogue in the original series that bad?

VU might feel less like a fluff book if I thought anything real would come from it. Its pretty and fairly interesting but I just can't see anything coming from it other than another story lead for the Inifinite Crisis super-arc...