Comics for August 24

[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.
So tired, so very tired....  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.

     The stench has abated, but the store has instituted a new policy of not
letting the First Looks outside a certain zone...which has no tables or
chairs yet, so I'm not inclined to hang out reading there.  They intend to
set up a reading table there, but it might be a few weeks.  Not that I had
time this week anyway.

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.

     Marvel Superhero Showdown Game: See my LiveJournal for a review,
http://www.livejournal.com/users/dvandom/68143.html  Neutral.
     Marvel MegaMorphs #2 (of 4): Marvel - Some clever bits, and a game
attempt to keep the talking heads sequence from being totally static.  The
big moment of the issue was the last page, though, with the introduction of a
guest star that was probably *inevitable* in a Marvel book about giant
mecha.  :)  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Spider-Man House of M #3 (of 5): Marvel - Missed grabbing this last
week, oops.  In the usual 5-act Shakespearean structure, this would be the
absolute low point, with a turnaround happening by the end of the issue.  Low
point, yes.  Turnaround...well, it looked like it might be happening, then
Waid slam-dunked Parker into the nadir on the last page, heh.  Good story,
good art.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four #530: Marvel - Jam-packed with cliches, but not
necessarily in a bad way.  And at least the Child Protective Services subplot
has no panel time this issue.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Hulk: Destruction #2 (of 4): Marvel - Muniz does the "current time"
pages, with some disturbingly mutated appearances on the *normal* people.
Raiz picks up a post-Dreamwave paycheck by doing some flashback work, which
is okay.  The colorist makes Abomination too brown.  Story continues to be
clever, acknowledging the old stories while retconning them away.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Otherworld #6 (of 12): DC/Vertigo - Beautiful but horribly distracting
art doesn't help the fact that Jimenez is simply juggling way too many
characters.  Even with significant amounts of visual distinction between them
AND what amounts to a roll call page AND vast amounts of omniscient narrator
boxes, it's still unnecessarily difficult to keep track of things.  I
appreciate the ambition behind this worldbuilding, I just think the execution
is lacking.  Mildly recommended, mostly for the art.  $2.99/$4.00Cn (Mature
Readers just for cussin' this time.)
     Teen Titans #27: DC - THE PAIN.  I don't know if Simone is deliberately
writing "down", or if the taint of Liefeld is simply making everything around
it look bad, but despite some good bits in the writing, the overwhelming
reaction I had was DEEEEEP HURTING.  Do I even need to mention that the art
drops the ball several times and makes it harder to figure out what's
happening?  Of course not.  Almost worth getting for the sheer badness.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     JSA Classified #2: DC - Okay, lots of fun with the cross-continuity
guest stars (that actually make sense by the end), but the high point for me
was when Power Girl explained why she has that window on her costume.  It was
actually touching, and made sense.  And, of course, by the last page of the
issue, all the other stuff makes sense too.  As screwed up as PG's origins
have been, it's totally natural that someone like the Last Page Reveal Person
would be involved.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #9: DC - Jeanty turns in this issue's guest
art.  Things fall apart.  The center cannot hold.  The replacement center is
a jerk.  The replacement replacement center is trying his best, though.  The
ambiguity has gotten out of the box.  Where's my sunglasses?  Anyway, clearly
the emotional turning point...things may fall apart a little more before
things completely explode in #12 (hey, that's not a spoiler...you KNOW they
gotta explode, we've see the Checkovian gun on the wall), but the corner has
been turned.  Meanwhile, in Lettercol-Space, Star Boy freaks out about
continuity, and the lettercol gets retconned.  Woot.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.00Cn 
     Conan #19: Dark Horse - Sometimes, things just take care of themselves.
Heh.  Fun issue, and a little mythopoeic payback.  Recommended.  Hey, they're
not all gonna be long-winded reviews.  $2.99
     Gold Digger v3 #66: Antarctic - Heh.  Perry manages to take a comics
cliche about child characters and turn it into a deathtrap.  Fun fun.  Most
of the issue was taken up by an okay fight scene that largely involved "Hey,
I leveled up!" sort of power boosts and a fair amount of angst.  Somewhere
between mildly recommended and recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Invincible #25: Image - Oversized special issue full of origin
sequences.  If, like me, you're a recent reader, you might want to skip ahead
and read the origins vignettes first, since a lot of the subplotty stuff in
the main story makes a lot more sense once you know who everyone is, and why
that little girl is ogling Splode's butt (she's older than she looks).  Of
course, if you skip ahead to the origins, you see the Last Page Reveal Person
of the main story...but if this is your VERY first issue, you won't know who
that person is anyway, so go ahead and read the origins first.  :)
Recommended.  $4.95/$6.05Cn

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 8/24:

     Transformers Way of the Warrior TPB (which shows as "backordered" on
Diamond's system, meaning they're out).  The 1000 Deaths of Baron von Donut
is something that showed up on the 8/24 shipping list, but I never saw it in
Previews, so didn't order it (and the store didn't order it blind).  I will
hopefully have it in a couple weeks.

Awards:

Best Book: Tie between Legion of Superheroes v5 #9 and Invincible #25.

"Hulk Now Goal-Oriented, Puny Humans!" Award to Marvel MegaMorphs #2 (of 4)

"My Own Worst Enemy" Award to Spider-Man House of M #3 (of 5)

"Uncontrolled Re-Entry Is Getting Routine" Award to Fantastic Four #530 

"Abomination Needs More Iodine" Award to Hulk: Destruction #2 (of 4)

"Painting The City Red" Award to Otherworld #6 (of 12)

"Antimatter Grenades!  With My Mind!" Award to Teen Titans #27 (it's a quote
     too)

"A Window Into Her...Soul" Award to JSA Classified #2

"Aren't Editors Talking To Characters A Legion Of NET.Heroes Thing?" Award
     to Legion of Super-Heroes v5 #9

"There's More In Heaven And Earth...And The Alleyways...Than Dreamt Of In
     Your Philosophy" Award to Conan #19

"Everyone Got Buffed By The Latest Issue" Award to Gold Digger v3 #66

"Who Let The...No, I Can't Say It" Award to Invincible #25

   Dave Van Domelen, "I told Brainiac 5 the time traveling was going to mess with her head. Look what it did to Karate Kid." - Garth Rannz, JSA Classified #2 (hey, he showed up in #1, so it's not really a spoiler to reveal he's in this issue)

   Bonus quote from LSH v5 #9, transcribed in MU* form!

Star Boy says, "That's not the letter I read before."
Announcement: Mr. Editor says, "It's a retcon. I rebooted the continuity. Uhh... there was a...a CRISIS."
Light Lass says, "Of a LETTER COLUMN?"
Light Lass looks at Star Boy in disbelief.
Star Boy returns the look.
Star Boy smiles. "Woot."