Comics for August 31, First Looks for Sept 7

[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.
Still 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.

First Looks (Aug 31):

     Captain America v5 #9: Marvel - Brubaker does seem to be gearing up for
a bit of "have your cake and eat it too" business here in the B-plot.  The
A-plot is okay, but nothing to write home about.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Young Avengers #6: Marvel - The Kang arc wraps up, and the team turns
into a copy of the early New Warriors.  Seriously.  Too bad the actual New
Warriors aren't allowed to be the new New Warriors....  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Amazing Spider-Man #523: Marvel - The cover makes Spidey look rather
fat.  Contains one of the worst puns I've seen in a while.  And several other
good lines.  I still think this arc is a bit too high rent for Spidey, but
it's a fun story.  $2.50/$3.50Cn

(September 7):

     Cable & Deadpool #19: Marvel - Okay, Scav, you can stop badgering me
(and if Badger were scavving me, he could stop too).  Clearly a recappy sort
of issue, as the principals have a heart to heart chat about their lives.
Probably not a representative issue, making it a *perfect* choice for the
First Looks batch. :/  Oh, and the inker needsto be slapped around for
picking the pen name "M3TH".  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Iron Man House of M #3 (of 3): Marvel - More cracked metal from
Mr. Funana.  Mind you, when constrained to have mostly humanoid forms, Lee's
worst excesses are curbed, aside from the Way Too Many Lines thing.  Decent
story, if a bit externally driven.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Incredible Hulk #86: Marvel - Hm.  On the one hand, the arc is over and
the main plot stuff specific to this book is wrapped up, including Pyro's
status.  On the other, there's no oveall HoM resolution, so hopefully
there'll be an epilogue next issue so I don't have to buy some other book
just to see what happens to Bruce.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #69: Marvel - Another HoM tie-in.  They say you can't go home
again, because either it's no longer home, or you're no longer the you that
left.  And while Beak has changed a bit, the former is definitely the real
reason here.  :)  Anyway, good setup for the HoM crossover.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #12: Marvel - Good storytelling technique here, as the
words tell one tale and the art tells a different (if related) one.  Not the
big climax that's normal for an issue twelve, but that's not necessarily a
bad thing.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn


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.

     Wha...HUH? #1: Marvel - A sort of What The...? crossed with What If?
anthology book, a one-shot.  Jim Mahfood does all the art, which sometimes
works, but not always.  Good for several laughs.  Recommended.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     Supreme Power #18: Marvel MAX - A lot of cameos and quick cuts as the
MAX series wraps up and the stage is set for the parallel miniseries of
Hyperion and Nighthawk under the MK banner.  Some pretty blatant and annoying
Bush-bashing (and given that I have a pretty low opinion of Dubya, that's
saying something).  Only one Obligatory Breast Shot.  Some good pages of
friends talking.  A rather mixed issue.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Tom Strong #34: DC/ABC - Weird done-in-one tale penned by Steve Moore
and drawn by Paul Gulacy.  Gulacy's moved away from the really rigid style he
had in the late 80s and early 90s, but some of his storytelling choices are
kinda offputting and confusing.  Anyway, this is one of those situations
where if Tom Strong hadn't been available, Jess Nevins may have been able to
save the day.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Astro City Dark Age #3 (of 16): DC/Wildstorm - One fun thing about this
arc is figuring out what happened in the stuff that normally goes on in the
foreground, but that is background here.  Little hints and clues that don't
mean anything unless you go in with the mindset that this is a STORY, and
they DO mean something.  Oh, and the foreground stuff moves along nicely
too.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Ninja High School #131: Antarctic Press - The story just sort of wanders
into a parody of girls' school stories (such as Negima), and while there's a
few amusing bits here and there, it's really not doing much for me.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn 
     Flare Adventures #14: Heroic Publishing - Picking up where the old
company left off.  Literally.  This is a reprint of the last League of
Champions comic, with color added.  However, since I gave up on the series
shortly before the end due to the annoyingly right-leaning politics in the
book (storywise and editorial), this is new to me.  The text pages do a good
job of setting up the in-story and behind-the-scenes stuff for new readers
(as well as those who have had 13 years to forget the original story).  One
quibble I have is that there's no indication on the cover that this should be
read before Flare #27.  Anyway, the politics don't seem to be particularly
intrusive this issue, which is good.  Then again, the distance of 13 years
probably has me less likely to be bothered by Herbert Walker hagiography
anyway.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.99Cn
     Flare #27: Heroic Publishing - This is the unpublished second part of
the story reprinted in Flare Adventures #14, plus an unpublished backup story
from over a decade ago.  The main story is okay, if no great shakes.  The
backup is a somewhat muddled read, even with the text piece to help set the
stage for it.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$3.99Cn
     Amelia Rules #14: Renaissance Press - Oooh, glossy pages!  Loved the
opening sequence which homages Understanding Comics (and therefore goes black
and white for a while, just as the book goes glossy, heh).  The other
plotline had me scratching my head a bit, largely because it's been so long
since #13, and the FCBD issue we got in the meantime had nothing to do with
Trish.  Side note about the lettering: it's a pretty good lettering font (and
I suspect the shouty stuff may be hand-done), but you can tell it IS a font
when typos like "taht" slip in.  :)  Recommended.  $2.95
     The Thousand Deaths of Baron von Donut #1: Arsenic Lullaby Publishing -
Due to an error at Diamond, this book did not get listed for August release
in Previews, although it did get stuck in the dealer listing for last week,
in case anyone wanted to order it without any customer orders.  It's also
been listed in the current Previews for November.  This is supposed to be a
retitling of Arsenic Lullaby, although AL is also solicited for November (and
the indicia in the inside front cover of this still calls the book Arsenic
Lullaby).  Anyway, I love the cover...simple yet funny.  There's three one-
page vignettes (love the robots one), two Alien Space Cow Centaur stories,
and two Baron von Donut stories.  The BvD's both have a sort of dark whimsy
to them that I like.  The alien ones were okay, but not as good as the BvDs.
One warning for those picking up this issue: it's not quite as dark and
disturbing as the usual stuff from this publisher.  Oh, it's dark and
disturbing, to be sure, but don't expect it to stay at this level.  :)
Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$3.99Cn

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 8/31:

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

Awards:

Best Book: The Thousand Deaths of Baron von Donut #1

"Spider-Ham Versus Fin Fang Foom!" Award to Wha...HUH? #1

"Can't Wait For The Tsunami From THAT One" Award to Supreme Power #18

"Authorial Intent" Award to Tom Strong #34

"Foiled Again" Award to Astro City Dark Age #3 (of 16)

"Crazy Like A Fox" Award to Ninja High School #131

"No, The Other Bush" Award to Flare Adventures #14

"How Did Miko Get Into This Comic?" Award to Flare #27

"Apparently, She's Been Working Out" Award to Amelia Rules #14

"The Thousand Resolicits Of Arsenic Lullaby Publishing" Award to The 
     Thousand Deaths of Baron von Donut #1

   Dave Van Domelen, "Uhm...the WHAT?" - Baron von Donut, on the cover of his first issue.

   Bonus Quote: "Because I'm telling you right now, if I EVER see a clone again, I'll throw it off the nearest bridge. Thus making an obscene clone fall." - Spider-Man, ASM #523

Comments

[liabrown]

Thanks for the Hulk tip, I've been waiting anxiously :) But I can't wait another 8 days to find out, you must tell me, please! (you can post it in my journal if you don't want to spoil it here)

[liabrown]

PS, that clone joke is so bad it's good.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, that pun isn't original to JMS. I first saw/heard it years ago.

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Erm...I probably won't be seeing Tom Strong for a while. Can you tell me how I would have saved the day? :-)

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Well, the adventure is set in a late 1800s fantasy/adventure novel come to life, and Tom uses the fact he knows the story to help him win. :)

[ratmmjess.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. Yes, I could probably have handled that one. :-)

[megaspork.livejournal.com]

Ack, I'm not going to have a chance to get that amazing spiderman for a week dave... what happens in it? That quote's got me a bit interested now. XD

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

He's fighting those Hydra-made fake Avengers most of the issue. The pun is preceded by something to the effect of "You're not a clone, are you? I can't stand clones."