dvandom

         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.
Nearly 90 yesterday, nearly 30 tomorrow.  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.  Had a public lecture I wanted to go to this afternoon,
which ate up the time I'd normally spend hanging around the comic shop.


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.

     DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #4 (of 4): DC - Still way too
expositiony, but some nice fan service (in terms of continuity, that is, not
in terms of nudity).  All in all, the series read more like a pitch for an
actual series, with nice art.  But anyone who's been reading comics for more
than a decade (or reads a lot of backissues) might find it worth picking
up.  And Jimenez actually makes some coherent sense of Donna's convoluted
backstory.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1 (of 5): DC/Wildstorm -
Speaking of glimpses at convoluted backstory...I've read just enough quarter
bin issues of Sentinels to have some idea what's behind the curtains in this
issue, but fortunately the Waltrips know better than to assume their audience
here has any idea what happened in that comic.  It's a bit frenetic in the
"we have to connect up to Point X in time for the release of the cartoon"
sense, as one might expect, but aside from feeling a bit disjointed it didn't
cause serious readability problems.  Yune's visual storytelling could use
some work, though.  Mildly recommended.  $3.50/$4.75Cn
     Outsiders #29: DC - Sort of a Day of Vengeance tie-in, due to the Shazam
Family splashover.  I have to admit that I like how Winick handles the
villains of this piece, so I probably liked this issue more than the actual
story would merit, but so be it.  These are my opinions, after all.  :)
Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     JSA #78: DC - Okay, the cover proclaims that "Infinite Crisis is here!"
So did the cover of Outsiders, actually.  Not really seeing it.  But that's a
good thing, really.  The plot of this new arc is largely self-contained to
JSA, using its own characters rather than forcing a crossover thing onto
'em.  BTW, in terms of timeline, this comes before Outsiders #29 (again with
the Shazam stuff).  Anyway, interesting story.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Devil Dinosaur v2 #1: Marvel Monsters Group - Okay, not really v2, since
the official title includes the imprint.  The lead story features Kirby
homage art by Eric Powell, the second story has actual Kirby art, being a
reprint of 1960's Journey into Mystery #62 featuring Xemnu (who is mostly
called The Hulk, predating Dr. Banner).  The main story seems to de-retcon
DD's origins a tad.  Otherwise, a fun and fluffy story.  Recommended.
$3.99/$5.75Cn
     Uncanny X-Men #465: Marvel - HoM tie-in.  Lots of fighting and plot
device smacking, and that's about it for this disappointing end to what
started with such promise.  Then again, it's looking like nobody is allowed
to steal any thunder from the main HoM book.  Neutral.  $2.50/$3.50Cn  (Note:
didn't actually buy this, so no Award below.)
     Incredible Hulk #87: Marvel - Ooooh, main timeline consequences of HoM.
Decent denounment, but sadly also marks Peter David's last issue on the book
(for the time being, anyway).  Nice Kubert art, but not his best.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Team-Up #13: Marvel - Good tie-up of loose ends and plot threads
before heading on to the even bigger plot threads.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     New Thunderbolts #13: Marvel - Okay, it's a hero-on-hero fight issue,
but it's very well done.  Both Nicieza's writing and Grummett's art (there's
a two page splash near the end that has amazingly well put-together
blocking).  Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Gold Digger Halloween Special #1: Antarctic - Several vignettes, with
some fan material but not as much as Annuals and Swim Suit Specials have.
The pacing on the first one was a bit off, but otherwise a good special.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn

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 10/5:

     Transformers Way of the Warrior TPB (which shows as "backordered" on
Diamond's system, meaning they're out).  Flare #28 didn't show up here, but
was on the store's invoice.  Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder Lizards did not
show up, despite being on the invoice this week.  And I forgot to pick up
Uncanny X-Men, but don't really regret it.


Awards:

Best Book: New Thunderbolts #13

"Fan Service With Big Bouncy Continuity Implants" Award to DC Special: the
     Return of Donna Troy #4 (of 4)

"Was Any Death More Deserved?" Award to Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow
     Chronicles #1 (of 5)

"Sinthesis" Award to Outsiders #29

"Sez You" Award to JSA #78

"The Terrible Two-Millions" Award to Devil Dinosaur #1

"This Is Not My Beautiful Home, This Is Not My Beautiful Wife" Award to 
     Hulk #87

"I'd Like To See Wolverine Try Healing From THAT!  No, Seriously, I'd Like 
     To See Him Try" Award to Marvel Team-Up #13

"Not Power Man vs. Not Power Man!" Award to New Thunderbolts #13

"Did Anyone Hand Out Tuna-Flavored Candy?" Award to Gold Digger Halloween
     Special #1
Dave Van Domelen, "So tell me, you wear all the strange costumes to look crazy, or to scare people, or is it a strange sex thing?" "Kind of a case-by-case basis." - Sabbac and Shimmer, Outsiders #29