Comics for October 12, FL October 19

[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'm secretly from Earth-23.  Really.  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.

October 19:

     Captain Atom Armageddon #1 (of 9): DC/Wildstorm - This is the second
miniseries with "Captain Atom" and "Armageddon" in the title.  And this one
isn't really impressing me any more than the other one.  Certainly not enough
to buy it.  From chatting with someone more familiar with the Wildstorm side
of things, this is also apparently rather hostile to the uninitiated.
$2.99/$4.00Cn
     Astro City Dark Age #4 (of 16): DC/Wildstorm - Last part of Book One.  A
lot of resolutions, although unsurprisingly the personal, human story gets
the focus, and the big history-shaping story is mere backdrop.  :)
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.00Cn


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.

     MegaMorphs #4 (of 4): Marvel - Artist Kang seriously needs some
reference material...the mcguffin at the end looks nothing like what it's
supposed to be.  As for the story...ehn.  McKeever does some decent bits here
and there, but it was just too much pointless fight sceneage (as opposed to
entertaining fight sceneage) ending in the promise/threat of a sequel.  But
if the toys sell as badly as their low quality merits, I doubt there will be
a sequel.  Very mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Where Monsters Dwell #1: Marvel Monsters Group - Four tales.  Two
(Giffen's and PAD's) are more tongue in cheek, a third is a new story that
plays with the standards of monster comics in a more serious way (by Jeff
Parker), and then there's a classic reprint that is totally uncredited but
looks to be drawn by Kirby.  Not great, but good.  Recommended.
$3.99/$5.75Cn 
     Gravity #5 (of 5): Marvel - Granted, this book has largely been playing
"retell old Spider-Man stories", but McKeever's been doing a good job.
There's a few surprises amidst the predictable plot points, and we get a
taste of Gravity's origins (and I can't help but wonder if it's a Great Lakes
Avengers tie-in, which would be tremendously cool).  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1: Marvel - This starts with a bang,
sorta.  ;)  PAD brings a few new bits to Spider-Man's life, as one would
expect from a new title, and if one might accuse him of ripping off Batman's
supporting cast in the process...well, it's a good thing to rip off in this
case.  The writing is good enough to mostly counter my fears about the whole
lateral crossover thing with possible Clone Saga flavoring.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     eXiles #71: Marvel - I've found that the HoM tie-ins I like don't try to
deal with the actual cause of the White Event, but just use the new setting
as a temporary backdrop.  While the running fight scene isn't as interesting
as I'd hope to see given the villain of this piece, Bedard does manage to
avoid having HoM suck the drama out of his story (and in a clever way uses it
for more drama).  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Cable & Deadpool #21: Marvel - Amusing fluff for the most part, with a
running fight scene that's fun to read.  A little too close to breaking the
fourth wall with characters that work better played straight, though.
Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Green Arrow #55: DC - Yet another issue-long fight scene for me to wade
through this week.  Decent on technical merits, but I'm getting tired of
Identity Crisis fallout plots.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Villains United #6 (of 6): DC - Well, the Big Reveal is a little cheaty,
but does justify how this is a "countdown" title.  Still, pretty good
overall.  Recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     JLA #120: DC - There's a big Mystery Villain in this one, unrelated to
the cliffhanger at the end of #119, and a fair amount of misdirection as to
his identity, but it seems to me that there enough "fair" clues to ID him
amidst the red herrings.  Bob Harras's prose is a bit purple in places, but
at least the plot seems to be moving along at a good pace.  Derenick's art is
a shifting kaleidoscope of what appear to be swipes, but I may be unfair in
that characterization.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Infinite Crisis #1 (of 7): DC - Jimenez is in full Perez-emulation
hoo-hah mode here, as the story is mostly a trip through all the lead-up
stories to make sure anyone starting here at least knows the basics.  There
is also, unfortunately, a guest appearance by Pointless Death Man as Johns
slaughters some minor characters to show how horrible things have gotten.
Sigh.  In the end, it looks nice, has a bit of fanwank at the end, and I'll
likely keep reading it only to stay abreast of things, not because it really
pulls me in (because it certainly didn't this month).  Mildly recommended.
$3.99/$5.50Cn 
     Meta Docs #0: Antarctic Press - This one is written by Joe Dunn M.D.,
Ben's brother, who generally doesn't write comics (he did the NHS special on
STDs), and drawn by Rod Espinosa.  I got this on the strength of liking
Espinosa's art (and he delivers as usual, including a cityscape that looks
like a confluence of every major city), but the writing was decent as well.
Joe manages to include enough technical talk to make the titular docs feel
real, without overwhelming readers with jargon.  Recommended.  $4.95/$6.70Cn
(48 pages, color)
     Ninja High School #132: Antarctic Press - A bit heavy on the educational
editorializing at the start, but at least the story isn't as weak as the past
few.  Mildly recommended.
     The Tick: Days of Drama #2: NEC - The 19 page lead story felt a little
padded out, with the main joke being driven into the ground (and having been
done better in the cartoon anyway).  The Arthur backup was...not too much of
anything, really.  And the little Tick backup was one page that didn't stand
up on its own.  Mildly recommended.  $3.95
     Amelia Rules #15: Renaissance Press - Some definite dark turns this
issue, as well as a clear demonstration of the difference between annoying
and obnoxious (when it comes to people).  There's also a cute technical trick
with panel layout in the first few pages.  All in all, as the overall plot
goes, this is a major issue, full of the threat of death and the breaking of
hearts.  Seriously.  Strongly recommended.  $2.95 


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 10/12:

     Transformers Way of the Warrior TPB (which shows as "backordered" on
Diamond's system, meaning they're out), Flare #28 and Bone Sharps, Cowboys
and Thunder Lizards.  Almost missed Amelia Rules, as Diamond shorted my shop,
but since I was there and the other people who had ordered it weren't, I
convinced them to sell it to me.  :)


Awards:

Best Book: Amelia Rules #15

"Bot Fodder" Award to MegaMorphs #4 (of 4)

"Electric Slide" Award to Where Monsters Dwell #1

"Someone Gets It" Award to Gravity #5 (of 5)

"Without A Trace" Award to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1

"That's ONE Way Out..." Award to eXiles #71

"Not-So-Great Minds Think Alike Too" Award to Cable & Deadpool #21

"I Thought She LIKED Fire" Award to Green Arrow #55

"Out For The Count" Award to Villains United #6 (of 6)

"Batman Is A Dick" Award to JLA #120

"Jobbed" Award to Infinite Crisis #1 (of 7)

"That's Gonna Leave A Mark" Award to Meta Docs #0

"Read Or Detention" Award to Ninja High School #132

"THAT'S Using Your Brain!" Award to the Tick Days of Drama #2

"Dare To Be And You Will Survive" Award to Amelia Rules #15

   Dave Van Domelen, "Well, this is just bad on so MANY levels..." - Spider-Man, FNSM #1

Comments

[z4nd4r.livejournal.com]

True. I don't get that. CN boggles me a lot though.

Like most of the "new" sunday programming. What the hell is up with that.