Comics for Nov 9, FL Nov 16

[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.
Great, I'm coming down with something.  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.

November 16:

     Captain Atom Armageddon #2 (of 9): DC/Wildstorm - Still a bit opaque to
someone who doesn't follow the Wildstorm setting, but improving.  This is
probably a case of "wait for the trade," given that the whole background will
probably come out eventually.  $2.99$4.00Cn
     Marvel Knights Spider-Man #20: Marvel - Hudlin AND Pat Lee, a combo
pretty much guaranteed to keep me from buying.  That said, it's actually
pretty good.  Lee's excesses seem to be mostly curbed, and Hudlin does have a
pretty good ear for Spidey dialogue, at least.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fantastic Four #532: Marvel - I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the
Minbari cosmogeny brought into this.  :)  Can't really say much more without
giving away the plot, but I liked how it turned out, despite use of elements
I normally disdain.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     The Thing #1: Marvel - Strictly speaking, this should be v2 or v3 or
something, but it's not listed as such.  Before I comment on anything else, I
should say that the page after the staple has possibly the most painful
groaner of the month.  DiVito's art is nice, but feels a little too staid for
the more whimsical tone Slott is trying to establish in some of the scenes.
And while good, the humor isn't up to Slott's usual standards...a little too
SNL celebrity spoof for my tastes.  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.

     Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #2: Marvel - It's Hudlin Month in the
crossover.  And he can write Spidey pretty well.  But it's when Black Panther
comes on stage that it becomes apparent he writes everyone like Spidey.
Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Drax the Destroyer #3 (of 4): Marvel - Hm.  Amusing, not too over the
top, and the annoying little girl is less annoying.  Plus there's some
concrete character and plot advancement.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Cable & Deadpool #22: Marvel - When you empathize with Deadpool, maybe
the plot isn't as straightforward as Fabe is insisting.  :)  Still, enjoyable
even for someone who missed Act I.  And II, III, etc.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Captain Universe/Daredevil #1: Marvel - A decent continuation of the
story, but nothing about Faerber's story or Santacruz's art really thrilled
me.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #72: Marvel - Off to the New Universe!  I'd been wondering how
that'd work given events in Quasar, but Bedard's solution is elegant and
effective.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     New Thunderbolts #15: Marvel - Ahh, old home week.  A solid piece from
Nicieza, and the art by Rick Leonardi is generally good.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Teen Titans #29: DC - Okay, here's the dark side of massive crossovers.
Not only is there a bunch of Infinite Crisis stuff happening, but the Red
Hood mess from the Batbooks takes over this issue.  Johns does a decent job
on the story, but I kept feeling like I was to blame for not having read all
the lead-in stuff in other titles (which, BTW, feels like "we know the Cosmic
Reset Button is about ot be pushed, so let's just do all the fanwank stuff
they always told us we shouldn't do" material).  Mildly recommended.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     JLA #122: DC - A lot of OMAC-fighting, mysterious foreshadowing, and
continuing to be cagey about the Mystery Villain.  Meh.  Missable in the
extreme, there's really almost nothing here that wasn't in #120 and #121.
$2.50/$3.50Cn 
     Infinite Crisis #2 (of 7): DC - I got the Perez cover, it's much nicer.
The message of this issue seems to be, "You know how things have sucked
really bad lately?  That wasn't bad writing, that was intentional.  To show
that the bad writing of the 90s was really part of a Cosmic Thing."  I
suppose I'm reasonably okay with that, and I like some of the "fixing the
situation" events of this issue, but I can't help but think this is all gonna
be Dilberted in the end anyway (the Dilbert Future states that no matter what
you try to do to fix things, it'll end up being implemented by someone who
will screw it up).  Oh, and Jimenez does a great job of drawing Power Girl
with realistically "draped" breasts rather than antigrav spheres.  :) Hey,
it's in a LOT of this issue, it merits comment.  Provisionally recommended.
$3.99/$5.50Cn
     Ninja High School #133: Antarctic Press - Speaking of antigrav
spheres....  The "Quagmire High meets The Village" storyline continues to
feel like it's trying too hard to be bwahaha.  Although it IS impressive how
they managed to take just about EVERY "astonishingly powerful but naive girl
who fixates on a schlub" character in anime and manga and roll them into one
character.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Flare #29: Heroic Publishing - I definitely appreciate the inside front
cover summaries on this title...I've been following it for a while now, and I
still need them to keep track of all the Naughty Girls running around
blurring the line between protagonist and antagonist.  At least this issue
puts an in-story spin on some of the weirder personality shifts of late.  The
backup story wasn't as painfully awkward as most of the Sparkplug stories
lately, which is a plus.  Mildly 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 11/9:

     Transformers Way of the Warrior TPB (which shows as "backordered" on
Diamond's system, meaning they're out) Bone Sharps, Cowboys and Thunder
Lizards GN, Exalted #1.


Awards:

Best Book: None this week.

"Work On That Bedside Manner, Doc" Award to Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
     #2

"Coming Out Of His Shell" Award to Drax the Destroyer #3 (of 4)

"Make Your Own Clone Joke" Award to Cable & Deadpool #22

"Unloading A Brick" Award to Captain Universe/Daredevil #1

"At Least SOMEONE Got A Happy Ending Out Of That Mess" award to eXiles #72

"For A Dead Guy, He Gets Around A Lot Lately, Doesn't He?" Award to New
     Thunderbolts #15

"No, Not Red X..." Award to Teen Titans #29

"You Know, I Don't Really CARE Who He Is Anymore" Award to JLA #122

"I Call The Right One Earth-1, And The Left One Earth-2" Award to Infinite
     Crisis #2 (of 7)

"Disturbingly Close To A Chocolate Milkmaid Story" Award to Ninja High
     School #133

"Where's Russ Meyer Hiding?" Award to Flare #29

   Dave Van Domelen, "I am not here to discuss music, birds or fashion." - Justice, eXiles #72

Comments

[jameel.livejournal.com]

Word. I'm all about the Ultimate line, Twisted Toyfare Theater, and Y: the Last Man, all in trade paperback format. I'm also converting my JSA collection to TPBs.