Comics for December 21, FL Dec 28 or 29

[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.
Happy shortest/longest day of the year!  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.

December 28 (or 29?), 2005:

     JLA Classified #15: DC - More Ellis/Guice.  Rather disappointing.
There's some good patter, but almost all of it sounds totally wrong coming
out of the mouths it does.  $2.99/$4.00Cn
     The Sentry #4 (of 6): Marvel - Still saying it's out of 8 on the cover,
so maybe the solicitation revising that to 6 is wrong.  Not that I care...
there's some interesting bits, but also stretching out really obvious stuff.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Black Panther v3 #11: Marvel - A really good Spider-Man teamup story...
but the artist put Spidey in Black Panther's costume for some reason.  Lots
of nostalgia to be had, too.  I'll probably buy this one.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     Amazing Spider-Man #527: Marvel - Philosophical and anti-climactic, I
don't mind not buying this part of the tale.  $2.50/$3.50Cn
     Amazing Fantasy #16: Marvel - Furman is back, writing Death's Head.
Sort of.  Not much personality shown yet.  Good Paladin backup.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     X-Factor #2: Marvel - Getting down to business with a case, good.  And
the character interactions are up to PAD's usual standard.  Art is still too
inky.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     She-Hulk v2 #3: Marvel - also counted on the cover as the hundredth
Shulkie issue overall.  Oversized special issue, lots of guest artists, but
all written by Slott.  Fun main story.  Then there's reprints of the first
issues of the first Savage She-Hulk book and the Byrne one.  Recommended.
$3.99/$6.50Cn 

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.

     Ninja High School #134: Antarctic Press - Hm, a Serious Storyline is
kicking in, amidst the "Chobits meets Black Magic M-66" tomfoolery.  A decent
read overall.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Gold Digger v3 #69: Antarctic Press - A bit confusing in places,
especially with some flashbacks that don't clearly look like flashbacks.  The
main plot with Gothwrain is finally resolved amidst appropriately large
explodies, though.  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.05Cn
     Exalted #2: Udon Comics - Still haven't seen #1 yet, but it's a
testament to the competence of the writers (EVERYTHING is done by teams at
Udon) that I was able to follow this without having read #1.  Okay, it
probably helps that I own several hundred dollars' worth of Exalted books, so
none of the setting stuff was gonna cause me problems.  :)  The art team
integrates well enough that there's no jarring style changes between artists
(although you can tell the difference if you look carefully), and I liked how
the game-based material in the back was presented.  I couldn't care less
about the Rival Schools backup, though, and once I was sure it wasn't related
to the Exalted storyline I stopped reading (yes, I'm aware of the existing
Rival Schools property, but it could have been a weird crossover gag story).
Recommended.  $3.49
     Supreme Power: Hyperion #3 (of 5): Marvel MAX - Dark alternate timeline
stuff, in which a twisted version of the Gruenwald maxiseries is retold.  It
has its moments, but is too focused on summaries.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn 
     Fantastic Four #533: Marvel - The Child Welfare subplot rears its stupid
head again, but there finally seems to be an end in sight.  The main plot is
okay, but mostly prelude.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Conan #23: Dark Horse - Another Young Conan tale, this one worked better
for me than most of the ones in this series, and Greg Ruth finally brought
his palette out of just browns and occasional blue.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Robotech Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4 (of 5): DC/Wildstorm - When
your Invid drones are getting sweat-drops because of the plot, it may be time
to rethink the storyline.  Mildly recommended.  $3.50/$4.75Cn
     Infinite Crisis #3 (of 7): DC - Ehn.  A lot of sound and fury that
signifies nothing unless you've been reading the right tie-ins.  There's some
revelations here and there, and a lot of characters die in the background
(especially in murkily colored scenes, where it's hard to tell WHO died).
All in all, despite all the press releases to the contrary, I am more
convinced than ever that the Cosmic Reset Button is going to be invoked on
this storyline.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99/$5.50Cn

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 12/21:

     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, Transformers Fallen Star TPB, Keif Llama V2.1, Penny
Arcade #1.

Awards:

Best Book: None.

"Cutey Mazinga Flash" Award to Ninja High School #134

"Isstvan Sends His Regards" Award to Gold Digger v3 #69

"Introductory Adventure" Award to Exalted #2

"You'd Think He'd Have Changed Costumes" Award to Supreme Power: Hyperion
     #3 (of 5)

"Weapons Of Ass Destruction" Award to Fantastic Four #533

"Deep Down In Your Bones" Award to Conan #23

"Final Boss" Award to Robotech Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4 (of 5)

"Breeding Will Tell" Award to Infinite Crisis #3 (of 7)

   Dave Van Domelen, "Wow, she's speaking in L337! I didn't know it was *possible* to do that out loud!" - Arthur, NHS #134

Comments

Re: Hey Dave....

[loki-liesmith.livejournal.com]

And isn't he also currently showing up in Green Lantern?