Comics for January 25, FL Feb 1

[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 got mail meant for 6 other people today.  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.

February 1, 2006:

     Sentry #5 (of 8): Marvel - Looks like it really is eight issues.  Better
than the other issues I've read, if still kinda padded.  I can now say
confidently that this could have been a pretty good four issue series, but at
eight it just drags.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     New Excalibur #4: Marvel - Comics were late, so I grabbed more First
Looks to keep me busy.  :)  Decent art, although Cummings has trouble with
those outside the realm of real woorld human bodies.  The story is scattered
and nearly incoherent at times.  Some bits have potential, but that potential
is frittered away.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Spider-Girl #95: Marvel - On the plus side, DeFalco's retro writing does
a good job of filling in details for people who haven't read any of the
previous 94 issues.  We need more of that in comics.  On the minus side, some
of that selfsame retro writing is kinda painful to read.  Frenz's
Kirby-meets-Buscema art is generally okay, but there's stuff every so often
that looks phoned in.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Marvel Romance Redux #1: Marvel - The high concept here is to take old
Marvel romance comics and rewrite all the words.  This is...really awful.  I
mean it.  It's clearly trying for the "so bad it's good" thing, but it's just
unreadable.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     X-Factor #3: Marvel - I really hope this book gets a new artist soon,
because the scratchy murkwerks are really holding the title back.  Good
story, though.  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.

     All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #1 (of 12): Marvel
- Abraxas to Batwing.  Tied into www.marvelunapp.com's listing efforts.  This
is intended to supplement the recent year-labeled themed guides, not supplant
them, so there's a lot of minor characters.  Entries range from a half page
for truly minor characters to three for big guns like Strucker.  The
half-pagers do kinda mess up the alphabetical order, though.  Same basic
format as the 2005 et al guides.  Recommended.  $3.99/$5.75Cn
     Amazing Fantasy #17: Marvel - The new Death's Head shows some
personality this issue, but it's kinda blunted as yet, not much to go on
aside from some fairly generic Good Guy stuff.  The Morbius backup is piles
of angst and murky art.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Black Panther v3 #12: Marvel - This one is set in post-Katrina New
Orleans, but at least only a few pages are devoted to heavy-handed politics.
The grand tour of all of Marvel's black heroes continues, and BP himself is
almost a background character...but at least doesn't seem as OUT of
character.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     The Thing #3: Marvel - Good ending to the first arc.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.25Cn
     eXiles #76: Marvel - 2099 wraps up fairly well, leaving as much of a
mess in the wake of Proteus as in New U.  :)  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.25Cn
     Fallen Angel v2 #2: IDW - A bit on the talky side.  Confrontational
talking, mind you, but still talking.  Woodward's painted art feels a little
washed out even in the non-flashback sequences (and there's a LOT of
sepiatoned flashbacks).  After almost all of v1 being mysterious and stingy
with the info, Peter David's certainly going whole hog with backstory now,
which at least makes the series more accessible to new readers.  Oh, and
there's also just a few bits of "Let's Bump(er?) it up to R" nudity, fair
warning if you tend to read your books in a public place.  And there's page
numbers, which is rather scandalous these days.  Recommended.  $3.99


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 1/25:

     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,
Captain America and the Falcon: Secret Empire TPB, PS238 #14.  I've made a
trade for the Transformers TPBs, so will have them marked off next week.

Awards:

Best Book: None

"When You Have Guys Named Vindaloo Who Shoot Flames, It May Be Time To Cull
     The Mutant Herd" Award to All New Official Handbook of the Marvel
     Universe A-Z #1 (of 12)

"Is The Mad Scientist In Jail Supposed To Look Like Martha Stewart?" Award 
     to Amazing Fantasy #17

"Extremely Red Necks" Award to Black Panther v3 #12

"Banner Smash?" Award to The Thing #3

"Like A Hermit Crab, But No So Liable To Die Randomly" Award to eXiles #76

"Time Is An Illusion, Bar Closing Time Double So" Award to Fallen Angel v2 #2

   Dave Van Domelen, "Interesting. You appear to be coated with a morphing metal alloy. Know what that makes you?" "Your worst nightmare?" "No. Highly conductive." *ZZAP* - Tony Stark, Brynocki, and a convenient conduit, Thing #3