April 30, 2014

     Dave's Unspoilt Capsules and Awards
     Intermittent Picks and Pans of Comics and Related Media

Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups.  Recommendation does
not factor in price.  Not all books will have arrived in your area this week.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 
    I have accepted a job at Amarillo College for the coming school year.


     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None.

     In this installment: Atomic Robo: Knights of the Golden Circle #1,
Brody's Ghost vol 5, Samurai Jack #7, Astro City #11, Gold Digger #207-209,
My Little Pony Friendship Forever #4, Transformers: Windblade #1 (of 4),
Empowered: Internal Medicine Special.


"Other Media" Capsules:

     Things that are comics-related but not necessarily comics (i.e.
comics-based movies like Iron Man or Hulk), or that aren't going to be
available via comic shops (like comic pack-ins with DVDs) will go in this
section when I have any to mention.  They may not be as timely as comic
reviews, especially if I decide to review novels that take me a week or two
(or ten) to get around to.

     Nothing this month, although I briefly considered Stan Lee's new direct
to video project, and Frankie Munoz's "Pizza Man."  Okay, I didn't even
briefly consider the second one, but I did notice it.  
     Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out this weekend, and I'll review it next
time, although I expect everyone who reads this column will have seen the
movie by then.  ;)


Digital Content:

     Unless I find a really compelling reason to do so, I won't be turning
this into a webcomic review column.  Rather, stuff in this section will be
full books available for reading online or for download, usually for pay.  I
will often be reading these things on my iPod if it's at all possible.

     Amazon acquired ComiXology this month, and the first big change is that
they're not going to be putting up with the Apple Store's 30% cut of all
transactions.  So the ability to buy comics on the iOS app has been removed.
Unfortunately, at least in the short term, the ability to even browse new
releases has been removed.  You can search for a title and add it to your
wishlist as a reminder for later, but there's no one-stop "what's out this
week?" function anymore.  This is bound to hurt impulse sales.  Yeah, I can
go to a browser window on an iOS device and make the transaction, but any
extra step will be bad for grabbing loose money from readers.
     Also, and this may just be my aging iPod, but the new app seems to suck
battery power more quickly.
     On the plus side, the app does keep track of reading across devices, so
I can download on my tablet or desktop and read some, then continue
seamlessly on my iPod.  

     Atomic Robo: Knights of the Golden Circle #1: Red5 Comics - When last we
left Robo, he was stuck in the Old West because it turned out Doctor
Dinosaur's time machine actually sort of worked.  Way back near the dawn of
the series, it was established that time travel doesn't work, except in very
weird situations involve the intrusion of extradimensional entities that
bring their own laws of causality along for the ride.  So nothing in Robo's
experience has prepared him to cope with the reality of a standard temporal
displacement, and he spends a lot of time this issue freaking out over issues
of causality before coming to a decision on how to cope.  It's interesting
seeing the jaded "modern" Robo revert to the sort of uncertainty we otherwise
only see in the deep flashbacks, and now he doesn't have Papa Nikola around
to ask for advice (well, actually, I'm pretty sure he's within the span of
Tesla's lifetime, but going to meet your creator before he created you is
bound to be a Bad Idea causally speaking, no matter how you cope with paradox
on a philosophical level).  The titular Knights don't show up this issue,
suggesting that the whole arc will be an origin story for the group, and it
won't get named until the end.  Some of the named characters this issue might
end up in the Golden Circle, assuming they survive.  Recommended.  $2.99 on
the newly-nerfed ComiXology.

     Bandette #7 came out, but I decided to stop getting the series.  Just
wasn't doing anything for me.


Trades:

     Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, pocket manga, whatever.
If it's bigger than a "floppy" it goes here.

     Brody's Ghost vol 5: Dark Horse - Something of a false climax last
volume, feeling like things were about to go south immediately, but this
issue opens with more of a standoff and then goes back into investigation
mode before returning to the delayed "oh crap" moment.  Looking back over the
two volumes together, I think the overall pacing would have been served
better had vol 4 ended on the standoff...ominous, but not feeling like the
next installment should be the end.  Oh, I'm not saying it was bad
storytelling in general, but this particular bit of tease-pacing stood out
against the otherwise good arc Crilley has going with the plot.  And the
cover just reinforces the impression that this installment should have been
all about Brody vs. Talia, when that's not really where the focus lies.
Recommended.  $7.99/$8.99Cn

     I picked up Transformers: More than Meets the Eye vol 3-4 in the same
Amazon order as Brody's Ghost, but I haven't gotten through them yet, and
there's no rush given that they're over a year old.


Floppies:

     No, I don't have any particular disdain for the monthlies, but they
*are* floppy, yes?  

     Samurai Jack #7: IDW - Eh, dropping the title now.  The resolution to
this two-issue arc was pretty predictable, one might even call it dumbed
down.  The show excelled on its pacing and visuals, neither of which is
really translating well to this format.  Neutral.  $3.99

     Astro City #11: DC/Vertigo - Back to a single-issue story, this time
looking at a day in the life of the administrative assistant to the setting's
equivalent of Doctor Strange and/or Fate.  This is pretty much the kind of
story that comes to mind when Astro City is brought up: an ordinary person
living as ordinary a life as can be had while dealing with the
extraordinary.  People adapt to their situations, or they find a new
situation.  So, no great surprises in terms of story or theme, but well-told
for what amounts to the "ordinary Astro City issue."  Recommended.  $3.99 

     Gold Digger #207-8: Antarctic Press - I gave up on Diamond and ordered a
bunch of recent issues directly from AP (so, of course, Diamond shipped #209
after my set arrived).  207-8 form a two-part story, while 209 is a
standalone, so I'll review them together.
     One of the more unusual aspects of the GD universe is that it's a
post-superhero setting, but not post-superhuman.  There was a big crisis
thing a generation ago, and the survivors simply gave up the capes and tights
and shifted to suits and dresses.  Part of Cheetah's backstory is that she
and a friend were among the few costumed heroes to be active after the
crisis, and she gave it up while still a teen (not that archaeology is safer,
what with all the lost tech and magic).
     This two-parter puts some resolution on one of the danglers of the old
superheroic age, the true final fate of Ex Mortis, the big baddie behind the
crisis.  Of course, it also provides fodder for a rather lot of breast jokes,
which distracted a bit from the story (heroic mages who focus their power
through their cleavage and store it in their breasts, so it rose above the
already considerable cheesecake levels that are the norm around the GD
universe).  I did like the semi-retired 70s hero who was like a cross between
Ant-Man (without the shrinking) and V.V. Argost, though.  Mildly
recommended.  $3.99 each.

     Gold Digger #209: Antarctic Press - A done-in-one featuring more of
Gina's archaeology class, with her niece Tiff along for the ride.  Primarily,
though, it's an Ayane story, with the scary-eyed fighter desperately trying
to get past her own aura.  (The cover image of Gina in a deathtrap is pretty
much unrelated to the story inside, a pity considering the previous several
issues actually managed to have covers that matched the interiors.  There's a
hair dyeing joke in there somewhere.)  Recommended.  $3.99

     My Little Pony Friends Forever #4: IDW - This one pairs up Twi and her
big brother Shining Armor, and further expands on the comics-continuity idea
of Shining Armor as a tabletop gamer in his youth.  Mebberson gets pretty
aggressive with the pop cultural references this time, although some may have
been put there at he behest of writer Rob Anderson (crystal ponies based on
TV's Frank and Pearl Forrester are probably Amy's, but the Mario and Liugi
ponies look like they were in the script, for instance).  A fairly
straightforward dungeon crawl adventure, what Learning Of Lessons occurs is
early in the story and felt kinda obligatory.  "Well, I certainly learned
something...now let's get back to the action!" sort of thing.  
     Thanks to both flashbacks and the evidence of his architectural
programs, King Sombra's character gets a bit more development, even if it IS
along pretty standard Evil Overlord lines.  And the point continues to get
driven home that in Equestria, librarians are not to be trifled with.
Period.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Transformers Windblade #1 (of 4): IDW - This series comes with a lot of
baggage, so for the people who remained blissfully unaware of it, here's the
short version.  Last year, Hasbro had a "fan created character" contest,
which amounted to voting on one of a limited set of options for things like
alternate mode, weapon, name (from a list cleared by legal), and most fraught
of all, gender.  The winning combination was Windblade, a female jet Autobot
with a sword.  Unfortunately, the IDW continuity into which Windblade would
be introduced had already established that Arcee was the only female
Transformer, the result of Shockwave conducting cruel experiments to see if
he could replicate organic-style gendering.  IDW's Arcee's origins and
subsequent treatment have not exactly been a proud part of the company's
treatment of gender issues, to say the least.  So, into that environment
Windblade was introduced, and a certain percentage of the fandom lost their
**** over it, on multiple sides of the issue.  To the writers' credit,
in-story it wasn't treated as a huge deal, just the occasional, "Um, what's
up with the 'she' thing anyway?" from characters who had never met Arcee.
Windblade and her companions Nautica and Chromia were simply from a colony
where gender division arose so long ago no one thought anything of it.
     So, the furor slowly died down.  Then the promised Windblade series was
announced, with a female writer and a female artist, and the troll pen got
all stirred up again.  I expect a lot of orders for this book were made
purely to spite the trolls, in fact.
     And yes, that was the short version.  I probably missed several
important nuances, but I believe I got the pith of it.
     So, on to the actual story we got.  It's part of the aftermath of Dark
Cybertron, so there's a LOT of plot threads that need to get dealt with.
Mairghread Scott does a decent job of setting up what needs to be set up,
helped significantly by Sarah Stone's ability to convey emotion with
expression and stance (i.e. even if you have no idea who Starscream is, just
skimming the art without reading any text would tell you most of what you
needed to know about him and how people think of him).  One might argue she
goes a bit far for faces supposedly made of metal, but that particular boat
sailed decades ago when Andy Wildman was drawing Transformers for Marvel.  :)  
     The writing has a few too many demands on it, and I suspect this is
going to be a case of writing for the trade, but the art picks up a lot of
the burden and makes it worth getting now rather than waiting for the
collection.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Empowered: Internal Medicine Special: Dark Horse - Another slightly
smaller than standard comics one-shot with guest art, this time from Brandon
Graham.  The premise is fairly simple, an Incredible Voyager sort of thing,
only with a giant patient instead of shrunken doctors.  Emp and Ninjette get
sent inside an alien living starship to deal with a parasitic infection.
It's a decent, light romp on its own.  What makes the issue significant,
though, is the framing sequence drawn by Adam Warren, which foreshadows
something really nasty coming down the pipe.  Recommended.  $3.99


     Dave Van Domelen, "Millions of years of planet-wide civil war and NO ONE
killed that guy?" - Chromia, regarding Starscream, Transformers: Windblade #1 

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