May 2013

     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 
     Well, it was nice teaching for a bit again, back to unemployment.
     
     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Iron Man 3

     In this installment: Iron Man 3, Superman: Unbound, Lego Batman the
Movie: DC Heroes Unite, Action Lab Confidential FCBD, Atomic Robo FCBD 2013,
Molly Danger/Princeless FCBD, Scratch 9 FCBD, Steam Engines of Oz FCBD,
Double Barrel #10, Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures #8, Bandette #5,
Spirits, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #7, My Little Pony Micro-Series
#4. 

"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.

     Iron Man 3: Marvel - In Avengers, Captain America asks Tony what he is
if you take away the armor.  Tony's glib answer is expanded on here, with the
middle of the movie being more of "Burn Notice, Super-Science Edition" (and I
mean that in a good way).  In addition, Tony's near-death experience in
Avengers is a core source of conflict in the man vs. self style.  This is one
of those movies where merely describing the plot wouldn't do it justice,
however, because both the writing and the acting take what sound like dumb
ideas and makes them work.  The denounment has some problems if you think
about it too hard, and there's one bit near the beginning that doesn't make
much sense unless you know it's setting up the extra 4 minutes added (badly)
for the Chinese release, but it's well worth seeing if you somehow managed to
put it off this late.  Strongly recommended.

     Superman: Unbound: DC - The latest OAV movie adapting a recent comic, in
this case the Superman: Brainiac GN by Johns and Frank.  Unfortunately, this
is Roid Rage Brainiac, and not one of the good interpretations of the
character.  Still, with half the cast of Castle involved in voicing it, I
decided to give it a chance.
     This is one of those "Neo-Superman Family" settings, where they try to
update the 1960s stuff to "modern" sensibilities without bringing in anything
outside of the Superman books (i.e. when Brainiac attacks Earth, there's no
Justice League or Batman or whatever...just Superman and Supergirl).  While I
didn't have quite as negative a reaction to this as others, neither do I
think too much of it.  Yes, it's more plausibly modern for Lois to be
flipping Brainiac the double bird while in a shrunken bottle city, but that
just highlights how the basic premise is incompatible with plausible
modernity.  
     It includes a sneak peek for the next movie, "Justice League: the
Flashpoint Paradox."  The first words spoken in the preview are about how the
Flashpoint universe is a depressing place and you wouldn't want to live
there.  Why would I want to watch there, then?  The small amount of
Flashpoint I was exposed to in Booster Gold didn't pique my interest in
knowing more, I don't expect I'll be buying this one.
     Meh.  $15-20 depending on store.

     Lego Batman the Movie: DC Heroes Unite - And now for something a lot
less angsty and bulgy.  As with most Lego movies of late, it's released with
an exclusive minifigure...in this case, Clark Kent with his shirt open to
reveal the big red S.  Why Clark and not Bruce?  Don't ask me, I don't make
these decisions.  Part of the DC Heroes Uniting, I suppose.
     The opening is promising, using a variation of the Elfman theme and with
Clancy Brown being the first credited voice (plus favorites like Townsend
Coleman and Rob Paulsen).  It's your basic "swooping around the Bat-symbol in
closeup" thing, but with the symbol made of Lego bricks.  Once that's over,
it's straight into...Metropolis, with Superman flying Batman to Lexcorp.
Yep, Clancy is reprising his Luthor role from STAS.  Elfman isn't the only
musical homage, with Superman getting a version of his John Williams theme.
     For the most part, it's a sillier take on the BTAS/STAS movie where Lex
and the Joker team up, but with a giant Joker mecha instead of a flying wing
as the big Kryptonite-powered plot device.  Some of the humor is a bit forced
(especially tbe bits involving Robin), but all in all it's one of the better
DC movies of the past few years.  It also has the usual random bonus episodes
(two from Brave and the Bold, one from Teen Titans), some featurettes and
stop motion Lego shorts.  Recommended.  About $15 for DVD.


Free Comic Book Day 2013:

     I didn't find any physical comics that aroused my interest (although the
local Hastings did have a dozen titles on hand, much better than last year),
so these are all digital comics.  That also means you can still get them free
yourself, if interested.  Unless otherwise mentioned, they're available at
ComiXology under "free comics".

     Action Lab Confidential: Action Lab - This is a big one, claiming 200+
pages covering loads of Action Lab titles, plus interviews with creators.
It's actually about 110 pages, though, with most titles getting 10 pages,
only half of which are actual story pages.  If these were five pages custom
written to be five page stories, that'd be one thing, but it's just the first
five pages of each #1 issue.  Sometimes the story doesn't even get to the
main concept in five pages (i.e. the mechasuit series has no mechasuits, the
story that is supposed to be about a VR game leaking into the real world
barely even introduces the game, Princeless stops just before the main
character gets the idea to save herself, etc).  All it's really good for is a
taste of the art style, which in most cases is mediocre.  I certainly wasn't
inspired to look more into any of these titles from this sampler, so it fails
in its job.

     Atomic Robo FCBD2013: Red5 Comics - The electronic version is just the
12 page Atomic Robo story, no "and friends" as I presume the physical comic
is still doing.  Mostly another "take down scientific creation gone rogue"
story, but it ties into the slowly-building metaplot with Majetic-12.
There's some fun bits here and there, but it's no Doctor Dinosaur story.
Recommended.  

     Molly Danger/Princeless: Action Lab - Unlike the Action Lab sampler,
this is two actual stories.  Molly Danger is by Jamal Igle, and unless
there's some gag intended for later use, naming the super-smart brain in a
jar villain "Medula" makes it feel like the editor wasn't doing their job.
The premise looks somewhat interesting, but not enough for me to pick up the
series.  
     Princeless gets rather more development here than in the sampler pack,
and it's a mix of good premise and humor...plus some really lame places where
things are pushed past funny and into stupid.  It's like trying to build an
entire world around the "Solomon Grundy no fight girls!" DC short animation.
It feels like an axe being ground until it's actually blunted.  They might
still be finding their footing, worth taking a look a few more issues later
if the book is still around.

     Scratch 9: Hermes Press - This is a reprint of the first issue of the
series, but since I'd never heard of the series before, I don't mind the
reprint nature as much as, say, DC's Superman reprint FCBD offering (which
you'll notice I didn't get).  The premise here is that a cat (who is
anthropomorphic in the mental but not physical sense, in a world where all
animals can talk to each other but are mutually unintelligible to humans)
gets experimented on and gets Manikin's powerset, but with 8 alts from the
timeline that can be summoned.  This issue pretty much only sets up the
premise and what appears to be the long-term quest (getting back to his
human), we only see one of the "other lives".  Moderately interesting, but
hopefully it found its voice a little more clearly in later issues...it
suffers from "is it silly or is it deadly serious?" syndrome.  Not a balance
of the two, more of a fluttering back and forth.

     Steam Engines of Oz: Arcana Comics - This is an excerpt from an upcoming
graphic novel.  Yes, it's another "steampunk Wizard of Oz" comic, but it goes
about things a little differently than the usual "take a piece of
Victorian-era literature and glue some gears on it," by setting it several
generations after the Tin Man assumed control of Oz.  The protagonist is just
one of the many workers who keeps the clockwork of the Emerald City running
smoothly, and is convinced (in a fairly abrupt scene that didn't really feel
like it'd change anyone's life) to break a bunch of munchkin prisoners out of
jail and rebel against the system.  Really, it felt like the writer was
impatient to get down to the actual rebellion stuff (little of which actually
shows up in the preview) that the motivation is pretty flimsy.  Artistically,
it's pretty standard "90s Image House Style" art.  Not gonna bother with the
full book.


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.

     Double Barrel #10: Evil Twin - Well, cutting to the chase, the new
ultra-violent fantasy series does improve somewhat this time, making it up
into readable territory, if not much more than that.  Both Heck and Crater XV
continue to feel like the penultimate chapter, as if the stories from #9-10
should have both been in #9 but putting the new series in resulted in some
cutting in twain...but since this is digital-only, it's not like that's an
actual concern.  It does, however, mean I don't have much to say that I
didn't say last time.  ;)
     The process article focuses on digital techiniques, from font creation
to vector vs. bitmap.  Not something useful to me as a hobbyist, but
definitely good for anyone looking to do comics for serious.  Mildly
recommended.  $1.99 at ComiXology.

     Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures #8: Red5 Comics - Annie Oakley and
Wong Fei Hong (the latter operating under a different name for some reason,
unless there was a second historical martial artist/doctor in the time period
I wasn't aware of) fight off a train robbery.  Yeah, that's pretty much it
for the main story, with a page or so of "what that means in the overall
plot" at the end.  Fun action sequences, although better read at full size
than on a smartphone.  There's a short backup tale involving events that all
present agree never happened.  That's their story and they're sticking to
it.  Recommended.  $1.99 at ComiXology.

     Bandette #5: Monkeybrain Comics - While Bandette engages in an extended
fight scene, Monsieur gets the skinny on what's really happening, then
Bandette and her nemesis team up against the sudden but inevitable betrayal
by Absinthe's men.  Unfortunately, Bandette's charm is relied on to carry a
lot of the story, and it's wearing thin on me.  Mildly recommended.  $0.99 at
ComiXology. 


Trades:

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

     Spirits: Couscous Collective - The theme for this anthology is
"spirits," which can mean the ghost kind, the liquor kind, or (in one case)
the ghosts of grains in liquor.  While the Narbonicverse story involving how
summoning demons to solve problems never solves problems is cute, this is
probably the weakest of the Couscous anthologies so far.  Mildly
recommended.  $10


Floppies:

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

     My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #7: IDW - It gets a little better
here, but a friend put his finger on what's been bothering me about Nuhfer's
run.  Both the writer and artist are holding back, trying to stay well within
any boundaries Hasbro might be setting on the license.  With Cook/Price, they
were clearly writing with the expectation of having to do a major second
draft after being slapped down by Hasbro's people...and then Hasbro was
pretty much cool with it.  The current storyline is just playing it too safe,
not just retreading elements seen in the show already, but also avoiding
anything too edgy.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     My Little Pony Micro-Series #4: IDW - This one focuses on Fluttershy,
and as suits the character is a mix of cute and disturbing.  Barbara Kesel
lays the "critics suck" message on a bit thick, but Fluttershy's sotto voce
asides make up for it.  Also, I hope this bit of weird character development
finds its way into the cartoon...it builds on a few bits here and there.  An
entertaining yarn, overall.  Recommended.  $3.99


     Dave Van Domelen, "I would be so mortified if anypony knew what I've
been hiding downstairs in my secret room...or even that I have a secret
room!" - Fluttershy, My Little Pony Micro-Series #4