August 10, 2011

     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.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 
                         This is it, the last week!

     Well, the one book I'd ordered that was supposed to be out this week
(Booster Gold) didn't ship either to my store or to Hastings.  Rather than
make my last week "Sorry, got nothing" I picked up a few books from the
shelf.  I'm going to have my store save up anything else that shows up in
August and have them mail it, there likely won't be another review column
this month.
     
     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None

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 8/10/11: Shadowland Power Man #4, Transformers
Timelines G2 Redux, Gold Digger #127, Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising
Storm #3-4, X-Factor #218, Transformers Foundation #3, Time Lincoln Jack to
the Future, Science Dog Special #2, Captain America: America's Avenger,
Secret Six #35, Godzilla Gangsters & Goliaths #2, Invincible #81.  Add
Booster Gold #46.


"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 week.


Time-Shifting:
     Sometimes I get a comic a week or two late because of Diamond's
combination of neglect and incompetence.  If it's more than a week late,
though, I won't review it unless it's very notable.  Additionally, I will
often get tradepaperbacks long after publication or even sometimes before
Diamond ships them, and those will go here.  If I'm reasonably sure I'm
reviewing something that didn't ship this week, this is the section for it.

     Nothing this week.


New Comics:
     Comics and comic collections that I got this week and were actually
supposed to be out this week, as far as I can tell.  These reviews will
generally be spoiler-free, but the occasional bit will slip in.

     The Transformers #23: IDW - Chaos Theory Part 2, wrapping up the pre-war
flashback started in #22.  A pretty good re-re-retelling of Optimus Prime's
origin, and how he changed from being just another cog in the machine (a cop,
in this version, rather than an archivist) and stepped on the road of
leadership.  It does suffer from the usual IDW problem of throwing in a bunch
of unnamed characters who are supposed to be someone we might recognize but
the designs are changed too much to figure them out, but otherwise has pretty
good storytelling.  Recommended.  $3.99
     X-Factor #223: Marvel - More running away from various beastly gods,
albeit with the power levels amped up a bit as the endgame approaches.
Definitely reaching a point where Fear Itself can't be ignored, I expect this
all happens before FI kicked off or else various edicts might have kept
certain players out of the game.  The Guido subplot get a significant turning
point as well.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99
     The Amazing Spider-Man #667: Marvel - Spider Island Part 1.  The cover
is symbolic rather than literal, fortunately.  :)  The Jackal kicks off his
Sinister Plan, although it's been made pretty obvious from context up to now
thay the true Sinister Plan is well above his pay grade and is merely using
the Spider-Power infection as a stepping stone to something else.  A good
opening move, although I'll be waiting for the inevitable trade to see how it
ends.  Recommended.  $3.99


Awards:

"Is Hot Rod Luke Or Anakin?" Award to The Transformers #23

"The Triple-Alpha-Rated Wolf" Award to X-Factor #223

"Didn't Megaton Man Do This Plot?" Award to The Amazing Spider-Man #667

     Dave Van Domelen, "I swear, if we're doing the clone-thing again, I'm
moving back to L.A.!" - Mary Jane Watson, The Amazing Spider-Man #667

Or return to the Late 2011 Page.