January 13, 2010

     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 
     Now it's nearly 50F out, brace for flood as snow melts, I guess.

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): The More Than
Complete Action Philosophers!

"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.

     None 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.

     The More Than Complete Action Philosophers!: Evil Twin Comics -
Officially, this came out just before Christmas, but my preorder online (I
decided not to waste time with Diamond on this) didn't ship until this week
and I have my doubts it hit stores when Midtown's list says it did.  Anyway,
where the original three volumes of TPB for Action Philosophers! were simply
in-order collection of the original nine issues, this phonebook edition
rearranges the biographies into chronological order, roughly grouping them
into ancient, medieval, Modern and contemporary philosophers.  Each section
gets one new entry, although the only internal clues to which ones are new
are the writing-order numbering in each story (i.e. "instroducing Action
Philospher #27!").  The new pieces are Epicurus (the sage), Rumi (who
inspired the whirling dervishes), Auguste Comte (Positivism) and William
James (Pragmatism).  The new pieces aren't as strong as the originals, but
they did kinda hit some of the best ones in the old series.  You can see my
refiew of the originals at http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants/080608.html.
If you don't have the originals, this collection is strongly recommended.  If
you do have the originals, this is only mildly recommended.  $24.95 cover
price, $17.47 at DeepDiscount.com.


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.

     Adventure Comics #6: DC - No Legion backup this time either, the entire
issue is devoted to wrapping up Superboy's existential crisis as well as
advancing the Luthor/Brainiac teamup plot.  Johns definitely knows how to
write Luthor as a total jerk who happens to be utterly right, and the retro-
continuity implant of some of his past is smoothly done (it's a retcon of the
"doesn't contradict things" sort...if Lex were from Smallville he'd certainly
have good reason to try to hide it when reinventing himself).  Recommended.
$3.99 
     Secret Six #17: DC - Blackest Night banner, picks up from Suicide Squad
#67.  A three-cornered fight between Task Force X, the Secret Six and the
Black Lanterns dominates the issue, and the pieces fit together better than
in Suicide Squad.  Calafiore and Wright make an interesting choice in how to
portray the Black Lantern "emotion vision", and once I figured out what it
was supposed to be it worked very well.  Recommended.  $2.99
     REBELS #12: DC - The Black Lantern stuff gets written out pretty
quickly, and it's back to the multi-front war on Starro.  The Omega Men
thread is a bit plot devicey, but otherwise Bedard and Borges make it work.
Recommended.  $2.99
     Booster Gold #28: DC - Blue Beetle is back to having the backup feature,
although this won't last too much longer, they've decided to drop the idea
and go back to $2.99 books.  In the main story, Blackest Night isn't even
mentioned, we're back to the Coast City plot, with Booster and an unnamed
opponent popping in and out of the life of Hank Henshaw.  The backup has an
interesting echo of the recent Brave and the Bold cartoon, resolving all the
"the Scarab has been acting weird lately" threads in a fairly conflict-
generating fashion.  Both main and lead involve a lot of backstory drops,
suggesting that they hoped people would come for the Blackest Night tie-in
and then stick around.  Recommended, and a good place to start if you haven't
been reading the book.  $3.99
     SWORD #3: Marvel - The cover's a little misleading, but only in detail,
not in theme.  And SWORD shares more in common with REBELS than a penchant
for acronyms..."Unit" is a real Vril Dox type, and we get his origins
(probably, he could be lying) this issue.  There's a definite theme running
through this title of people doing what they thing is right, even if they
know it's dangerous or even a little stupid, for reasons that are flawed in
ways they may or may not realize.  About the only uncomplicated motivations
belong to Unit (if he's not lying) and Death's Head (a job's a job, yes?).
Recommended.  $2.99
     The Marvels Project #5 (of 8): Marvel - Hm, I almost forgot to write a
review for this one, not really a great sign.  The fallout of Cap's origin
continues to dominate the story, with various loose ends tied off and others
set up (for instance, putting Noah Burstein's family into the story to tie
his work on Luke Cage into the Super Soldier Serum project in a generational
fashion).  While a few characters of importance step onto the stage, the
story itself doesn't do a whole lot, it's more of a pause to reflect and
gather things up before moving onward.  It can't really be said to be padding
or even significant decompression, but it just sort of feels like a break in
the flow.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99
     Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #19: Marvel - Featuring the Invisible
Woman.  More of the origin story of the MA Avengers, and in terms of the
actual story hooks it's really more a spotlight on Nova or Vision than on Sue
(although Reed is revealed to be doing something behind Sue's back here).  Of
course, Nova got a cover already, and Vision gets one next time, so I guess
it was Sue or Plant Man.  Cute UNCLE reference early on, and some good depth
added to the characterization of Diablo.  Recommended.  $2.99
     The Amazing Spider-Man #617: Marvel - I got the variant cover where
Rhino hasn't get gotten through the wall (there's also one where he's
partially through, plus the regular cover where his head is sticking
through).  The Gauntlet has been all about revamping members of Spider-Man's
rogue's gallery in one way or another, and it's the Rhino's turn.  But Joe
Kelly manages to create a Ruthless New Rhino and ALSO find a way to redeem
the old Rhino.  And along with Pulido on the art in the backup, he writes a
very good story about what the Rhino has been up to since last he showed up.
My only worry is that this is just being set up so that someone can be
horribly murdered for shock value later on...it's got that vibe to it, which
is why I only give this "recommended" rather than strongly recommended.
$3.99 
     Gold Digger v3 #113: Antarctic Press - Whoa, massive backstory time, as
Dark Bird's motivation and background gets a serious upgrade from "air
merc".  Plenty happens this issue, but most of it is seen in flashback or the
old standby "narration from flashback of the plan over current events showing
the plan going off the rails".  Perry manages to keep it visually clear when
the timeline shifts, though, so no problems.  And despite Diamond's (lack of)
efforts, I got some Transformers content this week after all.  :)
Recommended.  $2.99 


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 1/13/10: Official Handbook of the Gold Digger
Universe #22, Gold Digger v3 #105.  Add The Transformers #3.


Awards:

"When Does 'Whirling Dervish Secrets Revealed' Come Out In Paperback?" Award
     to The More Than Complete Action Philosophers! TPB

"Where Did I Leave That Space Brain?" Award to Adventure Comics #6

"Wait, She Didn't Have TIME To Decay Before Getting A Ring!" Award to Secret
     Six #17

"Well, That Explains Why We Didn't See Him As A Black Lantern" Award to 
     REBELS #12

"Bialya Can Be" Award to Booster Gold #28

"At Least It Wasn't A Post Office Box" Award to SWORD #3

"Angels In The Outclassed" Award to The Marvels Project #5 (of 8)

"The Rose Petals Were A Bit Much, Though" Award to Marvel Adventures Super
     Heroes #19

"Hey, It Worked For The Hulk" Award to The Amazing Spider-Man #617

"Me Say You Full Of Cesium Salami" Award to Gold Digger v3 #113 

     Dave Van Domelen, "My bed *hovers*.  I have a *hovering* bed.  I sleep
in *the future*." - Nova, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #19

Wander through the fog back to the January 2010 Page.