March 20, 2024

     Dave's Comicbook Capsules Et Cetera
     Generally Monthly 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 month.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
     Whee, more time spent in the hospital, but seems treatable.

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Magilumiere
Magical Girls Inc. vol 1, Wayne Family Adventures vol 3 

     In this installment: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur S2, Adventure Finders
Book 3 Chapter 16 (complete), Go Go Loser Ranger vol 9, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
vol 8, Reborn as a Vending Machine I Wander the Dungeon vol 2, Spy x Family
vol 11, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 1, The Great Cleric vol 8, Ant
Story, Wayne Family Adventures vol 3, Nothing Special volume one: Through the
Elder Woods, The Best of Amoeba Adventures, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2,
Gargoyles Dark Ages #6 (of 6), Vampirella #666, Mech Cadets #6 (of 6). 


"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.

     Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2: Disney+/Marvel - On the one hand,
the Big Changes implied in the season opener were largely dealt with in the
second episode, the effects did echo through the season as Luna worked on
really learning the lessons she'd picked up there.  There's also some fairly
tight continuity despite a largely episodic format...basically, going JUST by
plot the first two eps have to come first and the last two have to come last,
but the middle is closer to episodic, except for all the character arc
elements...which really need to be watched in something close to order.  And
often things that seem like one-off gags turn out to be vital to later plots.
This season continues to mix entirely new characters with updates of
characters both obscure and not (e.g. one episode has an entirely new version
of Blue Streak on the super obscure side, while another creates an
MCU-flavored version of Molecule Man).  While the season dips into some tired
cliches here and there (unfortunately, also including the season ending
cliffhanger), it generally manages to keep things fresh.  Also, there's a
yard sale out there that SOMEONE needs to be monitoring.  Recommended. 

     For those without D+ or who just don't trust streaming services to not
yank content, The Marvels came out on disc this month.  Also, I will wait
until I've seen the whole season before reviewing X-Men '97, but this one is
actually coming out in a non-binge format, so I should be able to avoid the
"Looming Mountain" effect that's given me trouble lately on streaming stuff. 


Digital Content:

     Unless I find a really compelling reason to do so (such as a lack of
regular comics), I won't be turning this into a webcomic review column.
Rather, stuff in this section will generally be full books available for
reading online or for download, usually for pay.

     Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 16 full: Patreon.com - When things look
their worst, Clari runs into some familiar faces who may be familiars and
starts getting a leg up, but that just lets her and the main cast survive
long enough for things to get REALLY dire (lots of heroic sacrifice happens,
mostly spear carriers but not all).  The seeds of hope are sown in the source
of the new dangers, though, even if it's not obvious.  And then obligatory
media reference to close out the issue.  :)  Recommended.  $2/month or up on
Patreon. 


Trades:

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

     Go Go Loser Ranger vol 9: Kodansha - It might be easier at this point to
figure out who ISN'T trying to betray the Ranger force from within, eh?  And
in case the internal issues weren't enough, a brand new threat seemingly
unrelated to the old boss monsters has started to show up, but nothing so
minor as a new external threat will stop the internecine struggles.  Fighter
D's internal struggles are also ramping up, as the purity of his mission is
starting to look muddier every day, and the circle of people who knows his
secret grows uncomfortably larger.  This does feel like a bit of a
retrenchment volume, with Negi Haruba perhaps realizing that the book is
going to outlive the original plans...or perhaps just deciding that the story
needs more twists.  Recommended.  Rated Teen 13+ for adventure violence.
$10.99/$14.99Cn 

     Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vol 8: Seven Seas Entertainment - Yuna continues to
move heaven and earth (the latter quite literally) in her quest for better
dining options in the fantasy world she's been dumped into.  Sure, she has
almost godlike power (which finally hits some limits this volume), but the
real challenges are things she can't just brute force through.  She needs to
create infrastructure, build alliances, restore commerce and create
successful businesses if she's going to have a chance of returning to her
desired life of lazing around eating good food.  Of course, her greatest
weakness continues to be her discomfort with praise and being the center of
attention.  Really good character piece, fun humor that subverts cliches (or
replaces them with other cliches).  Recommended.  Rated Teen 13+ for some
fantasy violence and a little racy humor.  $12.99/$16.99Cn 

     Reborn as a Vending Machine I Wander The Dungeon vol 2: Yen Press -
Three main stories in this volume.  First is dealing with the frog fiend
cliffhanger, then some rebuilding and various emotional arc stuff (which
deals with whether Boxxo has a libido or not, part of the Older Teen rating),
and then the longest chunk of the book dealing with the first successful
kidnapping of Boxxo.  The general raunch level goes up a bit this volume,
including some "artful steam over bits" bathhouse scenes, but the main "can
it even be romance?" arc is more sweet than sexy.  Recommended.  Rated Older
Teen for fantasy violence some racy bits and near-nudity.  $13.00/$17.00Cn. 

     Spy x Family vol 11: Viz Media/Shonen Jump - Two short "missions" (Loid
has some trouble at work, another Yuri Briar jealousy dinner), but the volume
is dominated by an Anya-and-the-kids story which does draw some from the
previous stories of the volume.  It's definitely the kids' spotlight, and
while they mostly run through their established personality beats, now it's
under serious stress, which helps show which things were facades, which are
true, and which are total commitment to the facade.  Recommended.
$11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK 

     Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 1: Viz Signature - In a world similar
to ours, a natural mystic lifeform known as Kaii occasionally infest
inhabited locations, and dealing with them is the responsibility of
techno-magical exterminators collectively called Magical Girls.  Property
owners are responsible for checking for Kaii infestations, and over 500
Magical Girl companies of various sizes exist to handle the problem.
And...that's about all we get this volume.  Aside from a few narrative
captions that I just summarized, there's almost none of the "as everyone
knows, Bob" expository dialogue that might explain things like why only women
wield technomagic despite men clearly being able to create magical devices.
Your basic "Dear readers, please just roll with the premise, okay?"
situation.  And it works pretty well.  The main protagonist is a fresh
college graduate on a run of failed job interviews.  She's really good at
prep, but bad at the actual interview...gives spectrum vibes, to be frank.
But it does mean she does sometimes need things explained, and has a tendency
to infodump, which allows some natural exposition even if it disallows the
"everyone knows" stuff.  Her "super power" is that she actually reads and
remembers the documentation, in stark contrast to her senior Magical Girl
who's more of a "seat of the pants" intuitive learner.  The whole thing is an
office comedy with magical girl elements and just a hint of a deeper plot,
Pretty Cure Office Space if you will.  That makes the protagonist Cure RTFM
and her senior partner Cure FAFO.  Very promising start, and while "trust us,
it'll make sense later" writing often writes checks it can't cash, I have a
good feeling about this one.  Strongly recommended.  Rated Teen, presumably
for the somewhat nasty-looking Kaii.  $14.99/$19.99Cn/#10.99UK 

     Great Cleric vol 8: Kodansha - Luciel has dreams and flashbacks about
his original life, and while I doubt this means we're going to get an answer
to why he was killed by a sniper, it does serve to both remind him of some of
the life lessons he'd been slacking on, and make it clear to the reader that
he was really only ever a subordinate...he may have gotten promoted to
positions of greater responsibility, being he never actually RAN anything.
And that's what he has to do now.  He has a squad under his command, and now
he needs to learn how healer clinics actually work if he wants to further his
goal of reforming the church.  So, yeah, much like Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, we
have an overpowered protagonist whose main challenges are logistical and
organizational.  There's also a few long term seeds planted, although at
least one feels like he should have done something about it right away.
Recommended.  Rated Older Teen 16+ (monsters, sexual innuendo).
$12.99/$17.99Cn 

     Ant Story: Harper Alley - This is basically a spiritual successor to Jay
Hosler's Clan Apis/Way of the Hive, but now looking at ants rather than bees.
Rubi, the lone talking ant in her colony, whiles away her days pretending to
converse with the other ants, until she finally meets one who can talk back!
SOOO many pent up stories and explanations, and now Rubi has someone to tell
them to!  So, right off, the tone is different than Way of the Hive...where
Nyuki's entire hive was slightly anthropomorphic (the "chatty animal" level),
Rubi's is Just Regular Ants.  Other than Rubi's new friend Miranda, none of
the other living things in this story have human-level intelligence, which
means a rather different kind of story this time around.  It does end up a
bit more didactic, since there aren't as many personalities to drive side
stories.  It's solid storytelling and educational, but not as funny (IMO) as
Way of the Hive.  Recommended.  $15.99/$19.99Cn 

     Wayne Family Adventures vol 3: Webtoon/DC - The first half of Season 2.
A lot of the stories involve getting out of comfort zones, from obvious
things like Huntress and Nightwing trading weapons on a dare, to Oracle
setting herself up to be kidnapped, or Damian trying to look good for school
picture day.  Yeah, there can be some tonal whiplash from light family comedy
stories to Deep Examination Of Trauma stories (and what is more Bat-Family
than Deep Trauma?), but they make it work.  Strongly recommended.
$14.99/$19.99Cn 

     Nothing Special volume one: Through the Elder Woods: Webtoon/Ten Speed
Press - Okay, another Webtoon hardcopy, this one I backed via Kickstarter,
then forgot I'd done so and bought a copy the week before I got my KS copy
(in my defense, there had been no updates from the KS in three months, they
usually do a "starting to ship the stuff" update a few weeks in advance...not
to mention, KS books usually come out before regular copies hit the shelves,
ah well).  This webcomic has been on hiatus since mid-2023, due to a
combination of getting it ready for hardcopy release and creator Katie Cook's
health issues.  One thing I was concerned about is that the webcomic makes
aggressive use of the Infinite Canvas format Webtoon encourages, with art
outside the panels that can run down the length of a strip (it gets really
aggressive later on).  However, it looks like Cook extracted the panels from
the original art, rearranged them to fit pages, and then drew all new framing
stuff...which explains why it took so much of her time.  (The good news is
that Webtoon is showing significant support for this book, which means that
there WILL be a finish to volume three!)  In addition to all the new framing
stuff, there's a section of design work and early ideas in the back (plus an
expanded version of that, which is a KS exclusive extra book I don't have yet
because getting the main book done was prioritized).  Now, if you're not
familiar with this webcomic (and you should be), Callie is a rebellious
teenager who splits her time between the mundane world and a magical village,
but she's not allowed outside the boundaries of the village by her protective
father.  Her long-time friend Declan always seemed to be part of the mundane
world, but when he turned 17 his magical heritage kicked in and he started
being able to see spirits...which is a thing Callie's always been able to do,
it's a normal thing for supernatural folks (she's half-daemon half...revealed
in this volume, but passes as human).  The Inciting Event for the main plot
of this volume is that Callie's father has gone missing, and she and Declan
need to go after him.  Along the way, they meet the third wheel of their
group, Lasser the demon (not daemon), who thinks Cassie's his ticket to
jumping to the head of the inheritance queue in his very competitive family.
He's basically the mid-volume antagonist, but in proper quest narrative style
ends up becoming a rival and then ally (he's only ever a ROMANTIC rival in
his own mind, though).  This is Callie's arc, though, and her rite of passage
is pretty severe (technically this is a several-years-old plot point, but I'd
rather not spoiler it here).  Volume 2 is going to be all about Declan and
his extended family (most of which he didn't know about at all until volume
2), and then we finally get the full Lasser's Family treatment in the
almost-finished third arc.  So...Nothing Special is about how people who grow
up thinking they're unexceptional find out that they're actually quite
special, and that their families are so full of drama and magic and danger
that it's amazing they made it out of toddler age.  There's a few rough bits
in this volume, as Cook was still finding her flow, and the climax depends
strongly on a gimmick, but there's better to come.  Recommended.  Paperback
$22.99/$30.99, Hardcover $29.99/$39.99Cn 

     The Best of Amoeba Adventures: Protoplasm Press - Okay, in the 90s I got
into minicomics, thanks to a local comic shop (Laughing Ogre, they're still
around) that had a shelf full of them, plus regular attendance for a few
years at Mid-Ohio Con.  These were basically the webcomics of their day, in
terms of low barrier to entry.  Amoeba Adventures was mostly done in the
"make on a photocopier, staple in the middle, and fold over" style rather
than the quarter-page size seen in Feazell's Cynicalman comics.  Some of
those minicomics went on to become regular (if short-lived) comics like
Copybook Tales, others were reborn in other formats (Amy Unbounded was the
launchpad for the Serafina/Tess novels), but when Amoeba Adventures ended in
1998 I figured I'd seen the last of it.  Max Ink, who'd done the art for the
final arc or two, moved on to other projects, and Nik Dirga wasn't local to
Columbus so I didn't really have any connection to him.  Not that I'd have
expected the comic to restart decades later!  Max wasn't involved, so my
first alert was when Tony Isabella posted about the newly published
collection last month.  Turns out Dirga had restarted things during COVID
lockdown, and had started putting the archive together (at
https://nikdirga.com/protoplasm-press/ ) as well as putting together this
Best Of volume.  It skips around a bit, and Nik's view of "best" is rather
idiosyncratic.  I already owned most of the material covered in this, just a
few pages here and there excerpted from specials and jambooks that I don't
own.  But it also has annotations that explain the background of things, and
includes in full a faux history of the title going back to the Golden Age,
written by...Troy Hickman.  It doesn't include the Spif one-shot Hickman
scripted, though.  And yes, THAT Troy Hickman.  Anyway, as a self-published
labor of love, the art starts out pretty horrible and occasionally gets
decent.  The story starts out as a goofy gag superhero comic with occasional
unsubtle social commentary, but eventually (via retcons that work pretty
well) turns into a serious character piece that has the characters (mostly)
outgrow superheroics without repudiating the idea itself.  Just...time for
something else, at least for a while.  Now, I haven't read the newer issues
yet (I'll probably cover them in the Digital Content section next month), but
it looks like "a while" passed and at least some of the gang are back at it.
Anyway, it starts VERY rough, but you can see some pretty rapid evolution if
you stick with it.  Plus, it's not often a minicomic series gets a nice
collected edition...the "collections" I have were mostly just bundles of
minicomics in a bag with a single sheet of paper with the arc title wrapped
around it.  Recommended for a rather niche audience.  No price on the book
itself, I got the paperback version on Amazon for $19.99. 


     Expected next month: Mark Crilley's The Mighty Onion, Dinosaur Sanctuary
vol 4, The Collected Thorn (Bone), Robotics;Notes (which I do own already,
but it's the entire series and there's no real way I'm getting it all read
before the end of the month), and the first volume of another "Logistics
Isekai" with a title way too long to type out here.  Happy Kanako's Killer
Life vol 7 will land on the last day of the month, and get reviewed in May.
I've decided to drop Illustrated Guide to Monster Girls.  And, of course,
there's always the chance something will catch my eye during the month. 


Floppies:

     No, I don't have any particular disdain for the monthlies, but they
*are* floppy, yes?  (And not all of them come out monthly, or on a regular
schedule in general, so I can't just call this section "Monthlies" or even
"Periodicals" as that implies a regular period.)

     Once again, Vampirella/Dracula: Rage is delayed for me, this time
because the shipment arrived damaged (last one was because of shorting). 

     Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2: Marvel - The fight between the new Moon
Knight and the existing supporting cast is interspersed with (and narrated
as) Tigra having a session with Dr. Sterman, who was Marc's court-appointed
therapist (well, Avengers-appointed or something).  Effective framing device,
not just because it allows the fight to be short and savage without padding,
but also because it sets up Tigra as the central protagonist...if only for
now.  And she may not be a mutant, but boy howdy does she have enough angst
to be one.  Does this issue definitively answer who the new Moon Knight is
(or more importantly, is not)?  I'd call it "mostly".  Enough wiggle room for
misdirection, but the cast of the book is fairly convinced.  Recommended.
$4.99 

     Gargoyles Dark Ages #6 (of 6): Dynamite - Mostly a big fight of
Gargoyles versus the dragon (who has arms, so is not technically a Wyvern,
despite claiming to be the namesake of Clan Wyvern), which ends
inconclusively and mostly seems to set up the source of a few magical plot
devices seen later in the cartoon.  The entire "crew of suspicious actors"
subplot is sort of resolved, but I had to go back and check previous issues
to be sure, since this issue sure wasn't a standalone read.  VERY bad case of
"writing for the trade" here...characters who get a couple of panels every
issue kinda need more introduction when they finally switch from "they might
be important" to "they are actually important."  All in all, this was a story
that did not serialize very well, and I don't think Weisman ever really got
the hang of writing for monthly comics.  I've given the new Gargoyles comics
19 issues and two series at this point, I'm done.  It's clear that whatever
magic Weisman brought to the cartoon does not translate to comics.  Mildly
recommended.  $4.99 

     Vampirella #666: Dynamite - Well, will they finally commit to an
ongoing, or will this end at #671?  The idea here is that if you count up all
the various Vampirella books published over the decades, there's been 665
before this.  That might count V/D:Rage #6, which has had delays on top of
Diamond just not shipping it properly.  Anyway, this reaches back to right
before Priest's run started, with Vampi reliving variants of the same day
shortly before the plane crash, only to have it end in death and/or horror
before restarting.  By the end of the issue, the reader knows more or less
who's behind this and some of their motives, but the rest remains hazy.
There's also a wordless backup story reprinted from 1991, written by Priest
and drawn by Alan Davis.  A bit confusing, but interesting, and worth a
second read once the premise is established.  Recommended.  $4.99 

     Mech Cadets #6 (of 6): Boom! Studios - Personally, I think it happened
an arc too late, but they finally reached the point of "Shady general who
clearly does not have the protagonists' best interests at heart and keeps
turning out to be wrong on tactical and strategic points is no longer given
another chance."  People who are too eager to make Hard Choices for the
Greater Good tend to make bad choices, and if this arc hadn't ended with
either the general changing her ways or being ditched by the Mechs and their
crews, I'd probably have dropped the book (well, declined to get the next
miniseries, which amounts to the same thing).  Not saying which happened, but
I'll be sticking around for another arc.  Mildly recommended.  $4.99 

     Expected next month: Vengeance of the Moon Knight #3-4, Fantastic Four
#18, Vampirella/Dracula Rage #4 and maybe #5, Vampirella #667, Gargoyles #12,
maybe FF19 and Vampi668 depending on when in the month my store packs up the
mail order stacks. 


     Dave Van Domelen, "I'm a cartoon ant who was born into a colony of real
leafcutter ants.  THAT'S AMAZING!" - Rubi, Ant Story