April 13, 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 
   I am the only person at my store with Amazing Spider-Man on his pull.

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Captain
America the Fighting Avenger #1

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 4/13/11: Shadowland Power Man #4, Transformers
Timelines G2 Redux, Love & Capes Ever After #2-3, Gold Digger #126, PS238 #49,
Time Lincoln Cuba Commander, Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm
#2.  Add Gold Digger #127 (yeah, headed for online store order this week),
Transformers Dark of the Moon Rising Storm #3, The Amazing Spider-Man #658
(which is probably at Hastings, but I got enough books this time to keep me
busy).


"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 time.


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 today.


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 #18: IDW - ANGST!  By the bucketload.  It's always
dangerous to set things up so that only someone's death will satisfy the
plot, when external factors (like licensing) mean that the death will never
happen.  And while Costa has made and continues to make small steps towards
the idea that maybe Prime will find a better solution than Megatron's death,
we're still having to wade through a lot of PrimeAngst along the way.  And
it'll take a literal deus ex machina to pull it off (fortunately, the mythos
has no shortage of those, one of which is shown on the "next issue" page).
It's not so much that Costa is painting himself into a corner, but rather we
know he's relying on a crane to lift himself out of that corner, and we can
all see the crane idling its engine.  It'll be abrupt, and quite possibly
poorly set up.  There's a few cool ideas in this issue, but the sledgehammer
of angst tends to drown them out.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99
     Hawkeye Blindspot #3 (of 4): Marvel - Another infodump-heavy issue in an
infodump-oriented series, this one focused on the antagonists of the tale...
while actual flashback scenes are limited, most of the narration and dialogue
seems to be focused on backstory.  The action is pretty well choreographed,
although there's not a lot of new story to support it.  Mildly recommended.
$2.99
     Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #13: Marvel - Thor has the cover this
time, unsurprisingly given the upcoming movie.  Thor, Valkyrie and Nova go on
a little errand into Asgard's outskirts.  A good story about duty, honor, and
how different cultures can at least start to understand each other without
necessarily agreeing with each other.  Also, demon goats.  Recommended.
$2.99 
     Captain America the Fighting Avenger #1 (one-shot): Marvel - This is a
case of writer-following on my part, as Brian "Atomic Robo" Clevinger wrote
this.  And it definitely shows.  Set, as far as I can tell, in the continuity
of the upcoming movie, it takes place during Cap's training time, one of his
first serious field exercises.  The commando squad backing him up definitely
shows Clevinger's touch, although Cap himself is restricted to the role of
straight man (and somewhat naive) by circumstances.  Gurihiru's manga-
inflected art works better than I thought it would, and supports the writing
well.  Strongly recommended.  $4.99
     R.E.B.E.L.S. #27: DC - Fighting, plot devicing, Lobo and Smite palling
around (well, for certain highly destructive values of palling around).  In
other words, more of the same as last issue.  An amusing read, if not
terribly deep or involved.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Booster Gold #43: DC - The somewhat confusing and suspiciously
compressed chronal leprosy arc resolves with a trip to the 30th Century
(Flashpoint next month probably forced Giffen et al to compress things a
little).  Art lists Batista and Perrotta without specifying who did what, but
I get the feeling Batista was more of a layout guy this time since the
finished work doesn't really look like his stuff.  As a bitpicky aside, the
future coffee place near the end of the issue should have been Sundollar, not
Sunflower (to follow on the gag from a previous issue), and it's misspelled
Sunflgwer in one panel).  Mildly recommended.  $2.99
     Adventure Comics #525: DC - Two stories.  The main Academy tales are
wrapped up pretty quickly, in part thanks to a deus ex machina emanating from
the second story in the issue.  The effects of the LSV one-shot are around if
you're aware of them, but they're not being played out really obviously, even
in the second story.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99


Awards:

"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" Award to The Transformers #18

"Trickshot, The Fletching Non-Conformist" Award to Hawkeye Blindspot #3 
     (of 4)

"Immortals Take Their Time-Outs Seriously" Award to Marvel Adventures 
     Super Heroes #13

"Needs Moar Tank" Award to Captain America the Fighting Avenger #1 (of 1)

"Reboot To The Head" Award to R.E.B.E.L.S. #27

"Do You Validus-ate Parking?" Award to Booster Gold #43

"Rokky Relationships" Award to Adventure Comics #525

     Dave Van Domelen, "No, see, he's the son of Uncle Sam."  "But Sam's OUR
uncle, right?  Or the uncle of America herself?"  "If Sam's your UNCLE, then
he's America's COUSIN."  "Like Canada?" - the Bickering Commandos (well,
okay, they don't get an official title), Captain America the Fighting Avenger
(and potential Canadian, I guess)

Sneeze back to the April 2011 Page.