May 28, 2016

     Dave's Comicbook Capsules Et Cetera
     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 
                   Living in my very own house now, yay!

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): My Little Pony
Friendship is Magic #42.

     In this installment: Hilo vol 2 Saving the Whole Wide World, Moon Girl
and Devil Dinosaur #7, The Totally Awesome Hulk #6, Ms. Marvel v2 #7, Gold
Digger #232, Invader Zim #9, Astro City #35, Hanna-Barbera Future Quest #1,
Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs #3, My Little Pony Friends Forever #28, My
Little Pony Friendship is Magic #42, The Transformers #53, Transformers More
than Meets the Eye #53.

     Current Wait List (books either Diamond didn't ship or my store failed
to order): Toil and Trouble #5, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #3 AND #4.
Pretty much giving up on those.  Add Kaijumax Season 2 #1.


"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 month.  Yeah, there's an X-Men movie this month, but if I see
it, it'll be after the opening weekend and only if word of mouth is good.
Some of the early reviews weren't...promising.  Not uniformly bad, mind you,
but more "I regret wasting the time on this" reviews than I'd like.


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 iPhone if it's at all possible.

     Nothing this month.


Trades:

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

     Hilo vol 2: Saving the Whole Wide World: Random House - Well, at the end
of vol 1, Hilo was off to fight Razorwark, leaving Earth behind.  He comes
back to Earth very early on in this volume, keeping D.J. as the narrator
rather than picking up a new thread on another world.  Most of the conflict
in this volume comes from Razorwark's efforts to escape an interdimensional
trap, dumping all sorts of monsters on Earth in the process and establishing
that in some worlds the idea of random portals is pretty ho-hum.  The main
character development thrust of this volume, though, revolves around a rare
instance of doing the "dark version of beloved childhood hero" right.  I
can't really say more without spoilering, but it takes a sort of "what if?"
turn from Astro Boy to a dark place without making the hero unsympathetic or
Evil For Shock Value.  Recommended.  $13.99/$17.99Cn


Floppies:

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

     Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #7: Marvel - One of two comics I got this
week where a school science competition is part of the plot.  In this case,
it's FIRST Lego League, which in our reality doesn't actually involve nearly
as many bricks as the setup shown here (seriously, the competition boards
have maybe a $30 set's worth of bricks most years, not scale models of
Manhattan).  If I nitpick, it's because I'm in a generally annoyed mood by
the introduction of an antagonist more suited to Not Brand Ecch, a nerdy Kree
version of Mandark.  Generally disappointing start to the second arc.
Neutral.  $3.99

     Totally Awesome Hulk #6: Marvel - Decent character moment for the Chos,
and a reasonably organic tie-in to events in Thor's own comic, the sort of
inter-title worldbuilding continuity that made Marvel great (as opposed to
the forced Event Mentality that made it suck).  I mean, there's nothing here
that's exceptionally good, just solid storytelling of a sort we don't get
enough of from the Big Two anymore.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Ms. Marvel v2 #7: Marvel - Here's the other science competition, a
tri-state science fair.  Of course, in a world where you have to be the next
Reed Richards to make your mark (and in which public high schools get access
to fabricator machines that can create clones, albeit with the help of
reverse-engineered Loki stuff), you'd think holding such events in a
populated area would be...discouraged.  Especially when you have superheroes
whose secret IDs are students involved in the competition.  Then you're Just
Asking For It.  Still, we got a sweet skyshark out of it.  There's a "Road to
Civil War II" banner, but the only involvement is a final page where the plot
device precog gets a vibe off someone on the cast...shades of Armageddon
2001.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Gold Digger #232: Antarctic Press - Back to Briana's forest, which hosts
some leftover conflicts from the big Dreadwing war.  It feels weird to be
doing all this aftermath stuff when the big battle just sort of got
backgrounded and ended almost off-screen.  Mildly recommended.  $3.99

     Invader Zim #9: Oni Press - Vasquez has a hand in this story, which does
feel like a "real" Zim story.  Dib disguises himself as an alien in a ploy to
become Zim's intern and Get The Goods.  Recommended.  $3.99

     Astro City #35: DC/Vertigo - At the heavy end of narration for this
title, which is heavy indeed.  The narrator is the son of the Jack in the Box
from the original series, grandson of the original, and the flashbacks are
chockablock with Ditko-inspired designs.  It's particularly heavy on
inspiration from the short-lived Blue Beetle Charlton book Ditko drew.  It's
more than just reminiscences, there's a few pages of current-day story
involved, but it looks like part two next issue will be even more narration
and flashbacks (albeit from the villain's point of view).  Mildly
recommended.  $3.99

     Hanna-Barbera Future Quest #1: DC - Once again, Jeff Parker takes a
bunch of old characters and finds a way to tell a coherent story with them.
The Big Threat that brings things together is a world-devouring Von Neumann
machine sort of collective entity, defeated by the Space Force at the cost of
the lives of the entire force...save one.  But as with Hilo, the evil robotic
threat was not so much destroyed as trapped between dimensions, and its
attempts to break out result in weirdness studied by both Doctor Quest and
his rival Doctor Zin.  Lots of random dimension gates providing an excuse to
bring in just about anyone from the Hanna-Barbera sci fi cartoons (I hope
that wasn't Tundro, though).  Oh, and the art by Shaner and Steve Rude is
icing on the cake.  Recommended, although I have a hard time not hearing some
of the characters as their versions from various parodies (Space Ghost Coast
to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Venture Bros.).  $3.99

     Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs #3: Lion Force Comics - Yeah, the bad
visual storytelling is back.  From context, I think the vehicles are supposed
to be transformers of a sort, but all the art gives me is that a character
will be in one vehicle in one panel and a different one in the next.  Was the
penciller expecting the colorist to put in a morphing effect or something?
There's other bits that look like one of the unnamed studio artists was
expecting someone else to add a thing, and that thing never got added.  It
got really distracting, and the story wasn't strong enough to survive that.
Very mildly recommended.  No price printed anywhere on the book, either.  The
invoice at the shop said $2.99 like last issue, though.

     My Little Pony Friends Forever #28: IDW - Luna and the Cutie Mark
Crusaders do a sleepover in a story that breaks the fourth wall an awful lot
for a story without Pinkie Pie in it.  Not a lot actually happens other than
the last few pages, I just re-read it and I still can't remember much detail
(other than Scootaloo's wings vanishing once or twice due to art errors).
Very mildly recommended for a couple of gags.  $3.99

     My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #42: IDW - Katie Cook's final issue,
and like #41 it's a style homage romp.  Rarity helps Pinkie create from
(questionably reliable) memory a children's book that is the Equestrian
version of the Emperor's New Clothes.  Loads of art styles (Rarity's default
drawing style seems to be very Alphonse Mucha), some called out by name (and
one called out rather more harshly, with "Lichtenstein brand canvas - now
with carbon paper!").  Strongly recommended.  $3.99

     The Transformers #53: IDW - While I like Tramontano's line work better
than Raimondelli's, the inking and colors don't really mesh well with it,
feeling rushed.  Lots of fighting and talking about fighting and then a
version of Sky Reign that looks almost nothing like the toy.  There's a few
bits of good dialogue here and there, but then some real clunkers and "the
plit ratchets forward for no obvious reason" moments.  Mildly recommended.
$3.99 

     Transformers More than Meets the Eye #53: IDW - Love and friendship and
the things people will do for both.  Well, except for Whirl.  He just wants
to shoot stuff.  At least one Big Mystery of the book is resolved and a few
more are set up, but a lot is left unresolved for after the Big Fight next
issue.  Recommended.  $3.99


     Dave Van Domelen, "Oh!  I have an idea!"  "I told you to stop having
those!" - Pinkie Pie and Rarity, MLP:FiM #42

     Bonus quote: "HE'LL survive, at any rate."  "Because of the upgrade?"
"Because I'll split this world open and tear down the sky before I allow him
to come to even the SLIGHTEST harm." - Cyclonus and Whirl, about Tailgate,
TF:MtMtE #53