July 6, 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 
    Managed to bruise my chest tripping over a curb on the 4th of July.

     I have been regularly reading comics, as in getting issues every month
rather than sporadically, since Alpha Flight #12-13 in 1984.  I got my first
comics pull in college, in 1988, and with only the occasional gaps I've
maintained a pull at one shop or another for the past 23 years.  But that's
about to come to an end.
     Regardless of whether I have a job in September or not (still don't have
one), I will not have a comics pull.  It's not because I think comics aren't
worth reading...there's still plenty of good ones.  It's not because of
publisher shenanigans...I've seen worse.  The blame lays squarely at the feet
of Diamond Comics Distribution, which has made it practically a part time job
to try to keep up with monthly comics.  Sure, some of the problems were the
fault of my store, but even then things could have been fixed if Diamond were
willing to actually sell comics to anyone who wanted to buy them, and not
just to the biggest customers.  Reading comics should be entertaining and
relaxing, not frustrating and maddening.  But that's what they're becoming,
thanks to Diamond.
     I've ordered a handful of books for August, mostly titles that are
ending, and after that it's going to be trades or the occasional standalone I
might see at a bookstore.  If I end up moving somewhere with a good comic
shop I may slowly go back to monthlies, but at least for the foreseeable
future I'm done with monthly comics as a regular Wednesday thing.
     Reviews will probably continue, but sporadically and certainly not tied
to Wednesdays.

     
     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 7/6/11: 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.  Add
Secret Six #35 (store was shorted).


"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 #21: IDW - CHAOS BEGINS HERE!  Whee.  Can't say I'll be
keeping up with this series in TPB form.  The issue is split into two
stories.  The first is pretentious/portentious and sets up the departure of
most of the Autobots for Cybertron to deal with Galvatron's horde, the second
shows the other side of the same day as the few leftbehinds set up...eh, I'd
have a hard time caring in the best of times.  Both stories are terribly coy
about some Horrible Secret that is revealed, not actually letting the reader
in on it at the time, only to allude to it on the last page in a way that
makes me wonder why they bothered being so roundabout.  Didn't readers
already know that secret?  Or is it a different one that looks the same but
is supposedly worse?  Meh.  Neutral.  $3.99
     Adventure Comics #528: DC - One nice thing about DC's rejigger is that
it does make it easier to make a clean break with the four of their books I
still read.  The Academy storyline is coming to an end with the upperclassmen
graduating this issue and the newbies arguing about what's ahead for them.
And then the Big Saturn Queen Plot blows a lot of stuff up, so I suspect the
remaining plot threads will be tied off next issue simply by blowing up the
Academy or something (or killing the students, although I doubt they'll go
that far) and rendering most of the threads moot.  Mildly recommended.  $2.99
     Captain America & Thor: Avengers #1 (of 1): Marvel - A tie-in book for
both movies.  Of course, Cap's gotten a couple of tie-ins already, and Thor's
already out of most theaters, so one gets a feeling that it's an orphan
project.  Still, with Van Lente writing both stories and Ron Lim drawing
them, I figured it was worth the risk.  :)  The Cap story is presumably set
somewhere during the movie, Cap and the Howling Commandoes taking on a secret
Hydra base and the horrors contained therein.  The Thor story is a definite
prequel, in which Thor and Loki come to appreciate each other's talents a
little better (and some Simonson-era baddies get movieverse versions).  Both
are good reads.  Recommended.  $4.99
     Thunderbolts #160: Marvel - Time to try stopping the Juggernaut.  But
since this isn't the main Fear Itself event book, fat chance of that
happening.  Still, it's a decent read and the headtrip sequences take good
advantage of Shalvey's non-standard art style.  And while it's not allowed to
resolve the larger plot, it's readable on its own.  Recommended.  $2.99
     Spider-Girl #8: Marvel - Final issue, pushed back presumably so it'd
mesh in more closely with the Spider Island Spider-Girl miniseries.  In fact,
Spider-Island does sort of deus ex machina things for this issue.  It's awash
in plot devices, though, so that one hardly stands out.  Especially since
they also use the "random shot fries the plot device no one had noticed"
trick, felling the complex and insidious organization via the equivalent of a
Big Red Button.  I've seen enough good writing from Tobin to suspect that if
he had a full 12 issues to work with, the resolution would have been a lot
less hackneyed, but this isn't so much a graceful exit as a bum's rush.
Neutral.  $2.99


Awards:

"And Lo, The Narrator Was Mightily Impressed" Award to The Transformers #21

"Okay, Comet Queen Has Tipped Over Into Creepy Now" Award to Adventure Comics 
     #528

"Cut Off One And IA IA CTHULHU FTAGHN" Award to Captain America & Thor:
     Avengers #1 (of 10

"Oh, And HASTUR HASTUR HASTUR" Award to Thunderbolts #160

"Actually, Her Gloves Should Have Just Filled Up With Webbing" Award to 
     Spider-Girl #8

     Dave Van Domelen, "I'm a super-SOLDIER, Dugan...not a super-SAILOR." 
- Captain America, Captain America & Thor: Avengers #1

Flee into the air conditioned July 2011 Rants.