Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups. Recommendation does
not factor in price. Not all books will have arrived in your area this week.
Rounding up the usual exam averages. Rants, Capsules can be found on my
homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
First Look Comments:
Squadron Supreme #3: Marvel - Slowly, the Avengers/Ultimates/whatever
Chaykin's gonna call this bunch start to assemble, while the FF analogues
fall apart and Spider-Girl explores her powers. Some good moments, but they
don't really add up to a story that interests me. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Captain Britain and MI13 #5: Marvel - Getting the new team together now
that the whole Secret Invasion silliness is over with (at least in Britain).
Decent story by Cornell, good art by Olliffe, but not good enough to suck me
in quite yet. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Amazing Spider-Man #572: Marvel - Ah, Osborn slides farther into his
usual madness, and all the other pieces on the board shift around in
interesting ways. I don't are for some of JRjr's new designs (especially the
Last Page Shocker character), but otherwise Recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
X-Factor #35: Marvel - Ah, double-bluffs and mining Secret Invasion for
real storylines. Exxxxcellent. Lots of snappy banter, and Stroman's getting
the hang of the cast. Recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
The Incredible Hercules #121: Marvel - BWAHAHAHAHA! Great issue from
Pak, Van Lente and Henry. Strongly recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Capsules:
Short, relatively spoiler-free reviews of books I actually bring home
(as opposed to reading in preview form in the shop or online). If I get a
book late due to distributor foulups or whatever, I'll put it in the Missing
section.
Books of Note (Strongly Recommended or otherwise worthy): None
T-Bird & Throttle #0: Viper Comics - Impulse buy, to be honest. A sort
of space pulp series with art that sits somewhere between DCAU and Penny
Arcade. T-Bird's costume/uniform makes it look like he's an "Only Human"
Autobot (i.e. one stuck in a human body but wearing an outfit evocative of
his old robot form). The story's an odd mix of goofy golden age stuff and
more modern relationship conflict stories, but it's hard to tell from this
"Origin Special" how it'll play out in the regular series. Still, it's
enough to get me interested in reading more. Recommended. $3.25
Igor Movie Adaptation #4: IDW - Really cramming the plot points in, it
ends up being a total anticlimax. The prequel series was ten times better,
and hopefully the actual movie will be better-paced. Neutral. $3.99
Transformers Animated the Arrival #2: IDW - I got cover B, with the big
Sentinel Tick, er, Prime looming over a holo-image of the space bridge repair
crew. The lead story answers the question, "With all the human supervillains
running around Detroit, what about human superheroes?" It seems to be set
shortly after Total Meltdown, and follows a fairly stock plot, so-so. The
backup looks at what happened to Starscream between "Transform And Roll Out"
and his next appearance in the cartoon. Heh. No Sentinel Prime in either
story, ah well. Mildly recommended. $3.99
Ms. Marvel #30: Marvel - One more issue of smashy-smashy and this
title's involvement in Secret Invasion wraps up as well, with the last few
pages taking place several months later. Sound, fury, and a Skrull gorilla,
signifying not a whole lot. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Marvel Adventures Hulk #15: Marvel - Continuity! So the cameo last
issue wasn't a throwaway reference, huh. :) Peter David pulls out a bunch
of silver age tropes, and makes it clear that this series is definitely set
well before MA Avengers (given that the villain who has his origin here
appeared early on in MAA). Recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #43: Marvel - Orka is the featured villain,
but Sumerak sets up a plausible excuse for Spider-Man to fight the Atlantean
villain. Of course, there's plenty of aquatic puns. Recommended.
$2.99/$3.05Cn
Amazing Spider-Man #571: Marvel - Part four of New Ways To Die. Mostly
a series of running fights, but with some good revelatory dialogues and
internal monologues in there, plus post-fight wrapup stuff. Good writing
from Slott, good art from JRjr. Recommended. $2.99/$3.05Cn
Gen13 v4 #22: DC/Wildstorm - More post-apocalyptic fun by Beatty and
Huddleston. Well, "fun" in a sarcastic sense, except for Grunge. I'll give
it a couple more issues, but the new setting isn't really doing anything for
me. Oh, and the line-wide backup story this month features a bunch of
characters I don't recognize (I think they may be CyberForce) and don't care
about, so don't bother explaining them to me. :) Mildly recommended. $2.99
US/Cn
Green Arrow and Black Canary #12: DC - The fake League of Assassins arc
wraps up, although a larger over-arc of those trying to kill GA continues.
Oh, and there's a Big Damn Fight Scene, but it's not all that entertaining.
Mildly recommended. $2.99 US/Cn
Booster Gold #12: DC - Second pass through the day, and our heroes start
to go through some significant contortions to avoid creating new paradoxes.
Of course, it's made clear by the end that it's not over yet (although it
looks like this plot gets put on hold for an issue, to judge by the next
issue box). Fun twisty time travel story, though. Recommended. $2.99 US/Cn
Invincible #52: Image - The cover's a bit misleading, but then again,
it's kinda hard to make a dynamic cover out of a *philosophical* conflict.
Do be warned, this issue gets a touch gory, which happens every so often in
this title, but I think this is the first serious gore since the most recent
jumping-on point. :) Recommended. $2.99
Dynamo5 #16: Image - The new Dynamo5 in action, and while they're
largely strangers to each other (mother-daughter Firebirds aside), the
interactions feel unforced...if not exactly cameraderie, at least the sort of
thing you'd expect from people who have reason to want to get along and have
not yet found any reasons not to. Poor Quake may want to up his meds,
though, to survive hanging around four powerful women (especially if he's
gonna try hitting on any of them!). Recommended. $3.50
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 9/10: Nothing that I haven't utterly given up on.
Awards:
"Where's The AllSpark?" Award to T-Bird & Throttle #0
"Sunny Side Down" Award to Igor Movie Adaptation #4
"I Am A Pretty, Pretty Princess" Award to Transformers Animated the Arrival
#2
"Monkey See, Monkey Do" Award to Ms. Marvel #30 (and yes, I know gorillas
aren't monkeys)
"Hulk No Take -1/4 Limitation, Puny Powergamer!" Award to Marvel Adventures
Hulk #15
"Did He Graduate From Sham U?" Award to Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #43
"But Can He Cleanse People Of Their Talking Points?" Award to Amazing Spider-
Man #571
"Toddler Hiway" Award to Gen13 v4 #22
"So, New Sidekick Time?" Award to Green Arrow and Black Canary #12
"All Shook Up" Award to Booster Gold #12
"Youth Culture Killed My Supervillain" Award to Invincible #52
"One Hot Mama" Award to Dynamo5 #16
Dave Van Domelen, "I guess [spoiler] WAS bluffing about blowing up his
digs." "Wait for it." COOOM! "Or, y'know, he WAS a man of his word."
- Black Canary, Batman, exploding island, Speedy, GA&BC #12
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