November 4, 2009

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 Really need to get the work IT people to upgrade Firefox from 3.0.1. Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None "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 week. Late Books: These are comics that were not listed as shipping during the week they were reviewed. Sometimes someone recommends a book to me that's already out, and I grab it over the weekend. Sometimes it's a trade paperback I ordered online rather than trusting Diamond. Sometimes the store screwed up or I was inobservant and I missed something I meant to get. USUALLY, though, it's because Diamond didn't ship what it was supposed to ship and I had to scrounge around or wait on a reorder. Gold Digger Tech Manual #8: Antarctic Press - Looks like this was just another case of Diamond shipping AP books randomly to half the country at a time (the places that got GDTM and Peebo Tales last week got the Annual this week). This issue focuses on the bad guys (and former bad guys), with Night Flight's array of vehicles, Peachbody's and Pee Wee Talon's genetic creations and some of Penny Pincer's stuff. Artistically, the line drawings shift to being portrayed as faux blueprints, white lines on blue backgrounds...although using it for the animals spliced into Pee Wee's henches is a bit odd. Recommended. $3.99 Gold Digger Peebo Tales #6: Antarctic Press - Last year's Peebo Halloween tale with the humanoid bodies, and the Katamari Damacy story are reprinted here. The first one's ending felt a little forced, but how can you not love nanotech and repulsor fields used to create a Katamari? Recommended. $3.50 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. Secret Six #15: DC - Ostrander starts his guest stint here, with Calafiore art. It's a Deadpool...er, Deadshot focus, bringing in some old supporting cast from Suicide Squad and looking at selected events Deadshot's life by way of trying to determined why his control seems to be slipping. Not that we've really seen signs of that slippage before this. Still a good psychological issue. Recommended. $2.99 Deadpool Team-Up Guest Starring Hercules #899: Marvel - Gotta get my Van Lente Herc fix. :) Especially since Diamond didn't ship any Assault on New Olympus to my store. :( Apparently Deadshot...er, Deadpool has picked up additional narration boxes since last I read his adventures, but otherwise he's much as I remember him. Not quite sure how this fits into Herc's own storyline, but this is the month where Hercules emulates Wolverine in terms of appearing all over the place, so Van Lente probably has a diagram pinned to the wall or something. Recommended. $2.99 The Amazing Spider-Man #610: Marvel - Guggenheim writing, the Raptor/Kaine thing more or less wraps up this issue. Lots of flashbacks, lots of fighting, lots of fire...a decent action issue, but not a whole lot beyond that. Mildly recommended. $2.99 X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2 (of 2): Marvel - Aha, so the backup from #1 DOES dovetail into the main story, rather clever asynchronous storytelling trick there. And Iceman hangs a lampshade on the whole "fight then team up" bit that inevitably happens, as is his nature. The "Rescue Venus" plot does resolve at the end of this issue, but plenty of loose tentacles, er, ends are left for the next phase of the story. Recommended. $3.99 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 11/4/09: Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe #22, Ninja High School #169-171, Gold Digger Tech Manual #3, Gold Digger v3 #105, Farscape Gone & Back #3, Models Inc. #2. Add Official Marvel Index #11 (but I think I'm to stop reviewing those, there's not much to say) and Assault on New Olympus. Comic Book Comics #4 didn't come out either, but no one other than Van Lente seemed to think it was, so I guess he just got his author copies early. Awards: "Gives A New Meaning To 'Holography'" Award to Gold Digger Tech Manual #8 "MOAR CANDY" Award to Gold Digger Peebo Tales #6 "Too Much Arlo Guthrie" Award to Secret Six #15 "Mouthing Off" Award to Deadpool Team-Up #899 "So Many Kaine/Kane/Cane Puns, So Little Time" Award to The Amazing Spider- Man #610 "Beavis And Buddha-Head" Award to X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #2 (of 2) Dave Van Domelen, "RUN, GINA! RUN! IRONY IS COMING FOR YOU!!!" - Peegi, Peebo Tales #6
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