Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups. Recommendation does not factor in price. Not all books will have arrived in your area this week. Came in just below 90kg today, woot. Rants, Capsules can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants First Look Comments: Books I read over the weekend as First Looks, but didn't buy, so can't really say much in detail about. DC has stopped having First Looks, so it's just Marvel and Image...and there's word that Diamond doesn't want to bother with the program at all anymore. Books for next week - Mighty Avengers #3: Marvel - Astonishingly, this is actually getting pretty good, despite some of the stylistic tics Bendis is using (such as parenthetical thought bubbles). I might even (gasp) start picking this book up. $2.99/$3.75Cn Cable & Deadpool #40: Marvel - Plot whiplash as we catch up with what Cable's been doing over in X-Men, lots of internal dialogue and not enough Deadpool, plus "to be continued somewhere else". Feh. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$3.75Cn X-Factor #19: Marvel - Mostly a running fight scene with two obvious sides and a lot of little facets. Not an outstanding issue, but a good one. Recommended. $2.99/$3.75Cn 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): Devil's Panties #11 Annihilation Saga: Marvel - Like the old Marvel Saga series, this one-shot summarizes the events of Annihilation in chronological order. Recommended. $1.99/$2.50Cn Omega Flight #2 (of 5): Marvel - Team still hasn't really gotten together, and USAgent is being written pretty one-dimensionally. Issue felt padded, like this really should be a 4 issue series and most of the decompression went here. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$3.75Cn Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2 (of 4): Marvel - Still seems to exist in a continuity bubble of unknown location, but also still a fun story from Parker and Wieringo. Recommended. $2.99/$3.75Cn Countdown #51 (of 0): DC - Yay. Reverse-numbering was moderately clever when Zero Hour did it. It was annoying when Byrne did it for Marvel the Lost Generation. And fifty two issues of it? This is gonna be a major nuisance. Speaking of which, one week after the "revelation" of the new Multiverse, we're already tossed into the thick of crossovers between 'em, albeit with a somewhat lame Scourge of the Underworld twist on it. All told, while Dini does make some effort to fill in gaps, it still feels like I've walked in on the middle of the story, not the beginning. Neutral. $2.99/$3.65Cn Outsiders #47: DC - Speaking of walking in on the middle of the story, it used to be that when a crossover was going on, you'd get some indication on the first page or two that the story was being continued from somewhere else. Not so, here. Just jumps in with no explanation of where part 1 of the story is, who this cyborg lady Nightwing is talking to is, or anything. It's especially jarring considering that the story in Outsiders #46 continued in Outsiders Annual #1. It does settle down eventually into explanatory mode, after some obligatory backside baring and some "the characters know a secret but won't tell the readers" banter. Mildly recommended. $2.99/$3.65Cn Green Arrow #74: DC - Hm. Not a lot of comics stop the action to have a forty hour (mostly off-camera) sex scene. Well, not a lot of main-line DC comics, anyway. :) A pity McDaniels is still the artist, though, given how ugly his art gets. Anyway, some good character bits in here, although some people may dislike the way it takes some characters. Recommended. $2.99/$3.65Cn Gen13 v4 #8: DC/Wildstorm - Roxy narrates this time out, and we really get inside her head. We also see that she's not necessarily right, but she's definitely justified...and that's an important difference. Also, looks like Simone's taking the gang into Tranquility, which should make for some interesting compare and contrast once they get there. :) There's some weird 52 fallout in this issue, which is the only sour note for me. Recommended. $2.99/$3.65Cn Invincible #41: Image - Four plots come to a conclusion here, a nice bit of wrap-up. Perhaps a bit rushed, but frankly, in a world full of decompressed storytelling, I don't really mind the occasional flash-forward bit. Recommended. $2.99/$3.55Cn Gold Digger v3 #84: Antarctic Press - Another Ancient Gina interlude, combined with a flashback to the childhood of Gina and Brittany and an arkload of mixed and mangled 70s and 80s SF fannish references. A fun read, and touching. Recommended. $2.95/$3.40Cn Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe #5: Antarctic Press - Ecko through Gina, Ancient. Lots of worldbuilding background in this one, what with Exthilion, the Gardeners, and both Gina entries. Recommended. $3.95/$4.55Cn DinoWars Extinction Files #1: Antarctic Press - Given that I'm still waiting on the most recent two issues of the series, I expect this'll be a lot of spoilers when I sit down over the weekend to read it in depth. OTOH, now I know it was a miniseries for certain, so I can't miss any MORE issues. Anyway, much less wordy than most guidebooks, it's more of an artbook than anything else. It does give away the ending, but given that the ending shipped to most places weeks ago, that's not really its fault.... Recommended. $3.50/$4.05Cn The Devil's Panties #11: Silent Devil - Speaking of books Diamond doesn't like to ship.... This is a very convention heavy issue, but not entirely focused on things what happened at cons. It also has the infamous Danielle Corsetto cameo. Heh heh heh. Strongly recommended, but not for the faint of heart. $4.95 Miki Falls: Spring: Harper Teen - Mark Crilley's latest project, I never did see it solicited in Previews, but it apparently shipped to comic shops this week. I got it at the bookstore last week, in the manga section. Anyway, this is a four part digest-sized story set in a sleepy little Japanese town where the title character gets mixed up in strangeness. Not Akiko-level strangeness...more of a subtle, understated strangeness, at least for now. The book actually starts at the end, with Miki falling, and then backs up a year to start explaining how things came to that. Now, I'm hardly what anyone would call a shoujo aficionado, so I can't really say how well or poorly this fits into that genre, but it does seem to meet most of the main points I'm aware of. Don't let that deter you, though, if you're not a shoujo fan...it's a good book. Recommended. $7.99/$9.99Cn 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 5/9: Still missing Gold Digger Tangent #2, Fred Perry's S-Guild #1, Dr. Debunko: the Short Stories, Devil's Panties #7 and #8, Dino Wars #3 and #4, Fallen Angel #15. Awards: "Day Planner" Award to Annihilation Saga "And I Will Pet Him And Feed Him And Name Him George" Award to Omega Flight #2 (of 5) "Trying To Get Gold From A Silver Mind" Award to Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2 (of 4) "Nothing Like An Appearance By Pointless Death Man To Kick Off An Event" Award to Countdown #51 (of 0) "Now, I Am Not Wearin' A Cup, And I'm Findin' It Awf'ly Hard To Breathe" Award to Outsiders #47 "One Year Later Indeed" Award to Green Arrow #74 "Honk!" Award to Gen13 v4 #8 "Not Even Letting The Corpse Cool" Award to Invincible #41 "Everything's Better With Transforming Mechs" Award to Gold Digger v3 #84 "Fondleroy" Award to Official Handbook of the Gold Digger Universe #5 "I'd've Held Out For Australia" Award to DinoWars Extinction Files #1 "Flying Monkey!" Award to The Devil's Panties #11 "What's Love But A Second-Hand Emotion?" Award to Miki Falls #1 Dave Van Domelen, "Why buy the curtains when you can get the cow for free?" - Jen's little sister, The Devil's Panties #11Back to the Main Rants Page.
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