September 5/6, 2007

(Labor Day delay)

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.
Found Validus, don't feel like reviewing.  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 - 

     Heroes For Hire #13: Marvel - the infamous "hentacle" cover, complete
with submissive expressions and mysterious gooey fluids spread on heaving
bosoms.  Frankly, it'd be hard to make a cover more pervy without it
resulting in a CBLDF case.  But enough of the cover.  The interior is
actually a decent story, if a touch overangsty at times, and the art is
throttled back to "normal" superhero stuff.  The backup is the end of a story
with Scorpion (not Mac Gargan) and Paladin.  Decent twist ending.
$2.99/$3.75Cn
     New Avengers/Transformers #3 (of 4): Marvel - Moore plays up parallels
in this issue, between Autobots and Decepticons, humans and TFs.  And we do
get to see giant Iron Man kick some tail.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Thor #3: Marvel - Thor would have words with Iron Man.  And that's about
all you need to know.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     X-Factor #23: Marvel - Pieces fall into place all over the place,
although not all the SAME places.  It is a tad "time to reveal everything to
the reader, even if the other characters still don't know what's up" in
places, but not enough to hurt the story.  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): She-Hulk v2
#21

     Transformers Megatron Origin #3 (of 4): IDW - The Decepticon rebellion
gets into full gear, and more familiar faces show up, if not always on the
side you might expect.  The art is still kinda murky, but not as bad as
previous issues, and Holmes seems to have either gotten better at giving
stage directions, or Milne has gotten better at anticipating what's needed.
Recommended.  $3.99
     Ms. Marvel #19: Marvel - Aaron Stack continues to steal the show.  Oh, I
suppose the plot is interesting enough, but it's Aaron's interaction with it
that makes this book worth reading.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     New Warriors #4: Marvel - A little closer to the Night Thrasher mystery,
but this is mostly about Sofia and a couple of fight scenes.  A decent read
all told, though.  Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #31: Marvel - The overt conflict involves
Spider-Man versus Pyro, who uses his powers in a way I can't recall having
seen before...but it certainly makes sense.  The real conflict, though, is
Peter versus his own feelings of resentment regarding his place in the
world.  This title being what it is, of course, both conflicts get resolved
by issue's end.  Some good dialogue bits, and Mhan's art is working more
smoothly this issue, although he still draws Peter looking way too young.
Recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     She-Hulk v2 #21: Marvel - Slott wraps up his run and takes an en passant
shot at a hoary host of continuity fubars along the way.  The story itself
gets a bit lost in the chatter and speed to wrap up, but it's all good.
Strongly recommended.  $2.99/$3.75Cn
     Nihilist-Man and his Amazing Friends #1: P.I.C.toons Studios - I somehow
entirely missed this in Previews...the "Amazing Friends" includes Lethargic
Lad, you see, so I would have ordered it had I noticed.  There's also E-Man
and Buzzboy, and a generally long creator list on the cover.  Rather than one
big jam story, there's four shorter pieces with rotating guest casts (Kid
Cockroach in the first; Lethargic Lad, Buzzboy, Hunter and Him (of Lethargic
Comics, not the Adam Warlock one) in the second; Iago the deviled egg in the
third; E-Man, Nova Kane and Buzzboy again in the fourth).  Each piece is a
collaboration to some extent, some being jam pieces with multiple artists in
the same panel, while others just have Nihilist-Man's creator on writing/inks
and the guest's creator on pencils.  All of the involved creators and
creations have webcomics, with URLs at the inside back cover.  I still don't
know why he's *Nihilist*-Man, though.  A bit flippant and devil-may-care,
perhaps, but he didn't come across as nihilistic.  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 9/6:

     Still missing and might come in: Fallen Angel #15, Avengers the
Initiative #5.  Add Doktor Sleepless #2, PS238 #25 (both of which the store
manager knows were ordered).
     Cancelled by Diamond: Transformers Timelines.
     

Awards:

"Buy Name Brand" Award to Transformers Megatron Origin #3 (of 4)

"Most Excellent Disguise" Award to Ms. Marvel #19

"Almost Didn't Even Get A Name Before Getting Caulked" Award to New
     Warriors #4

"Ironically, We Never DO Get To See If He Has Green Eyes" Award to 
     Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #31

"Wonder If She'll Tell Pug About THAT Bit Of Info?" Award to She-Hulk v2 #21

"Adam Warlock Needs To Have A Corndog" Award to Nihilist-Man and his Amazing
     Friends #1

     Dave Van Domelen, "What?  So when something messed-up happens, we have
to assume it's because of some IDIOT...who couldn't be BOTHERED to take five
minutes to read their darned handbook?!"  "Yeah.  That and some 'A HOLE' that
let 'em get through." - members of Code: Blue, She-Hulk v2 #21
     Bonus quote: "Wow!  Two Star Trek references in one day?  It's like
we're in a PETER DAVID comic!"  "I WISH!" - longbox geeks, She-Hulk v2 #21
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