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 #21Back to the Main Rants Page.
Change colors and fall back to the September 2007 page.