| Dave's Comicbook Capsules for January 2022 [message #413163] |
Sun, 30 January 2022 23:10 |
dvandom
Messages: 152
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
|
Senior Member |
|
|
Dave's Comicbook Capsules Et Cetera
Intermittent Picks and Pans of Comics and Related Media
Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups. Recommendation does
not factor in price. Not all books will have arrived in your area this month.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
I have finally bought boots above the $20 Walmart level.
Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): The Way of the
Househusband vol 7
In this installment: Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 7, The Way of the
Househusband vol 7, Shang-Chi #7, Moon Knight #7, Vampirella Dracula Unholy
#2, Arrowsmith Behind Enemy Lines #1, My Little Pony Generations #4 (of 5),
Transformers Wreckers: Tread & Circuits #4 (of 4), Transformers Beast Wars
#12, Transformers #39.
Current Wait List (books either Diamond didn't ship or my store failed
to order): Nothing this month. Just a slow month, I guess. (Well, the
ownership change at my store threw their orders into chaos, but the only
thing I didn't get was G-Fan, which I don't review anyway.)
"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.
Nothing this month.
Digital Content:
Unless I find a really compelling reason to do so (such as a lack of
regular comics), I won't be turning this into a webcomic review column.
Rather, stuff in this section will generally be full books available for
reading online or for download, usually for pay.
Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 7: Patreon.com - Still cliffhangering
poor Clari, the issue is split between two characters, each coming into
possession/wardenship of significant resources. One is more useful in the
long-term than the other. There's also parallel ethical choices...for one,
is it right to be hurting so many in order to help others? For the other, is
it right to take the loot and leave the humans to their petty conflicts?
(Seriously, it seems like half the party has "get the goods and run" as their
initial motivation.) Recommended. $1/month or more to read.
Trades:
Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, pocket manga, whatever.
If it's bigger than a "floppy" it goes here.
The Way of the Househusband vol 7: Viz - More stories of regular
domesticity (and a camping trip) told with an excess of intensity and
involving (mostly) intense people. Plus the occasional reminder that Miku
(the Immortal Dragon's wife) is a total amazon and possibly the scariest
person in the book. Oono continues to fire on all cylinders, strongly
recommended. $12.99/$17.99Cn
Floppies:
No, I don't have any particular disdain for the monthlies, but they
*are* floppy, yes? (And not all of them come out monthly, or on a regular
schedule in general, so I can't just call this section "Monthlies" or even
"Periodicals" as that implies a regular period.)
Shang-Chi #7: Marvel - The bulk of this issue involves Shang Chi's
mother telling him about how she met his father, which is essentially the
story from the recent movie with a few tweaks to let it fit in with the
comics universe. Mildly recommended. $3.99
Moon Knight #7: Marvel - Despite being apparently new, Zodiac doesn't
fit Marc's model of a fledgling supervillain, so it's off to beat up the
D-listers and shake the bushes for information about who he might have been
before he took on the Zodiac name. (While being dead wouldn't stop his old
cyborg sidekick Midnight from bring Zodiac, it'd also be a bit repetitive
since Midnight's last appearance was doing similar murdery stuff to what
Zodiac is doing now.) Side note: one problem with using D-listers is that
it's easy to lose track of which of them is supposed to be dead or replaced
or whatever. The art for one of them in this issue suggests the original
holder of the name, not the current one, for instance. The art in general is
a bit scratchy and rushed-looking, but the story's good enough to put up with
that. Recommended. $3.99
Vampirella Dracula Unholy #2: Dynamite - The book continues to play
footsie with fantasy, with the most outrageous elements revealed to be smoke
and mirrors despite the setting certainly supporting actual magic. However,
the important parts of the story are the mundane emotional parts tied to the
marriage, so that's okay. And they provide an overt metaphor for the
illusions Vampi is under. Recommended. $3.99
Arrowsmith Behind Enemy Lines #1: Image - I don't quite have students
who were born after the previous series ended, but it's a near thing. The
end notes explain how doing more Arrowsmith was always second or third on the
priority list for Busiek and Pacheco, and they could never quite find the
time to both make it top priority in synch until now. When this series was
announced, my first reaction was to wonder why I didn't bother keeping up
with it...of course, the answer was that there wasn't anything up with which
to keep. So, plenty of exposition in this issue in recognition that even
returning readers have had a rather long time to forget the details. The
premise is WWI in a world with more magic than technology, and the title
character is the equivalent of a fighter pilot, using borrowed dragon magic
to fly. The premise of this arc is that he has to go on an undercover
mission behind enemy lines (hence the title) to make contact with
intelligence assets, but since this is WWI the whole thing is pretty shoddily
organized with plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong (serious military
intelligence really didn't get going until WWII, and Pinkerton lied in his
memoirs a LOT about getting it going earlier than that). A promising start.
Recommended. $3.99
My Little Pony Generations #4 (of 5): IDW - Time for threads to start
coming together for the finale. The Mane Six get the backstory on the G1
witches, the pony-Smoozes start to go off-mission a touch, and a plot device
is hatched. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers Wreckers: Tread & Circuits #4 (of 4): IDW - Oops, they
broke pattern here, it's actually a four issue series, not five. And it's
not really a solid end, more of a "to be continued in the next Wreckers
book," which is a bit of a problem given that IDW lost the license and
doesn't have a lot of time to pick up on any danglers. I guess they might
show up in the big wrap-up miniseries? Anyway, as I read through this issue,
I kept thinking, "Well, the obvious and cliche way to go would be X, so they
won't do that," and then they did X. And at the end, the Wreckers decided to
drop their cover and just become an obvious elite squad, just like every
other incarnation of the Wreckers, abandoning what made them an interesting
take on the concept. So, an uninspired ending to a series that started out
with some promise. Very mildly recommended. $3.99
Transformers Beast Wars #12: IDW - And thus, Optimus Primal's Clever
Plan is carried out, to mixed success, forming a good bit of arc closure and
setup for a long run that...won't happen, I guess? On the other hand, this
title is pretty separable from the rest of the IDW books, with no real
indications it's even in the same continuity as the slow burn Great War
titles (unlike Wreckers), so it could end up being picked up by the next
licensor even if they don't want to continue the main continuity (as happened
when IDW picked up Dreamwave's plots and ran with them). Art still annoys
me, but Burnham's story works well enough. Recommended. $3.99
Transformers #39: IDW - Welp, given that loss of license I mentioned, I
guess Ruckley'd better finish off the prologue soon. This issue is mostly
"Smokescreen's team fights its way out of Swindle's bar," with a small B-plot
of Cyclonus dealing with his mysteriously revived old comrade, as the slow
burn on Exarchon continues. I guess it'll shift from too-slow to too-fast
soon enough, with Ruckley never really finding the groove on how to pace for
a serial comic instead of a novel. Mildly recommended (some good lines here
and there). $3.99
Dave Van Domelen, "Finally, you ARE aware this is a hospital?" - Nurse,
after a lengthy critique of Tatsu and Miku's Policure pantomime, Way of the
Househusband vol 7
|
|
|
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
