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Dave's Capsules for August 2015

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Dave Van Domelen

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Aug 31, 2015, 8:37:47 AM8/31/15
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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 week.
An archive can be found on my homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants
And thus begins my second year here at Amarillo College.

Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Lego Justice
League: Attack of the Legion of Doom, Invader Zim #2

In this installment: Vixen online episode 101, Lego Justice League:
Attack of the Legion of Doom, ThrillBent.com (The Best Thing, Arcanum, The
Endling, In The Pi of the Beholder), Courageous Princess vol 2, Steampunk
Snow Queen #3 (of 3), Gold Digger #224, SHIELD #9, Ms. Marvel #17, Astro City
#26, Kaijumax #5, Ragnarok #6, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #33, My
Little Pony Friendship Forever #19, Transformers: Robots in Disguise Animated
#2, The Transformers #44, Transformers Windblade #6, Invader Zim #2.


"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.

Vixen Ep 101: CWseed.com - So, Vixen is getting into the shared universe
of Flash and Arrow, done as 4-5 minute mini episodes on CW's online
programming site. Unfortunately, their video player refuses to do anything
but realtime stream (no buffering at all as far as I can tell), leading to
horrible skipping if your internet connection has any slowness anywhere along
the line. While these micro-seizures aren't a big deal for a dialogue-heavy
comedy or romantic drama, they render the opening fight scene into
unintelligible hash. Ironically, the bad player is a Flash program.
It starts in media res, as Vixen is fleeing from Flash and Arrow and
demontstrating pretty good facility with her powers (thus making the
cliffhanger before flashing back to the beginning a bit weak...oh look, the
person who can channel animal powers is falling, wonder what kind of bird
she'll use, or maybe land like a cat). Unlike the two live action shows,
she's supposedly in the real Detroit, at least in the other scenes. The
opening fight might be in Central or Starling, I'll leave it to others to
determine whether it's plausibly Detroit-y. Seemed pretty Generic Metropolis
to me, though.
Hard to make too much of a judgement from a few minutes of sometimes
choppy video, but I suppose one thing I can take away from THAT is that this
might not work well in its intended delivery format. Wait for a DVD release
of the whole "season," it'll be less choppy and there'll be enough story at
once to satisfy.

Lego Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom: DC Comics - This is
the Justice League we deserve. Brightly colored, upbeat, but still managing
to convey a sense of peril. And the usual deliciously bad puns I've come to
expect from this series.
Special features are trailers and a featurette on the sound design of
the movie. The version I picked up also comes with a Trickster (looks more
like the current Axel Walker version than "my" Trickster, but in the movie he
was voiced by Mark Hamill, who also voiced Sinestro) minifigure.
Strongly recommended, around $15 depending on retailer.


Digital Content:

Unless I find a really compelling reason to do so, I won't be turning
this into a webcomic review column. Rather, stuff in this section will be
full books available for reading online or for download, usually for pay. I
will often be reading these things on my iPhone if it's at all possible.

The Best Thing Chapters 1-12: Thrillbent.com - So, I was pointed at
Thrillbent.com by someone this month. I probably saw something about it when
it launched, but I guess none of the launch titles interested me. But this
title by Seanan McGuire and Erica Henderson (and yes, there's a Squirrel Girl
in-joke in an early chapter) piqued my interest enough to plop down four
bucks a month for subscription. The chapters are done in Infinite Comic
style (so several pages may be the same page with insets appearing or speech
bubbles coming in and out), but in a month there's roughly a standard comic's
worth of content. Usually...it hasn't updated since mid-month. So, hey,
even if none of the other Thrillbent books interest me, one good one that
updates weekly is enough to justify the money. (You can download each
chapter as a .cbz file if you decide to end your subscription and want to
keep copies of what you've already read, and the format preserves the "change
the panel" tricks.)
Well, enough about Thrillbent in general. The general premise of this
series is that there are ancient powers that are ready to return to the
world, and are doing so through a group of high schoolers. So far, it's told
with the framing sequence of one student being interrogated by police after
it all went Horribly Wrong Somehow, but no indication is given yet of the
fate of the other characters, or even how much story there is to be related
before catching up to the present. The main theme is "people who have been
let down by the system," and while it starts with a couple of kids in the
foster system, it slowly expands to show that there's many ways for society
to fail to support someone. A looming subtext is the question of whether the
ancienty powers mean for their new avatars to fix things, defend the way
things are, or burn it all down...they're sufficiently vague that their idea
of a horrible failure could just as easily be "the avatars become superheroes
and uphold the status quo" as it would be "oops, the planet imploded." I'm
definitely interested in reading more, and a little frustrated that I got
into it JUST as it hit the end of an arc and went on hiatus for a while.
Recommended.

Arcanum Chapters 1-16: Thrillbent.com - Well, I have the subscription,
might as well check out some other things, yes? This series is by John "Blue
Beetle (and I suppose some TV stuff)" Rogers, and has the Fae starting to
invade the modern world. Sort of an X-Files/Warehouse 13/Planetary "secret
history" series with a surly female agent and a dragooned Irish expert on fae
as the main protagonists (although an Atlanta cop who got mixed up in the
first incursion promises to be more of a regular later). It has also
suffered from an annoying pause in updates, but it got a little farther along
first, so most of the key players do seem to be on stage or visible in the
wings by this point. I'm not liking it as much as The Best Thing, but it's
still pretty good. And if you like John Rogers dialogue in general, you'll
want to read this. Unfortunately, it seems to have gone dormant several
years ago, with no indication it will ever be continued. I originally tagged
this as recommended, but once I dug around enough to see it was abandonware,
I revised my opinion downward to mildly recommended.

The Endling Volumes 1-2: Thrillbent.com - Jonathan Larsen and Cecilia
Latella bring a sort of near-future techno-horror in which the "demon makes
promises in order to be released from captivity" plot is reskinned with a
virtual life form that has evolved to the point it knows what it is and wants
a real body. Interestingly, it feels more like a fae story than Arcanum, in
many ways. Just based on reading the strip itself, it appears to be on pause
between volumes, ending on a message asking to spread the word. But digging
through the site blog reveals a post where the creator says it was
deliberately ended on a cliffhanger. Either way, I won't be too broken up if
it never continues.

In the Pi of the Beholder: Thrillbent.com - A one-chapter short story by
Mark Waid, in which a mathematician interacts with the Necronomicon. It
takes the usual Mythos conceit of "knowing too much about the real truth of
the universe is bad for you" and makes it visually explicit: the more the
mathematician learns, the more he sees everyone else as Cthulhu-headed
versions of themselves. The ending is a touch too clever and upbeat for a
proper Mythos story, but an amusing (if slightly dark) read.

Some overall thoughts on Thrillbent in light of what I've read so far.
I like the concept of this, and there's some good stories. But the way it's
set up gives no information up-front if a series is still ongoing, on a short
hiatus between volumes (or how long the volume is supposed to be), or
abandoned. There's a separation between "ongoing" and "short story" on the
menu page, but what about things like Arcanum, which stopped updating in 2013
and are still listed at the very top of the list of "ongoing" comics?
Frankly, the more I look around and see unfinished, abandoned, or "I felt
like ending on a cliffhanger but have no plans to continue" stories, the less
good I feel about spending $4 a month on this. DC has been derided for
cancelling too many of its books too soon, but at least you KNEW the book was
gone. The layout of Thrillbent obscures that fact (even the datestamp on the
latest installment is below the fold and in light gray tiny text).


Trades:

Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, pocket manga, whatever.
If it's bigger than a "floppy" it goes here.

Courageous Princess volume 2: Antarctic Press - A nice hardcover,
picking up with a "meanwhile" set during the later parts of volume 1, in
which the title character's father assembles a team of princes to come rescue
her (and I doubt it's really a spoiler to say she ends up having to rescue
them). Espinosa continues to use a combination of manga-influenced character
art on nearly photorealistic backgrounds (distant backgrounds are usually CG,
and tend to stand out as a little too crisp). It's just as pretty as a
decade ago, but feels a little like he's treading water artistically. Maybe
some of this was drawn back when volume 1 came out, but looking at Steampunk
Snow Queen (which is definitely new) it looks about the same. The flavoring
of the art is a mix of European and Arabic tales (Mabelrose herself is
Aladdin's granddaughter on her father's side, and Prince Charming's
granddaughter on her mother's side).
A bit jarring if not read soon after volume 1, since the "Dad to the
rescue" story just sort of ends and we switch to a flashback about
Mabelrose's extended family for a bit, before catching up to Mabelrose in the
present. I almost would have put the Dad scene a little later on, so that
the two volumes would have fit together more smoothly. Especially since the
flashback second story structurally bookends perfectly with the final scene
of this volume.
That structural bit aside, it's another good fairy tale about a princess
who does most of the saving, even though she doesn't have magic powers.
Bravery, persistence, and an ability to bring out the best in her powered
allies, these are her heroic virtues. Recommended. $19.99/$21.99Cn
hardcover

Empowered volume 9: Dark Horse - My store didn't order it for me when I
asked, it fell through the cracks in their system, so I won't get this until
next month.


Floppies:

No, I don't have any particular disdain for the monthlies, but they
*are* floppy, yes?

Steampunk Snow Queen #3 (of 3): Antarctic Press - As with Courageous
Princess, Espinosa brings some very pretty art, this time influenced more by
the steampunk aesthetic and Scandinavian tales. The ending is a bit abrupt,
more of a stereotypical "fairy tale ending" in that as soon as the original
goal of the quest is met, everything is fixed (as opposed to Frozen, where
meeting the initial goal just makes things worse). It feels to me like
Espinosa pitched it as three issues, then the middle started to get away from
him, but rather than ask for a fourth issue he just went "happily ever after"
on the last two pages. I mean, yeah, it's good that he didn't make this a
note-for-note riff on Frozen, but I think he sacrificed too much from the
final act in the process. Mildly recommended. $3.99

Gold Digger #224: Antarctic Press - It's back to the fight against
Dreadwing, mostly with minor characters or faceless minion types pressing the
main battle, while the major characters other than Dreadwing have some side
fights and try to figure out what's going on. An interesting enough read,
but definitely not a place to start reading if you're new to the book.
Mildly recommended. $3.99

SHIELD #9: Marvel - Big 50th Anniversary issue, which uses its main
story to both canonize Kirby's "Man Called D.E.A.T.H." story and ties the Da
Vinci SHIELD into the modern one (maybe, there's wiggle room, etc.). Coulson
may be a bit too much of a Writer's Favorite here, but I liked it. One of
the secondary stories sets up the new Howling Commandoes series that will
follow Secret Wars, but I won't be getting it. And then there's a reprint of
the first issue of SHIELD from 50 years ago. Mildly recommended. $5.99

Ms. Marvel #17: Marvel - As the world is ending, Kamala finally gets to
meet her idol and inspiration (who for reasons never explained in this book
is rendered in brownish grays, making me wonder at first if it was a
hallucination or illusion or something). It's a simultaneously awesome and
awful experience for Kamala, as she and Carol do what they can to make things
a little better for the residents of Jersey City as they wait for others to
hopefully fix the end of the world. Recommended. $2.99

Astro City #26: DC/Vertigo - For the 20th anniversary issue, Busiek
returns to the first issue's conceit, that Samaritan dreams of flying. But
now his dreams are becoming dark and dangerous, and it's making the waking
Samaritan a danger to those around him as well (not in the "turn evil" way,
just that a cranky Samaritan on a shorter fuse is a hazard). A few plot
points from this volume of Astro City tie into Samaritan's realization of the
problem and his search for a cure, making this feel more like a Standard
Superhero Book than usual, but we do need this sort of thing every so often
in order to make the non-standard stories stand out. Recommended. $3.99

Kaijumax #5: Oni Press - Not much to say in detail this time. Pretty
much every bad situation from the previous issues gets worse, some get a LOT
worse, and at least one looks like it may shake the world outside the prison
shores pretty badly. Recommended. $3.99

Ragnarok #6: IDW - Several things become clearer, mainly because some of
the prime movers of the setting come out from behind the curtains and deliver
some exposition. This is the end of the first arc, and it has some good
resolution on the small scale despite not really ending any of the major
threats (in fact, they get even more threatening). Recommended. $3.99

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic #33: IDW - Well, okay. Zahler's
resolution here is a little more in depth than I was fearing it would be,
bringing in a few other bits of continuity and showing it wouldn't quite have
worked as a single issue. The lame Apple Computer jokes taper off,
fortunately, replaced by vampire jokes (which at least aren't as forced).
And there's a very good Moral Of The Story from Celestia at the end,
including a realization by Scootaloo that hopefully will be mirrored in the
show soon. Mildly recommended. $3.99

My Little Pony Friends Forever #19: IDW - Sigh. Rice and Hickey take an
8-page idea (Rarity goes overboard AGAIN, this time with the Cakes) and pad
it out to a full issue. This is really becoming a problem with the MLP
comics...one- or one-and-a-half-issue ideas stretched to two, vignettes
padded to a full issue, and the seeming elimination of the 4-issue arc in
which writers can stretch a bit and develop an idea properly. And it's even
worse in this case, because it's retreading an idea that the show has done a
couple times already, but doing it in a more shallow way. Neutral. $3.99

Transformers: Robots in Disguise Animated #2: IDW - Looks like this one
fell into the same hole as my Empowered, so I'm reviewing based on a scan
while the store reorders. It's really shocking how much this contrasts with
the show...by the end of #2 there's a clear overplot, ties to the Prime show,
and everyone's gotten a decent amount of characterization to boot.
Recommended. $3.99

The Transformers #44: IDW - While Barber does advance the overall
post-Combiner Wars plot elements here (especially Arcee vs. Starscream
maneuvering), the main focus is on taking a previously background character
and fleshing him out in preparation for taking on a more central role.
Specifically, this could be seen as Spotlight: Needlenose. Through the
previously established ideas laid out about family (Tracks is his brother)
and lovers, Needlenose's past is developed and his previous spear carrying
scenes have gained much more depth. In fact, as someone pointed out on
Tumblr, Barber has strung together a bunch of older threads to set up what
could be one hell of a confrontation down the road. Recommended. $3.99

Transformers Windblade #6: IDW - Diamond shorted my store, in that they
sent zero copies. So I read another scan. Now we shift to the Beast Wars
planet, with a brief appearance by some inhabitants of a Duocon planet. The
less the artist has to draw vehicles, though, the better I like it. His
beast modes are decent, and his robots continue to have lots of character (I
particularly like how Airazor's crest poofed up in anger with a "poof!" sound
effect). It's a good build-up, but then again, Velocitron had a good setup
followed by a weak payoff, so we'll see. Provisionally recommended. $3.99

Invader Zim #2: Oni - Zim's master plan plays out, and it's brilliant.
DO NOT QUESTION ZIM'S BRILLIANCE! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Strongly recommended.
$3.99

Dave Van Domelen, "Another win for the Justice League! High five!"
"Five what?" - Lego Green Lantern and Lego Superman, Justice League: Attack
of the Legion of Doom



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