COMICS: Dave's DC Auguries: July Preview Pack
Dave Van Domelen
Dave's DC Auguries: July Preview Pack:
Time for another pack of DC previews, B&W photocopies of complete or
partial comics. As usual, I'll be presenting spoiler-free comments about
the books to help you decide if you want to pick them up.
Well, relatively spoiler-free. I may mention guest appearances and the
like, since some people follow characters and would like to know if said
character is showing up.
The cover letter this time was on rather interesting DC letterhead. It
had the DC bullet at the top, but on the back are color pictures of a bunch
of DC characters (including Icon, suggesting this is old letterhead) standing
on each other's shoulders, drawn in mirror image. So if you hold the paper
up to the light, the figures show through as holding up the DC bullet. Cute.
Covered this month are:
Tangent 98 Primer (covers only)
Green Arrow #136 (mostly complete)
JLA #22 (complete)
Superman for All Seasons #1 (of 4) (art only)
Power of Shazam #42 (mostly complete)
Young Justice #1 (mostly complete, has some art corrections on
separate pages)
Transmetropolitan #13 (mostly complete, needs some images statted, now
listed on the cover as a Vertigo book)
Received but not read this month: Johnny Double (Vertigo), Dead Corps(e)
(Helix), Hellblazer #129 (Vertigo).
Tangent Primer: Just the covers and creator credits. Nothing you
haven't already seen in Previews, really. The Power Girl cover continues to
turn me off to that title.
Green Arrow #136: Guest-starring Hal Jordan. Reading this, if I didn't
know that Connor was supposed to have been raised by monks, I'd have never
guessed from Dixon's scripting. Okay, he's assimilating, but it's only been
a year or so, he shouldn't be talking exactly like, say, Robin. Maybe Dixon
writes first in "normal" dialogue and then goes back and stilts it up, I
dunno. Anyway, this preview did nothing to raise my interest in the title,
or give me hope for the whole "Past Hal In The Present" plotline going on
now.
JLA #22: Morrison's back, and so is Sandman, who guest-stars as Grant
picks up an earlier plot marked by not making much sense in terms of
continuity. Not too bad so far, but between Zauriel and Sandman, the tone
pitches too "cosmic" for my tastes. Porter's art is okay. The preview is
not enough to convince me to keep getting JLA after Waid's fill-in is over,
though. However, I seriously doubt it'll drive away anyone who liked Grant's
pre-Waid issues.
Superman For All Seasons #1 (of 4): No dialogue in this copy. The art
is okay, but given that the story it tells is so ingrained into my memory by
repeated retellings (Superman comes into his powers in Smallville, moves out
into the world), it's hard to tell if the art tells the story on its own.
Clark's way too beefy, though. I wouldn't recommend paying Prestige format
prices for this.
Power of Shazam #42: Ordway does the breakdowns, Giordano the finishes.
And Ordway writes as usual. Okay tale of picking up after the Monster
Society plot, but it brings in a character who gets less interesting every
time she appears in these pages. I'll be getting it, but mainly out of
inertia. It's an okay issue, but not great.
Young Justice #1: Some comment has been made of the "First Three Pages"
of this issue, and they're pretty cute. But it's on page 11 where I laughed
for a solid minute or two, almost hurting myself. I saw the gag coming about
a panel in advance, and had trouble actually *reading* it, I was already
laughing so hard. And despite PAD pushing some jokes too far later on in the
issue, that one moment of hysterical laughter is easily worth the price of
admission. Buy this book. Even Nauck's not so bad this time out.
Transmetropolitan #13: Starts the 6-part "Year of the Bastard" arc,
where Spider gets back into the gig that made him famous...the election
trail. A quieter and more introspective issue, less gags and more serious
thinking. Not that this is a bad thing. }-> Definitely worth getting,
especially for new readers, since it recapitulates Spider's past in
preparation for launching him into what he hopes isn't a repeat of it.
Dave Van Domelen, "This isn't fear, it's anticipation!" - Superboy, not
the page 11 quote I mentioned, but a good punchline nonetheless (which will
make more sense to you in a couple of months). It also describes my feelings
about the book. }->