Dave's Capsules for November 2021

[Dave Van Domelen]

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
Diamond got hit with ransomware, now have an excuse for fails.

Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): None this
month.

In this installment: Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings,
Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 5, Justice League of America the Silver Age
vol 3, Shang-Chi #6, Moon Knight #5, Good Boy vol 1 #1-3 (of 3), Getting
Dizzy #1, Vampirella #25 (of 25), The Blue Flame #5, Norse Mythology II #6
(of 6), The Orville Artifacts #2 (of 2), My Little Pony Generations #2 (of
5), Transformers: King Grimlock #4 (of 5), Transformers Wreckers: Tread &
Circuits #2 (of 5), Transformers Beast Wars #10, Transformers #37.

Current Wait List (books either Diamond didn't ship or my store failed
to order): Nothing this month. Probably. The ransomware damage makes it
hard to be sure.


"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.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Disney/Marvel - This had some
heavy lifting to do, no doubt about it. I mean, they could have just done a
Shang-Chi movie, hard enough to manage without the "chop socky" racism of the
character's origins in comics. But they also decided to rehab the entire
"ten rings" thing that got so thoroughly mangled in Iron Man 3. Rather than
being Fu Manchu (problematic on SOOOOO many levels, not least legal),
Shang-Chi's dad is...not the Mandarin. He has the ten rings, but he never
called himself Mandarin. Thus dodging the "Mandarin is just Fu Manchu with
the serial numbers covered with masking tape" issue. He even mocks the
Mandarin name at one point. Anyway, this movie is a love letter to Hong Kong
action movies, from brutal urban combat on public transit or on the
obligatory bamboo scaffolding, to ancient mystical warriors in a hidden
village. Simu Liu needed to learn to fight for this movie, but the rest of
the cast and the stunt directors (some of whom worked with Jackie Chan) did a
good job of making him look good. And, again, it's HK actioner direction
rather than western shakycam. A solid movie, recommended. (Watched it on
Disney+)

Hawkeye had a promising start, gonna wait until it's done to review it
though.


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 5: Patreon.com - While the good guys
are rallying outside, the situation inside gets quite dire. Basically, this
is the "heroes get jobbed" bit, and I have mixed reactions to it. Mildly
recommended. $1/month on Patreon.

Overwatch put out another free comic, but I wasn't interested enough in
it to read it.


Trades:

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

Justice League of America the Silver Age vol 3: DC - Covers Justice
League of America #20-30. This has been out for a while, but I got it for $5
at Ollie's. And WHAT THE EVERLOVING FRAG? The Silver Age had some really
whacked out stories. I mean, this volume has the super-important "Crisis on
Earth-2" and "Crisis on Earth-3" arcs that constituted major worldbuilding
for DC...but the actual plots are often at the level of playground "Bang,
you're dead!" "Nuh-uh, I have a forcefield!" "Well, this is an
anti-forcefield gun times infinity!" stuff. Stuff that actually makes the
Still Force or rainbow of Lanterns seem like solid storytelling by
comparison. Sometimes nostalgia is better left unrevisited. Gardner Fox had
some good ideas, but they're drowning in a sea of bad ones. Almost every
story has a new cosmic force (the Victory Force, the Robber Force, Cardiac
Waves, Disaster Energy Radiations, whatever), and plot holes that even the
target audience of gradeschoolers must've been able to see through
(e.g. Superman defeats an alien by hurling him deep into space...an alien
that arrived in the form of a SPACESHIP). I mean, if you can find it at
Ollie's for $5, it's worth it to see some of the early Silver Age art with
its bizarre editorial constraints (like "no foreshortening"), but disengage
brain before actually reading the stories.


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 #6: Marvel - So, the opening arc comes to an end with all the
heroes Shang-Chi had as guest-stars teaming up to call him on the carpet for
keeping the Cosmic Cube, with Thor brought in just in case things got dicey
(so he could make them worse, of course). Shang-Chi is confirmed to be
"trusting and naive" rather than "knows what's going on and is letting it
unfold according to a master plan," though, which doesn't bode well for his
next opponent, the shadowy (well, persistently face-off-panel) mastermind
who's been building forces against him for a few issues. It feels like
they're setting him up to just hand the Deadly Weapons off to a sibling and
go back to soloing, rather than having him step up and actually dismantle the
society. Mildly recommended. $3.99

Moon Knight #5: Marvel - Speaking of shadowy masterminds, Moon Knight's
mysterious foe finally shows his face (and gloats, because of course). Mind
you, his actual motives aren't really revealed, because we cannot in any way
trust his stated "for the fun and challenge" motives. In the other archenemy
plotline (Marc is his own), the progress made with Tigra last issue is
extended with his therapist, although she has to fight through several layers
of "video game character" BS from him to get at it. Recommended. $3.99

Good Boy vol 1 #1-3 (of 3): Source Point Press - Only #1 hit stores this
month, but I backed the Kickstarter so I got the entire first arc. The high
concept is "What if John Wick died and his dog went on the revenge spree?"
but with dogs being mostly anthropomorphic in adulthood and the names changed
slightly ("Jon Sparks" instead of "John Wick," for instance) because this
isn't licensed. It doesn't worry too much about making sense of the setting,
it's really about just barely enough premise to move from one set piece to
another, and does an okay job there. I found the art a little too
aggressively...I dunno exactly how I'd describe it. It's not exactly
cartoony, per se, it has that level of abstraction but also elements probably
intentionally borrowed from Frank Miller. I guess "Looney Tunes through a
Frank Miller filter" gets close enough. I dunno if I'll stick around for the
second arc, this was kind of an impulse Kickstarter backing, since the price
for three issues and extras in hardcopy form was $10 plus shipping, well
below my "Hey, that sounds kinda interesting" threshold for backing. My
copies don't have prices on the individual issues, but the version of #1 that
hit stores was priced $3.99. Mildly recommended.

Getting Dizzy #1: Boom! Box - This was an impulse buy. The premise is
that a girl who's always wanted to be Important finds herself a Destined
Defender who fights nasties who only she can see...which plays into her
reputation of daydreaming and mixing up dreams and reality. It just didn't
grab me, though, and I won't be sticking around to see if they go in a
cringey direction or not. Neutral. $3.99

Vampirella #25 (of 25): Dynamite - Technically the final issue, but
they're relaunching next month with a new title, but still written by Priest.
So...figure this is the first really long arc. It opens with a dream
sequence to get in all the insane stuff that would not actually make sense
(to the extent anything about Vampi can make sense), then settles down for
the "Are you doing the right thing for the right reasons?" debates. These
aren't resolved, of course, because finding out the answer to that question
is going to be the focus of the new title. Recommended. $3.99

The Blue Flame #5: Vault - The lines between the two Blue Flames
continue to be blurry, each version aware of what's happening to the other,
to the point that thought captions sometimes cross over between them. The
easy way out would to be accepting that the Milwaukee scenes are reality,
with the cosmic ones being part of a delusion in which he tries to lend some
meaning to his struggles, but it feels like it if were that simple there'd
have been clarity for the reader by now. Unless the writer himself hasn't
decided which is real yet either, and is stringing it out...that would be
disappointing. I do suspect that Cantwell has the old "Does the man dream he
is a butterfly, or does the butterfly dream it is a man?" poser in mind here,
though. And it is a bit refreshing that neither side of the Blue Flame is
letting this dichotomy paralyze him. Both worlds are real to both sides of
him, and if the stresses of his life in Milwaukee make it harder to
concentrate on the galactic trial and vice versa, no one said being a hero
would be easy. Provisionally recommended. $3.99

Norse Mythology II #6 (of 6): Dark Horse Comics - The conclusion of last
issue's story is pretty short, leaving the rest of the issue for Frey's
pursuit of his own beloved. He takes after his dad in terms of ending up
with a giantess, amusingly. The ending implies that Norse Mythology III
might focus on Ragnarok and its lead-up. Recommended. $3.99

The Orville: Artifacts Part 2 of 2: Dark Horse - You can be right and
still be wrong. That's basically the moral of most "obsessed academic"
stories, especially in science fiction. While this two issue microseries
format does seriously restrict what they can do with each story (figure it'd
be about a half-hour show with commercials and assuming a lot of effects
shots taking up time), making it mostly about Gordon and the two new
characters, the voice of the other cast members does get a chance to show
through. Recommended. $3.99

My Little Pony Generations #2 (of 5): IDW - The adorably incompetent
witch-kids from the G1 universe set loose their evil plans which are...kinda
adorably incompetent, as one might expect. While the evil "Smooze Ponies" do
sow a little chaos and get some ponies upset, by issue's end it's not really
a big deal. So they're told to ramp it up...which strikes me as something
they're going to fail at, since there's three more issues. Mildly
recommended. $3.99

Transformers: King Grimlock #4 (of 5): IDW - I mean, I think some stuff
happens this issue that represents important character development and
worldbuilding, but the art is SOOOO bad at actually storytelling that I'm not
really sure what happened in some of the scenes. Neutral. $4.99

Transformers Wreckers: Tread & Circuits #2 (of 5): IDW - Mariotte seems
to like plot twists, perhaps a bit too much. A lot of the issue involves
jerking Circuit around and then making him unable to tell anyone what he
saw...kind of a cheap way out of a mystery. Keep the protagonists in the
dark until the one who knows what's going on wakes up, Just A Bit Too Late no
doubt. The character stuff is good, but the plot hobbles along on too many
crutches. Mildly recommended. $3.99

Transformers Beast Wars #10: IDW - After nine issues of turtling, the
Maximals decide to finally take the battle to the Darksyde, just in time to
interrupt some internal Predacon politics. While the Maximals are traveling,
there's some more backstory about how the Golden Disk was found, what makes
it important, etc. Burcham is still on art, meh. Mildly recommended. $3.99

Transformers #37: IDW - Guido Guidi does some scenes during a chat with
another Immersant, and the contrast between his style and the looser and more
cartoony style of Winston Chan is a bit jarring. I mean, taking purely on
its own merits, Chan's art is acceptable...but next to Guidi's pages it looks
like a try-out book from a fan artist. The story similarly jumps around,
mostly keeping Exarchon in focus but the focus gets blurry at times. Mildly
recommended. $3.99


Dave Van Domelen, "And then the 'giant crazy dog assassins' fought to
the death?" "I don't know why y'all are acting so suspicious of me! You
know anthropomorphic characters exist in this literary universe." - cop and
witness, Good Boy #1 (of 3)