Previews #246 ~ This month's new stuff - evidently some of the DC pages got skipped, so there'll be a special DC Previews published next week; I'll deal with what I've got now:
p81: Power Girl #1 (finally!)
p163: Bomb Queen presents All Girl Comics one-shot
Marvel p12: Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 (looks like fun)
Marvel p54: Planet Skaar Prologue (She-Hulk's on the cover)
p197: Femme Noir trade paperback
p213: Legend of Isis #1
p214: The Unknown #1
p224: Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose #56
p258: Voyages of the SheBuccaneer: Eye of the Jade Dragon #2
And merchandise:
p126: Batman Family multi-part statue - man this pisses me off, there's going to be a gorgeous Batwoman statue, but it's only available with Comissioner Gordon stuck to it, with part of the Batman as well, talk about poor value for money. The other pieces are similarly hamstrung, with Catwoman and Huntress each stuck with male heroes I don't want to own - any of them solo I'd consider, even for the high price statues fetch, but this is just too much of a waste of money.
p128: Catwoman statue - this, on the other hand, is more like it. You get paid for jury duty - not a lot, but some - so with the cheques I've been putting aside, I'm thinking maybe, maybe, I could give these statues a go. The first ones, Wonder Woman and Zatanna and Black Canary, and now Catwoman, are all gorgeous, and characters I love the look of.
p130: Catwoman and Batgirl Ame-Comi statues - new versions of the first two Ame-Comi characters, Catwoman in purple rather than black leather, and Cassandra Cain Batgirl rather than Barbara Gordon. I'll take the Catwoman, but the new Batgirl doesn't interest me.
p132: World of Warcraft Night Elf Hunter Alathena Moonbreeze
p346: Stargate SG-1 Black Ops Samantha Carter
p348: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Captain Sisko & USS Defiant command chair - awesome.
p359: Marvel Universe action figures including Ms. Marvel and classic Ms. Marvel - I'll get them if I can find them.
And lastly, on p400, a Watchmen Silk Spectre (modern) costume, among others. I idly toyed with the idea of going to the premiere dressed as Silk Spectre, but discarded it - this costume isn't up to my standards (when I dress up in ridiculous outfits, I want them to be exactly the right ridiculous outfits), wouldn't fit me anyway, and there's no way I can throw together a home-made version in time, not to mention that it'd cost a fair amount either way, and I'm just not that interested in the movie. Plus it's still the tail end of summer here in Sydney, so wandering around dressed in PVC from the neck down would be practically suicidal.
She-Hulk #38 ~ Sigh, final issue - farewell Peter David's She-Hulk, we barely knew you. Well, there were what, 17 issues? But David's writing has been so unfailingly excellent that no amount of issues could be 'enough'. This issue has 32 pages (not quite the 'double size' promised by the cover, but still) of everything that Peter David has brought to this title and made wonderful: Jazinda, the Lady Liberators, conflicts that are both fun and based in serious and interesting questions, and of course She-Hulk herself, impulsive and human and magnificent. And Behemoth, the startlingly reborn Man-Elephant; I still can't believe he made that work. The conclusion is kind of out of left field - understandable, since it's obvious PAD was only just starting to build it up when the axe fell - but cute, and in the tradition of She-Hulk in all her incarnations; I'm not sure about how it presents Mallory (I still want to like her), but I can live with it. If Marvel's got any sense, the next issue of Previews will have a solicitation for Liberators issue #1 in it.
Wonder Woman #29 ~ I'm still really enjoying this title, but I'm getting a slightly weird feeling from it - I think it's the way that there are two powerful plot threads happening (Genocide and Zeus's boys), and so far as I can see they're really not related to each other in the slightest. The Zeus stuff is still, essentially, set-up, and it's very good set-up - when this storm breaks over Diana's head at last, I have no doubt that it's going to be huge. But maybe because page space is being devoted to this, the Genocide half of the story just doesn't seem as big or as powerful, which in turn makes Diana's trouble in defeating it seem a bit contrived - it seems like she's already faced worse and kicked their asses, so why's this punk in a green leotard with a steel plate bolted to its face giving her so much trouble? I'm not sure it's a problem for this issue specifically, which is paced fairly well as is, but the inclusion of the 'Origins & Omens' backup truncates the main story to 18 pages, and that's a trend I hope won't continue.
Dynamo 5 #20 ~ I was expecting last week's issue #0 to be stand-alone, but in fact this issue follows up on it very strongly - not that there's anything enormously baffling if you missed it, but #0 is a lot more tied to current events that the average out-of-numeric-sequence issue. Scrap is moving to Tower City, and Myriad - already living there in a hotel - winds up as her roommate; meanwhile Hector's cutely awkward courting of Firebird (the younger one) continues with some amusing help from Gage, who also has a blundering discussion with Slingshot about Myriad's recent Vigil disguise. As always there's a lot of character-based storytelling going on, all of it interesting and enjoyable - and of course this is a superhero comic, so there's action too, in the form of the Strong Suit getting another workout in a lover's feud with its wearer's superpowered girlfriend War Chest (who lives up to the name - judging by her costume she's a Power Girl fan, and she's got the physique to make it work; Myriad's got a point when he observes that the battle between her and Scrap would be seriously profitable if they did it in mud), which Dynamo 5 has to get involved in to keep civilians from being hurt as the unhappy couple trade barbs and building-levelling punches. It's fun, exciting, endearing, and top quality in all regards.
Ms. Marvel #36 ~ With Dark Reign out in the open now we're finally catching up to the mysterious teaser this title gave back when its Secret Invasion tie-ins wrapped up, with Carol in Hong Kong in a slinky dress. At the same time, a lot of the mystery of this arc's background is being filled in - the events between Air Force Carol's captivity at the hands of Ghazi Rashid and the present, what Ascension is and how it's come into play, why Carol's been so reluctant to use her powers, and so on. It all ties together, but I'm not sure about the last element, the powers issue, which ties into even earlier events - it's a fairly major factor, and I'm not sure I like the direction it's taking. On the plus side, there's some interesting stuff to do with Carol's lack of emotional memory that could prove valuable if it's developed more. Patrick Olliffe's pencils - or perhaps it's LaPointe's inks, I can't really tell - have a slightly unattractive angular quality now and then; the art is good overall, but not great, and I find myself missing Lopresti, and hoping this title gets another artist like that, who can really get immersed in it.
New Avengers #50 ~ Now that this is a US$3.99 title, this extra-large issue gets bumped up to US$4.99 in price, which is a bit of a whack, especially with eight pages of Fantastic Four preview in the back bulking it out - note to Marvel, I don't want to pay for advertisements, which is what preview pages essentially are. Still, the issue itself - New Avengers, that is - is solidly entertaining, and Bendis's writing and the variety of heroines in the cast have me convinced that this will be a worthwhile addition to my standing order. There's Ms. Marvel (sporting the best butt in the world on, appropriately, page 3), Mockingbird - whose interactions with Clint have me thinking I may pick up their upcoming miniseries - and of course Spider-Woman, who gets some focus this issue. A variety of artists are hauled in to provide pages for the big battle, showcasing a variety of styles, mostly good, although Spider-Woman's page is pretty unappealing to my tastes.
Avengers: The Initiative #22 ~ As usual, there are a lot of worthwhile character moments in this issue - a scene with Tigra, an exchange between Trauma and Thor Girl, and a cute conversation between Cloud 9 (whose costume still needs work) and Ultragirl all come to mind as high points, but there's a lot of characters here, and a lot of good scenes and bits of dialogue for most everyone. It's just the overall story that I'm feeling a bit so-so about - Clone Thor, now going by 'Ragnarok' apparently (it's better than 'Clor', at least) going on a rampage. I'm feeling that that's distracting from the really interesting material, which is what Norman Osborn's takeover means for the Initiative - that's referred to in some scenes (including the Cloud 9/Ultragirl one I mentioned), but of course it takes a back seat to fighting the insane cyborg for most of the issue, and in all honesty, Clor just isn't that interesting. Humberto Ramos's art is good for the most part, but there are some panels where his free-wheeling attitude to anatomy becomes a distraction.
Justice Society of America #24 ~ I'm a little bit lost at times with this arc, since I don't know a whole lot about the Shazam family and the Rock of Eternity, or whatever all that is; luckily the issue's good enough to get by despite that. Isis reborn continues to be full of potential, so much so that I'm almost wishing the JSA would stay out of the way so we could just see Adam trying to deal with this - it's clear he's not just being the bad guy, and is genuinely conflicted about Isis's new, bleak outlook, yet clueless how to go about helping her. Dark Mary turns up too, sadly still in her ridiculous Final Crisis costume - Ordway's flat art doesn't help her much either, and I can only hope that she reverts to her black dress (as seen on next issue's cover) before long. Again the 'Origins & Omens' backup makes the main story squeeze into fewer pages, only 16; Fernando Pasarin's art on the 6 backup pages is superior to Ordway's, though.
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War TPB ~ This volume contains the following issues already reviewed here:
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #1
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #2
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #3
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #4
Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #5
and the Free Comic Book Day 2008 issue, which I thought I'd reviewed, but can't find in the archive - oh well, it's a stand-alone adventure that's awesome and funny and action-packed and has a strong dramatic core. In fact, that applies to Dogs of War as well, if you don't feel like reading the individual reviews. This volume also includes page-long introductions from writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener (which casts a new light on issue #5, among other things), a foreword from Matt Fraction, a letter written by Tesla (fictionally, of course) regarding his creation, and of course the backup stories from all the issues, including the beautifully strong one from issue #5. Go get it.
