So, February was really light. Not enough floppies yet to ship, some gaps in my manga and other shipments, plus several manga arrived on the last day of the month. I figured, rather than post a column with four or five entries, I'd hold off until March. So, of course, a whole lot of stuff arrived in March.
Note, this month is a bit more political than usual. Not just in the "all art is political" sense, either. Popular art reflects the world around it, either by commission (mocking or protesting the powerful), omission (studiously avoiding the eye of the powerful), or deliberate contrast ("here's how life SHOULD be."). Even older works that didn't intend to comment on the present day can't help but be interpreted through the lens of current events. So, if you try to use entertainment as a way to avoid thinking about the state of the world, you may want to stop reading now.
Items of Note (Strongly Recommended or otherwise worthy): Way of the Househusband vol 12
In this installment: Venom: the Last Dance, Velveteen vs. the Early Adventures, Sovereign (Nemesis Book 2), comments on the end of Moon Girl and the start of Daredevil: Born Again, Action Activists #4, Adventure Finders Epilogue 2 and 3, Easygoing Territory Defense vol 4, Dinosaur Sanctuary vol 6, Megalumiere Magical Girls vol 6, After God vol 3, The Way of the Househusband vol 12, Gat + Gamer vol 7, Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol 1, Kaiju No. 8 vol 12, Mr. Villains Day Off vol 6, Tank Chair vol 3, Go! Go! Loser Ranger! vol 12, Hilo vol 11: the Great Space Iguana, The United States of Captain America TPB, Iyanu Child of Wonder vol 4, Ultraman x Avengers #4 (of 4), Fantastic Four #28-29, Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu #4-6, Gatchaman #6, Gatchaman: Only One Earth #1 (of 4), Vampirella #674-675, Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-4.
"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.
Venom: the Last Dance: Marvel/Sony - Theoretically the final installment of the Venom series, although it did leave things open for a sequel or spin-off or whatever. The story this time is full of retcons, but they're of the "no one revealed this before because it didn't seem important" and "sneaky background people aren't supposed to be noticed" varieties. Some of the retcons tidy up some of the plot threads from the previous two movies, but the tidying wasn't really necessary...the strength of these movies is in the gonzo performances rather than the tight plotting or sensible worldbuilding. Tom Hardy continues to carry this, both as Eddie Brock and as the voice of Venom. That isn't to say the plot is bad or the other actors don't pull their own weight (although an important new supporting character's whole background deal was a little unclear until it got spelled out in the extras), but you want to watch this for the highly dysfunctional buddy road movie schtick. Recommended. Price varies by store and format.
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| Toys in the attic.... |
Sovereign (Nemesis Book 2): Diversion Books - I had a big gap during reading this second book in the Dreadnought series, because it was starting to look like the story was going someplace I just did not want to read. And it irked me, because I couldn't ARTICULATE why this bothered me when other similar things hadn't. (I ran into the same "I hate where this is going and I can't explain why" problem with the Wayward Children series.) So I stopped. Then I followed April Daniels on Patreon, got a few "deleted scenes" from the upcoming book three, and decided to put this one back in my queue. It turned out that if I'd gone literally five pages further the first time around, my concerns would've been allayed, because I was totally wrong about where things were going. :) Anyway, despite being published almost a decade ago, the title villain is disturbingly topical...an adherent of the oligarchic-libertarian philosophy that democracy is a mistake and the world should be chopped into a bunch of microstates run by powerful techbro dictators. This is dangerous enough in the real world, but Sovereign has access to superhuman powers and the secret of making more. On top of Sov, one of the dangling antagonists from book 1 gets their plotline resolved, but Nemesis itself still remains literally hanging over the world's heads like a Master Sword of Damocles, since this is book 2 of 3. (The big gap in publication is due to personal issues on the part of the author, but she's managed to get back on the horse.) Recommended. $6.99 in the Kindle store, I got it on sale for $4.99, and it might be different prices at different places if you'd rather avoid Amazon.
And now a couple of bits that I don't consider proper capsules despite being longer than some of the capsules in this file.
I thought at the end of S2E14 of Moon Girl that they were narrowly avoiding the cliche of "parents refuse to trust teen superheroes to be who they are once they find out" but nope. I ended up fast-forwarding through most of S2E15, and it felt like they were unintentionally doing an extended metaphor for a parent not accepting a kid who finally had the courage to come out as gay or trans. (As opposed to Dreadnought, which is explicitly and intentionally about a kid coming out as gay and trans.) It did manage to pull out after a few pretty rough eps, but the back half of the season seemed intent on wallowing in sitcom cliches in between wrapping up some character arc stuff. A few episodes felt like they really wanted to get certain characters on screen one more time, but couldn't come up with a better plot for it, so cliche time. The ending was good, and built a lot on what had gone before, but it felt like the final eight would've been stronger as four or five.
The Disney+ continuation of Daredevil, "Born Again" (which I still think is a dumb subtitle for a devout Catholic character, even if the comics did it first) started in March. I watched the first couple, then decided I'd seen enough. I've never been all that interested in Daredevil as a character, I did like how the first season of Netflix did stuff and after that I was hooked in more by the shared sub-universe and my pre-existing interest in Power Man/Iron Fist. But I like this Daredevil more these days as a guest star than in his own stories. So, I don't plan to watch the rest of the season.
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. I will also occasionally include things I read on Library Pass (check to see if your public library gives access to it), although the interface can be laggy and freeze sometimes.
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. I will also occasionally include things I read on Library Pass (check to see if your public library gives access to it), although the interface can be laggy and freeze sometimes.
Action Activists #4: TeachNYC - A sort of "you screwed up the timeline, Marty!" framing sequence is used to examine a few pieces of New York City's history, and how they could easily have gone differently. This is more of a comedic take, not an in-depth series of serious counterfactuals, but interesting nonetheless and educational along the way. And hey, these are free books by Van Lente and Dunleavy, might as well go to https://www.weteachnyc.org/resources/resource/action-activists-4/ and grab it!
Adventure Finders Epilogue #2: Patreon.com (Rod Espinosa) - Queen Herminia gets the cover, but Clari's "harrowing of the Shire" style epilogue wraps up first and takes up the bulk of the book. Most of the harrowing is being delivered by Clari, though, with the only real downside here being the demonstration that "Arao" may be dead but his deluded worshippers remain and still manage to channel magic in his name. Herminia's story plays with a format not generally seen in this book, a series of splash pages running kind of like end credits, but with captions that carry on a conversation among the distant powerbrokers of the United Crowns as they try to figure out how the hell Herminia managed to leverage herself into a major military force and new nation...and what to do with/to her. While the other two epilogue stories did feel like endings, this has sequel bait written all over it, even if Espinosa chooses to not actually write the sequel. This is much like the way the season finale of a show that hopes to get another season will have a short scene setting up next season's threat, just in case. At the same time, such a scene doesn't require too much effort on its own in the event another season isn't approved, nor require too much contradiction if there's another season but they decide to go another direction. Recommended. $2/month tier gets access.
Adventure Finders Epilogue #3: Patreon.com (Rod Espinosa) - This installment looks at Nalathara (the "courtly lady" assassin) and Ariarra (half-elf cleric-ish type), both of which are basically followups to Clari's de-scouring of the Shire epilogue. Nala's epilogue also shows what happens to the Arokians that Clari kicked out of her hometown in an act of mercy, with particular focus on the horrible school teacher whose horribleness helped inspire Clari's journey in the first place. (Nala happens to the Arokians, basically.) Espinosa has stated that a Book 4 is not impossible but not currently planned, but this doesn't stop him from adding in a new character and another possible spinoff direction should there be more tales in the world of the Hundred Kingdoms. Ari's story is more about catching up with Clari, since they spent much of Book 3 in an aggressive Split The Party, as well as mourning their lost (nice bit of worldbuilding in terms of how graves are marked and observed). Recommended. $2/month tier gets access.
Expected next month: May or may not be another Adventure Finders Epilogue. I might catch up on the online versions of Amoeba Adventures rather than waiting for the next trade, and I got a PDF of all the original Stardust the Super Wizard comics as part of a Kickstarter fulfillment, but haven't had time/energy to do more than skim it yet.
Note, if you haven't checked to see if you can access the LibraryPass system through your local public library (or a non-local one that will give you a card), a lot of the books I review are available through it. For instance, just checking their recent arrivals shows Magical Girl Incident, Cat + Gamer, Cthulhu Cat, Gunsmith Cats Omnibus 1, and the by-chapter version of Reborn as a Vending Machine (in addition to books I reviewed explicitly as being on LP). I guess not enough chapters of Reborn have come out to get the third volume, I wonder if the creator has shifted focus to the anime?
Manga Collections:
Most of these are "tankobon" or collections of work serialized in a weekly or monthly publication, although some were written directly for the collection. All of them have been translated from Japanese (or maybe Korean, although I don't think I'm reading any manhwa) into English. Things with a manga aesthetic but done in English originally will go in one of the sections below as appropriate.
Easygoing Territory Defense vol 4: Seven Seas - Yeah, not typing out that full title anymore. The harem story is nipped in the bud with a few lines of dialogue (although the prospective Apkallu bride is still interested even if her father knows marriage is off the table), instead focusing on the potential friendship between Lord Van and Arte, the young daughter of nobility who arrived last volume. Like him, she has a disfavored magical talent, although she does not appear to have the nigh-bottomless reservoirs of mana that let Van get so much use out of production magic. Her scenes also represent the most significant viewpoint split to date in the series, which has otherwise almost entirely focused on what Van is present for. In that respect, Arte has become the secondary protagonist, since it's not just events around her that we see, it's her inner life. An alliance by marriage between Van and Arte could solve some immediate problems regarding the suddenly more valuable territory Van oversees, but create long term problems as well...and that doesn't even address how "modern Japanese salaryman in a ten year old's body" is going to cope with being engaged to an actual child. So, yeah, Arte is a much thornier problem than any dragon. However, she does get backgrounded in the back half of the volume by an actual dragon, since there's another extended combat sequence that lets her chaperone Lady Panamera (she of the titanic breasts and even more titanic magical might) show off her more martial talents. This series dances around with being a little pervy in places, but so far as managed to keep the protagonist from being a cad, instead focusing on logistics and alliances. Recommended. $13.99/$17.99Cn, rated Teen 13+.
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| Yes, the dinosaur is adorable. |
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 6: Viz Media/Viz Signature - The bulk of this volume involves dealing with the new type of Kaii introduced at the end of vol 5, although the real challenge is dealing with the competing agency jurisdictions and multiple magical girls with wildly differing styles and motivations. A little more of the deeper background comes out, and Magilumiere advances its agenda in a small but critical way. Lots of fun technomagicalbabble thanks to the competing styles, I'll definitely miss one of the styles (not gonna say why we won't see it anymore, that'd be a spoiler!). With the success against the Kaii, it's time for the company to expand again, and some familiar faces return to flesh out the roster. Recommended. $14.99/$19.99Cn, rated Teen.
After God vol 3: Viz - A common element of "Mythos" cosmic horror is the idea that godlike beings live on such a different scale (size and time) from humans that they barely notice we exist...until they do, at which point it's like noticing a cockroach scurrying across your kitchen floor. Maybe disgusted, maybe "ooh, a neat bug" fascination, maybe just a sense of tired "I just cleaned, and the vermin are back already?" In no way is it a good thing to be noticed, even if the god is more amused than annoyed...because they tend to want to clean house eventually, once they get over their initial reaction. This volume is an extended examination of one such "ooh, a neat bug" god who has finally gotten bored and is done playing around. Most of the humans in focus do not enjoy the experience, for all that they're more durable than the typical person (or Neat Bug), although there are hints here and there of a potential accommodation between gods and humans. Not that I expect this to turn into a giant version of Joe's Apartment, mind you, but studying the Neat Bugs does seem to bring with it a touch of empathy, or at least reduction in antipathy. Lots of body horror and monstery stuff, but not much more than in the previous volume. Cronenberg-ish but with more fangs in places that shouldn't have fangs. Recommended but with hefty content/trigger warnings. $14.99/$19.99Cn#10.99UK, rated Older Teen.
The Way of the Househusband vol 12: Viz - And now a little light Yakuza comedy as a palate cleanser. This volume's standout new character is a police rescue dog named Daigoro (Great Protector is probably the meaning of the version intended, and perhaps a link to the 70s kaiju of the same-in-English name), who is a poofy Pomeranian. I suppose we also get new characters in the form of Personality Sprites (to use the Narbonic term). Tatsu and Miku both have shoulder angels and devils, but Miku also has a shoulder Policure and Tatsu a shoulder Yakuza boss, who help break ties. Or shoot ties in the face. Whatever. The world is also expanded a bit with a look at Tatsu's reading list, which includes a celebrity chef and author who may also be a hit-woman...feels like taking the "Martha Stewart has done prison time" gag to the logical (for this world) conclusion. The more I look back at this volume, the more characters are actually introduced, come to think of it. Sure, a lot of them are in side scenes and never interact with Tatsu or Miku directly, but the world is expanding, and it's a surprisingly hopeful one considering how violent it also is. Sure, there's possible assassins who are not brought to justice, but there's also intimidating-looking ex-cons who actually picked up useful skills in prison and are using them to make the world at better, or at least more aesthetically pleasing, place. Beefs are resolved less through violence and more through showing off skills and trying to make the other guy look like a chump. This doesn't always work (the wild boar is not impressed by Tatsu's meal prep skills), but they've definitely taken this "going straight" thing seriously. And in a real world where merely looking like you might be a tattooed gang member can get you thrown in a deep dark hole, it's refreshing to see actual tattooed gang members getting a second chance at life. Recommended. $14.99/$19.99Cn/#10.99UK, rated Older Teen (lots of implied violence, the only actual violence is getting bowled over cartoon-like by a feral pig).
Cat + Gamer vol 7: Dark Horse Manga - The original publication date was pre-COVID, which almost makes this volume prescient as the big change this time around is the protagonist's company shifting to remote work...much harder to keep an iron wall between work and home like she had been doing when the two are now in the same location, and the gaming rig is within reach of the workstation. The cats are a bit confused at how the human doesn't seem to leave anymore, but they roll with it. Recommended. $11.99/$15.99Cn
Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol 1: Dark Horse Manga - I originally read the first few issues' worth via a borrowed TPB back in the 90s, and some of the lines and scenes stuck with me. I suspect the version I read was somewhat more censored, though, because I initially thought the Explicit Content sticker was going a bit overboard. Sure, lots of suggestive bits, and the fact that Minnie-May (the explosives expert) is 17 years old and a former high end call girl, but that'd be more "Older Teen," right? Well, there's definitely some stuff I think I'd have remembered seeing the first time around, so take the sticker seriously. Oh, and there's also a lot of grievous bodily harm, but I'm pretty sure that all got past the censors in the 90s. All that aside, Gunsmith Cats is a "guns, girls, and cars" manga set in the fantastic foreign locale of Chicago. Kenichi Sonoda researched things very thoroughly (primarily the guns and cars, of course) but there's definitely a lot of "this is how Japan sees America" tone throughout. Running gunfights, car chases, explosions...just a regular day in Bush41's America. Rally Vincent really just wants to be a gunsmith, but even in gun-happy America that doesn't pay the bills, so she's also a high end bounty hunter. However, it's rarely the bounties themselves that pose the problem, it's the criminal syndicates, rival bounty hunters, assassins out to shut up the bounty before they can cut a deal, etc. And explicit content warning aside, the real porn here is guns, lovingly rendered and described. "Ammosexual" has been used as an insult lately, but it really fits this manga. With cars as a side piece. And a little bit of James Bond or cyberpunk here and there because maybe Sonoda wasn't TOO concerned about realism. Speaking of a lack of concern for realism, Rally Vincent has an awfully deep skill set and reputation for a 19 year old. Even ignoring the legality of someone that age owning a gun shop and having been a bounty hunter for years, one gets the impression that her first time getting a car over 100mph happened when she was too short to reach the pedals. Anyway, if you can get past the more fetishy aspects of Sonoda's work, there's some good comedy in with the action and panty shots, and very well-drawn guns and cars. $29.99/$39.99Cn (about 600 pages), take the Explicit Content label seriously.
Kaiju No. 8 vol 12: Shonen Jump - Mostly the fight between Sword Guy and his numbered Kaiju foe, followed by a brief demonstration of why Kafka's childhood friend is considered a Badass. There's more backstory for both of them, which has mostly convinced me I'm not interested in the upcoming two volume side story for Sword Guy. Kafka himself gets very little screen time in the book named after him, I hope he gets back to center stage next volume. Mildly recommended. $11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK, rated Teen.
Mr. Villain's Day Off vol 6: Square Enix Manga - The book about needing to take a break from all the conflict is quite welcome in these trying times. As a collection of vignettes originally published as part of a magazine, they do spent a lot of time reminding the reader of the premise, since any given installment might be someone's first, but that makes it a relaxing read. Once in a while the author will neglect to clearly explain someone's deal (like the alien siblings who share a body), but it's not a huge problem and things usually become clear enough within a couple panels. This continues to be a cozy take on what might happen if a Power Rangers premise becomes more of an institution, but in rather than the Go Go Loser Ranger version where both sides are pretty evil or at least venal, everyone here is just trying to save their respective worlds and is willing to call off fights because someone's too tired or it might ruin the day for civilians. I suppose if they ever want to indulge in a Serious Plot, the "Evil League" could end up allying with humanity against the mysterious other aliens we've seen a couple times, the two sides are clearly ready for an end to hostilities in the near future. Recommended. $14.99/$19.99Cn, rated Teen.
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| Technically still not a tank unless it has a turret. |
Tank Chair vol 3: Kodansha - While each chapter is still named things like Target 15, this volume is the endgame, no new opponents, A final showdown between Nagi and the immortal and amoral Sensei. The body count may be smaller than in previous volumes (or maybe not...a bunch of buildings get dropped with an unknown number of inhabitants), but it's all "named characters" this time around. Very violent, very gory, but the seemingly amoral killers are starting to die for principles beyond "survival of the strongest." This could easily be the end of the series, but volume 4 is already scheduled for June. Still, there must needs be a reset, because it's hard to keep escalating after the kaiju-level action of this volume. The moral line in the sand (or finely powdered concrete rubble) is clearly drawn by both the protagonist and some of the antagonists: you gotta have someone to fight for other than yourself, or you lose the last shred of what makes you not a monster. That said, there really is a lot of violence that's gratuitous even by the standards of the previous volumes, which I can see putting a lot of people off. Recommended with that warning. $13.99/$18.99Cn rated Older Teen 16+ (mainly violence...so much violence).
Go! Go! Loser Ranger! vol 12: Kodansha - (Oops, looks like I've been omitting the exclamation marks in the title for a while now.) The cast has literally become too deep to let the plot advance, what with all the flashbacks and startling revelations and "now cut to one of the other five running fight scenes" bits. But I'm enjoying this more than the similar slow-the-plot-down fights over in Kaiju No. 8, perhaps because this setting goes a lot more over the top which gives Negi Haruba more room to just throw in interesting character bits before killing someone off...as mentioned earlier, there really are no good guys here, just monsters and sociopaths, some of whom have convinced themselves that they're heroes. Well, a couple of characters do finally get something like a noble motivation, if only for contrast. Fighter D continues with Mission: A Pox On All Y'all's Houses and as much by accident as intent manages to make decent progress. He is alternately cruel and kind as the needs of the moment push and pull, but ultimately it's in service of pushing tragedy onto as many people and monsters as he can manage. If this be madness, there might be method to it, as at least one character starts to notice, but it's also possible he's just a massive dumbass fueled by spite. Spite is a valid business model. The storytelling is somewhat confusing, but if a three-way fight happening all over a massive complex isn't confusing you're probably doing it wrong. Recommended. $10.99/$14.99Cn rated Older Teen 16+ (mainly violence which goes beyond "fantasy violence").
Expected next month: Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vol 12, Magilumiere Magical Girls vol 7, maybe Mecha-Ude vol 1 or Toxic Super Beasts vol 1 (I'm not ordering these sight-unseen, so it depends on whether I find 'em on the shelf and like what I see). There's a Kaiju No 8 side story coming out as well, but as noted above I'm not really interested in the guy it's about. Plus, of course, the possibility of finding out about a title through social media memes and fanart and deciding to check it out, as I do.
Other Trades:
Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, whatever. If it's bigger than a "floppy" but not Manga, it goes here.
Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, whatever. If it's bigger than a "floppy" but not Manga, it goes here.
Hilo vol 11: The Great Space Iguana: Random House/RH Graphic - To some extent, this is a Meanwhile to volume 10, and sort of explains some of the unexplained weirdness of that story, but...there's still a lot of unexplained weird. While there is a space iguana and a bunch of hostile alien races, the main conflict is anxiety over Gina's status...having left to become the new guardian of realities, she might have a way to return to her old life and friends. I don't exactly care for anxiety-driven stories, even when it's pretty clear that Everything Will Be Fine. Mildly recommended. $14.99/$19.99Cn
The United States of Captain America: Marvel - This is a few years old, but I started seeing scans from it on social media recently, so decided to order the trade and give it a shot. The premise is that someone dressed in the classic Captain America uniform steals Steve's shield and then uses it in a cross-country campaign to besmirch the name. There are, of course, Nazis to punch, and along the way a bunch of new Captains America are introduced. Hey, if Batman can do it, so can Cap. (Some of the new ones are a bit of a stretch, the sort who'd have gotten less than a page in Cap & the Falcon #178-184 before ending up in the hospital.) Anyway, occasionally tortured premise aside, it was an entertaining read. Recommended. $17.99/$22.50Cn
Iyanu Child of Wonder vol 4: Dark Horse Comics/Youneek Studios - This is not the end of the series, but it's where I'm stopping. The original arc resolves, and the two pages of "Hey, there's another menace waiting in the wings!" (the sort of thing I talked about in the Adventure Finders review) did not grab me even a little. I feel like that bit was only added to leave room for a second season should the cartoon (which is still Coming Soon) do well. Unfortunately, a really weird scripting tic hurt what should've been a Big Damn Climax issue. To wit, every single time someone exerts themselves in a fight or to use their powers, they say "RGHAAAAA!" with maybe an extra few R's or A's. No variation at all. It really killed whatever mood Okupe was going for...the editor should've pointed this problem out, it makes the final fight scenes feel like a lame running gag. Of course, the editor isn't even credited on the main title page, it's possible that the editors listed are just overall Dark Horse editors and no one actually took editorial ownership of this book. It's a pity, the series has a lot of interesting ideas with potential, but while some of the technical editing has improved (the lettering is a lot more readable, although they're still doing some weird "did no one tell them not to do that?" tricks connecting the balloons), it really feels like the whole thing needed a stronger editorial hand to develop the ideas better. Mildly recommended. $19.99/$25.99Cn
Expected next month: Nothing, although a couple of crowdfunds might fulfill, like the new anthology of Stardust comics referred to above.
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.)
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.)
Took almost two months to get enough floppies built up for a shipment, and due to the vagaries of publication dates that resulted in three issues of Moon Knight. Also, all the back issues of Lower Decks came in, although I had my shipment sent before #5 came out.
Ultraman x Avengers #4 (of 4): Marvel - For all the big battles and cosmic stakes, this ended up feeling pretty anticlimactic. It did advance some Ultraman plot threads, in case they get another series (nothing on the schedule for the next few months, at least), but like...underwhelming "defeat Galactus" resolution. Also, given how unlikely it is that any of this will be relevant to the Marvel Universe characters going forwards, they sure got a lot of the focus. Mildly recommended. $4.99
Fantastic Four #28-29: Marvel - I have previously complained about how the Fantastic Four seem to be so marginalized when Doctor Doom is stomping all over the big event books lately, leading to things like Reed spending months trying to figure out how to get into the action and largely failing. Maybe North asked to be mostly left out, I dunno. But its kinda like having an Ultron event and sidelining the Avengers, or a Sentinels event with all the X-Men stuck in another dimension. Which, for all I know, they've also done...I don't read a lot of Marvel anymore and tend to avoid the mega events as much as feasible. This also means that I really only have idiosyncratic windows into those events, so I don't know if One World Under Doom is really meant to be a MAGA parable or if that's just North's take on it. Anyway, in #28 the event hasn't quite started and Reed and Sue go to talk to Dane Whitman in an attempt to find a way to merge tech and magic to get past Doom's barrier, ending up with a bit of archaeology along the way (since that's Sue's PhD area). Sue gets to write the narrative captions, which do carry a bit of weight in some montage sequences, a duty she continues into #29. Obviously they fail, because otherwise a dozen or so tie-in books would have to be cancelled, and #29 skips ahead to the New Normal. In an attempt to get their minds off how they can't really do anything about Doom, Sue and Ben go out to lunch with She-Hulk, and discover a problem they can solve, at least a little. (Mainly helping clean up after a previous Big Event, whose neat resolution wasn't as neat as it had seemed.) It's a small victory, but since they're not allowed a big victory right now it's necessary lest they fall into late-series CW Flash territory (22 episodes of failing to stop the master plan, then 1 episode succeeding). Anyway, there's some good bits, but they're Muzzled By The Narrative (a milder version of Doomed By The Narrative, which they aren't despite Doom running the narrative), which is irksome. Basically, not allowed to do anything constructive yet because of external editorial fiat. Mildly recommended. $4.99 each.
Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu #4-6: Marvel - Before I get into anything general-plot-related, there's a really effective use of lettering fonts in #5. A character reveals their true nature, and their font changes to indicate said nature pretty clearly (for those who recognize it) a panel or so before it gets spelled out. Nice work there, whether it was the writer's idea, letterer's initiative, or editor's input. Not so nice was the switch in artists for #6. Domenico Carbone made several characters look like petulant teenagers (including Marc Spector) and apparently thought that the big bulky criminal mastermind whose build was very well explained in #5 had to be made more "realistic" and slender. And also like a petulant teenager. The work Pramanik put into giving the characters some CHARACTER was all sandblasted away into generic CW-approved hotties. These are good contrasting examples of how all the roles in making a comic are important, and one person can either elevate the overall work or drag it down. #4-5 are recommended, but the art drags #6 down to merely mildly recommended. $3.99 each.
Gatchaman #6-7: Mad Cave - #6 is a one-off downtime adventure in which Jinpei (Keyop in the Sandy Frank dubs) drags everyone along on a quest for buried treasure. It's the sort of thing that might carry an 8-page backup story, but stretching it to a full issue makes it just drag. Very skippable. Back to actual Gatchaman action in #7 with the start of a new arc and a rather abrupt increase in the cast size. The trainee quintet is joined by three other sets of five, who all get named and get to show up once before the story moves on and resumes ignoring them. I get that Bunn is trying to expand the setting and address the whole "Why does Nambu only ever have five warriors when Galactor has an army?" issue, but the actual execution was a bit awkward. Still, it's a story that's trying to go somewhere, an improvement over #6. #6 is neutral, #7 is mildly recommended. $4.99 each.
Gatchaman: Only One Earth #1 (of 4): Mad Cave - I've commented before about how Battle of the Planets was significantly sanitized compared to the Gatchaman source material, but usually it's a matter of toning down the hits, adding dialogue claiming someone survived when they originally hadn't, etc. This miniseries is more broadly dark, the kind of plot that would've been placed on some "never heard of it before, won't see it again" alien world in Battle of the Planets...but which took place on Earth in the source material. The devastation and genocide set off by Galactor may take place in a fictional nation, but it's still on Earth. Because, as the title points out, we only have the one, and a toxic hole blown in it is still everyone's problem, not something safely at a remove in a distant star system. Tommy Lee Edwards also plays up the friction between Ken and Joe that was a recurring problem for the team in the original anime. In short, while a lot of nostalgia revival comics lately just go dark because that sells better to aging fanboys, Gatchaman really was that dark and melodramatic, this is an honest extension of the original stories. The art's a bit on the scratchy side, especially when Nuno Plati is trying to do speed lines (there's a race involved in the plot) and they don't really come across right. The storytelling is definitely not decompressed, and things go to hell pretty briskly. Recommended. $4.99
Vampirella #674-675: Dynamite - The final issues before the inevitable new number one. #674 wraps up Draculina's Dark World arc, and I think I'll need to go back and re-read it all in one sitting to be sure I have it figured out. In theory it finishes explaining Draculina's deal, in practice it kinda confused me more, but sometimes that'll happen. #675 uses a Dr. Chary framing sequence around a previously untold story where Vampi agrees to be committed for psychiatric observation for 72 hours, only to have one of her enemies come hunting in the mental institution. But it's really setup for the next big arc, and Chary's getting really tired of being jerked around by Ella and her crazy friends. (Normally I dislike the "straw skeptic" who refuses to believe in magic in a world very much full of the paranormal, but at this point I think Chary has decided he will literally die before he accepts any of this "crazy space bitch" stuff, purely out of spite. So it wraps around to fun again.) Recommended. $4.99 each
Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-4: IDW - Due to a veritable comedy of errors, the first three issues weren't available when my last shipment was sent, despite having come out by then. So I got the first four all at once...almost ended up waiting for the trade. North goes with two issue arcs, at least for the first four issues, which does nicely emulate the "single commercial break in the middle" pacing of 30 minute shows. The continuity placement is a little vague, happening after T'Lyn joined the core cast but before the series finale (this is important to the second arc, because Rutherford's still uncertain whether he should become more cybernetic, and learns that at least in one respect more computer power wouldn't make him a better person or engineer). It is definitely difficult to have interquel stories where characters Learn A Lesson, because even if you point out that a single lesson rarely sticks, dramatically you need to find a lesson that didn't get learned at a later point in other media (especially lessons learned in the series finale arc). So far, North is managing to find specific angles on characters' ongoing character issues that can be addressed without just copying or rendering redundant something in an episode. Comics tie-ins tend to be "deuterocanonical," needing to be consistent with the canon of the show, but not allowed to do anything the show would be forced to acknowledge. So far, so good. Less good is the fact that #3 sees the change to the fugly new IDW logo, to the point that even at a glance the cover felt WRONG. Recommended, $4.99 each.
Expected next time: Probably another skip month for floppies, if not overall. Somehow the MLP: Cadence one-shot was not pulled for me, instead one of the G5 books was grabbed, so Cadence will be in the next shipment, whenever it is. Assume continuations of everything above except Ultraman x Avengers, and Vampirella will be rebooting at #1. Maybe another Gatchaman one-shot will be in the next batch. I technically have sixteen titles in my pull, but a bunch of them might never put out another issue and are only on the list out of sheer hope. Will Scout Comics ever resume publication of the titles of theirs I follow? Will there ever be another Orville comic? Or another Arrowsmith series? And that's not even counting the potential demise of the direct market in the first place.
Dvandom, aka Dave Van Domelen, is an Associate Professor of Physical Science at Amarillo College, maintainer of one of the two longest-running Transformers fansites in existence (neither he nor Ben Yee is entirely sure who was first), thinks Lunella should meet Aika, is an occasional science advisor in fiction, and part of the development team for the upcoming City of Titans MMO.
"That's the thing about laws: They don't mean anything if they're not ENFORCED." - She-Hulk, Fantastic Four #29
Dave's Capsules for February and March 2025
Reviewed by Dvandom
on
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Rating:
Reviewed by Dvandom
on
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Rating:
