Dave's Comicbook Capsules Et Cetera
Generally Monthly 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 I did read one book this month that had Optimus Prime in it....
Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): I'm In Love
With The Villainess vol 8 (not strongly recommended, but a Significant Story
Point that suggests the series could get much better)
In this installment: Captain America: Brave New World, Watchmen Chapter
II, Merry Witches' Life vol 1, Spider-Man Octo-Girl vol 2, Chainsaw Man vol
18, After God vol 4, Shy vol 2-3, Go! Go! Loser Ranger! vol 13, I'm in Love
with the Villainess vol 8, Avengers Assembly vol 2-3, The Power Fantasy vol
1, The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games, Fantastic Four #30-31, Moon
Knight Fist of Khonshu #7, Vampirella vol 7 #1, Speed Racer #0, Gatchaman #8,
Gatchaman One Earth #2-3 (of 4), Gatchaman Ryu: Scavengers, My Little Pony
Rise of Cadance, Star Trek Lower Decks #5-6.
"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.
Captain America: Brave New World: Marvel Studios - While Sam Wilson has
been Captain America in a few MCU projects before this, this is the first
Captain America movie with him in the role. It's also at least the second
time Harrison Ford has played an Action President (and the second actor to
portray the character, the MCU is not shy about recasting). Tonally, a big
chunk of this movie flips between James Bond stories and the sort of
conspiracy movie where the hero dies in the end and the bad guys win.
There's even an overt Manchurian Candidate riff. Of course, once Red Hulk
emerges, the tone changes rather significantly. Structurally and tonally,
it's very patchwork, but it does have a reasonably strong through-line of
asking the question, "Am I enough?" Not just Sam, but other characters as
well. Recommended. Price varies by store and format. also now available on
Disney+. Rated PG-13 for violence and a little swearing.
Watchmen Chapter II: DC/WB/Paramount - Oops! I discovered late in the
month that the second half of the animated adaptation of Watchmen came out in
late November of last year, and I missed it entirely. This was shortly after
my local Target discontinued sale of DVD/BluRay (other than a handful of
cheapo "babysitter disk sets" of older stuff), and at a time of year I was
even less inclined to go into Walmart, so even if it made it to the shelves I
didn't see it. Ended up ordering it online. Pretty much everything I said
about chapter I (heavy pushing of Dave Gibbons in the extras, good blending
of the various elements of the comic, etc) is true here. I do have a
personal peeve that it continues to push the false story about Kitty
Genovese's murder (people DID call the cops and try to directly help her, it
wasn't the Bystander Effect), but to leave that out or change it too much
would alter Rorschach's core. Recommended. Price varies by store and
format, if you never picked up chapter 1 there's a two-pack available as
well. Probably also streaming on HBO Max or whatever it's called at the
moment you read this. Rated R for brief nudity and some pretty graphic
violence that usually involves Rorschach.
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.
Merry Witches' Life vol 1: Tokyopop - This looked kinda interesting when
browsing LibraryPass, but I ended up not finishing it (read 6 of the 9 or 10
chapters). It's not bad, really, but...it just sort of meanders, the art is
journeyman level (unevenly...some bits are better, either because of
uncredited assistants who are better than the main character artist, or
because there's just one artist whose weakness is humans), the story tries to
be both sweet and creepy and that's a hard balance to hit. The premise is a
trio of widows in a world where magic exists but is largely forgotten seek to
learn enough magic to return their dead husbands to life. Two of the
characters are transformed animals and one grew up sheltered on a hidden
island to which all the witches retreated during the burnings. So, lots of
naivete on display. The tone is generally light and sweet despite the
intended necromancy, but occasionally it whipsaws briefly (such as a ghost
who is only the upper half of a person with trailing guts, or a chapter
devoted to the transformed beetle finding her husband pinned to a board in a
nature museum). Didn't like it enough to finish. I mean, it didn't offend
me or anything, it just wasn't worth keeping a tab open for.
Expected next month: Let's be surprised together!
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.
Spider-Man Octo-Girl vol 2: Marvel/Viz - Okay, so they're all supposed
to be in middle school, even if Otoha looks like a gradeschooler and her
friend Taka looks more like a 16 year old. A few more characters get added
to the mix, helping flesh out the "fat friend" with some backstory tied to
one of the newcomers so she has more to do than snack and snark. We also get
a continuity fix, with "our" Otto being the version from around 2019 and
Superior Octopus being just before Spider-Geddon in 2018, although as I noted
last month this is pretty much on its own divergent continuity. The actual
villain of this series also gets introduced, the shady Across Corporation (I
wouldn't be surprised if they're somehow connected to Cross Technological
Enterprises, but for now they seem to be new to this series) who were
responsible for Taka's bad attitude and indirectly responsible for her
working with Superior Octopus. This plotline does seem to be a
recapitulation of another Spider-Man villain's origin, down to the motif Taka
adopts (interestingly, although the author notes don't admit to it, Taka
Toma's name translates into a spoiler for said motif). An important
development in this issue is that Otoha and Otto find reason to keep
bodysharing despite it no longer being mandatory. Well, each has their own
reason. Otoha wants to pull Taka back from the brink of villainy, while Otto
is very much down with inflicting some justice upon Across Corp. And, I
suppose, he feels a little responsible for mixing Otoha and her friends up in
this, and bailing now would leave them still involved but also defenseless.
Both Otto and Superior Otto manage to display their idealistic sides, and
this series gives both incarnations the hope of avoiding the sad fates they
came to in the Earth-616 comics. Otto's tragic flaw is always his arrogance,
he knows that he knows better than everyone else, whether he currently thinks
the best way to fix the world is the role of hero or the role of villain.
Now 2019 Otto's role is that of...friend? Yes, during the Superior
Spider-Man years, he did have friends, but there was always the lie between
them that he was Peter Parker. These middle school girls know who he is and
seem to be okay with that (although their teacher is a little less okay).
Otto clearly didn't have a great tweenage years himself, this might be the
do-over he really needs. Recommended. $11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK, rated Older
Teen (as in, Otoha shouldn't be reading this, much less living it).
Chainsaw Man vol 18: Viz/Shonen Jump - Speaking of unkillable monsters
fumbling their way towards friendship, this somewhat incoherent volume does
seem to involve friendship, or at least camaraderie, among devils.
Basically, a bunch of people end up working together to rescue Denji, mostly
so they can fight him. There's a bit of an Osiris riff going on in the
process, although I'm not sure it was intentional. Mildly recommended.
$11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK, rated Older Teen for oh so much violence.
After God vol 4: Viz Media/Viz Signature - Okay, maybe introducing one
of the gods to the joys of sex in a volume otherwise hammering home that
they're emotionally and ethically children was a bit too squick...and given
that this is already a body horror book, being extraordinarily icky takes
effort. At least Waka, the actual minor in the cast, is functionally absent
for the whole volume (she appears in a single page chapter bumper bit that
has does not take place as part of the story). Basically, this is all about
the snake god, who may or may not be capable of character development in a
comprehensibly human way. Mechanically, there's a lot of flashback sequences
here, but they're all clearly set apart by the use of black gutters, so at
least following the disturbing story is easy enough. Mildly recommended.
$14.99/$19.99Cn/#10.99UK, rated Older Teen but I'd say it pushes the limits
of that pretty hard this time.
Shy vol 2-3: Yen Press - The worldbuilding continues to be kind of
"whatever feels cool at the time," and not particularly thought-out, but
there's a lot of good moments and character bits along the way, so I can bear
with it. I do think Bukimi Miki went a little far in naming the orphanage
Spirit grew up in the Yuri Orphanage, though. Double entendres aside, while
the series is named after Shy, she's almost an observer a lot of the time as
the rest of the cast gets built up, with Stardust and Lady Black getting a
lot of page time in vol 2 and vol 3 being utterly dominated by Spirit's
tragic backstory and that of her newly arrived personal nemesis. Shy does
get some time in civvies trying to figure out her powers in vol 2, including
the introduction of a small calligraphy club (which turns out to be
relevant). Still, by the end of vol 3, we don't really know who Japan's
previous hero was, if any, but there does seem to be a theme developing that
whatever force is picking people to be heroes is looking for people who are
broken in some fashion, whether emotionally, physically, or both. Miki may
be "pantsing" a lot of this, but the author is having fun and it shows.
Recommended. $13.00/$17.00Cn, rated Teen LV (I suspect whatever Lady Black
says is rather more crude language in the original Japanese, as people keep
apologizing for her foul mouth, but it comes out pretty innocent in this
translation) Note: Library Pass has up through volume 10.
Go! Go! Loser Ranger! vol 13: Kodansha - Wow, the story is VERY hard to
follow a lot of the time, beyond the "fights are inherently chaotic" theme I
think Negi is shooting for. It feels like there was about a half volume's
worth of story and then the rest of the pagecount is random "cool fight scene
stuff" that doesn't really cohere. As I've noted before, the choice of
character designs has a bit more overlap than I'd recommend for a book stuck
in B&W, and unlike After God the frequent flashbacks are not as clearly
delineated (although since most of them are non-combat and most of the
present-scenes are combat, they're usually clear enough from context).
There's some good character bits buried in the noise, but there's an awful
lot of noise. It makes me wonder if there was any editing involved prior to
the translation stage. Mildly recommended. $10.99/$14.99Cn rated Older Teen
(pretty much all violence)
I'm in Love with the Villainess vol 8: Seven Seas Entertainment - Volume
7 ended with a big revelation about Prince Yu, the youngest of the three
princes from the original game of Rei's obsession. This volume is almost
entirely about dealing with this revelation and trying to make things better.
Even the opening few chapters, which move the "mastermind from a neighboring
kingdom" plotline that has been carrying a lot of the "Hey, reality is
diverging from the game" themes ultimately ends up moving Yu's immediate arc
forwards. Also, a huge character moment for Rei herself happens as a result
of needing someone's help in order to help Yu. Up until now, while there's
been small divergences here and there, and hints of powers moving behind the
scenes that never came up in the game, this volume represents a major break.
It's not the game anymore, it's not A game anymore, and the story has
definitely moved past the "Pervy Rei is only a sympathetic character because
of her gender, and even then it's dubious" plotlines. In short, it has taken
a solid step away from what I feared the series might be, and towards
something worth the time I've put into it so far. I mean, there's still some
pervy girl stuff going on, but it's not just Rei doing it anymore, and it
looks like she's going to be forced to stop playing a role and start being a
person. (Yes, the anime version has been done for a while and I could've
just looked up spoilers if I was really worried, but I've been enjoying each
volume enough on its own that I figured I'd just find out the long way.
Also, based on the end note, the anime has some differences in character
appearances and emphases.) Recommended. $12.99/$16.99Cn rated Teen 13+ for
innuendo and some serious themes (such as suicide and gender identity).
Expected next month: Kaiju No 8 vol 13, Tank Chair vol 4, Magilumiere
Magical Girls Inc. vol 8, and probably some more Shy. I might pick up Family
Force V vol 1, Infini-T Force vol 1, and Isekai Samurai vol 1 if I see them
on the shelf (or LibraryPass) and like what I see when skimming. Happy
Kanako's Killer Life vol 8 was going to come out in late May, but has been
bumped back to next January, for an almost two year gap between volumes. I
hope nothing untoward happened to the creator. Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol 2,
originally expected in June, has been bumped back to the end of July, so
probably for the August column.
Other Trades:
Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, whatever. If it's bigger
than a "floppy" but not Manga, it goes here.
Avengers Assembly vol 2: The Sinister Substitute: Marvel/Scholastic -
Okay, I totally missed that this came out FOUR YEARS AGO. Oops. Entirely
possible it never got to the shelves at my local B&N, because I would've been
keeping an eye out for it. Time passed and I stopped looking. But I saw big
stacks of this and the first volume at Ollie's (a close out chain), so
grabbed it and then ordered vol 3 online. Anyway, the premise of this series
is that they took a bunch of Marvel's young heroes and age-flattened them so
they could all be in an Avengers Academy sort of school together (as opposed
to getting Squirrel Girl into Ms. Marvel by having her doing a side gig as a
docent during college in the regular comics). They're told in the modern YA
"Diary of..." style, a mix of hand-writing-style pages, emails, text
messages, and screenshots from video chats. Ms. Marvel was the narrator for
volume 1, and Squirrel Girl picks up as diarist for this volume. As the
subtitle suggests, there is a mystery involved, although the specific wording
is perhaps deliberately misleading. (Yes, this is four years old, but I'm
not going to spoiler the ending.) The nature of the mystery is such that
knowing about the Marvel Universe only makes it HARDER to figure out until a
pivotal scene, given that there are so many malefactors who could have been
behind things. That said, I think the villain was treated a little poorly,
in terms of coming across as ultimately more comic relief than serious
threat. Recommended. Cover price $13.99/$18.99Cn/#8.99UK in hardcover, but
I paid $2.99 at Ollie's. They have volume 1 for that price as well if you
missed it.
Avengers Assembly vol 3: X-change Students 101: Marvel/Scholastic -
Miles Morales is the diarist this time (with occasional pages by Reptil), in
what appears to be the final volume since it came out in 2022. The last page
of this volume suggests that the fourth volume would have appropriately
involved the Fantastic Four, but I guess that never happened. Anyway, unlike
volume 2, there isn't a Villain Plot that runs the length of the story, this
is more of a premise story...what happens when a bunch of
Avengers-in-training meet up with the different educational culture of the
X-Men. There is a villain and some fighting, but it's more of an extended
chapter within the overall story...and if this villain is treated as comic
relief, well, that does tend to be his lot these days. (It's Sauron, whose
chosen appellation was probably a lot cooler and more threatening back in the
60s when Lord of the Rings was just becoming popular...nowadays he might be
best known for the panel in which he says he doesn't want to cure cancer, he
wants to turn people into dinosaurs.) If anything, his original powers and
threat level are taken more seriously than usual these days. The real
conflict, though, involves Miles trying to befriend Reptil, who Doesn't Even
Wanna Be Here. He's not a lot like I remember him from the comics, but it's
entirely possible that the many years since his first appearance have led to
some personality changes. Recommended. Paperback $9.99/$12.99Cn/#8.99UK (I
guess UK costs went up so there's no paperback savings?)
The Power Fantasy vol 1: Image - This was recommended to me, so I picked
up the first trade. One way to describe this, in the spirit of another
review from this month, is "What if there were several supers with Doctor
Manhattan level powers?" Called Atomics after the presumed source of their
abilities, the so-called Superpowers among them exist in a tense balance, as
any one of them could lay waste to a continent or even the entire world if
pushed too far. This volume is mostly setting up the Present Day of 1999
after a generation or so of the Superpowers shaping (or trying to avoid
shaping) the world. A lot of stuff we get in offhand references, with Kieron
Gillen trying to build as much by implication as explication, and it mostly
works, especially in TPB format where some of the teasing only lasts as long
as it takes to read the next few dozen pages...I can see some of it being a
bit annoying were I reading this in floppy form, though. I do wonder if this
is going to be a dozen or so slow-burn issues followed by an orgy of
destruction as the balance finally shatters, because stuff that should Change
Everything shows up and then gets shelved at least once, perhaps more. The
next volume is due in September, whether I get it is going to depend on my
mood at the time, I think. It was okay, but I've generally not liked
Gillen's work as much as other people I know do. Mildly recommended.
$9.99/$12.99Cn
Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games: Clover Press -
Fresh off his comic book histories of comics, Fred Van Lente crowdfunded a
straight-to-hardcover history of RPGs. Rather than his usual partner of Ryan
Dunleavy, the art on this book is by Tom Fowler, whose style kinda reminds me
of Jack Davis's work on Mad Magazine. Not in a copying way, just...same kind
of energy and level of detail. Anyway, with only about a hundred pages (plus
a few pages of endnotes) to cover everything from the precursors of chess
through Baldur's Gate III, it doesn't go into a whole lot of depth, and it
does tend to meander a bit as Van Lente follows a thematic thread to its end
before jumping back in time to pick up the next. Despite having been
following along on a lot of this history as it happened, I did learn a fair
amount from this book, on top of it being entertaining. Some might complain
that it's a bit too nice to Gygax, but you could do 100 pages on him and
probably not do more than scratch the surface of the arguments pro and con.
Recommended. $39.99 hardcover, a PDF will definitely be available for sale
once all the Kickstarter fulfillment is done, I dunno if there's going to be
a softcover.
Expected next month: Nothing Special vol 3 is due out late in June, but
since it's probably gonna make it to the shelf I will pick it up in person
rather than ordering online and hoping it shows up before July.
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.)
Fantastic Four #30-31: Marvel - Well, the covers are for Fantastic Three
and Fantastic Two...as the FF finally get to be directly involved in the One
World Under Doom event it does not go great for them. The countdown relies
on a plot device that is apparently a relatively recent retcon that
contradicts a whole lot of past history...I guess maybe that contradiction
was explained at the time, but all we get here is a footnote back to a comic
I never read. Anyway, in #30 we see some unusual if bad coping mechanisms,
while in #31 they try to undo the plot device and Make Things
Worse...ultimately, something for the FF to do while Doom does his own thing
without them. At least the side story stuff is well-told. Mildly
recommended. $4.99 each
Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu #7: Marvel - Rather clever sting to move the
plot along, giving 8-Ball multiple chances to shine and finally paying off
some of the relationship sword of Damocles hanging over Marc's head (they
find Hank Pym at the end of it and Greer has it out with him, which I
ordinarily wouldn't give away but I really wanted to use a quote from it at
the end of the review). Recommended. $4.99
Vampirella vol 7 #1 (Legacy #676): Dynamite - Vampi has her son back and
is finding motherhood is gonna drive her more insane than anything else in
her life lately. Of course, most new mothers don't have to also deal with
the future version of their baby wandering around in a trenchcoat and making
her think there's a new plot against her, as seen last issue. So, you know,
complicated. She's trying to go back to some nice simple bounty hunting to
keep blood in her stomach and baby food on the table, but life just refuses
to be simple around her, eh? Doc Chary certainly wishes HIS life could be
simple again, but that's a big negatory there too. Recommended. $4.99
Speed Racer #0: Mad Cave - This was the only Free Comic Book Day book I
picked up, but at least I'm back to having a local retailer who participates.
Speed Racer was one of the first media things I remember seeking out episode
to episode, watching it on the local UHF station when I was five. That said,
I've never really gotten into any of the comics adaptations over the decades,
perhaps in part because whatever age of audience a given comic was aimed at
was not where I was interested in being at the time. This version is
definitely a "for grown ups" adaptation, creating an excuse for all the
potentially lethal mods to the Mach 5 in the world of illegal and extremely
dangerous street racing. Meanwhile, Racer X gets the second story, with his
whole "secret agent" deal from the original cartoon fitting pretty well into
the feel Mad Cave is going for here. I'm still on the fence about whether I
want to pick up Speed Racer #1, but I'm not really interested in Racer X.
Free.
Gatchaman #8: Mad Cave - Yeah, Mad Cave hits my nostalgia pretty
accurately, Battle of the Planets was my second "gotta see the next episode"
series after Speed Racer. Unlike Speed Racer, though, it hasn't gotten
nearly as many revival attempts in the intervening four decades (really just
some DVD box set releases and a new dub of Gatchaman which I got about 20
years ago). I'd say I've been in a better place to appreciate this revival
than the new Speed Racer, at least. Anyhoo. The hate gas monster plot
started last issue gets resolved, and the Mark/Jason fight comes to a
reasonably satisfying conclusion, actually dealing with their personal issues
rather than just "called on account of antidote." Also, after the better
part of a year just sort of spinning their wheels, the B-team gets their own
real plot thread. Like most issues of the core title, this is okay, but the
good stuff seems reserved for the side stories. Mildly recommended. $4.99
Gatchaman Only One Earth #2-3 (of 4): Mad Cave - While the original
series came out in the early 70s, it occurs to me that despite the more
modern (for the time) trappings, Gatchaman is very much a pulp setting.
Hidden civilizations, alien intelligences manipulating mankind a la Lensman,
loads of strangeness without ever leaving the atmosphere. In many ways, it's
far more fantastic than the spacefaring Battle of the Planets dub, and this
series really drives that point home. After #1 I was kinda dreading a bit of
a doleful slog through an environmentalist homily, but Tommy Lee Edwards
swerves through a nicely pulpy turn without losing the environmental message.
Looking forwards to the resolution. Recommended. $4.99 each.
Gatchaman Ryu: Scavengers (one-shot): Mad Cave - Whether you know him as
Ryu the Owl or Tiny, you probably know him as "strong guy pilot" and that's
about it. This story is about Tru dealing with that identity issue, is he
really just the pilot? There's a few bits of unclear storytelling, one is
writer Steve Orlando's sole fault (a completely new character is introduced
whose connection to Ryu seems important but is unexplained) and another might
be the artist's or could have been unclear instructions in the script. The
overall story works well enough, though, as Ryu has to deal with the
consequences of improper disposal of Galactor war machines...it kinda makes
sense, as neither Galactor nor the ISO have the resources or coverage to pick
up after every mess, and someone's gonna go after the remains. Anyway, the
Joe one-shot has been solicited and Jinpei is pretty inevitable at this
point, but with the first TPB collecting three one-shots that suggests a
sixth solo spotlight is coming. Dr. Nambu, perhaps? One of the B-team?
Anyway, this book is recommended. $6.99
My Little Pony Rise of Cadance (one-shot): IDW - Gen4 stuff does slowly
keep trickling out, as it's one of the few licenses IDW seems to have left.
And yes, her name is Cadance, not Cadence. Cadance's status as an alicorn
princess never got established in the cartoon canon, but this is the second
deuterocanonical origin (the first being a YA novel, which I read, but
remember almost nothing about...so I guess it didn't really grab me). This
new origin does keep the idea that Cadance was a pegasus first (her daughter
being the first known to be born as an alicorn, so every other alicorn
started as another type), but gives her a bit more reason to have been made
ruler of the Crystal Empire (it always kinda felt like "I gotta get this
alicorn outta Equestria before people start to think there's a succession
happening" to me) and gives her a more solid "portfolio" of her own. Gen4
did get a pretty solid send-off between the animated season 9 and the IDW
season 10, but this shows that there's still bits and pieces of the world
worth exploring, even if Gen5 retconned it as being magically nuked.
Recommended. $5.99
Star Trek Lower Decks #5-6: IDW - And here's one of the other licenses
IDW still has. This two-issue arc has fun with time travel and its
consequences. Consequences first, then time travel. It might be an
understatement to say that Ryan North likes this sort of story, from the
sometimes flickeringly fast alternate timelines of #5 to the Big Reveal and
solution in #6. Both recommended. $4.99
Expected next time: Probably a skip month for floppies.
Dave Van Domelen, "I'm a GHOST, Greer. I have a MISSION, not a LIFE. I
can't do any more for the people who loved me than HAUNT them." "Oh my
God. She sure has a TYPE." "Shut up." - Hank Pym, Reese, Moon Knight, Moon
Knight Fist of Khonshu #7
Dave's Comics and Manga Capsules for May 2025