Path: ...!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!feeds.news.ox.ac.uk!news.ox.ac.uk!nntp-feed.chiark.greenend.org.uk!ewrotcd!news.eyrie.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc Subject: Dave's Comic Capsules for March 2024 Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2024 04:13:45 -0000 (UTC) Organization: Coherent Comics UnInc Message-ID: Injection-Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2024 04:13:45 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: hope.eyrie.org; logging-data="2151"; mail-complaints-to="news@eyrie.org" X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010) Originator: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) Bytes: 23510 Lines: 350 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 Whee, more time spent in the hospital, but seems treatable. Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 1, Wayne Family Adventures vol 3 In this installment: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur S2, Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 16 (complete), Go Go Loser Ranger vol 9, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vol 8, Reborn as a Vending Machine I Wander the Dungeon vol 2, Spy x Family vol 11, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 1, The Great Cleric vol 8, Ant Story, Wayne Family Adventures vol 3, Nothing Special volume one: Through the Elder Woods, The Best of Amoeba Adventures, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2, Gargoyles Dark Ages #6 (of 6), Vampirella #666, Mech Cadets #6 (of 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. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2: Disney+/Marvel - On the one hand, the Big Changes implied in the season opener were largely dealt with in the second episode, the effects did echo through the season as Luna worked on really learning the lessons she'd picked up there. There's also some fairly tight continuity despite a largely episodic format...basically, going JUST by plot the first two eps have to come first and the last two have to come last, but the middle is closer to episodic, except for all the character arc elements...which really need to be watched in something close to order. And often things that seem like one-off gags turn out to be vital to later plots. This season continues to mix entirely new characters with updates of characters both obscure and not (e.g. one episode has an entirely new version of Blue Streak on the super obscure side, while another creates an MCU-flavored version of Molecule Man). While the season dips into some tired cliches here and there (unfortunately, also including the season ending cliffhanger), it generally manages to keep things fresh. Also, there's a yard sale out there that SOMEONE needs to be monitoring. Recommended. For those without D+ or who just don't trust streaming services to not yank content, The Marvels came out on disc this month. Also, I will wait until I've seen the whole season before reviewing X-Men '97, but this one is actually coming out in a non-binge format, so I should be able to avoid the "Looming Mountain" effect that's given me trouble lately on streaming stuff. 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 16 full: Patreon.com - When things look their worst, Clari runs into some familiar faces who may be familiars and starts getting a leg up, but that just lets her and the main cast survive long enough for things to get REALLY dire (lots of heroic sacrifice happens, mostly spear carriers but not all). The seeds of hope are sown in the source of the new dangers, though, even if it's not obvious. And then obligatory media reference to close out the issue. :) Recommended. $2/month or up on Patreon. Trades: Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, pocket manga, whatever. If it's bigger than a "floppy" it goes here. Go Go Loser Ranger vol 9: Kodansha - It might be easier at this point to figure out who ISN'T trying to betray the Ranger force from within, eh? And in case the internal issues weren't enough, a brand new threat seemingly unrelated to the old boss monsters has started to show up, but nothing so minor as a new external threat will stop the internecine struggles. Fighter D's internal struggles are also ramping up, as the purity of his mission is starting to look muddier every day, and the circle of people who knows his secret grows uncomfortably larger. This does feel like a bit of a retrenchment volume, with Negi Haruba perhaps realizing that the book is going to outlive the original plans...or perhaps just deciding that the story needs more twists. Recommended. Rated Teen 13+ for adventure violence. $10.99/$14.99Cn Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vol 8: Seven Seas Entertainment - Yuna continues to move heaven and earth (the latter quite literally) in her quest for better dining options in the fantasy world she's been dumped into. Sure, she has almost godlike power (which finally hits some limits this volume), but the real challenges are things she can't just brute force through. She needs to create infrastructure, build alliances, restore commerce and create successful businesses if she's going to have a chance of returning to her desired life of lazing around eating good food. Of course, her greatest weakness continues to be her discomfort with praise and being the center of attention. Really good character piece, fun humor that subverts cliches (or replaces them with other cliches). Recommended. Rated Teen 13+ for some fantasy violence and a little racy humor. $12.99/$16.99Cn Reborn as a Vending Machine I Wander The Dungeon vol 2: Yen Press - Three main stories in this volume. First is dealing with the frog fiend cliffhanger, then some rebuilding and various emotional arc stuff (which deals with whether Boxxo has a libido or not, part of the Older Teen rating), and then the longest chunk of the book dealing with the first successful kidnapping of Boxxo. The general raunch level goes up a bit this volume, including some "artful steam over bits" bathhouse scenes, but the main "can it even be romance?" arc is more sweet than sexy. Recommended. Rated Older Teen for fantasy violence some racy bits and near-nudity. $13.00/$17.00Cn. Spy x Family vol 11: Viz Media/Shonen Jump - Two short "missions" (Loid has some trouble at work, another Yuri Briar jealousy dinner), but the volume is dominated by an Anya-and-the-kids story which does draw some from the previous stories of the volume. It's definitely the kids' spotlight, and while they mostly run through their established personality beats, now it's under serious stress, which helps show which things were facades, which are true, and which are total commitment to the facade. Recommended. $11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 1: Viz Signature - In a world similar to ours, a natural mystic lifeform known as Kaii occasionally infest inhabited locations, and dealing with them is the responsibility of techno-magical exterminators collectively called Magical Girls. Property owners are responsible for checking for Kaii infestations, and over 500 Magical Girl companies of various sizes exist to handle the problem. And...that's about all we get this volume. Aside from a few narrative captions that I just summarized, there's almost none of the "as everyone knows, Bob" expository dialogue that might explain things like why only women wield technomagic despite men clearly being able to create magical devices. Your basic "Dear readers, please just roll with the premise, okay?" situation. And it works pretty well. The main protagonist is a fresh college graduate on a run of failed job interviews. She's really good at prep, but bad at the actual interview...gives spectrum vibes, to be frank. But it does mean she does sometimes need things explained, and has a tendency to infodump, which allows some natural exposition even if it disallows the "everyone knows" stuff. Her "super power" is that she actually reads and remembers the documentation, in stark contrast to her senior Magical Girl who's more of a "seat of the pants" intuitive learner. The whole thing is an office comedy with magical girl elements and just a hint of a deeper plot, Pretty Cure Office Space if you will. That makes the protagonist Cure RTFM and her senior partner Cure FAFO. Very promising start, and while "trust us, it'll make sense later" writing often writes checks it can't cash, I have a good feeling about this one. Strongly recommended. Rated Teen, presumably for the somewhat nasty-looking Kaii. $14.99/$19.99Cn/#10.99UK Great Cleric vol 8: Kodansha - Luciel has dreams and flashbacks about his original life, and while I doubt this means we're going to get an answer to why he was killed by a sniper, it does serve to both remind him of some of the life lessons he'd been slacking on, and make it clear to the reader that he was really only ever a subordinate...he may have gotten promoted to positions of greater responsibility, being he never actually RAN anything. And that's what he has to do now. He has a squad under his command, and now he needs to learn how healer clinics actually work if he wants to further his goal of reforming the church. So, yeah, much like Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, we have an overpowered protagonist whose main challenges are logistical and organizational. There's also a few long term seeds planted, although at least one feels like he should have done something about it right away. Recommended. Rated Older Teen 16+ (monsters, sexual innuendo). $12.99/$17.99Cn Ant Story: Harper Alley - This is basically a spiritual successor to Jay Hosler's Clan Apis/Way of the Hive, but now looking at ants rather than bees. Rubi, the lone talking ant in her colony, whiles away her days pretending to converse with the other ants, until she finally meets one who can talk back! SOOO many pent up stories and explanations, and now Rubi has someone to tell them to! So, right off, the tone is different than Way of the Hive...where Nyuki's entire hive was slightly anthropomorphic (the "chatty animal" level), Rubi's is Just Regular Ants. Other than Rubi's new friend Miranda, none of the other living things in this story have human-level intelligence, which means a rather different kind of story this time around. It does end up a bit more didactic, since there aren't as many personalities to drive side stories. It's solid storytelling and educational, but not as funny (IMO) as Way of the Hive. Recommended. $15.99/$19.99Cn Wayne Family Adventures vol 3: Webtoon/DC - The first half of Season 2. A lot of the stories involve getting out of comfort zones, from obvious things like Huntress and Nightwing trading weapons on a dare, to Oracle setting herself up to be kidnapped, or Damian trying to look good for school picture day. Yeah, there can be some tonal whiplash from light family comedy stories to Deep Examination Of Trauma stories (and what is more Bat-Family than Deep Trauma?), but they make it work. Strongly recommended. $14.99/$19.99Cn Nothing Special volume one: Through the Elder Woods: Webtoon/Ten Speed ========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========