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From: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
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Subject: Dave's Comic Capsules for March 2024
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2024 04:13:45 -0000 (UTC)
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                    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
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