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From: dvandom@eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen)
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Subject: Dave's Capsules for June 2024
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2024 02:33:54 -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
       I passed the stress test, but did not enjoy the experience.

     Items of Note (strongly recommended or otherwise worthy): Nothing this
month, another of those "lots of good, no great" months.

     In this installment: Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2,
Adventure Finders Book 3 Chapter 19, Third Imp: Percy in the Lands Between,
This Is Screwed Up, But I Was Reincarnated As A Girl In Another World vol
1-2, Kaiju No. 8 vol 10, The Great Cleric vol 9, Delicious In Dungeon vol
2-4, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 2, The Deep Dark, Barda, Bad Dream: A
Dreamer Story, Fantastic Four #20-21, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #5, My
Adventures With Superman #1 (of 6), Vampirella/Dracula Rage #6 (of 6),
Vampirella #669. 


"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.

     Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2: DC - The first half
hour or so focuses on the origins of Supergirl/Harbinger and Psycho Pirate
(many AKAs in this version), then it's time for the Shadow Demon attacks as
the vibrational towers turned out to only be a stopgap solution just as in
the original comics.  The crosstime Bat-Family gets a lot of time as well,
but mostly it's an excuse for fight scenes and recriminations (Tomorrowverse
Batman dropped Dick off at an orphanage in Central City and has been
aggressively solo).  Just as part one had the advantage of hindsight to
construct a more satisfying role for Barry Allen in Crisis, both Psycho
Pirate and Supergirl get much more reason to do what they do, rather than
being plot devices explained with a few panels here and there.  Other
elements that seemed just sort of "wouldn't this be cool?" in the original
are also more smoothly integrated, both into versions of the original Crisis
story, and also linked to the rest of the Tomorrowverse and even before
(e.g. fleshing out why Atlantis was working with the Nazis in the JSA movie).
It doesn't have the strong narrative thread that part one did, but it's still
pretty solid storytelling.  Recommended.  Price varies by format and store.
Note, part 3 is coming out on streaming in July, but I'll be waiting for
BluRay again.  (There's a very short preview of part 3 in the extras on this
disk, and they're definitely doing the "Dinosaurs in Metropolis" thing from
the original Crisis.) 


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 19: Patreon.com - The battle continues,
and while there's a few brief setbacks or apparent setbacks, this is mostly a
forwards grind against multiple enemies, with a few moments of character
stuff amidst the attacks.  This is definitely a "wait and read the whole
battle at once" sort of thing, though.  Mildly recommended on its own.
$2/month on Patreon. 

     Third Imp: Percy in the Lands Between: JohnnyWander.com - Just a
collection of quick comics chronicling the efforts of Barbarous's artist Yuko
Ota to play Elden Ring.  It's a mix of single panel bits and short strips,
and the tone is definitely comedic given that Yuko was not very good at the
game (unlike McNostril, whose Elden Ring comics reflect a somewhat more
skillful playthrough).  As indicated by the full title, the Tarnished was
modeled after Percy, one of the leads of the Barbarous webcomic.  Now, to be
honest, all I know about Elden Ring I learned from McNostril's comics, but
you don't really need to know the game to be amused by this zine.
Recommended.  Pay what you want, $5 is the recommended price on itch.io (and
what I paid). 

     Note, I have been poking around more at the LibraryPass system, since
the vagaries of Media Mail meant my floppies might not have arrived until
July.  One thing I found is that Marvel and DC are not available, either in
general or on the version my local library licenses.  There's some DC content
through Capstone, which does Early Reader prose (with some DCAU-style
pictures) DC superhero books.  Dynamite is fully participating, though, which
let me read this month's Vampirella books while waiting for my shipment.  


Trades:

     Trade paperbacks, collections, graphic novels, pocket manga, whatever.
If it's bigger than a "floppy" it goes here.  I'm pondering splitting this
into manga and non-manga sections.

     This Is Screwed Up, But I Was Reincarnated As A Girl In Another World
vol 1-2: Seven Seas Entertainment - When I first saw this title while
scrolling through releases, I got the impression that this would go for a lot
of sex jokes.  However, I saw some positive comments about the book online,
so I decided to give it a shot, grabbing the two volumes that were on the
shelf.  Yeah, not getting more.  It's not that there's nothing good about it,
but most of the stuff it does well is done better in Great Cleric or Kuma
Kuma Kuma Bear or Enthusiastic Lord.  The first volume is really rough, and
feels like someone just drew the outline rather than fleshing out the story.
Second volume is a bit better in terms of actually telling a story, but both
are rather heavily focused on the main character spending time masturbating.
(Nothing graphic, the running gag is a "cut away to show pictures of nature
while she does it" thing, and the occasional naked breasts are nipple-less.)
Neutral.  $12.99/$16.99Cn, rated Older Teen 17+. 

     Kaiju No. 8 vol 10: Viz Media/Shonen Jump - The fight scene started in
volume 9 keeps going and will continue into at least vol 10.  No. 9's True
Plan kicks in after what seems like progress made on the part of the humans,
with new Numbered kaiju showing up that are tailored to fight each of the
number-suit humans, and in the fight of No. 15 vs. Shinomiya (daughter of the
now-deceased former director) the volume really begins.  There's shades of
Evangelion here, with Shinomiya having a fair amount of Asuka in her
personality, and No. 15 turning out to be like one of the Angels that gave
Asuka the hardest time.  The front and back cover mirror-style art of
Shinomiya and No. 15 is pretty effective at setting up expectations, too.
Recommended.  $11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99UK rated Teen. 

     The Great Cleric vol 9: Kodansha - Luciel wraps up his work cleaning up
the Healers' Guild in his adopted hometown, and runs into a Big Mystery that
he...just sort of sets aside because he can't do anything about it.  The
mystery involves the magic that binds slaves, and while he shelves it he
can't shelve the issue of magically bound slaves in general, since his next
stop is territory where slavery is perfectly legal (as opposed to the sort of
gray market in his old stomping grounds).  This happens to also be a free
city of beastfolk, and you'd think that after all he did for them in previous
volumes he'd be welcomed with open arms, but it turns out beastfolk have
politics too and the faction that likes him is not in charge.  Those who are
in charge can't quite make him go away, but they do what they can to make
things difficult for the Healer delegation, providing a good single-volume
challenge to resolve.  Along the way, Luciel also picks up some rather unique
slaves, one of whom might as well have a "Player Character" icon over his
head.  "Who IS this guy?" is a common thought Luciel has about the guy.  To
sum up this rambling and lightly-spoilery set of comments, Broccoli Lion
spends a lot of this volume setting up intermediate quests that Luciel will
need to deal with before he can resolve the whole grand Save The Dragons arc.
Oh, and Luciel's list of potential romantic partners gains a few members,
some new, and some "yeah, only a matter of time, really."  Potential, because
most of them still treat him like a little brother.  Recommended.
$12.99/$17.99Cn Rated Older Teen 17+ (but "wholesome" according to the back
cover...yeah, in this case while there's a little ribaldry here and there,
the rating is almost definitely more for the slavery stuff and some
consequences of violence). 

     Delicious in Dungeon vol 2-4: Yen Press - I recently read that Ryoko Kui
got to spend much longer creating this than the usual mangaka schedule, and
it's almsot as if the current online obsession with the series is because
readers can tell when a creator isn't being worked to death on a book.
Speaking of death, the inciting incident of vol 1 is more or less resolved by
the end of vol 4, but there's a larger plot set up by the time that happens.
I know from online fanposting that a big chunk of the cast hasn't even been
introduced yet, even the core team is still missing a member.  Where I've
left off for this month, the party has resolved its quest for now, but
they're still broke and at a bit of a loss what to do next.  There's the
implication that they might seek out some treasure on deeper floors before
heading back out, plus a couple of other groups have agendas coming into play
that might make "go deeper" a desirable plan for reasons beyond profit.  I'd
say, if you can get through volume 4, you'll know if the world setting and
characters interest you enough to go through to the end of the series, and if
not it's a decent breaking off point.  Personally, I'm in it for the long
haul.  Recommended.  $15.00/$19.50Cn rated Teen with notation for Language
and Violence. 

     Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. vol 2: Viz Media/Viz Signature - One
thing that stands out is that there is now officially a running meta-bit
here: whenever the antagonist corporate types treat an employee or potential
hire poorly, the reader is assured that they got a better job elsewhere.
"Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. supports a kinder world!"  The antagonist
corporate dude plot continues to be on slow burn in the background, along
with the mysteries of MMGI CEO Shigemoto's connections in the worlds of
business and government.  The first story in the volume has the protagonist
(Kana) learn by doing that her job isn't just about taking down Kaii quickly
and efficiently, it's also about considering the people and places that she
protects.  The second, shorter piece, is a company karaoke night, amusing
fluff as one might expect but also reinforcing a lot of the personality
quirks of the cast.  The volume ends on the first part of a bigger story,
with Kana doing a short term team-up with a magical girl from a giant
cosmetics company, by the name of...Lily Aoi.  This, too, is yuri, as they
say.  Lily is in many ways the opposite of Kana's usual partner, refined and
elegant and so forth.  By the end of this volume, though, there's hints that
Lily rude and crude Koshigaya are a lot more similar "under the hood," as it
were.  The plan is to show Kana how to be a more PR-conscious magical girl,
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