[RANT] Dave's Capsules and Awards for Oct 1

                    Dave's Unspoilt Capsules and Awards
         The Week's Picks and Pans, plus Awards of Dubious Merit

Standard Disclaimers: Please set appropriate followups.  Recommendation does
not factor in price.  Not all books will have arrived in your area this week.
Gotten chilly out, frying pan to freezer.  Rants, Capsules can be found on my 
             homepage, http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants 

Capsules:
     The regular Capsule reviews of books I actually buy.  If I get a book
late due to distributor foulups or whatever, I'll put it in the Missing
section.  

     Formerly Known As The Justice League #4 (of 6): DC - Okay, I've reread
it.  I've sat here staring at this screen for several minutes.  And I can't
really think of anything to say that I didn't say in my review of #3, except
that the whole language thing was cool.  Mildly recommended.  $2.50/$3.85Cn
     Justice League Adventures #24: DC - Y'know, I'm almost positive that
this was a knowing ripoff of a Star Trek episode or two, but I have to say I
liked it a lot more than the Next Generation episode it maps onto.  And
Nicieza did a good job having the three Leaguers involved each project their
own experiences onto the situation.  Recommended.  $2.25/$3.50Cn
     Robotech: Love & War #5 (of 6): DC/Wildstorm - More of the same, you
almost have to be reading this while watching the relevant episodes to make
sense of things.  There are better ways to write a side story.  Mildly
recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Astro City Local Heroes #4 (of 5): DC/Wildstorm - This issue starts a
two-parter to wrap up the current mini, and suggests that in a world of
wonders, you don't need superhuman powers to change everything...just open
eyes and the willingness to act on what you see.  Of course, not all changes
are good.  This story's a good start, but it's hard to unreservedly recommend
it until I know how it plays out, so...recommended.  $2.95/$4.50Cn
     Avengers v3 #70: Marvel - Ewwwww...Coipel knows Red Skull doesn't wear a
mask anymore, right?  Anyway, while it feels kinda like it's coming out of
left field, the big climactic fight works quite well.  And it'll be
interesting to see if the changes Gyrich has gone through stick this time.
It's a good ending, although not enough to make up for the lead-in.
Recommended.  $2.25/$3.75Cn
     New Mutants #5: Marvel - A bit of a let-down after the previous issues
as we enter territory that's a bit more cliche-ridden, with a pretty
predictable resolution to the not-very-clear cliffhanger shown at the end.
Decent dialogue, but too wrapped up in a stale plot.  Mildly recommended.
$2.50/$4.00Cn 
     eXiles #35: Marvel - Well, if you're gonna mess around with bits of
Marvel history, why not go for the first piece of Marvel history?  A
promising start to a three-part story that makes me wonder exactly how far
ahead Winick wrote eXiles before going exclusive elsewhere?  :)  There *is* a
bit of a glitch that makes me wonder about the ordering of things (namely,
Mimic goes from bearded and ragged to relatively clean-shaven with a repaired
costume between pages with no time in between).  Recommended.  $2.99/$4.75Cn 
     Supreme Power #3: Marvel/MAX - The series realy kicks into gear
emotionally, even if it's still largely talking heads.  Strongly
recommended.  $2.95/$4.75Cn  (Oh, and the "Explicit content" this issue is a
naked guy getting out of bed, if anyone's curious.)
     Gold Digger v3 #45: Antarctic - I dunno who Monty is or if he's appeared
before, but I like him (and suspect he's an old god under an assumed name).
A fun issue.  And I really need to build myself a Peebo.  Recommended.
$2.99/$4.80Cn

Gone Missing:
     Stuff that came out some places this week and that I wanted to buy, but
couldn't find for whatever reason, so people don't have to email me asking
"Why didn't you review X?"  (If it's neither here nor in the section above,
though, feel free to ask, I might have forgotten about it!)

     Still Killer Princesses #3, Grandmother's Hive, Necrowar #1-3, Laughter
of the Damned #2-3.  Thanks to those who confirmed that all of these have
actually come out.  Also, Diamond shorted my store on a bunch of stuff,
including Bone, and since I'm near the end of the alphabet I got to wait for
the reorder.  

Awards:

Best Book: Supreme Power #3

"The TV's In Esperanto" Award to Formerly Known As The Justice League #4 
     (of 6)

"Q Factor" Award to Justice League Adventures #24

"The Movie's Writer Saw The Original Macross, Apparently" Award to 
     Robotech: Love & War #5 (of 6)

"Para Mason" Award to Astro City: Local Heroes #4 (of 5)

"I Cannot Say It Enough, EWWWWWWW" Award to Avengers v3 #70

"Maybe A Little EWWW Here Too" Award to New Mutants #5

"Some Thing's Wrong Here" Award to eXiles #35

"Extremely Smart Bombs" Award to Supreme Power #3

"It's Not The Magic Wand That Does It, It's The Magic Ammo" Award to 
     Gold Digger v3 #45

     Dave Van Domelen, "Let's hear it for wacko alternate worlds!" - Illyana
Rasputin