The Back Stack: March 6, 2012

Hello one and all and welcome again to The Back Stack, Grave Issues’ weekly column of my initial opinions of various issues of comics.  It’s a short week this week and, unfortunately, the releases weren’t great, but not bad… for the most part.  As always, spoiler alert.

Before we begin, I want to address the lack of reviews for the recent issues of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe, the Mega Man trade, and Thunderbolts.   Covering Thunderbolts quickly, I just flat-out missed the issue and will pick it up this week.  As for the three other titles, it turns out that Archie Comics is having MAJOR issues with Diamond Distributors.  I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s hurting not only the fans, not only the comic book shops, but them as well.  The fans are getting hurt by this issue because they don’t get their comics.  The comic shops are getting hurt by this because they’re losing money either to rival shops that somehow weaseled issues anyway or to the digital distribution services that Archie Comics seems to be pimping lately.  And finally, they’re hurting because the issues they’re printing aren’t being moved.  This is a three-way lose situation and it needs to be resolved.  Now, I COULD  download the two Sonic issues I missed digitally, but I don’t believe in digital distribution when I have a comic book store nearby that needs to keep it’s people in work.  If you don’t have a comic shop near you, digital distribution is perfectly fine, but I DO have one and I’m going to support them.  So Archie, get your head out of your ass and ship your merchandise, dammit!  Not that I’m entirely interested in Ian Flynn’s disasterpieces, but as a COLLECTOR, I’m ticked off.

And with that mini-tirade out of the way, let’s begin.

Amazing Spider-Man #680 seems to be kicking off Doctor Octopus’ big-time scheme that he worked all of 2011 to put into motion.  I’m very interested in what Dan Slott has planned.  For all the build-up, I’m expecting big things.  The issue itself wasn’t bad either, but I think that they’re overplaying the antagonistic attitude from Human Torch to Spider-Man.  We have some decent moments from J. Jonah Jameson too, which will probably end up screwing over Peter Parker again in the long run.  While it changes the setting to a decidedly non-Spider-Man role, being a space station, it does so while still making it feel like a solid Spider-Man book.

Verdict – Recommended

The Avengers #23 wasn’t a bad comic by any stretch.  While it’s a bummer to see Vision squandered and while there is still no sign of the Protector, unless I missed something, and we get more of Osborn’s power play, but one thing on that.  Osborn’s liaison to talk to the US Government, Madame Hydra, had her Hydra Hulks attack the caravan including the secretary of defense, and they’re still trying to play up that Osborn could get his position of power?  Is Bendis HIGH?!  In spite of that snafu, because dumber things have happened in comics, we get to see Quake get her chance to shine by freeing members of the Avengers into a confrontation with Osborn and a swarm of ninjas.  This could turn out to be an awesome fight and, hopefully, we’ll get a detailed explanation as to what Osborn did to himself to get powers of a butt-load of superheroes.  Good character moments and, in spite of a hiccup here and there, it isn’t a bad read.

Verdict – Recommended

FF #15 solidified to me that I should have dropped this book a long time ago.  I find it impossibly difficult to get connected to any of the characters short of Doctor Doom, who has been absent most of the time, and Val, who in the end isn’t that interesting from the get go, even if she’s supposed to be, what, TWO?  Okay, that’s unfair, and it’s kind of a letdown, because I think if Marvel’s failed at one thing it’s been developing their young heroes and the ones they DO develop and turn into something awesome, they can’t do enough to hold the book on the rack, like my beloved Arana/Spider-Girl.  While I like to think that Avengers Academy is doing a good job of developing new young heroes, this book did not.  It has been a living bore and I’m done with it.  The story is uninteresting, the connection to the Fantastic Four storyline is questionable, and there are better books out there.

Verdict – Pass (Personally Dropping)

Justice League #6 was… extremely anti-climatic considering this book was supposed to be the grand introduction to the New DC Universe… and now apparently we’re getting teases that the OLD universe could be returning in some capacity with the return of the woman in red, now named Pandora, from the 52 issue #1s.  She gets in a fight with Phantom Stranger which seems to be setting up a company-wide event in the future, because hey, summer, gotta have an event comic, right?  No, of course you don’t, but they’ll bring one out anyway.  Secret Invasion, anyone?

Oh yeah, there was the fight with Darkseid too that ended up amounting to a dog pile of the heroes and Cyborg shorting out the tech Darkseid was using to come to Earth.  There was some questions that do get brought up, though, including who was this “her” that Darkseid was here for.  Was it Pandora?  Maybe.  Although it seemed to me that Superman was his primary target.  Lots of questions to keep the fans reading, but it was generally a dull issue.

Verdict – Cautiously Recommended

The New Avengers #22 was superior to The Avengers #23 on the grounds that nobody was actually acting like an idiot and we get some genuinely fun moments, including the New Avengers confronting Victoria Hand and throwing her out a window at Daredevil’s request.  We also see that not all is well in Osborn’s new clique of New Dark Avengers as the character we all had doubts about in that whole crew, Skaar, plays his hand, as expected.  This is still the superior Avengers title between it and it’s counterpart, in my opinion, and if you’re only reading one Avengers title… still make it Avengers Academy.  Neither of them can compare to it.

Verdict – Recommended

And we end with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro-Series #3: Donatello was a nice one-shot for what it shaped up to be.  There was minimal story development, but you get some good characterization.  I would have liked to have gotten a bit of an explanation as to why it seems Leonardo and Donatello butt heads as often as they do, but that could be addressed in the next one, which focuses on Leonardo.  This one stars an old scientist looking to reclaim his standing in the scientific community with some pretty trippy tech known as “The Gauntlet.”  Not the most original name, but fitting nonetheless.  Baxter Stockman takes notice and wants him to hunt down the turtles (or just A turtle, according to him).  Good issue, if you like the turtles, or Donatello in particular, I’d check it out.  The best part about the Micro-Series has been that you aren’t required to have read the other two, you can just pick up the characters you want to read about and I like to think they do a good job of introducing you to the character in this new universe.

Verdict – Recommended

I told you it was a short week.  This week marks the end of my #SaveDerpy hashtag support too, and unfortunately, it didn’t go the way I’d hoped.  For those unaware, I am a brony, a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.  Yes, a 25-year-old man is enjoying a cartoon show made for pre-school girls and younger.  What can I say?  I, and thousands of others, are attracted to high-quality TV.  Anyway, long story short, an alteration we were hoping to stave off came to pass and it seems that our #SaveDerpy movement has failed.  Derpy no longer exists in canon and her voice and eyes in the episode in question have been altered.  While the voice doesn’t bother me, the eyes and name removal does.  It invoked bad memories of One More Day, arguably the worst storyline to ever come to pass in comics.  And yes, I do say that while looking stuff like Countdown, the Iron Queen Saga, and the before mentioned Secret Invasion square in the eye.

The issue at hand was whether or not Derpy was a slight against the mentally handicapped.  Apparently, the name Derpy is erroneously associated with mental disabilities and people took offense, most notoriously being Yamino of Sister Claire fame (whom, while I think gets more blame than she deserves, didn’t help her case by generalizing bronies in an unfavorable light like she did).  Recent episodes did depict Derpy with her cross-eyes, but it’s clear we’ll never truly get to know the character Derpy in future episodes.  The episode was edited and re-uploaded on iTunes in place of the original and we now wait to see if the same is true for TV, which likely will be the case.  Since this was such a short week, and while we’re on the topic, why don’t we review something else I purchased?

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Friendship Express.  This is the first DVD compilation of the series and it’s… an okay assortment of episodes.  Aside from The Last Roundup and Hearth's Warming Eve, there are better episodes they could have picked.  It does maintain a theme, though, that being the train.  However, the biggest failings in this DVD are two-fold.  First, chapter start points seem to skip the first second or two of the episode unless you hit the back button to catch what you missed.  This is the same with the karaoke music video too.  Second, one that’s evidently being fixed by Shout Factory, the makers of the DVD, is an audio sync issue in the first episode.  Also, the video quality is a major misfire, at least on my copy.  If this DVD has one saving grace is that the infamous Derpy episode, The Last Roundup, is available here in all of its adorable gory.   If this episode weren’t on the disc, I’d probably tell Pony fans to get the episodes you want off of iTunes, but because this may be the only place we’ll see the original Derpy ever again, it’s well worth the price in my opinion.

Also, I have to tilt my head at one of the bonus features.  A FULL EPISODE of the new Pound Puppies cartoon show.  What the flipping frack?!  You could have used that space for another My Little Pony episode that would have incised prospect buyers!  Look, I'm glad you're trying to push one of your other shows, but a FULL EPISODE of something most buyers didn't want in the first place?  And it wasn't even a good episode to begin with.  WHY?!

Oh well.  We've got Derpy and that's good enough for me.

Verdict – Highly Recommended (Cautiously Recommended otherwise)

And now, we’ve reached the end of a short week I artificially made longer by including one of my other fandoms.  Next week, I’ll try to keep it to comics.  Until then, brony on.

Cheers;

Master Graveheart

#SaveDerpy… one last time.