Rapid Reviews - 20 October 2004 - Part II

Vagabond Vol 6: While Musashi recovers from his first real defeat, his childhood friend Matahachi gets a new name of his own. This book was split fairly evenly between Musashi dealing with fear for the first time in his life and Matahachi dealing with fear for perhaps the last time. Of the two stories, the development of Matahachi is much more interesting because he has so much farther to go. This continues to be an extremely good series, and I'm more than a little upset that the library only has up through volume seven.

Smallville [4-04]: Devoted: This is the Kryptonade episode, in which the cheerleaders are making the football players serve them by spiking their water. I found this one really funny and extremely stupid. Particularly the effect the water had on Clark and what he did just after drinking it. I also liked Clark's reasons for wanting to be on the football team. It wasn't high art (when is TV?) but it was certainly funny, if cringeworthy.

Smallville [4-05]: Run: Ah yes... the Flash. I admit that I have absolutely no hope of Aquaman ever appearing on Smallville, but it was funny that Clark ran into some girl in Florida... could it be Lori Lemaris? The fans may never know. The in-jokes were cute and didn't detract from the show overall, so I'm thinking this one was a success. There was also a point when Lex knew, without a doubt, that Clark had lied to him. Very interesting how that scene was played. I liked this one a lot.

One note on Smallville: I'm not looking forward to this week's episode. I'm tired of body-switching stories. Really tired of them. I don't know if this one will work, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #10: Four stories by four scary rockers... ok, three scary rockers and Pat Boone. "Bart Simmons" was typical fare, the location of the guitar was a nice touch. I loved "The Legend of Batterface" by Alice Cooper. A Simpsons twist on an old revenge tale. I confess I didn't really get "House of a Thousand Donuts" by Rob Zombie. What was up with the monkey? "Scareway to Heaven" was a nice finishing story to the anthology. As usual, this book is recommended to anyone who likes Treehouse of Horror.

Street Angel #3: I don't know if I'll ever get a copy of issue two, so I went ahead and read this one. So, the "angel" thing is literal in part? Very interesting. A nice odd book. Not really my thing, but a different sort of book that a lot of folks like.

Concrete: Complete Short Stories 1986-1989: I decided to catch up with as much Concrete as the library could provide. This is the first one I got. This is a series of short stories, all from Dark Horse Presents. Concrete works well in the short story format. And while I still haven't read his origin, at least it's fairly clear what happened to him. None of these stories stand out to me as amazingly good, but all of them were strong. And the introductions were informative. Overall, a very nice package.

Neo Dawn #2: Again, the font has some problems. Info dumps really need to be readable. But Committed Comics has put out some good books recently, and I want to support them. I don't recommend this one to anyone who hasn't read the first issue, but if you have, go ahead and get this one.

Amelia Rules: Superheroes #3: A bit of a filler episode in which Amelia goes to see Tanner at her new home and realizes that the world is bigger than her group of friends. This one is good for the friendships shown, but there's not a lot of action.

Plastic Man #11: I feel like aping DC's solicits for Plastic Man in my reviews. The stuff in the book stays with me for such a short time I don't know if I can pull up any opinions. It's funny. Not as funny as the classic stuff I've read, but amusing in its own way. The inclusion of Lex in a body-switching story was something new. For Plastic Man. At least it was played entirely for laughs.

Still to review: Comic Book Digest, H-E-R-O, Identity Crisis, Batman Strikes!, Noble Causes, Teen Titans, and JLA.

And did I mention that everyone needs to check out True Story Swear To God: Chances Are...? Oh yeah. I did. Go read it. Female readers in particular. Most guys will like it too. I need to get hubby-Eric to read it.