What I Bought 7/25/07

This would be what I'd consider a normal "big" week - four comics. All in all, it was a pretty good week, so let's talk about it. And you know, obligatory spoiler warning.

Amazing Spider-Man #542 - Wilson Fisk makes fun of Spider-Man, Peter Parker beats up Fisk, humiliates him and leaves. That's pretty much it. I suppose I could talk a lot about how Peter seems to draw a distinction between "Peter Parker" and "Spider-Man", and how certain actions are acceptable for one of them, but not the other. Or I could talk about Ron Garney's art, which is mostly effective. I thought the first panel of page 6 was nice, Garney's way of showing Peter attacking swiftly from multiple directions. Fisk looked odd though. Sometimes his head seemed oddly shaped, or his eyes looked too deeply set in his head, like they were in holes. The coloring was nice, especially the bruising around Fisk's eyes. Holy crap, I just saw a dog on TV telling a girl he wishes she wouldn't smoke pot. Interesting. Not as interesting as Andy Dick on Star Trek: Voyager, but interesting nonetheless. Back to the topic at hand.

Really, all I wanted out of this issue was Spider-Man beating up Kingpin, so I got that, and yet. . . I'm a bit disappointed in Wilson. I thought he'd have more of a plan. I hope he did. He may be able to beat Daredevil straight up, but going toe-to-toe with Peter Parker is a whole other story. It was really nice to see him lose some teeth, though. Nice touch, Mr. Garney. So there it is. If you want to see Spider-Man make the Kingpin look like a chump, you'll probably like this. I sort of did, but now I've had my fill of Angry Spider-Man for awhile. 3.5 out of 5. I feel bad rating it that high, but I can't say I didn't enjoy a good chunk of it.

Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #1 - Now this. . . should be interesting. We've got a nice little recap of Starlord and who he is, followed by a little recap by some Kree officers as to the general situation. The nice thing here is that since Peter Quill (Starlord) doesn't know what the Kree are talking about, it makes the exposition (or mission specs) seem less gratuitous or forced. He's learning along with us. Then we get intro'd to the team, one to two pages each. Then there's a little more set-up, and. . . the issue ends.

So yeah, lotta talking, but I presume this gets that out of the way so we can have explosions and stuff next issue, which I'm generally fine with. It's an interesting enough first issue, if only for the oddball characters we meet, and I got to find out about why exactly Quill gave up being Starlord, which was nice. Oh, and Galen Kor showed up! Unless you read Avengers comics from around #350, that probably doesn't mean much to you. It didn't mean much to me either, except I knew I'd heard the name before. Little research and presto! Turns out he going to set off one of those planet-devastating Nega bombs on Earth, for the Avengers involvement in Kree business. The things I remember from just one comic I didn't like and don't even have anymore. Now he's an Admiral in charge of Covert Ops.

Two nitpicky things here. One, Starlord looks too young. I'm probably just used to his grizzled, raggedy look from Annihilation, but I really thought that worked well, because it made him seem older, more experienced than Nova. Maybe it's having the cybernetic implant removed, but he looks younger than Rich now. I also still need to see Mr Green the 2nd's artwork during a fight scene. It's odd, but familiar some how. I think it's reminding me of Seth Fisher's art (not that I'm terribly familiar with his work either). The other piddling detail is. . . you know what? Forget it. It's probably a matter of different starting points on the timeline for the mini-series, or something else easily explained. Never mind. 3.5 out of 5.

Cable/Deadpool #43 - So, can I go back to just calling this "Deadpool" now? And what is that "One More Day" thing doing up in the numbering box? This book has nothing to do with that (or at least, it better not)! Anyway. . . obligatory Wolverine appearance! Hmm, Ron Lim's Wolvie reminds me of Ed McGuinness'. Deadpool is visiting a monument to Cable in Rumekistan, and Cyclops shows up. That's nice; I doubt Whedon will take the time to have Cyke pay respects to his son. Did Cyke and Cable ever do much bonding?

The X-Men want Deadpool to do. . . something about Wolverine, who's on another one of his "Decimate HYDRA" kicks. Whether it's stop the slaughter, or help, I'm still uncertain, but Wade has remembered that he left Weasel in the hands of HYDRA, at the base Mr. James Howlett's headed to (what are the odds?), so he's in. With Bob, Agent of HYDRA, of course. I must admit, as someone with a juvenile sense of humor, I laughed quite a bit at HYDRA's newest nefarious weapon. It's just so. . . amusing. Hmm, I think I'm using too many ellipses. Time for dashes!

Yeah, quite a bit of toilet humor in this issue. I love it. Hey, don't get me wrong; I'm glad Wade is trying to do something good and save a friend, since he lost one recently, and probably can't afford to lose many others. It shows personal growth, and that's great. But 'It's gonna be like an international butt party.'? That's hilarious. So's what happens to Wade at the end. I think we've got a Happy Time Big Explosion Party coming next issue. Hooray! 4.2 out of 5 for the laughter.

Immortal Iron Fist #7 - Ah yes, the book with 'pirates, girls, kicking and Iron Fist'. Who wants to put odds Chris Sims goes into anaphylactic shock when he reads this? First question: who buys glass rose-blossom cherries? I mean, glass representations of fruit? You're just asking for a painful awakening some morning when you stumble about feeling starved. Eh, it's not really relevant to the book, but I just thought I'd ask.

It's the origin of Wu Ao-Shi, so no Danny Rand. Sorry. She's a troublemaker, catches an important fellow's eye, gets a chance to be something special. Then she finds love. Superpowers and love, well that's wonderful. Except it doesn't stay wonderful, because this is Marvel, and nothing ever does, I suppose. Oh, don't be sad, it's ends nicely (the part we see anyway).

It's an interesting tale, as each goes on their separate paths, even when they're together. She walks a path of adventure, danger and excitement, and he walks a path of - fish. But neither tries to change the other, which is what makes it sweet. And cool. The art is nice, the writing is clever, though at times the dialogue seems too, smart-alecky for the time when it took place. Maybe it's a case where the writers are being self-aware of the material, trying to keep us from taking it too seriously. Which is fine. I chuckled at some of the dialogue and the captions, and the thought balloon on page 14, and chuckling is good. And this issue was good, though I'm a little impatient for the Tenkaichi Budokai to begin, but that's not until next issue. Grr and Sigh, hurry up next issue. 4.3 out of 5.