What I Bought 8/22/07

Let us move past professors and their unusual quotes, and focus instead on the bounty of comic bookiness that appears once every seven days, known as. . . New Comic Book Day.

Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #2 - Well I didn't expect the dying to start quite so soon, but I guess Giffen was impatient. It's always nice when friendly fire plays a role. What's, I suppose "interesting" is the best word, about it is that the team isn't making much headway. These squad members aren't dying as the group achieves various objectives, they're just dying as the team falls to get things going. They honestly haven't made any real progress towards their goal, other than to realize they don't have any clear idea what their goal looks like, and already they're losing soldiers, with at least one more casualty looming, plus a possible desertion (just a hunch).

Of course, it may turn out nobody actually died in this issue, we're just being fooled, but I don't think that's the case.

Last month, I was curious to see how Timothy Green II would do at depicting fight scenes, as issue #1 was lacking in those. Well, there was plenty of combat this issue, and well. . . the results were mixed for me. The explosions are nice, and when he can do the characters in a posed position (such as Starlord firing down at some Phalanx on page 2) it works well. But when the characters are supposed to be moving, it doesn't work quite as well (such as Starlord apparently leaping down next to Captain Universe on page 3. He looks odd). Plus, Starlord's mask looks goofier when he draws it, compared to cover artist Nic Klein. On the whole though, he does some interesting things, like the shot of Rocket Raccoon with the rocket launcher, where there's a little circle zoom in on the actual rocket, since Raccoon was pretty small in the larger panel (it was a long-distance view, so Groot could fit). Plus, there's some things with the panel composition, but I want to do a big art post on Conquest, so I'll hold off on that for now. I'm still a little surprised that Gabe was so shook up about his accident, being a soldier and all, but other than that, I think my favorite Conquest issue this month, 4.4 out of 5.

Deadpool #44 - Ron Lim's Deadpool looks bulkier than he did a few months back (circa #39). Maybe Lim is trying to keep it more similar to Reilly Brown's look, or just feeling more settled? Either way, HYDRA and Deadpool do their best to keep Wolverine from gutting Weasel, I mean the Penetraitor. This naturally leads to lots of people getting stabbed with various pointy implements, as well as lots of people shouting "Hail HYDRA!" The solution to the conflict was fairly amusing, though I'm left wondering how Wolverine, noted member of those outlaw Avengers, would have access to SHIELD information, to the point where he would know about Weasel's hacking activities. Oh well, I'm sure he has his methods, probably involving threats. Or beer. Beer is good for getting information.

Of course, I'm also wondering how Cyclops knew Wade left Weasel behind at that HYDRA base when he saved Agent X, and adopted Bob (Hail HYDRA!). I'm sure the answer is "telepaths", but then why are X-telepaths focusing on Wade (or Weasel, or whoever)? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I suppose it works as a way to continue Wade's attempts to live up to what Cable saw in him, plus have a nifty Deadpool/Wolverine fight, complete with James getting really frustrated with Deadpool's incessant chatter. 3.8 out of 5.

Immortal Iron Fist #8 - We get a bit more story about Danny's father, and some preliminary stuff for the tournament, plus the breakdown of the matchups, and that's about it. Well, that and a guy named "Fat Cobra" trounces 100 Shaolin Terror Priests with the power of his "Sumo Thunder Stomp". That wasn't too bad, but I was hoping for more Iron Fist punching action.

One thing I do like about the brackets is that assuming Danny and Davos make it through their first matches, they have to fight in Round 2, rather than being set up in such a way that they could meet in the final. It isn't what we would expect, and that's not bad at all. Plus now I'm intensely interested in the "Prince of Orphans", who got a first-round bye. Who is this mysterious hooded figure, that sits alone?

As an aside, does anyone else think that Yu-Ti, the head of K'un-Lun, is probably evil? I mean, he (she?) wears a loose hood/mask like Cobra Commander used to use, or maybe old time Baron Zemo. Plus he (she?) wears HYDRA colors (Hail HYDRA!). There's no way he (she?) isn't evil, right?

Beyond that, not much to say. I still like Aja's art, he makes some of the people - Crane Mother - look suitably creepy. Martinez' art also works for the flashback. it reminds me a little of Green's to be honest, I think in the hair, because Martinez draws dynamic (extreme? action-oriented?) movement a bit better than Green, though I think Green draws the more basic (walking, running) better. And that's your art critque from the man with no art skills for the day. 3.1 out of 5.