What I Bought 10/24/07

I have a professor I really feel bad for. He's trying to teach us about different statistical tests, when and how to use them, and the math behind them. And every so often he'll point something out to us as he works through the math, and be so excited about it, and ask us if that isn't the coolest thing we've ever seen. And I think he knows we aren't going to show that same level of enthusiasm, but I can't help thinking it must suck to be so energized by this, only to look out at the class and see people not paying attention, or looking at you with disinterest, or confusion. For example, when talking about linear regression, he points out that the slope of the regression line is the covariance of the two variables, divided by the variance of the independent variable. All I can think is, 'What sort of perspective does someone have, that they can look at these numbers and figure that out from scratch?' Because someone did that, at some point, and it just boggles my mind.

Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4 - I have read the end of this twice, and I'm still not entirely sure how Wraith saved the day. But he did, and I guess that's the important thing. The issue as whole is about choices, hard ones versus easy ones, and how the hard choice is probably the best one, but it's rarely one you enjoy making afterwards.

I like Kyle Hotz' depiction of Wraith, because the mouth is almost always a thin line, and the eyes are usually narrow slits, contrasted with most of the other characters' much wider eyes, and mouths that are open more frequently. It gives a sense of how closed off Wraith is, that they are no entrances inside him. Furthermore, it works nicely with the lettering of Wraith's caption boxes. The font seems really small, so that you feel as though you're reading them at a great distance, which adds to the sense of disconnect between us and the title character.

Anyway, I guess it's a good thing the Phalanx have layers to their plans, I like the idea of a "fear control subroutine", and I like that some of the Kree are coming down with Stockholm Syndrome, or whatever the Kree equivalent is. 3.0 out of 5.

Fantastic Four/Deadpool #46 - While it's nice to see Wade being inspired by meeting all these great heroes, he felt like a bystander in his own comic this month. And man, T'Challa was being a jerk. Calling Wade and Bob 'imbeciles'? Threatening Weasel with those pointy claws? Not wanting to shake Wade's hand? Is it lonely up on that pedestal, Panther? You aren't being written by Reginald Hudlin now, check yourself.

Reilly Brown art notes: He draws a very nice "Storm with one eyebrow raised". Very imperious looking. Also, last issue Wade got impaled in the chest, and shot through in the head. Even though those injuries are healed this issue, the concurrent damage to his costume remains. I just think it's a nice touch. However, his Ben Grimm's don't look noticeably different, so I can't figure why the Ben of the past made the comment about the present Ben's face. Maybe Wade was right; Ben really does need to look in the mirror.

Also, Joe Sinnott name check, Part 1! Wade mentions him as part of a way of gauging how far into the past he is. I include this for reasons that will become clear later. It was an enjoyable issue, but I still wish Wade had gotten to do more, besides get knocked silly by the Thing, and make comments about Sixties era Sue Storm's chest. 4.0 out of 5. I guess I wasn't that bothered by Wade being a bystander, after all.

Immortal Iron Fist #10 - Oh, that's right. It got pushed back to November. Silly me. I'm sure it's all because of Quesada being behind on his One More Day artwork. Or because Frank Cho is behind on Mighty Avengers. One of the two. Moving along.

Ultimate Spider-Man #115 - This is the sort of thing that frustrates me about Bendis sometimes. We get this whole back and forth between the now-captured-by-SHIELD Peter Parker and temporary-head-of-SHIELD Carol Danvers, about why Peter is here, and what's up with him, and what's the deal with Norman Osborn, and through it all Peter wants to be let out, while Danvers stands there, wasting his web fluid like a dumbass. Finally, on page 13, Danvers explains why Pete is actually there, and stuff makes sense, and I'm left thinking that she very easily could have told him this at the start, rather than dicking around and talking about his clones for 10 pages. Granted, it gives Immonen a chance to show off his ability to convey emotion through the use of facial expressions, and he's quite good at it, if a little more exaggerated than Bagley was (and he draws Peter's hair kind of funny, or at least he gives Peter more of it than Bagley did), but still, come on man.

Maybe it was all an exercise in exposition, in which I case I guess I should commend Bendis for an attempt to bring people up to speed. Eh, I'll commend later. Once again, though, I want to say I like Kitty's new costume. And I like that even though there's no sign of eye holes, or anything that would allow her to see where she's going, there's a panel where she fires a weapon, and the flash from it outlines her sockets underneath the mask. Nice touch. What isn't a nice touch is that on pages 13 and 14, where the panels go back and forth across the two pages, they don't line up. Not in the sense that they've been set on the page in an incorrect order or anything, just that the panels are slightly off, so that on one page you have Peter's hand, and on the other page, his wrist, but they don't connect properly. It looks slipshod.

Joe Sinnott name check #2! This time around, poor Joe Sinnott is Norman Osborn's attorney, and he may have stolen Norman's money while Osborn was a guest of Nick Fury. And Wikipedia tells me this Joe Sinnott name-checking must be in honor of his birthday, which was last week, so happy birthday! Sorry Bendis has you killed. Clearly, Bendis hates inkers who worked on Fantastic Four for fifteen years. Shame, Bendis, shame.

Finally, there a physics aspect that seems to be off on the final page. Even though Peter falls out of a window first, then Norman a few panels later, Osborn appears to have passed him on the way down, or at least caught up. It doesn't work like that, Mr. Immonen, come on, now. 3.4 out of 5.