What I Bought 11/14/07

New wrinkle to the reviews this week: No scores. The amount of effort I'm putting into whether a comic is a 3 out of 5, or a 3.3, and oops, I liked this other comic more, but not enough to give it a higher grade than 3.3, so I better lower the score for the other book, it's just silly. So let's try this. I'll talk about the issue, give an overview, any thoughts on the writing or art that strike me, then try and decide whether I liked it or not. Sound good? Fantastic. Let's go.

Amazing Spider-Girl #14 - It's an alright cover. Looks more ominous than the story really winds up being, you know?

May spends some time with Davida, while struggling with inner concerns. Meanwhile, Hobgoblin seeks out Madame Web, finds what appears to be her successor, and learns all about the history of the Black Tarantula. Also, Spider-Girl goes to the Fantastic Five to see if they could help her little brother, only to be rebuffed by a helmet-wearing Franklin Richards. And then she nearly kills some muggers, deploying the Aparo-style backhands. I hope she paid Batman some royalties for those. Could have done without the "Slap Slap Slap" sound effects in each of those panels. Something a little more substantial would have worked better.

DeFalco's doing some interesting things here, bringing in ideas that have cropped up in Marvel the last few years or so, and trying to work them into his story. To wit: we get an Arana cameo, and DeFalco makes it look like the original Black Tarantula underwent a ceremony similar to the one that gave Ezekiel his powers. I am intrigued, which I never thought I would say again about JMS Mystic Spider-Man stuff. Also, he's got some melodrama going, as Moose once again reminds us that he now hates Spider-Girl for stopping the Carnage symbiote from curing the cancer that's stricken Moose's dad. It's over-the-top, but I some teens don't do "subtle", I suppose, and neither does DeFalco, for the most part.

Frenz is getting a little more emotion showing through the masks than I can recall. There's a panel where he gives Hobgoblin this look of questioning, plus a bit of confusion, it really caught my eye. I think Iron Fist has spoiled me, because I was a little disappointed they didn't get another artist to do the flashback scenes in this issue. Nothing wrong with Ron Frenz' art for them, but I think a different style could have been nice, just for kicks. I'm not sure who they could have gotten, though. I liked this issue. Things had been focusing a bit too much on May's inner struggles, with too little forward progress in the Hobgoblin/Tarantula gang war, but that seems to have been rectified a bit this issue, so good show.

House of M: Avengers #1 - It's a simple cover, but I guess it works. Showed all sorts of characters I'm interested, which encourages me to buy it. Wonder why Luke's face is so much in shadow? Not as though there's much doubt who would be wearing a chain belt, yellow short and tiara, you know? Is House of M Luke Cage, gasp, a Skrull? Man, I sure hope not.

Cage gets convicted of a crime he didn't commit (though he had committed crimes) and goes to prison. Agrees to be guinea pig for reduced sentence. Gains same superpowers he has in New Avengers. Goes to New York for revenge on guy who set him up. Gets revenge, forms own gang of humans, set up in Sapien Town. Rescues Tigra from getting stomped by angry humans. Rough couple of months for Tigra. At least she wasn't screaming or anything, seemed to hold up under the beating pretty well, and she was already shot by then so it could have been worse, I suppose. Police are going to attempt to bring Cage down.

Gage spends most of the issue on Cage, his past, and what he's after, but then he gets the rest of the group together (at least as it stands now) pretty quick. And we get a pretty good idea of what the world is like now, with mutants running things, and what that means for average humans, and how some of them react to it. For example, the contrast between the mob that attacks Tigra, who says she isn't mutant (man I hope she's not going to be a traitor in this mini-series, too), and the cop that's being forced into retirement. Very different perspectives.

Perkins draws a world that seems pretty similar to ours (besides all the people with wings, antennae, and such), and that works with what gage is setting up, that it is very much like our world, because no matter who's on top, there's always somebody at the bottom getting kicked around by everyone else. It's just that what determines that is a little different from what we're used to. I'm not sure his faces work all that well, they look misshapen when I'm not sure they're supposed to, and Cage gets punched in the face hard enough to cause him to damage a brick wall, but his face looks like he's just staring at something off to one side. I like the colors though. Muted, somehow, especially compared to Perkins work on Annihilation: Conquest- Prologue. But it works because this is less high-space adventure, more down n' dirty. Enjoyed it.

Nova #8 - I wish Granov would spice these covers up a bit. There's so much just standing around. Have them do something! Have one character interact with another. Like the Iron Man/Nova cover, or the Nova/Not Speedball cover! Those were good! As to the issue itself...

OK, now that was {expletive-deleted} awesome! Nova has wound up in 'the Rip", which is apparently on the edge of the universe, where matter and energy end (or something). He nearly dies, but finds himself in an odd place, that the Worldmind knows nothing about. He meets a member of the Luminals, who are the planet Xanth's version of the Avengers. She is terrified, then changes into something kind of like a zombie (but hopefully not actually a zombie). Rich accidentally destroys her, then has to flee her comrades, who came in late. Then he meets a talking dog. A Russian talking dog. Then he finds out where he is. Then things get worse.

Thank you, Messrs Abnett and Lanning. This is what I was hoping for. Not exactly, of course. The idea of a dog with a Russian telepathic accent never entered my mind, but it's the spirit of what I was hoping for. Rich has the entire universe to protect, naturally there's got to be all sorts of weird stuff we've never seen before in any FF/Avengers/X-Men space epic. And this is creepy, scary, and just plain groovy weird.

Sean Chen is gone. Sigh. Wellinton Alves is on the book, and he does pretty well. The two-page spread that shows where Rich is at was outstanding - once I figured out which side up I had to hold the book to make sense of it (upside-down worked best). The Possibly-Zombies are creepy, but not overly disgusting, the "Rip" is wild and crazy looking. On the whole, the art has a feel I can best describe as "jagged", not in a bad way, just that there are few lines I would call "smooth", for whatever that's worth. Man, I really suck at discussing art. And I really need to put that two page-spread up for you to enjoy. Soon. Hopefully. Comic definitely enjoyed.

The Punisher #52 - It's not a bad cover, though not particularly striking by itself. I do like that it took me a couple of extra glances to pick out the skull in it.

You know, I could not figure out what the preview blurb was talking about when it said that Frank was going to have to confront a fear he hadn't faced in thirty years. But it makes perfect sense having read the issue. Frank and Barracuda are both circling around O'Brien's sister, waiting for the other to step into the open so they could settle it. Eventually they face off, and Barracuda does something that, well, strikes me as a pretty dumb thing for the muthafucker to do, as 'Cuda himself might say.

Man, I love how Garth Ennis writes the Punisher. That calm detachment is there, the planning is there, but he has that little bit of humanity that you see in the opening scene, when the woman at the gas station gives him a flier with her son's picture on it. it's hard to say, but I believe Frank really will call her if he's sees the boy. Maybe that'll come back up in a story arc or two. I like that Frank isn't quite sure what happens after he wins this fight. What should he do? The answer seems obvious to us, and probably is to Frank as well, but that doesn't mean it'll be easy for him.

Goran Pavlov's art still works well here. He mostly avoided the "Popeye" arms he gave Frank last issue, which is good, because those were kind of distracting. It's a simplified look, not huge amounts of detail on the faces, but the scenes when Frank talks with O'Brien's sister are great for the emotion those faces convey, though Frank looks odd at times, like his eyes are about to vanish. Second-to-last panel of the issue was really superb. Also enjoyed. Wow, this has been a pretty good week. I think all these issues would probably have gotten 4 - ah, not going to fall back into that.

X-Factor #25 - And this has me worried, before I even start. PAD handled House of M and Decimation well, but I think he chose to do that. And he worked Civil War into two issues just fine. I'm am really worried these Messiah CompleX issues are going to damage this book. Fingers crossed, here we go, with the weird cover. That's the point I'd imagine, but rather than being captivated by Layla and Jamie's bodies being stretched and drawn into infinity, I'm struck by how the linework on Jamie's face makes it look like he's has a five o'clock shadow. I don't think he's supposed to, but I keep seeing it.

Rictor infiltrates the Purifiers, and finds out they have a pretty big operation. Cyclops has the New X-Men in his face about wanting to do something. They almost seem to be completing each others' sentences. I mean, each one completes their own statement, but the next person's could be the logical next statement to make. It's. . . weird. And Forge sends Madrox dupes through time to two realities that have had an increase in mutants since the mutant baby in this Marvel reality was born. Except Layla goes along, and it sounds like she really shouldn't have. And Madrox collapsed. Huh.

Like I said, I'm not sure PAD really captured the voices of the New X-Men, but I imagine they're only in the issue because the next chapter is in their title, so David is just doing what he's got to. Other than that, it's decent enough writing. Madrox and Layla banter, Cyclops acts buttoned-down and commander-like, Rictor plays it pretty cool, it's all good. Dick move on the X-Men's part though. They go to a hospital where Amelia Voght, former Actolyte and Xavier squeeze works, and tell her to give them leads on the Marauders. Never mind they probably just cost her her job by barging in there. I suppose she didn't have to use her powers to escape, and it may not cost her the job, but still, kind of rude of them. She wasn't doing anything wrong. X-Jackasses.

I like Scot Eaton's art here more than I did on New Excalibur, although it has that sort of dark slickness to it I saw with Raney's art in Conquest #1 last week. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of how he draws Wolfsbane's head in profile. It's a silly little thing, and by and large he did fine, it's just something that caught my eye. I guess it was alright. I could have done with less New X-Men and Cyclops (though that goes without saying) and more Madrox/Layla story, but it wasn't bad. Cautiously enjoyed.

And with that, my good weeks for November conclude. Three comics he remainder of the month. Weak.