What I Bought 12/5/07

While talking with Tevion yesterday, we began to discuss the camping trip he's hoping to take after Finals are over, and food stuffs he could bring along to cook. He started talking about bring along some cooking oil and potatoes so he could make some French fries. Then he started thinking about deep-frying bacon, and then we started discussing the feasibility of breading deep-fried bacon. That eventually lead me to suggest the idea of French toast, with bacon inside it. I think that product could be quite the hit, except for the part where it would probably kill everyone who ate it. Moving on, Spoiler Defense Shields On.

Annihilation: Conquest #2 - I wonder if they're going to do that sort of cloudy background for all the covers in this mini-series. The Starlord and Quasar are pretty nice, though I wonder if Starlord is falling, jumping, or standing on top of what he's shooting.

Wheels slowly getting in motion here. High Evolutionary talks down to Quasar and Moondragon. Ronan attempts to forge an alliance with Ravenous. Starlord's Squad prepares to infiltrate a Phalanx base. Someone winds up with a fist in their chest. That about covers the plot. There really doesn't feel like there's too much advancing , but it's probably that there was a little bit of advancement on a lot of fronts.

I will say Abnett and Lanning's Starlord sounds off to me. He seems enthusiastic about things, which is a contrast to his dark humor, cynical attitude in both the Starlord mini and last year's Annihilation. Maybe he's just feeling more confident. Also, Phyla acts younger, more playful almost, at least with heather. She can still change moods rapidly, but they're different changes from those in the Quasar mini. Neither thing is a deal-breaker, but they did both catch my attention. All the other characters seemed in normal voice, and I kind of like their High Evolutionary. Tom Raney's art does the job, although the page where Starlord leaps off a building, spins and lands neatly on another roof seemed odd. Didn't really strike me as Starlord's style. I don't have a whole lot else to say about the art. I can follow it easily enough, and I think Raney does a good job with facial expressions and drawing clothes like actual clothes. I can't say I enjoyed the issue that much, as it really felt like too much set-up.

Faith the Vampire Slayer #9 - I don't have a lot to say about this cover. It's pretty, though I think again, the other cover has a little more to it. But, I never put the book on my pull, so I didn't want to hassle Ken for the other cover, and this one's not offensive to me or anything. It's just kind of sad.

And thus ends my run of buying the title, at least until the next time Faith plays a prominent role. Faith, as usual, is alone against Gigi and her pet warlock, at least to start. She was doing pretty well for herself, though I guess she has another image to haunt her now, but magic's a pain to deal with. Fortunately, Giles hadn't given up on her, and Buffy set aside how things affect her long enough to get him some assistance. I'm probably being overly harsh on Buffy, but I've always sided with Faith in their little conflict, and I didn't see anything in this story to cause a switch in allegiances now.

I like that in the flashback to her time at Wilkins' side, Jeanty draws Faith in a way that makes her look younger. Maybe it's the pink dress, but I think her face looks a little rounder, smoother, whereas in the present, it's more angular, the jawline forming more of a triangle than a semicircle. There's some really nice facial expressions in this, especially with Giles after the battle, and Roden when he starts using his magic. As for BKV, I dig his writing. I liked 'speaking of witch' when Giles is thinking of Willow, and Faith's 'Thinkfast' near the end. His Faith hits a lot of the right notes for me: feisty, not putting up with anybody's crap, but still regretting the things she's done and is still having to do. I like that, and I liked this story, and this issue. Gold star, Buffy comic book creative team.

House of M: Avengers #2 - The cover feels overly busy, like it would have worked better as an image if the title wasn't there, so thing could spread out more. However, I like that in the row of guys at the bottom, you can make out Iron Fist. His head's next to Tigra's foot, the face with eyeholes and the popped collar.

Man, Tigra can not catch a freaking break these days. In this issue, we see Misty Knight trying to get close to Cage to bring him to justice, while Cage's crew does their thing, which includes rumbling with a gang lead by Shang-Chi. Meanwhile, there's a Brotherhood getting ready to take both sides in, and they've got a new member. And someone gets shot through the side while saving a teammate. Three guesses who that was.

This book needed more panels devoted to fighting. Cage's "Avengers" fight Shang-Chi's "Dragons" twice in this issue, but neither one really works all that well for me. I think it's because most of the panels are up close, so you can't get a real feel for the fight, it's too muddled (Same issue I had with fight scenes in the Bourne Supremacy, incidentally. Pull the damn camera back a little!) As for the story, well it seems to be moving fast, but I wonder if Gage isn't including too many different things, in an attempt to get damn near every street-level non-mutant vigilante involved in the mini, and if that might start to clutter things up. I do enjoy the discrepancy between Misty Knight's reports and the panels they're set in. Also, based on those discrepancies, I think Moon Knight is actually sane in the House of M Universe, without all his different personalities. How nice for him. I don't know that I enjoyed this, I think I would have preferred more focus on the Avengers, less on Misty Knight and her difficulties with her superiors.

Ms. Marvel #22 - I can appreciate what I think Greg Horn's trying here, it just doesn't seem to work that well. I can't tell whether the images are supposed to be moving from side to side in an attempt to match up, or whether there's interference and that's why they're messed up. I mean, it does look a little like static on the screens, to me anyway.

So Carol's team is preparing to come to the rescue. I expect they'll arrive about five minutes too late to be of any use. Rick Sheridan is using odd technology to be more useful. And Carol is stuck without her powers on Monster Island, fighting the Brood. Except Cru keeps taking over her body and acting rashly, while Carol's stuck watching Cru's life. And she's accompanied by her various costumed incarnations, whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. And apparently Carol didn't kill something she thought she did years ago. Don't you hate when that happens?

So what to say? Reed appears to have some kind of plan to get Carol in a more unified mental state, to presumably make her a stronger person and hero, which seems like a good idea, but if it involves the critique Cru made I'm not sure I'm down with it. Yes, Carol shouldn't worry so much about whether people like her, but it's never a good thing when the alien starts talking about how so and so could 'rule this planet' if they didn't 'worry about scaring the backwards inhabitants' of the planet. Yeah, about the time you start ragging on her species (while calling the Kree 'noble') is about the time I think you should get tuned out. If we're not careful we'll end up with Dark Knight Strikes Back style Carol Danvers, with the whole "Supers are better the normal people, so they should run everything!" Lopresti's art is still very energetic and nice to look at, and I'm very sad that's he's going to DC soon. Um, sort of enjoyed, I guess, though like I said, I have serious reservations about where Reed might be planning to go with this.