What I Bought 4/9/08

Ken was describing this week as being small, in terms of the number of titles released and how few big titles there were, but it's the biggest week I'm going to have all month. I'm not quite sure what that means, if anything, other than I have unusual taste. As unusual as someone who sticks almost exclusively to superhero comics about DC and Marvel can be, anyway. Which isn't very unusual at all, is it?

Amazing Spider-Girl #19 - How very odd. The cover is numbered wrong. It says this is issue #17, but the one Skrull variant Ken got had the numbering right (yes, Skrull variants on a book that has nothing to do with Secret Invasion. I'm already hating this event, just for these stupid variant covers). Don't know what that's about. In this issue, May gets bored watching Gene Thompson practice football, considers becoming a cheerleader, and gets attacked by Arana, who wants to test Spider-Girl, for the purpose of using her later, probably against Black Tarantula. Based on her behavior, I'd say Arana hung around Carol Danvers and the other Initiative types a bit too much.

I like May's attitude through all this. She's seriously trying to devote more time to Gene, since their previous relationship did fall apart due to her tendency to miss dates. During the fight with Arana, May's trying not to fight, just to find out why some people were spying on her. She tries to leave multiple times, only to have Arana continuing to dog her steps. It's only when Arana starts speaking ill of Spider-Man (which I assume was just a trick, not her actual feelings) that May rises to the bait, and handles things quite smoothly, I must say.

I like that DeFalco/Frenz provide some action in what I think is largely a set-up for the next big arc. They made sure to update us on the outcome of all those mob bosses that got arrested the previous issue, as well as what's up with Hobgoblin, Mindworm, and Black Tarantula. We see what's going on in May's everyday life, and where she's at mentally as Spider-Girl. It was a solidly good issue.

Bloodrayne: Prime Cuts #2 - Ah, the closest I come to supporting indie comics, I suppose. I dig this cover, if only because there are about three different ways I interpret it. 1) She's gesturing towards the creature, in sort of a nonchalant "ta-da!". 2) She's about to get attacked by it, and is flippantly dismissing it as a threat. 3) It almost looks like she's about to pet it on the side of its head. The previous issue had two stories, this one has three, and they were all enjoyable. The first involves Rayne's attempts to steal a nunchaku that belonged to her evil father. A nunchaku with the power to summon demons from other realms, which is really something I'm surprised hasn't appeared in Immortal Iron Fist yet. Then there's a mission involving chemical shipments being made to a company. Finally, we get a story from the perspective of a worshiper of Rayne's father, who just happens to be part of a kamikaze group. I wonder, in stories written from that perspective, what's more common, that the kamikaze has doubts, or that they are totally into sacrificing their life for {insert cause here}?

Of the three, the one involving magic nunchaku was probably my favorite, just for the oddity of that bit. The thing I liked about that story and the second one was that it shows Rayne's more than just a berserker type that runs about hacking and slashing until everyone's dead. She does her research, knows what she's dealing with, and how to use that to her advantage to shorten a fight. The last story is pretty good too. A little sappy, but there's a bit of humor, and the sappyness is nice, if only for it's novelty in these stories. Rayne's not much for sentimentality, so it would pretty much have to come from another character. Each artist is a little different. Bilbao (first story) is reminiscent of Albuquerque from Blue Beetle, Calero (second story) has a style that looks more painted (don't believe it is though), and Campos exaggerates facial expressions more, but that works for a story dealing with the mindset of someone supposed to kill themselves for a cause. I enjoyed this quite a bit, with each story doing something a little different, and seemingly being complete in of themselves, rather than feeling like a small part of a larger story. And yet, they could all be incorporated into larger stories later, it's just that isn't the only level they could function on.

Booster Gold #8 - Bloody hell, I'm running long, aren't I? Booster and Beetle join the resistance, such as it is. They attack Checkmate headquarters, and things go very poorly, at least in part because Hawkman's too busy being a dick to listen to Blue & Gold. They flee and decide to try and put together their own group to save the world. Uh, good luck with that fellas. Oh, and the Time Stealers are up to stuff, and so is Rip with Booster's ancestors in tow.

Query: Why is Anthro wearing a jacket similar in style to Mr. Terrific's? One thing that strikes me as odd, when discussing the plan, Booster mentions they want to break Max's concentration for one moment, because that'll be enough to get Superman out from under his control. Yet, there's a moment during their attack, where Max is clearly concentrating on controlling someone else, then on avoiding one of Booster's blasts. So, that wasn't long enough. You'd think seeing other heroes he knows and cares about would be enough to do the trick, but this is starting to seem like Xavier level telepathy. Man, I hate telepathy as a power in comics. I wasn't that enamored with this issue, but I think next issue will be more to my liking. Hopefully.

Nova #12 - This was nice, because it's all about characters being presented with a seemingly "either/or" situation, and finding a way to do both. A fullgrown Technarch has returned to Kvch, here to challenge it's offspring, Tyro. Warlock wants to take Tyro and flee, but knows that won't suffice. Nova can buy enough time for Tyro, but at a cost. Or is a cost required? Warlock couldn't help Rich with the Phalanx. Or can he? Tyro can't defeat his siredam, or can he? That's part of the fun of comics about the struggle of heroes, right? To face an impossible situation, and overcome it? Well, we got that in spades here. Good times.

As I understand it, Wellinton Alves is coming back to the book for art chores soon, since Pelletier is moving on to Guardians of the Galaxy. And that's fine. Alves' art grew on me, especially when it involved telepathic Russian dogs, so that's cool. But I don't know that his style would have worked as well for this story, because I just enjoy how Pelletier captures the facial expressions of Warlock and Tyro, and I think that may be the result of his more exaggerated style (I don't want to say "cartoony", and I'm not sure "simplified" is the right word, either). We are dealing with a species that are extremely malleable in form, so it makes sense their faces would be highly expressive, and they really were. I would probably name this my book of the week, if I were to steal that from Chris Sims, which I won't, because he has legions of fans who would probably devour my soul. But if I did, then, this book would be it.

The Punisher #56 - The Special Forces guys get their ducks in a row, and trying to get a bead on Castle, so they can box him in and finish him off. There's a brief interaction with Castle and a couple of the guys, which seems to confirm that Castle will not, in fact kill them, but it looks like next month is the earliest we'll learn whether Castle might just be in over his head.

I kind of like the sequence where two of the soldiers walk through a hit Castle made, breaking down what he did, and where applicable, discussing why he would do it. I'm a little surprised though, that there weren't any accompanying images of the attack going along with the description (like when Castle pieced together a fight he had with Barracuda in #51, based on his injuries and what the doctor's had said), but it still works pretty well just with images of the aftermath. I also liked the part where one of the generals noted they're banking that these soldiers can stop Castle because he won't kill them, but they (the generals) are also soldiers, and they're pretty damned concerned he'll kill them. It was an alright issue, but it would probably win Weakest of the Week, if I were doing something like that. Which I wouldn't because I usually don't read enough comics to bother with such a designation.