What I Bought 5/29/08

So, um, yeah, no opening paragraph stuff this week. I just can't think of anything to say.

Blue Beetle #27 - That's a nice cover. The yellow background is a little odd (are they floating very close to the sun?), but it goes with the primary color vibe from Blue Beetle and the little red demons. These demons are attacking people in El Paso, but seemingly very specific people, and Jaime keeps stepping in to stop them, though the scarab is not able to provide any insight into their origins. Meanwhile, Traci 13 is busy trying to figure out their origins herself, which she eventually does, and then she takes care of the problem. She can be quite intimidating when she's feels like it. Has that in common with Jaime's mom. Damn, why did I say that? Now I'm contemplating the Freudian implications, and crap, crap, crap.

Pfeifer played with my expectations a bit. I figured the demons were going to keep showing up during Jaime and Traci's relationship time, and so it might be a sort of light-hearted "We need to find who's behind this because they keep interrupting our dates!" thing, but it turns out to be a bit darker and less pleasant. Which isn't a bad thing, it just surprised me a bit. As far as Jaime, I think Pfeifer hit the characterization Rogers established pretty solidly, but in a way where I could still tell it was a different writer with a different style. Jaime still had his usual focus, but he wasn't quite bantering at his usual level. Then again, his foes weren't very chatty, didn't give him much to work with, so it's excusable. David Baldeon did the interior art, and it was pretty good, with a Dodson vibe, in the faces at least. The ladies weren't sporting curves typical of the Dodsons, which is probably appropriate. There were times I wasn't clear what the Beetle was doing. Early on, he shoots blue lightning at the little demons, then later he does it again, towards civilians this time. I'm assuming the second time he was creating an energy shield, but I couldn't really tell. Might have needed a larger panel.

I'm curious whether Pfeifer is setting things up for Sturges, or just doing a stand alone story. Either way, it was pretty good.

Immortal Iron Fist #15 - I like this cover better than most of those "Tournament of the Heavens" covers. This time, the cool drawing takes up the whole cover, instead of being crammed into half. I can't recall which issue it was, but at one point we were introduced to Bei Bang-Wen, an Iron Fist that died in a battle against the English in 1860. This is about what happened after.

As you might guess, he didn't actually die. He suffers as a prisoner, with no Iron Fist for some reason, and meets another Holy Weapon (I'm unclear if he's from one of the other Heavenly Cities) who's lost his pizazz. They escape, and Bei helps Vivatma to go find his emperor. They find something different than they expected, and they each get back what they've lost. But Bei makes a rather interesting decision after that, and I think it leads into what's coming up for Danny Rand.

Well, I didn't like this issue as much as the one about the Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay, but it was OK. I think the stumbling block for me was the reason for Bei and Vivatma's respective losses of power. I get what's being driven at, I just didn't really buy it, as a reason. It felt hokey to me. Vivatma's might have made more sense if I understood Hinduism better (what little I know I learned from Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe and an arc of GrimJack), because I think there's something there that's important to both this issue, and maybe overarching story of Immortal Iron Fist. Khari Evans' art works fairly well. Most of the characters (except Vivatma) have a leanness to them that suggests the difficulty of their lives to me at least, and Evans seems to let backgrounds drop away during the deciding moments, which I think is supposed to represent how ones awareness of the world fades during moments which define us. Possibly.

Ultimate Spider-Man #122 - The extra chain hanging down near Peter's head, half-visible from the shadows, is a nice touch. It's the revenge of the Shocker! Every dog really does have their day, or half of one, at least. Peter underestimates the Shocker, and winds up captured for it. The Shocker unmasks Pete, and repeatedly, well, shocks him while ranting about how Spider-Man's been depriving him of what's his. By which he means, money he steals from banks. Ah, the logic of the oppressed criminal. MJ was there when things went wrong, and she calls Kitty, who takes the videotape in question to some policeman Wolverine said was trustworthy (Um. . . OK). The Shocker rants, screws up, and the cavalry arrives just a tad late, and nothing really changes for the Shocker.

What surprised me was how long Peter kept his mouth shut while he was a prisoner. I expected he'd be chattering away, trying to reason with the guy, or something. He seemed to talk to Doc Octavius a bit that time Ock captured him and they flew to South America. In fact, he stayed silent so long, I thought he was just going to do that the whole time. Let Shocker rant, say nothing. Didn't happen. I can't decide whether Shocker's rant about who controls things is tied into Ultimate Origins, and by extension, Ultimatum. Or are those two things related at all? I don't know.

Fortunately, I don't have to know, because I'm done with the Ultimate Universe. This was it. I'm not hanging around for the return of Ultimate Venom in an arc that ties into the Ultimate Spider-Man video game. No siree. 121 issues is good enough (I never got #1), and this was a good issue to go out on. Better to leave on an enjoyable note, right? And I did enjoy it, grousing about possible connections to mini-series and crossovers aside. It's not new, but I like the Shocker's outlook, and I even like that moment of anger I think we see slip out of Peter. He's got to be getting tired of people taking their issues with the world out on him.

So that's it for me. I suppose I should ask how your books were. It would be the proper thing. So, how were your books?