What I Bought 7/10/08

Hi there. I'm back home, and glad to be here. It seems like I spent a lot of the last week angry. It seemed so easy to come across something that aggravated me, and it always seemed to persist in aggravating me for quite some time. I actually found driving on the Interstate in St. Louis to be far more relaxing than most of my time with Alex, and I hate driving in St. Louis (more lanes = more possible crazy-ass driving maneuvers for the greater number of crazy-ass drivers to attempt around me). Now I'm home and almost feeling mellow, and I'll probably feel better still if I put last week behind me. To that end, comics!

Amazing Spider-Girl #22 - I saw this cover and figured SHIELD must be involved. I mean, flying car, who else could it be? Well there is a flying car in this issue, but it's not SHIELD's doing. Spider-Girl enlists her old classmate and current member of the Xavier Institute, Nancy Lu, to talk with Sara about her mutant abilities, which doesn't go terribly well. Also, May inadvertently humiliates Gene in front of lots of people, but that might mean the end of their relationship, especially since May realizes it's stupid for her to feel guilty since Gene was a) flirting with Simone, and b) trying to punch Wes, because he was trying to talk to May. Granted, Gene just saw Wes was holding May, but it's less than what he and Simone were doing so he hardly needs to be getting territorial. Spider-Girl and Nancy learn who's behind the mutants that recruited Sara, Sara freaks out, and now she's on the run. Davida's not making any friends with the Humanity First adherents at the school. And Peter is acting somewhat strangely. Oh dear.

There's always a lot happening in an issue of Spider-Girl. Which is one of the reasons I enjoy it. since it feels like you get your money's worth story-wise. A positive sign is May seemed to be getting her self-doubt under control. She's still worried about a lot of different things (I think she's more empathetic than Peter was at this stage in his career, maybe because May didn't get picked on by the people she was saving the way he did), but she isn't beating herself up because she made someone trying to kill her a little airsick. Her recognition of the absurdity of the situation with Gene was encouraging, and she was smart enough to call in someone else to talk to Sara, realizing Sara wasn't going to want to talk to her in either identity. She was sure of herself in the skirmish with the Sisterhood of Mutants, even if it was ill-advised. More self-confidence can only help her with the bombshells that are sure to come traipsing down the line soon.

Booster Gold 1 Million - Last time I checked DC's website this was listed for two weeks from now, so it surprised me to see it. Let's get to brass tacks. Ted's gone ahead and suffered the same fate he originally did against Max Lord. Booster meets Peter Platinum, who draws inspiration from Booster's huckster period, which seriously depresses Booster. He quits as a Time Master, comes back to our time, breaks down in front of Batman, then gets a surprising pep talk from Batman. I know, I was surprised, too. He goes back to see Rip, finds a surprise, and we learn the importance of Booster, and his connection to Rip.

Certain parts of this work for me. Booster being frustrated by his failure to save Ted, his horror at seeing his legacy is a shameless doofus like Peter Platinum, the Batman scene (because while Batman who is scary to his foes is all well and good, Batman who is nice to his allies is also a welcome guest). The scene with the person Rip saved was nice, but fell flat for me, because I don't have any connection to the character. It's the same reason Johns' resurrection of Jericho did nothing for me. I do look forward to the characters working together. The revelation about Rip at the end? Ehh, that didn't work too great for me either. I know, it's the DC Universe, every character must be connected to another character somehow, but I'm not sure it was needed. But we'll see where it goes without Johns. What're the odds that after Dixon's two-parter, they could just give the book to Katz, since he's been co-writing the book? Good? Bad? They did skip over Trautmann, Rucka's co-writer on Checkmate for Bruce Jones, so who knows (besides DC Editorial, I mean).

Guardians of the Galaxy #3 - That cover is too something. Spikey, metal, shiny, overly focused on the character when the murky glimpse of the cityscape behind it looks far more interesting to me, something. The month, the Guardians fight a bunch of "Cardinals" from the Universal Church of Truth, and I think we learn the Guardians need to spend some time working together. Granted, they're essentially fighting a squad of Gladiators (the Shi'ar Imperial Guard guy), as these guys are powered by belief. Technically, they're powered by the trillions of faithful, but they have to believe to be able to use the power, I assume. The point I was groping for was, the Guardians don't work together, except for the one moment where a Cardinal is distracted blocking Starlord's shots, and Rocket shoots him in the back. This is because Rocket Raccoon is awesome, and knows how to battle. The Cardinals are the least of their worries, and that's excluding another surprise arrival at Knowhere who wrecks the hell out of the place.

Pelletier's art works well for the fight scenes. The Guardians are never shown working against the same enemy, always attacking their own target (except Rocket's) even when they're in the same panel. As powerful as their opponents are, not a good plan. He also draws a heavily charred person really well. As far as I know. Abnett and Lanning appear ready and willing to incorporate Secret Invasion into their book, though I'm much more curious about what Vance Astro is doing here than what's up with the last page. Of course, the last page involves Adam Warlock, so my lack of interest should hardly come as a surprise. It was a good issue, showcased some weaknesses of the team, set some things up, and hopefully Secret Invasion doesn't derail the book. I know, it'll boost sales, keep the book alive a little longer (the book will probably drop back to whatever its sales are for this issue once the crossover's done, but that'll be three months it isn't declining), be grateful, blah, blah. I should have more faith, but I felt somewhat disappointed in the tie-ins for Annihilation: Conquest Nova had, so I think some concern is appropriate.

Nova #15 - Both of Marvel's cosmic books in the same week? My goodness. As to that cover, it has a sense of climbing the mountain to commune with God, with is fitting with Galactus originally conceived as the "Fantastic Four fight God". Might have even worked better without the energy coming from Nova's fists. Rich can't escape the dying planet of Obrucen, because he can't make a stargate, because Galactus' is creating too much interference with his planet eating. Fortunately, Rich has devised a clever way off the planet. Or maybe he just decided to do something to get the Worldmind to stop griping at him. Unfortunately, there are some unintended consequences, and so the situation has changed a bit for Rich. Things are going to be a little harder for awhile. Also, Nova learns the truth about the Harrow, which is pretty clever, I thought. It's very evil, which is fun.

I still like how Alves draws creepy stuff like Harrow, and I think he draws a nice Silver Surfer. I'm still partial to the Ron Lim version, but Alves can make the Surfer look either sorrowful or menacing quite easily. Given that the Surfer is frequently either telling evildoers he's going to use the Power Cosmic to wreck their stuff, or bemoaning his fate, those are important looks to have down. I'm not so fond of the Galactus sporting the Eternity look, with stars appearing in his eyes, and in shadows on his body. Galactus isn't big enough for that, so unless it's implying that when he feeds, Big G becomes one with the fabric of the universe, I'm not sure it's warranted. Also, between this and Guardians of the Galaxy, Abnett and Lanning had plenty of repetition of certain phrases. The Cardinals keep saying "I believe", and it appears Rich is going to be hearing "Please select user support option" quite frequently for awhile. That could get annoying, so hopefully they don't overuse it. As with Guardians of the Galaxy, I worry what Secret Invasion is going to do to this book. Fingers crossed.

And now, to prepare for the season premiere of Burn Notice!