What I Bought 8/13/08

Hi, everybody! How is every little thing? I'm doing well as can be expected, but I'd like to impart a little bit of wisdom to you. If you borrow someone else's bike, make sure it's put together properly first, lest one of the pedals fall off when your ten miles from home, and in the middle of a bunch of cornfields. In my defense, I believed the bike I was using was property of someone who knows how to maintain their bikes, and I was incorrect in matters of ownership. I still think it's a good lesson. Comics!

Amazing Spider-Girl #23 - May is still having trouble juggling all the different aspects of her life. Gene is giving her the cold shoulder, Simone is preparing to swoop in and hook up with Gene (she can have him), the Humanity First twits are planning to go after Davida for not letting them set up a chapter of their club at the school (because that'll dispel the notion you're a hate group), the X-Men and the Sisterhood of Mutants are watching Sara, and she's about to crack by the looks of it, and Peter went berserk and attacked Kaine. Gave him a pretty good smacking around too, though Kaine didn't seem very interested in fighting back. And May ran into someone she wouldn't have expected on the roof on the high school.

I don't have a whole lot of thoughts about this issue. It's primarily set-up. I'm not sure how it's all going to tie together (assuming it does). I'm trying to decide whether May's getting a handle on her life or not. She seemed to recognize the beats her life has fallen into enough to advise Wes that he shouldn't try to say something comforting after her attempt to apologize to Gene, since it would probably just lead to more trouble, but that really didn't seem like the best way for her to handle things. Wes was just trying to help. Not an issue likely to to be remembered as one of my favorites, that's for sure.

Booster Gold #11 - Odd fellow in glasses helps Killer Moth try and rob a museum. Batman and Robin stop robbery, Batgirl apprehends odd fellow, steps on odd device he had. Our three heroes vanish from existence. Enter Booster Gold, who must impersonate Killer Moth to make the robbery go properly. Except, even that doesn't work right. I think it has something to do with a knife that was supposed to be part of the loot. By the end of the issue, Alfred shoots Rip Hunter, and Booster and his sister may be in a spot of trouble.

It was a funny issue, with Booster trying to play the criminal. I think this is supposed to be in the vein of the Adam West TV show. That was the vibe I got from the Batmobile, and maybe the extent to which they took the moth motif (loved Skeets' accessories). Plus you get lines like 'That's how I roll. . . loyal minion.' Well, it made me laugh anyway. I'm not sure I entirely understand what the problem is, even if I think the knife is involved, nor how Booster dispatched Bats so easily (force field? Batman expecting less resistance because it was Killer Moth? Lucky punch? Just curious), but I'm sure Dixon will get to it next month, so I'll just wait. Plus, I figure next month will be Goldstar's opportunity to get in on the fun. That should be suitably amusing.

The Punisher #60 - Well, that was considerably less violent than I expected. People died, but I guess Ennis figured that was never in doubt, so no need to show it. Which makes sense. Given the players involved, the outcome was never in doubt. See, the Lieutenant, the one that's been the go between for the Generals and the Delta Force guys, he found something in Castle's file that made him nervous. It made him think, and apparently he thought right.

The Colonel's thought process is what interests me. Not so much why he took the job, I'll go with the Looie's hypothesis on that, seems on the ball enough. Why Howe wanted Castle locked up, rather than dead, and why he changed his mind, that's what interests me. I'm not sure whether it was talking to Castle, understanding why he does it, and how he views what he does, or whether it was what that tape with Rawlins spilling his guts on it told Howe about the generals. He said Castle taught him 'a lesson in necessity.' I'm going to need some time to mull that over.

As to the book excerpts that have been scattered through this story, well it seems Ennis is drawing a comparison between Vietnam and the current military situation in the Middle East. I think he is, or it's me connecting dots. He has Fury reading the last few paragraphs of the book in a bar, while news reports about current conflicts are on in the background, so I think I'm reading him right. And I think Ennis is making the connection between the generals in this story and the people he would say started both the Vietnam War and the Iraq (and Afghanistan as well, I'd imagine) wars (military actions? I'm not sure to the proper terminology). I suppose the generals serve as the stand in for the people he feels are responsible in the real world. I still want to come back to this later, because I wonder if there isn't a reason the excerpts came in the order they did, and how does that relate to what was happening in the story at that time. That'll be for some time later, though. For now, it's a melancholy, somewhat subdued end to a fantastic run.

Now I just have to decide how much of a leash to give the new writer. The preview of Hurwitz' arc didn't leap out and grab me, but Ennis tended to start slow sometimes himself, so I'll play it by ear. The tricky part will be not constantly comparing Hurwitz' Punisher to Ennis', and trying to let Hurwitz develop his own take. Not saying I can do that, but I figure it's proper to at least try.