What I Bought 9/22/2008

That second paragraph yesterday was too much information wasn't it? Yeah, sorry about that. Sharing seemed like a good idea at the time. Reviews now. Probably just general impressions, since I'm running a bit behind everyone else.

Amazing Spider-Girl #24 - The two Mays meet, fight a bit. Our May has it out with Gene Thompson, tries to stop Sara from doing something she'll regret, and possibly gets blown up. Also, Peter gets attacked by Fury, the Goblin Queen. Did pretty well for an older guy with one wooden leg, but still got captured. Must be channeling the spirit of Captain Storm, the one-legged PT boat captain from The Losers.

I'd like to pause a moment to commemorate May finally letting Gene Thompson have it verbally. *pauses, smiles* OK, enough of that. I have no idea where DeFalco is going with all this. I'm starting to think I was off-base with my guess that Pete got messed up by the exploding liquid, and he's actually just shell-shocked from this admittedly large bombshell that got dropped into his life. On the other hand. Other May seems much more aggressive than Our May, and not as confused as I'd expect from someone in her situation, so maybe I'm not wrong. I do want to see what Other May does with a chance to live Our May's everyday life. See if she's still as quick to attack now that's she has what she claims to want.

Booster Gold #12 - Now, if I follow this right, next month is a different fill-in story, with this story picking up again the next month. Weird. Booster, Skeets and Michelle decide they robbery they helped succeed last issue must have needed to fail, though the time traveler needed to escape with his goods anyway. So they experience many difficulties with the police trying to make that happen. Except everything is still screwed up.

This story is starting to drift into dangerous territory for me. I'm always a little leery when a character starts interacting with earlier and later versions of themselves, and we're sliding storngly over there now. On the other hand, Elvis Booster punching Killer Moth Booster was pretty amusing. And hey, Elongated Man showed up! That's good, right? Comissioner Gordon really wanted Michelle to be the real Batgirl, didn't he? Was this some sort of explanation for Gordon never figuring out that his daughter was Batgirl? Or did he figure that out? Maybe this was meant to suggest he had suspicions he is now gratefully dismissing?

Deadpool #1 - Detail I didn't notice until I saw a blown up version of the cover on my screen: That the barrel of Wades gun is glowing from having been recently fired. Nice touch.

On the one hand, it's Deadpool, who I've grown fond of. On the other hand, it's written by Daniel Way, and I haven't had much luck with the last few things he's written I've read. I was reasonably happy that since this was only a 3-issue arc, it would avoid the pitfalls of being overly slow and too spaced out I'd heard his Wolverine Origins work was suffering from. But it really is just Deadpool fighting Skrulls for an entire issue, then offering to work for them. I guess Way wanted to spend an issue getting us familiar with how his Wade is going to view the world in this series. It's a bit different from what I'm used to (having not read the Wolverine Origins arc Way introduced this in). More like that sequence in Cable/Deadpool #50 where Wade realizes a symbiont has hooked on with him, as he has 2 voices in his head. I don't think that's what's going on here.

I liked Paco Medina's pencils. They seem to work well for the abstracted way Wade's going to see things. The bright coloration is kind of an interesting choice. Suggests a lighter tone than might be expected from a book about fighting with alien invaders. Perhaps representing this isn't particularly consequential in the grand scheme of Secret Invasion. That's not a bad thing to me; I don't care how integral it is to that whole thing, just a possible explanation. I don't know how this is going to go, but if Way can refrain from running certain jokes into the ground (I think he used the 'what's Skrull for "oh $#%!"' a bit too much for one issue) I should be able to hang on for a while.

Patsy Walker Hellcat #3 - Oh Hellcat. Ever so groovy. I think Immonen is trying to write this book so we're in much the same position as Patsy. I saw that because I only half-understand what's going on, but like Hellcat, I'm kind of rolling with it as it comes along. I really enjoy her breezy attitude in the face of large, angry creatures, and small very quick ones to boot. She handles things in a concise manner that demonstrates her experience, but also demonstrates that she's clearly not terribly fazed by all this. It as if she started on one vacation, and wound up on something completely different, and that's cool, because she's still having fun. And she's very clever, which is always a plus. Clever heroes are more fun, don'tcha know?

Also, I have a vague hunch that Patsy met her annoying map before we realized this had all started. That's assuming this isn't going to wind up being some weird fever dream she's having (I don't think that will be the case). Man, I really enjoy LaFeute's art. It's grand when it needs to be, cute when necessary, able to convey elegance of movement or expression so easily, and so well. John Rauch as the color artist helps, because patsy's a ball of bright colors in a world that's either white or very dark, and it makes her seem more alive by standing out. It's really fantastic. All of which makes me mad, because this isn't selling in the direct market for beans. Buggering comic readers, grumble, grumble.

OK, last week's stuff now.

Batman and the Outsiders #11 - The OMAC is blue on the cover you see, but it's actually red on the cover I got. So all these Bat-related books are tying in to Batman RIP, but they can't actually tell us what's happened precisely, though Batman appears to have disappeared. It reminds me of all those Civil War books that had to play vague with what happened while they waited for McNiven to finish drawing the primary mini-series. Tap dancing in place, waiting for the final pieces to land. Everyone talks about Bats being missing. Batgirl tries to roust the Penguin and gets nothing except a compliment from Intergang shcmuck Johnny Stitches (if we say he's Jigsaw loud enough, think the Punisher will trot over to DC and off him for us?), Nightwing is going dark on us (oh goody), Green Arrow's drinking Bruce's liquor (which I find funny), and the Outsiders don't know if they're still a team.

It's interesting to watch Cassandra try to fill Batman's shoes. It's actually consistent with pre-One Year Later characterizations that she would try to take over for him, carry on the mission she adopted as her own (this is ignoring the characterization at the very end of her series that suggested she'd take her own, more Frank Castle-esque path). I' not sure about Ollie responding by drinking, though. I'm mostly alright with Ryan Benjamin's art. I don't love it, I think there's too much cross-hatching, because everyone's faces look grimy, liked they haven't washed in some time. I think it's shooting for exhausted and not quite making it. I really don't think we need Angry Nightwing right now.

You know what I just realized? We didn't get any kind of an update about Salah's condition after he disastrous psionic linkup with the REMAC last month. I wanted to know about that, 'cause I liked him. He was funny.

Guardians of the Galaxy #5 - Oh, I can't believe they made that character a Skrull. Or at least a Skrull sympathizer. I suppose I shouldn't judge based on religious preference, but that hurts the cool factor a bit. Gamora encouraged Phyla to go look for Drax, Warlock used what's left of the Celestial's brain to find the Skrulls, and Starhawk returned from the future, having decided to destroy everything for some "One Who Knows" reason. I really thought Drax was the Skrull especially when Phyla found him, because based on what he was using, it seemed perfectly designed to thwart Adam's plans. Apparently not what's going on, though.

I suppose it makes sense based on the idea that names have power or something to that effect, but I could do without the original Guardians of the Galaxy popping up. I don't have that much fondness for them. I guess I am curious why it's such a bad thing that the name Guardians of the Galaxy popped up now, rather than in the distant future, I think I'm just more interested in them dealing with this Church they've aggravated.

Moon Knight #22 - I can't really get into Suydam's art. I'm not sure what it is. The figures remind me of clay sculptures a little, so perhaps it's a lifeless feeling I get from them. Maybe it's the stigma of all the damn zombie covers. I do like the partially veiled city in the background.

The Thunderbolts pursue Moon Knight, now roaming as nameless vigilante in a dark, thief-like outfit. Given the power he's up against, I'd say Marc did pretty well in Round 1. His ally Crawley is trying to get Marc's friends to help him out, but not having much success. Given who he's dealing with, that's probably wise on their parts. It's not as if half the T-Bolts would care if they killed his friends.

Couple of things. One, Venom seems a bit stupid here. Stupider than usual, I mean. You'd think he'd notice propane written on those tanks, and perhaps part of him would remember their vulnerability to fire. Besides, how were they going to eat him if they blew him up? Second, Osborn says Marc has no known powers. Does that mean he never told anyone about gaining strength from the moon, or that they dismiss it as the ranting of an unhinged fellow, or does he no longer get those benefits? I know he's been having some issues with Khonshu in this series so far (or he's hallucinating Khonshu), so I could see him getting his powers revoked, but he is doing their work, so that seems counter-productive. I do like the idea that he's gone completely the opposite direction, costume wise. No cape, all black, nothing to conceal his weapons. It's an interesting choice.

The Punisher #62 - Well, Hurwitz is certainly doing something different with Frank. As Chris Sims noted, he wants to make the Punisher a human being, rather than an engine of destruction (I'd argue that Ennis frequently demonstrated that there was still a person inside Frank, just that Frank works very damn hard to bury him out of necessity, but the basic point held). I'm not so sure it's working though. When the girl comes to his room, and he doesn't send her away, he sees his dead family in the mirror. Well, if that's so much of an issue, why not send her away? It seems odd.

I suppose it reflects his crime novelist roots that this Punisher seems to be a detective, performing autopsies and checking crime scenes for evidence, rather than simply threatening snitches until he got the information he needed. It's a different form of competence being demonstrated. Again, it seems odd, in the sense that the Punisher's competence was usually demonstrated through his tactical precision, but I can see Frank making it a point to know about the effects of making drugs on the human body, to help lead him to people to kill, so it's a neat idea in that regard. It's also odd to see him casually walking around in daylight, getting thank yous from the populace. I wonder if that's meant to represent a difference cultural response to vigilantism, or simply a demonstration of how bad the situation is, that they are glad they have a man who does nothing but kill people in their midst. I also wonder if they'll still be glad he's there when it's over.

For the record, I don't believe for a second Frank actually killed that kid at the end. "The heavy" understands the Punisher, he'd know how to try and play him. The whole "I feel" thing is overwrought, though. It probably works better if he just goes ahead and makes the comparison to Franks' deceased daughter and be done with it. As it is, bit much. Clock's starting to tick on this series.