What I Bought 10/06/08

I have no ideas for a good introduction. Or even a bad one. So, let's get right to the reviews.

Deadpool #2 - I got the Clayton Crain cover, which, well, it certainly reminds us that Wade is supposed to be really ugly. I can't help thinking it makes him look a lot like the Red Skull. So Wade wants to offer his skills to the Skrulls, but he and they have different ideas of what his skills are. Things start going poorly for the Skrulls, and whether it's all part of a brilliant plan by Wade, or just his bad luck I'll leave unsaid.

Good news is that Way didn't keep up with the "What's Skrull for oh #$%!" that he used last month, though he does show a phrase in Skrull, then give a translation below for some reason. Deadpool broke the 4th wall. Way worked a quick origin story in, and he's actually making Wade somewhat of a feared character. I know a few people who felt Nicieza's Deadpool lacked in that department, and I guess, on sheer insanity alone, Deadpool should probably be feared in much the same way most DC villains fear the Joker, since they have no idea what he might do next. And Way is making Deadpool's usual state of mind part of the story here, which is a nice idea.

I'm not as enamored of Medina's art as I was last issue. It's still good when Wade's perception gets loopy, but it lacks something in the fight scenes. Characters often seem to be posing with little relation to the others around them, and the sense of motion isn't always there. Still, it's good Way and medina seem to be avoiding overuse of the "Pool-O-Vision". May I say, I'm a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this comic. Not great or anything, but kind of funny, and while it's not Cable/Deadpool Deadpool, it's still a version I think I can go with.

Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Death Queen of California - Bloody hell, that's a long title. Confession: I haven't read any Raymond Chandler or anything of that sort, so I think the spirit of the stories it's largely meant to evoke is lost on me. The closest I've probably came was Max Payne, and this story doesn't feel nearly as grim to me as that did. Probably because it takes place in sunny California instead of a blizard-struck New York, there's not the same sort of black humor, and it doesn't focus on how much of a broken guy Orson Randall is. There are hints of it, certainly in how he takes his coffee, and the end of the story, but I think he's kept in motion enough that his preexisitng problems don't have time to show through.

Which is OK. I mean, this gives us Orson taking out three guys by flicking chi-infused pistachio shells at them, and it's hard to argue with that. It feels a bit light, though, as if there needed to be more time spent on Orson trying to unravel the mystery of what's going on, but I figure that's my expectations more than the material itself. Giuseppe Camuncoli does a pretty fair job on the art, but I felt like it needed darker coloring, more shadows. The first page, seemed at odds with the rest of the book, and I think I expected it to be more like that first page, lights straining against the shadows. Still, Camuncoli conveys motion well, and certainly knows how to draw people looking either dazed, or seriously crazy, which is a useful gift in this story. I think the timing was off a little at the end, when a caption reads "The floor dropped out from under me", and then it does that a page later. I know Orson's speaking metaphorically, but I think it would have worked well if it could have been meant both ways simultaneously.

Nova #17 - Hey, Darkhawk! Well, alright then! And he's guarding Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.? Movin' on up there, 'Hawk. Story of the world: the Project has all sorts of technology that could be a real pain to the Skrulls, which is why they attacked. Good news, the honchos locked it all down so the Skrulls can't get to it. Bad news is that now they can't get to it to use it defeat the Skrulls either. Hmm. I bet Director Gruenwald wishes Joe Quesada hadn't given his Captain America shield to Stephen Colbert right about now. That could probably be handy. Any rate, they have something they extracted from the Negative Zone (uh-oh), and they try to extract the busted Worldmind from Nova to get it running again (hmm), and stuff starts happening, and there the issue ends.

You know what I kept trying to do through this entire issue? See if Nova's little brother was drawn missing a finger. He got one taken off when some gang leader got ahold of the Warriors' I.D.s and went after their loved ones way back in the original New Warriors series. I couldn't confirm or deny it one way or the other, but I also can't remember which finger or which hand it was, so *shrugs*. Silly thing to focus on, I know, but that's me. That's what I seem to do. And no, I wasn't doing it to try and figure out whether it would mean Nova's brother was a Skrull. Also, I don't remember Darkhawk being quite so hot-headed. Stressful situation to be sure, but it seems like Abnett and Lanning were trying to demonstrate the difference in responses between Darkhawk, who's been mostly inactive the last few years, and Nova, who's spent the last couple years saving the universe, and leading armies. It worked, but I think they overdid it a bit. Maybe show Chris thinking too much about one-on-one battles, and not about working together, or how to counter a more numerous foe, rather than him just charging in blind and pissed.

Oddly enough, I think I liked Deadpool best of the three. Iron Fist felt superfluous, and Nova felt like a lot of set-up for this month's issue. Neither one was bad, just not as enjoyable.