What I Bought 11/12/08

Small week. Not infinitesimal, but not large. I'm actually rather pleased with this month. Every week will bring either 2 or 3 new books. That's how I like it. No empty weeks, no weeks where I'm washed away on a sea of titles. Well, given that a large week for me is like five books, perhaps it would be more accurate to say my shoes are soaked by a gentle creek of titles. Whatever.

Amazing Spider-Girl #26 - Arana spends the issue getting used to running around in Spider-Girl's body, and having entirely too much fun beating people up. Mayday travels through a metaphorical mall to discover herself, and several of her old friends decide to team-up to rescue Peter from Norman Osborn's lackeys. And the other Mayday is uncertain whether she's ready to do the Spider-Girl thing.

Well, it's nice to see Mayday finally come to grips with the life she had chosen. Given that I can't see her ever giving up using her powers to help people, it's best she accepts that, lest she grow to despise her powers. I don't understand why it happened, but I amused that her self-realization did not resolve the "Arana usurping her body" situation as I figured it would. Little artistic touch I liked: Ron Frenz seemed to draw Arana as Spider-Girl moving differently from how Mayday normally does. Her attacks were more direct, her movements somewhat less refined, and she was a bit more sneaky (initially) than May usually is. It was a nice touch. I think I enjoyed this issue more than I had several of the previous ones. Not sure what the difference was, exactly. A sense of forward momentum, or May's determination and acceptance of herself?

Booster Gold #14 - Booster teams up with Lady Chronos to fix the mess with the Starros. To get her aid, Booster has to agree to let her escape, and owe her a favor, which he may have repaid in this issue (not entirely clear on that). They also steal Mr. Freeze's cold gun in the middle of a battle, leading Batman to say 'Thanks, magic hand'. Oh, Booster Gold, your book has the best lines in DC (I think either Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy probably holds the title at Marvel, but I'm biased towards those titles, obviously). The day is saved, somehow, but Chronos knows where Rip hangs up his shingle now, which probably means he'll be popping in to read Rip's chalkboard periodically. Rip is not happy about what Booster did.

I can't say much else. I've only read through it once, I was going kind of fast, so I didn't pick everything up. I think Remender struck a decent balance with Booster between competent hero and goofball. Sometimes he's pretty brilliant, other times a bit of a dunderhead, often within a few pages of each other. he might not always make the best decision, but I think he makes the decision he can live with, and honors it (he didn't try and double cross Lady Chronos, and he couldn't abandon Rip, even if it might have made things easier). I liked the wisecrack about how Grundy should keep the Starro on, because it helps his features (by obscuring them). It's mean but it's not as if Grundy knows any better. Unless this was a smart Grundy.

Just so you know, leaving town tomorrow, no posting until weekend at earliest, no resumption of regular posting until next Wednesday. Yes, we are back to the erratic posting schedules of the spring months. Joyous days, those.