What I Bought 1/7/09

Bad luck for the store today. All the store's copies with the X-Men: Manifest Destiny cover had the pages of next week's issue of Spider-Man/X-Men (or is that X-Men/Spider-Man?). Whoopsie! Wonder if that was a widespread problem, or just localized?

Secret Six #5 - Bane deals with the consequences of his response to Junior's "You die or they die". Jeanette interrogates Cheshire. Deadshot treats the hotel staff somewhat shabbily. Well, shabbily by my standards. He didn't shoot them, which is practically pleasant by Floyd's standards, I suppose. Team skirmishes with more desperate, incompetent villains, and we learn the truth about Junior.

I'm having a hard time understanding how Junior is so dangerous. I get that Junior lacks scruples or limits in any significan way, but can't even stand without a crutch, and has a body that looks to be a mangled mess. The issue ends on what's meant to be a tense standoof, but it would seem to be a simple matter for Lawton to just shoot Junior. Bang, bang, one problem solved. They're going to have to do that eventually, you just know it.

I'd really like to talk more about Nicola Scott's artowrk, but I'm not certain what to say. It's not a flashy style, but it's effective, I think it's pretty, though it has the requisite gruesome factor when necessary. I appreciate Jason Wright's coloring, because the shadows are there when you need to darker mood, but for the most part he keeps things bright, almost cheerful. That might seem at odds given what goes on in the book, but I think it works for a title about people who do occasionally awful things, and are rarely troubled by them. The dark deeds don't constantly weigh on them, and so it isn't all doom and gloom.

Secret Invasion: War of Kings #1 - What is it with Marvel and combining the names of different events for the titles of comics? They gave us that House of M: Civil War mini-series, and now this. Is this going to be a thing they do now? Black Bolt decides the Inhumans are done hiding, and they're going to kill lots of people. So they kill some Skrulls, then go around (with ridiculous ease) the Phalanx shield the Kree put back up, and take over. Oh, and they gave the Shiar an excuse to attack the Kree, and Vulcan's wearing robes like he's Tiberius, or Caligula or something (I vote for Tiberius, since I've read he was a unpleasant sort, and Vulcan's brief cameo is spent partially complaining of the dark mood he's in).

Gripes I have. One, Ronan. I'm going to save that for another, extended post of griping, but for now, he gave up too quick. Two, is Black Bolt really this powerful? They've got a device which amplifies his whisper enough that it can make their entire city (which is now a space battleship) move at superluminal speed. They captured the energy of his whispers and use it as protective armor for their soldiers, and bullets for their weapons. If he's that powerful, why couldn't they have him kill the bleeping Sentry before he decided to get cosmic with himself? And yes, he's angry, but he's being a tad reckless. "La la, I'm off to kill some Skrulls! Oh, those Shiar ships say we're in their territory? I'll, kill them too! La, la!"

I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be rooting for here. I actually felt the worst for the Skrulls, who were in full retreat before the Inhumans fried their butts. Not sure that's what the War of Kings braintrust is shooting for. I guess I should end on a positive. Paul Pelletier draws a really cool looking giant city/space battleship.