Agents of Atlas #2 - #1 is still on back order, so I forge ahead boldly. Jimmy Woo courts Norman Osborn with offers of weapons, the Mandarin's kid criticizes Jimmy's style, and it's interspersed with a story from the '50s about a phantom Commie jet fighter, which is all kinds of interesting. Beatniks get Bob drunk! Outstanding.Well, the series is all good with me so far. I like people trying to trick Norman Osborn, I like Norman using loser super-villains as (ineffective) muscle, I even like the fact Temugin is an unlikeable prick. Everyone else in the cast is cool, so it's nice to have a smarty-pants jerk to show up every so often. I wonder if Namora' protectiveness towards M-11 is as simple as his being the one that found and revived her? I like Pagulayan's art, but I must admit I really like Gabriel Hardman's work on the 1958 scenes. Very Darwyn Cooke-ish to me, and there's that effect where the air immediately around people is brighter than the rest, like a soft filter camera effect. Nifty.
Amazing Spider-Girl #29 - Oh dear, the Tube May has, in addition to soaking in whatever was in the tube, been partially infused with symbiont DNA, and she, Regular Mayday, and our Osborn/Parker combo have combined to form a 'Goblin God'. You can't see it, but I just face-palmed typing that. And now Mayday is going to try and help her father battle Norman inside Peter's subconscious stronghold. That's another face-palm.I appreciate that DeFalco and Frenz are trying to wrap up the series with a bang, but I think they're going a bit far with it. Maybe some darker coloring would have helped because the Goblin sigh God comes off looking ridiculous, rather than any kind of menacing, with the exception of the second to last panel where he's almost entirely in shadow. OK, I'm being pretty negative here, so let me throw a positive comment in. While I may not like the idea of a final battle in Peter's subconscious stronghold, I do like that it's built out of all the memories of the people he fights for (one of the images is that shot from Amazing Fantasy 15 where he gets the microscope from Uncle Ben and Aunt May). That was appropriate.
Deadpool #7 - Were the constant Die Hard references in this issue necessary? Probably not. Were they highly entertaining? For me, yes. I wanted more Hallucinating Deadpool, and I got more hallucinating Deadpool. Yay for me. I will admit, I went to IMDB to see if that last thug Willis shot in the vault with Hans really was Huey Lewis like Wade said. Somehow, I always figured it was a Dallas Cowboy, like Jay Novachek or somebody (I know, Novachek wasn't in Dallas when they made Die Hard, he's just the first Cowboy that came to mind). IMDB says no, so we'll just chalk that up to Wade being in an '80s kind of mood this issue.Problem with the issue, beyond the fact Norman Osborn would even bother to find Bob to try and use to trick Deadpool, rather than simply sending more than one big angry muscle-headed imbecile: the abrupt end of the whole thing. Wade shoots Tiger Shark a few times, he goes through a window, that's it. Really? For a guy who fights Namor, a few bullets? They don't even seem to be special explosive bullets or anything. he shot Bob in the hand, and it didn't get blown off or anything, so I am skeptical. I know Wade doesn't plan things, but maybe hit him with a car, then explode it? Just a suggestion.
Random art comment: Medina draws Bob's mask in a way that the eyes remind me of Arthur from The Tick. Intentional reference, or just coincidental?
Deadpool #8 - Alright, more Hallucinating Wade! And the hallucinations make fun of Norman Osborn! And he makes fun of Osborn's hair! That might just vault this issue above Agents of Atlas #2 for best comic of the week (of the five I've read so far).The issue is Deadpool trying to barge into Avengers Tower to get Osborn, and somehow making it past Norman's defenses, despite the fact he and his brain stop speaking to each other part way through. This is probably bad, since Norman is being more clever than Wade, which I grant you isn't saying much. I still enjoy Medina drawing Wade's, um 'divorced from reality' moments, and in terms of depicting panel-to-panel action (like during the sequence with remote goblin gliders), it's looking good. But single-page spreads do not seem to be in Medina's wheelhouse. That final page, that is supposed to be Wade running from the T'Bolts, was rather lackluster. Wade doesn't really look like he's running, and the Thunderbolts appear to be floating in a sort of starry grey soup. Can't get a little background scenery in there? A chair, a window, a floor?
Immortal Iron Fist #22 - They're trapped in the 8th City, and it really sucks there. I'm curious how, if it took 7 Weapons to seal the gate, they opened it with just 6. Maybe that's why they were so fried when they got there. Either way, Danny may have found a potential ally, assuming he's in any condition to do anything.Travel Foreman draws people who look bedraggled, filthy, and generally beat-to-hell very well. Danny has a real "crazy person on the street" look to him, which probably makes sense given his circumstances. Also nice to see he was wearing a cast (initially anyway) so they haven't forgotten he nearly had his arm torn off by Ch'i-Lin. Foreman is still drawing the fights in mostly really small panels, and not in the most detailed manner, but I think that's intentional. The outcome of these fights is already known, so they aren't really important except to establish why the Weapons are unable to mount any sort of effective resistance or escape attempt. Also, I wanted to say I liked the page where Foreman was drawing the scroll Danny was reading about the 8th City. It looked very well done.
OK, so that's it for Part 1. Part 2 tomorrow, and ABP will be stopping by Thursday, for those looking ahead to that.
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