Thursday, May 21, 2009

What I Bought 5/21/09 - Part 1

Comics, many, many, comics. Visited the store today, talked to Jack, he told me Ken is already working on promoting next year's convention. It always amazes me, for as laid back as Ken seems, just how much of a motor that guy has. I get exhausted just thinking about how busy he is. Of course, exhaustion seems to be pretty easy for me to come by these days. On to reviews.

Agents of Atlas #4 - Captain America totally doesn't fight a dragon in this issue. The Agents have a run-in with Winter Captain, and plant a little information in his brain to get him to attack them soon. It's a reputation establishing thing. We learned what the creepy guys in the past were up to, and what the mystery jet plane was about, and how it's connected to Temugin's teleportation and Atlas.

I liked the stuff in the past more than the Bucky stuff. Was the issue saying Winter Soldier found Cap while he was frozen, and just left him that way? Or was Bucky's mind just really fouled up? I'm inclined towards the latter, because I don't remember hearing about the time in WW2 when Cap got shot full of holes by the Red Skull. Were the Cap and Bucky the Russians were stealing the crazy Commie-haters from the '50s? It ahs to, right, 'cuase otherwise, Hoover had Steve Rogers in a tube for no good reason.

Agents of Atlas #5 - I don't know why Marvel decided to give us 2 issues of Agents of Atlas this month, but it's fine with me. The New Avengers, acting off the info Marvel Boy planted in Winter Captain's head, attack the weapon-producing supertanker, and are about to fight the Agents. Then things seem like they'll end peacefully, then M-11 gets vengeful, and we've got a real fight scene, and the Agents barely pull it off. But it still builds them some cred with Norman Osborn.

Ah, nothing like a good team versus team brawl. I thought Pagulayan did a pretty good job laying it out, having different characters show up to help each other out in some cases, while the Namora/Ms. Marvel brawl was pretty exclusive, since it moved outside the original room quickly. I also like that Jeff Parker wrote a Spider-Man smart enough to look past the surface details, and almost get the truth out. Bravo.

Booster Gold #20 - So, Keith Giffen's writing the book the next few months apparently. And Booster decide to travel to the 1950s because he's bored, and ends up getting mixed up in some Task Force X mission. . . with Frank (formerly Sgt.) Rock! Well, that improves this book right there. Though this Rock plays a bit dirtier than I expected, threatening to blackmail Booster with a picture of him unmasked. Sorry, ungoggled.

If I follow this right, by helping Rock out, Booster ensured the Rocket Reds would come to be? And this is a good thing? I mean, sure, every comics universe needs its generic armored cannon fodder, but it hardly seems vital. Or maybe it was stopping the rocket launch that was the important part. I am somehow not at all surprised at why Booster wanted to travel to the '50s. This does not mean I'm not embarrassed for him.

Deadpool #10 - OK, so the Thunderbolts crossover left a bad taste in my mouth. The question becomes whether a fight with Bullseye can maintain my interest until August, when Deadpool will fake his death and become a pirate (which sounds outstanding). Wade is still broke, though, and that's getting old. Norman's accounts had just enough money to pay Taskmaster, and he's taking low-rent jobs repaying high school cruelty when Bullseye shows up. They fight, Wade actually does pretty well.

Actually, he did so well, I have a hard time figuring how he had so much trouble with the Thunderbolts. They are, as Norman alluded to "Z-list", and Wade had all sorts of trouble with them. Maybe he was having a bad attention span day for those issues. It's kind of an amusing issue, the fight was nice. I felt Medina did a better job with the action sequences than he did last month, kept things clear, though actually, I'm not sure how the grenade sent them falling down the stairs, when it should have propelled both of them into the bathroom. I'm just picking nits, I guess.

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2 - The cover (which I will add to the post eventually), is homaging Spy vs. Spy, isn't it? I can't figure how Deadpool isn't toppling off the edge of the piano, though. He's leaning pretty far out.

Punisher tracks down Deadpool. It wasn't hard. Imitates pizza delivery boy, attacks Deadpool. Uses weapons confiscated from various criminals to kick Wade's ass. I have to think Dr. Octopus is not going to like Castle using one of his arms without permission. Deadpool escapes, runs to Outlaw, rests up, then Frank shows up there and starts chopping off limbs. Then Daredevil saves Wade. And I think the scene with Tombstone was referencing Snatch, with the pigs and all. So Lonnie Lincoln, Guy Ritchie fan. Who knew?

Hey, Cable/Deadpool plot stuff referenced, like Agent X being really fat, and that time Deadpool was really small. Hooray! I was starting to think only Bob was going to survive as a reminder of that series. Barberi does a couple of hallucination panels, but I feel like he needs to draw in a style less like his own art for them to really work. The Punisher dressed as a matador is a cool image, but it doesn't seem different enough from the rest of his work to really push the "Deadpool's divorced from reality" shtick.

Exiles #2 - The Exiles plan to infiltrate Magneto's family kind of backfires, what with the telepaths all around and such. We still don't have any idea how they're supposed to "help Wolverine". We did learn who's calling himself the Panther, so that's one question answered.

There's a lot of talking in this issue. How this world reached the point it's at, how the team should go about things, why the Polaris and the Scarlet Witch in this universe don't like each other, the Exiles trying to pump various folks at the big party for information so they can figure out what to do. Lots and lots of talking. On the plus side, the Cyclops in this universe is working with Magneto, so I hold out hope that before the Exiles depart, somone will hit him really hard. Cyclops needs to be hit really hard more often in my opinion.

The part where the two Polaris' are both trying to hit each other with Forge's metal fist was very amusing. I still like Salva Espin's art, because I think it's expressive without being overdrawn. It works with an economy of lines.

Tomorrow, five more books.

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