What I Bought 5/21/09 - Part 2

I don't have a good introductory paragraph topic today. Unless you care about the fact I burned my arm getting a pizza out of the oven Wednesdays. It hurt a lot less than I thought it would, which was kind of cool. Maybe that's why Alex keeps getting burned, it doesn't hurt him enough to teach him to be careful.

Marvel Adventures Avengers #36 - Impulse buy. Hey, Tigra gets a better showing in this title than she does anywhere else, you know? In this issue, the team visits a swap meet, and Tigra finds a necklace that holds a genie who wants revenge on the Hulk for trapping him in said necklace hundreds of years ago, though the Hulk won't make the trip back in time for over a decade. The Avengers have to contend with the genie, while Tigra, wisely, tries to avoid making wishes, since genies have a tendency to twist your wishes.

So it's a good comic overall. Funny, plenty of action, the characters tend to have distinct voices, even the folks who don't get too much dialogue. Jacopo Camagni has a nice style, not a lot of lines, but still expressive, tries to not draw everyone as being the same size or body type (which I guess should be a basic thing, but it frequently isn't, you know). His art reminds me a little of Guiseppe Camuncoli (I think I'm spelling that right, drew Orson Randall and the Death Queen of California), which is fine. And Camagni alters the size of the eyes on Spidey's mask to help convey emotion, which is a touch I tend to approve of.

Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #2 - Hmm, I didn't think Jack would pull this for me. He forgot the first one, and the reviews were lackluster enough I didn't bother to press the issue. I wasn't a big fan of the Else Bloodstone story, bit too grim, which I guess should be expected of someone forced into monster hunting, but she lacked the sort of manic glee I remember fondly from NextWave. The Luke Cage story wasn't bad, I like the idea that Luke learned some tricks from being Danny's friend all these years (though tossing the manhole is something I'd think he learned from Cap). Still, with Luke being more of a prominent player these days, being vocal about things he wants the Avengers to investigate, I'm surprised he wouldn't give being borough president a shot.

I was fond of the Galacta story. The daughter of Galactus, trying to do things her way, subsist off lifeforms not native to Earth, but struggling against her impulses to eat more. I really dig that idea. Hector Sevilla Lujan's art was a nice touch. At least partially manga influenced, I'd say, but he keeps things clean and easy to follow, and some of the creature designs are pretty nice.

Power Girl #1 - OK, I'm unclear on something: Ultra-Humanite says he's getting the world in exchange for Power Girl. Then he says later that he's going to either transfer his brain to her body, or destroy Manhattan. That makes it sound like he's getting her in exchange for helping someone else. Maybe it just means he's planning to double-cross someone. He is a bad guy.

So Power Girl's dealing with the giant albino gorilla, his robotic lackeys, and his emotion manipulating weapons (it's the tech messing with emotions, 'cause he's a telepath, not an empath, I think). And in her civilian life, she's trying to put ehr company back together, and turn it into something that helps the world, which is nice. So she's interviewing employees, trying to get her office finished, trying to find an apartment, that sort of thing. We've already met some of her employees, who I'm hoping will make regular appearances. A good supporting cast is always an aid to a title, right?

Of course I like Amanda Conner's artwork. Again (and I guess I keep saying this) she conveys emotion and detail very well, but not with so many lines as to clutter things up. And she alternates between showing action scenes at the moment of impact, and the moments before and after impact (like when she swats a lot of the robots with a car), since I think one of those styles works better than others depending on the situation.

Secret Six #9 - Rather than help kidnap children of rich Gothamite capitalists, Bane, Catman and Ragdoll stop the kidnappings, while Catman and Bane argue about whether either of them could be Batman, and whether either of them want to be. Then Nightwing shows up, and he's kind of rude and unpleasant towards them, considering they've been doing his work. And does Grayson really think he could beat all three of them at once? I'd have liked to see that, just because Nightwing probably needs to be brought down a notch.

Bane seems rather singularly focused in this issue. I guess it could have to do with the kids (or the fact it's happening in Gotham). Or he could be trying to stay stringently focused after he went off the wagon with the Venom a couple issues ago. Actually, there's a question. He punched a metal gate open. Does that mean he's back on the Venom or is he just normally that strong. He's not seeing Batman everywhere, so I figure he's clean again, but that was an impressive punch. Ragdoll dressed as Robin, and stealing that sculpture was very amusing.

War of Kings #3 - Perhaps unsurprisingly, my enjoyment level with War of Kings increases as more characters I like get involved. So when Ronan was the only one I cared about, enjoyment was low. Now the Guardians of the Galaxy are on the scene, and Rocket Raccoon is beating Gladiator's stupid mohawked butt (with a mop), enjoyment level is higher. Not high, mind you, but rising. Oh, and we should celebrate. It only took 32 years, but Gladiator finally, finally, grew a freaking backbone. I guess it was bound to happen eventually.

Meanwhile, Inhuman attempts to get the Kree moving on the evolutionary path are apparently not working, which will probably disappoint Ronan, which will probably disappoint Crystal. The growing connection between the two is one of the things I'm liking most about War of Kings so far. And you know, I actually feel Maximus' frustration. He finally felt accepted by the rest of the Royal Family, was going to do some good, non-violent work, and the war comes along, and it's back to the old ways. "Maximus, build us better weapons! Maximus, improve our teleportation devices!" Poor crazy guy.

Favorite piece of dialogue: Smasher - 'Accessing Hyper-strength upload from my exospecs.' WHAM! Drax - 'Accessing fist.' Oh Drax, you're so violent and dryly amusing.

And that's all for today.