What I Bought 7/22/09

The store got shorted on their Immortal Weapons #1, only receiving one copy, which went out the door with someone else before I got around to asking for it. So next week. That's OK, next week was shaping up to be light, so this'll beef it up a bit.

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4 - Having his head blown off does not kill Deadpool. Spider-Man and Daredevil both agree to help track down Tombstone, who contracts some extra muscle from the Hood. I don't care how hard Marvel tries to convince me he's Chief Villain leader Muckety-Muck, it grates on me when I see Tombstone being all polite and "yes, sir" towards the Hood. He ought to snap that snot's neck. The Punisher finds Deadpool again, but eventually stops trying to kill him when a heart rate analysis convinces him Wade really didn't do what he's accused of, which makes me wonder why they weren't checking his heart rate the first two or three times Castle tried to kill him. They team up to find Tombstone, then they split up, then Spidey reappears, then we meet the muscle the Hood sent.

Well, I liked this issue a little more than the previous ones. The insults flying between Spidey and Deadpool were amusing (especially how it irritates Daredevil), though it seemed kind of like a cheap shot for Spider-Man to make fun of Deadpool's face. I know Spider-Man does that a lot while battling villains, but they weren't fighting, and it is a side effect of the only thing keeping Deadpool from dying of cancer, so a little decency wouldn't be out of place. I can't really get into Carlo Barberi's art. Everyone's head seems to small for their body (or their upper bodies are too big for their heads), though he did a fine impression of Skottie Young's art on the first page, to the extent I checked the credits to see if Young was a guest penciler.

Guardians of the Galaxy #16 - I know, the cover the book had is completely not the cover they solicited. I can't decide whether Marvel is trying to be clever, or if it's incompetence. Not that it matters much, I prefer this cover to the 'Drax and Adam Warlock in front of kaleidoscope background' one they solicited, it's just kind of annoying.

Star-Lord, Mantis, Bug, and Jack Flag are brought to the 31st century by Starhawk, where they meet the future Guardians of the Galaxy, who are also the old Guardians of the Galaxy, but not old in the sense that they're the same people from Star-Lord's time, old in the sense that it's the original characters who made up the Guardians of the Galaxy, when the concept was first introduced in comics. Follow that? Good. The Guardians of the past see what the future is, and it's, uh, trippy. And doomed. Naturally, seeing as this is Marvel, and so futures are always bleak. You want happy futures, go read some Legion stuff. Then the Badoon attack, the way home is lost, and the only hope is to try and warn the Guardians still back at Knowhere about what needs to be done. Which explains the talking decapitated Celestial head from last issue.

See, this is what I love Cosmic Marvel for, besides the fact that heroes actually fight villains, and the villains usually get their comeuppance, rather than promotions. Where was I? Right, what I like is all the odd stuff that gets thrown out, like with most of the universe destroyed by the Fault (caused by the Error), how there's is still a little patch that manages to survive. Wesley Craig is back on the art chores, which is good. I liked Brad Walker's art, but Craig just draws weird freaky stuff so well. I'm not sure his anatomy is the best, but there's an energy to the work, and his expressions (though typically over-the-top) are solid as well. It's a little Bruce Timm meets Kirby, at least in my mind.

Nova #27 - Richard leads two other Novas to Ravenous' throne world, which is currently being trashed by Blastaar, sorry, King Blastaar and his Negative Zone troops. Richard manages to talk their way out of having to fight Blastaar (which is good), but Blastaar allows the Shi'ar Praetorians to chase after the Novas (which is bad - for the Praetorians, because I think Nova Prime will kill them next issue). Meanwhile, Robbie has the Strontian pinned down, but can't really do anything else, his control is slipping, and Ravenous is of no help. It looks like Richard may have been a bit slow arriving, which will be too bad for anyone in the area. Sure, Malik Tarcel was Nova Prime and Gladiator beat him down, but he didn't have Richard's experience. Nova's fought the Silver Surfer, and even Annihilus twice. I'm hoping he'll make a gravimetric field which causes the Strontians heart to collapse in on itself. That would be sweet.

There's really not that much happening in the issue. The focus is limited, and there's not much progression, which is kind of a downer. I would have liked more plot advancement, because what there was interested me, but I think there could have been more. The last panel's a nice cliffhanger for next month, but it felt pretty obvious throughout the issue, to the point where I think it would have been better to wrap that up and move on within the issue to another point of suspense.

Power Girl #3 - I love that self-satisfied smile on Power Girl's face on the cover. 'Yeah, I smashed all these robots by myself. It was easy too.'

Hard to believe Ultra-Humanite forgot about that power, but given her preference for punching things, she probably doesn't use it much. Which makes it a nifty ace in the hole. Power Girl beats Giant Albino Gorilla, and with a little help from her friend Terra, saves the city from falling from a great height, and from having a giant spacecraft fall on it from a great height. Not too shabby.

I'm surprised, given how much difficulty she had with him in the first two issues, that she was able to beat U-H so easily this time. Maybe it was a lucky toss, or maybe he was too stunned she escaped to do any telepathy/emotion manipulating stuff. I'm also a little surprised that Power Girl and Wildcat's brief conversation was so cordial. I figured he'd make a snide remark about how she couldn't hack it since she kept asking for other JSA members to help, but no. Maybe he does that after everything is settled. I think we saw a hint of some of the secret identity conflicts she'll face, with her employees wondering where she is, and we learned (if you hadn't already read the Terra mini-series) that she has at least one friend she's hits the town with, which is something. I'm hoping they have a little of that in #4, before these alien party girls show up to start causing trouble, since it would serve as another glimpse into Power Girl as a character. I don't know what to say about Amanda Conner's art other than I still like it. It works for me, in both action scenes and talking scenes.