What I Bought 8/5/09

I always feel bad when I end a visit to my dad's, mostly because he always seems down about my leaving. Which is good in a way, since it means I haven't overstayed my welcome. Still, it was time to go. He has several dogs, but one in particular feels that to properly defend the house, or to assert his dominance over said house, he must bark at all noises he hears at night. Which is endearing, if he's so determined to protect my dad, but after a week it grates on my nerves. Long story short, I'm back. I like dogs, but not when they wake me up at 2 in the morning because one of the other dogs moved and her dog tags jangled. Reviews!

Agents of Atlas #9 - Leinil Yu draws a creepy pupiless Namora. He often draws people pupiless, and it's always creepy. Jimmy's reunion with Suwan is not going well, as she's become quite the domineering leader. Even when Jimmy's team shows up to help, and leaves Bruce Banner alone in the desert (which isn't new for him, but still), things still don't go well. The Agents appear outgunned, which isn't surprising. Suwan's been building her organization for decades, Jimmy only recently inherited his, and still doesn't know all that it's involved in. Plus, I think they've grown complacently reliant on technological superiority thanks to Bob, and that may not be the case here. I expect things will get worse before they improve at the last moment.

I hope we get the opportunity to see some of what the Jade Claw has been up to, besides designing bigger and better killer robots. Suwan's a nice adversary for Jimmy, she has that confidence that probably borders on arrogance, she sort of carries a grudge, but it doesn't appear to be blinding her to larger goals. Dan Panosian's on pencils, and he's alright. Reminds me of Ron Frenz a bit in places, maybe a little Erik Larsen, and I think he's the same sort of solid storyteller. Not flashy, but he gets the work done.

BloodRayne Prime Cuts #4 - This is the last one of these for awhile, from what I've read online, and it offers up another three short stories. One involves Rayne going monster hunting in the sewers, and has sort of a dark ending which comes out of left field as well. The second one fills in a bit of backstory on Rayne's assistant Severin and one of the villains from the second game. I think that one needed more space if it was going to work, because it didn't really convince me that Severin and the lady in question had something special that was destroyed by her accepting her heritage. We see him picking out a ring, but we don't see how they met, what they did together, so it falls kind of flat.

Now the third story, that's what I've been looking for. Rayne's on vacation, and catches an "evolved" vampire killing a man in broad daylight. The vamp claims he just svaed her life, she punches him anyway, they both wind up transported temporally. Yep, he's a vampire of the FUTURE! here to preserve the vampire bloodline. I'm surprised a half-vampire qualifies, especially one that spends so much time killing vampires. Either way, one narrow escape later and the story is over. Quick, but kind of nifty. I mean, cybernetic vampire timecop. That's a concept I'd like to see again.

Exiles #5 - Contrary to last issue's cliffhanger, Polaris isn't dead. The Exiles team-up with the same artificial lifeforms they fought last issue, as is the Marvel manner, and they save that world. But the first world they went to is still in trouble, and they'll be going back to try and fix it.

I wonder why a North America full of LMDs with people inside them is better for that reality than an outright machine-dominated world. Also, I had kind of figured that something from that world was going to play a key role in fixing the first world, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. And why the bloody hell didn't Morph tell them they needed to break up the alliance back when they first went there, instead of vague crap like 'Help Wolverine overthrow Magneto'? Don't be busting their chops for not finishing the mission when you provide insufficient info, Morph!

Secret Six #12 - Wow, it's been a year for this book already? Where does time go? Wonder Woman wants to know who killed Artemis (psst, Diana, check for a pulse before you start making those sorts of statements). She also does not want to be called an Amazon. Of course, by the time Jeanette finished with her, she's not really in any position to be telling anyone what to call her. So things are looking up for the baddies, and we learn what's in the box, and well, I was disappointed. Possibly because I have no idea what I'm looking at. It reminds of that Firestorm villain, the Hyena, I think. There have been several, because writers keep using them as cheap "dead villain" fodder. I imagine that's not who this is, but that's who I thought of, and it's hard for me to be impressed by a Firestorm villain you know?

Well, that restored my faith in the team a bit. Not a lot mind you, since Wonder Woman is apparently getting fed to. . . whatever it is. But the three idiots showed a little kindness to their teammates. Little something with Nicola Scott's art that I liked. When Artemis recovers and lays waste to the guards, and we see Scandal and Bane wathcing her, while Scandal seems stunned, bane has a little smile on his lips. I don't know whether he's impressed by the efficiency of her attacks, her viciousness, or if he just likes seeing guards beaten up, since he was a prisoner himself. I don't usually say much about Scott's art, so I wanted to mention that I liked that.

War of Kings #6 - Huh, on Marvel's site they showed the cover for this issue as being the cover for #5, and #5's cover as the one for this issue. Not sure what that's about. Anyhoo, Vulcan and Black Bolt fight. Vulcan stubbornly refuses to acede to my wishes and simply die. Meanwhile, the Royal Family argues, until Crystal reminds them they have a teleporter and goes to retrieve Black Bolt, and make the T-Bomb just another big explosive, instead of an instrument of change for the galaxy. Well, I guess it is going to change the galaxy unless Adam Warlock gets off his butt and saves the day. Cripes, the fate of the universe in his hands? The only way I could be less enthused was if it was the Sentry.

The big kingly fight ends, and I got the result I wanted, and it means my pet theory for the future rulers of the Kree is in play. As for the Shi'ar, looks like we'll be getting a ruler that Len has been suggesting for years, ever since Vulcan took over really. That could be interesting. Actually, the overall state of Cosmic Marvel appears to have been pretty significantly shaken up, and I'm hopeful the writers can have some fun with it.

That's it for me. What about you?