What I Bought 2/26/2010 - Part 2

Hello dere, boys and girls! How's every little thing? The weather here has been lovely lately. A little nippy in the morning, but that's what coats are for. Sun's been shining, skies have been clear, fantastic. It's put me in an uncommonly good mood while I've been working, which is a nice change of pace. There's one thing I received in my package from the store I'm not going to discuss today, but I did want to mention I had it. DC's 2nd printing of Hitman: 10,000 Bullets. I wonder if DC is actually going to finish the series in trade format, or if they're going to stop where they did the first time? I hope they keep going, but I suppose sales will be the final arbiter.

Deadpool #19 - I imagine that cover sums up the feelings many people have towards Deadpool these days.

Deadpool has come to New York to learn the art of heroism from Spider-Man. Stop laughing! Peter Parker bumps into Wade in the subway and recognizes him, even though Wade's not wearing his mask. I didn't know Spidey had seen Deadpool sans mask. I suppose he could have recognized his voice. Spider-Man later finds a storekeeper killed, hunts down a gassy Deadpool, and beats him to a pulp. Why can't he do that to actual villains in his own title? Noooo, he's gotta be getting his ass kicked by schmucks like Mr. Negative!

Sorry, for the digression. Suffice it to say, Deadpool didn't kill the man, but knows who did: Hit-Monkey. I buried my face in my hands after typing that, so it's time for another digression. What is this fascination people in comics have with monkeys?! They're disgusting! They fling crap! If I wanted to see that, I'd hang around babies! Except I don't like babies either! Perhaps I need to visit a futuristic theme park where Man's attempts to use science to play God run amok and terrorize myself and some children. End digression.

While Hit-Monkey attends a happenin' night club, Spider-Man determines, based on what Deadpool knows about H-M, that it is also here to kill Wade. Good luck with that.

The part of this issue I enjoyed the best were the two times Spider-Man makes Deadpool promise to kill no one. Wade agrees while his inner caption boxes freak out and ask if he's lying. Both times, the first word out of Deadpool's mouth confirms that yes, he's lying, but not in a way that would tip Spider-Man off. It's not any sort of spectacular writing achievement, but it was nice to see Wade staying on the ball there.

Deadpool #20 - Spider-Man refuses to let Deadpool hide at his apartment. Hit-Monkey kills two dirty cops. This convinces Spider-Man Deadpool was telling the truth, except Hit-Monkey somehow knew to follow Spidey right to Deadpool. How? I don't know, monkey-telepathy? Deadpool wearing a french maid outfit fails to distract the simian, and he gets shot. Spidey proposes that since Deadpool has a healing factor, he should let himself get shot, thereby tricking Hit-Monkey into thinking it succeeded in killing him. Then it will leave. Aw, Spidey come on. You can't foist Hit-Monkey off on some other city like that!

It's irrelevant, as Deadpool won't go for it. Spidey gets shot, Deadpool runs away, comes back, and is shot repeatedly by Hit-Monkey. End issue. I'm going to say the best part was Deadpool demanding proof Spider-Man wasn't a monkey, and Spidey showing him his thumbs, then having to explain that monkeys don't have thumbs. Let's move on to happier reviews.

Guardians of the Galaxy #23 - Does Magus look creepy enough for you? He does to me.

We learn how come Magus and the Guardians he seemed to kill aren't actually dead. Magus played a little trick on everyone, like the dirty magician he is. That was two weeks ago, and since then, he's been busy trying to convert the captured Guardians to his side, with no success. Turns out Magus knows what's on the other side of the Fault, and he plans to welcome it with open arms. OK, not the reaction I was expecting of him.

The Guardians he didn't capture are playing security detail for an attempt at reforming the Galactic Council Vulcan exterminated. Even Blastaar showed up, and he's behaving himself. That's kind of frightening. He's learning. Someone takes a shot at him, and right as our heroes start to have their hands full, Moondragon gets a psychic message from Phyla, warning her the Magus is still alive and there's big trouble. Then Phyla sucks it up, breaks free, and it looks like she and the formerly captured Guardians are going to do the Big Damn Hero thing. Go team!

This book makes me so happy. I was bummed out when I thought all those characters were dead, and now they aren't. Threats are coming from all over, which is a good way to handle a big cast, because you can split them up. Makes it easier to juggle them. Wesley Craig is back on pencils this month, which makes me extra happy. His work's a little rough, but I like his sense of design and page layout, and his art has a lot of energy. His Magus is darkly gleeful.

Marvel Boy: The Uranian #2 - Bob saves the eastern U.S. from a nuke, meets a nice girl through the fella writing his comic, but has to rush back to. . . the 7th planet because his father's been poisoned, I mean, fallen ill. Bob stays there for a year, gets some improvements to his super-hero stuff, and returns to Earth, saving civilians from a crazed sniper in a flashy and impressive manner. Which suits the honchos back on Uranus just fine. Cue ominous music.

That's about it. I like the first scene, because it established whatever the feds might think of super-heroes, Marvel Boy had won the cops in New York City over, to the extent they call him in for the bomb problem, and they're willing to give him a ride in their car, and Bob will take them up in his spaceship. It's nice, the people in the Marvel Universe actually liking their heroes. Makes a nice bookend for this Heroic Age, perhaps.

Power Girl #9 - Power Girl captures her photographer, but doesn't realize it, so he escapes. Whoops. She heads off to work, and deals with a grabby fellow on the subway. That's one of those reasons I couldn't live in a big city. There's no way I could handle being crammed into a subway car. Even if I made it where I was headed, I'd be ready to scream by the time I got off, but once you get out, you're still in a crush of people, so the situation's only getting worse. Damn, that was another digression.

Power Girl's bank calls and says it needs her to come down. Her receptionist asks her to bring back a toaster. Because banks used to give customers free toasters, right? Historically themed humor, kudos! Anyway, by the time she gets there, her bank is being attacked by elephant and rhino men. Who are trying specifically to draw Power Girl out. Congratulations, you succeeded. Does this mean they know her secret identity? She's got to work on the secret part of that. Then the Manhawks show up. I think the creative team's been reading Mightygodking's Who's Who posts. First Vartox, now Manhawks. Next, The Director! Or not.

Satanna shows up in a suit of armor with a big hammer, and proceeds to whup Power Girl's butt. Maybe Peej needs to learn some martial arts. Even Silver Age Superman had Batman teach him some judo, and that guy had so many powers computers exploded trying to count them. At least Power Girl has friends who'll lend a hand. Satanna can't say that, 'cause she doesn't have any friends! Let's all point at her and laugh! Ha, ha!

Now I feel bad for laughing. Not having friends is a terrible thing. This issue went from sort of comical to deadly serious, and it worked, which is cool. I hope we get to see that tour of her company they were discussing, at least a little of it. It'd be nice to see what they're working on. Crazy inventions make good springboards for wacky adventures, you know.

Secret Six #18 - It's not a great cover, but I like the bits of the Six' outfits floating there. Deadshot's eyepiece, I think Ragdoll's mask, a bit of Catman's shirt. Nice touch.

The Six and the Squad are both faring poorly against the Black Lanterns. Alice gets her stuff together long enough for the team to run back home, except the Squad follows. And then the undead do as well. So the whole thing starts over, only add Waller, Scandal, Multiplex, and that gargoyle into the mix. Amanda Waller destroys the Black lanterns by glaring at them. OK, not really, but you believed it for a second, didn't you? Part of you said 'She's the Wall, hell yeah she could kill the undead by looking at them.' Anyway, Black Lantern problem solved, the Six still refuse to join the Squad. Then Deadshot shoots her in the heart. I'm surprised Calafiore drew all the Squad members as being surprised by that. He's Deadshot, what did they think he was gonna do? Waller doesn't die, and hey she's actually Mockingbird, which I did not see coming.

Well, the Blackest Night stuff is over. This was fun. Waller doesn't make it easy to root for her, though. She's cool, but so ruthless all the time. I like her, but I still think she had that bullet coming. Strange. About Calafiore's art, he's still drawing some creepy looking reanimated corpses, but the design on some of the pages wasn't the best. That double-page spread of the teams lined up together against the Black Lanterns with all the little panels scattered across it was confusing. I couldn't see any order to the little panels, and they seem oddly placed considering they happen after the main image.

That's it for my stuff from the last three weeks. How have your comics been?