What I Bought 3/29/2010 - Part 2

OK, it's Marvel's turn, no time to waste.

Avengers vs. Atlas #3 - The teams stop fighting each other and fight the Hulk instead. See, it's one thing to fight the Hulk yourselves, as Atlas did last year, but you haven't really made it until you team up with another team to fight the Hulk. They keep him busy until Venus wakes up (after the Wasp zapped her last issue), and she calms the Hulk down. The teams then work on figuring out what's going on, concluding it has something to do with the Avengers' first battle with Kang. The vortex is still around, and it's gotten larger and angrier looking. The back-up strip, by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk, is Venus answering people's questions about their love lives. She doesn't know what she's talking about. She told Hercules to shave his beard! We've seen that, it happened in the '90s, which ought to tell you right there it's a bad idea. To make it clear, once he shaves the beard, then he starts wearing stupid metal shoulder pad/flak jacket looking things. It's a terrible look for him. That aside, it's mildly amusing.

Gabriel Hardman's art grows on me the more I see it. He draws a fine fight scene, doesn't skimp on the details, and it's always clear what's going on. I think he may have whiffed by drawing Cap with his shield on the first page (the dialogue a couple of pages later suggests Namora had only just retrieved it when she threw it at the Hulk), but assuming I'm right, minor quibble. Everything else is golden, including Iron Man's gold armor, which Hardman gives some heft to. It looks big, clunky, and heavy. Parker does a good job of writing an Avengers team that is still getting to know each other, and aren't clear on what they're each capable of.

My favorite scene is spread out a bit. Bob Grayson is examining the vortex, and as he figures it out, he starts getting affected, and telepathically sends the info to Giant-Man before he returns to his 1950s state. The fight with the Hulk is still going, so it isn't discussed but after, Pym mentions this to everyone else. As he does, Iron Man says Bob could have sent it to him, he would have understood. In the next panel he continues, 'I built this suit. . .' Two things about it I love. First, no one is paying attention to him, they're all listening to Pym lay things out. Second, Tony's shoulders are slumped, like he's depressed no one realizes he's smart too, darn it. I don't know if I'll ever get tired of Tony Stark being marginalized. Thank you, Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman.

Deadpool #21 - We start in FF headquarters, because Spidey brought Deadpool there to heal up. Reed wants Deadpool out immediately. They go to Spidey's apartment so he can switch costumes, Deadpool steals the costume Spidey changes out of, pretends he's Spider-Man, and he died of the shoulder wound. There's a big funeral, and Hit-Monkey shows up, Deadpool pops out of the casket in his costume, fully armed, telling the cops to arrest the monkey, which doesn't happen. Spidey won't let either one kill the other, but Hit-Monkey won't accept Deadpool's offer for them to go their separate ways, and see if they can be better. They try to use damaged guns, which explode, but kills neither of them. Spidey breaks Deadpool out of jail, tells him to leave town, and that he's not really trying to be a good guy, he's trying to be loved for being a good guy. Deadpool sees no difference.

Things I don't understand. One, why bring Deadpool to the Fantastic Four? He could heal anywhere, like a dumpster. Two, why is Reed being so brusque? He's had more dangerous people than Deadpool in his home, and been less of a dick about it. Three, how did Deadpool fake being dead? If nothing else, how did he keep from talking long enough for them to pronounce him dead and arrange a funeral. Four, if Spidey is convinced Deadpool is only trying to be a hero to be loved, rather than for the right reasons, why not leave him jail? I'm guessing he's worried about people being hurt when Wade makes his own escape.

It was nice to read Spider-Man say that it's about being the good guy, not about being loved for it. That was a nice, heroic type thing to say, though I'm not sure when Spider-Man stopped being bothered by the fact everyone thought he was a menace and hated him. Maybe around the time they stopped thinking he was a menace and hating him.

Girl Comics #1 - Oh Spidey, why did you bet on Tony Stark? He never comes through when you need him! And Bucky, gambling? What would Steve say if he could see you? Probably, "Why did you bet on Tony? That wasn't very smart Bucky. I learned in the 1980s to always bet on the big green lady" I am a flawless Steve Rogers writer.

G. Willow Wilson and Ming Doyle's Nightcrawler story was nice, though a little strange. Kurt rescuing the pretty lady, or helping her rescue herself, at least. A little swashbuckling banter might have been nice, but it would have interfered with the song overlaying the story, so I understand not having any of that, just a personal preference. The Trina Robbins/Stephanie Buscema Venus story had some funny bits, the bloviating of the male gods and the snark of the ladies, and I loved the art. With Valerie D'Orazio and Nikki Cook's Punisher story, I wonder if it might have worked better if they'd held off on the gag until the end. We see 'sadprincess' likes posies, but we don't know it's the Punisher until the end. I'm not sure it would actually work better that way, just pondering. Ultimately, it's a 4-page Punisher story, there's only so much you can do with that, and I have to admit I've never seen Frank use that tactic to lure out a target.

One of my two favorites was the Doc Ock short by Lucy Kinsley. Her art did such a nice job of capturing Ock as this nerdy outcast, trying to keep a low profile, but being hampered by his various hang-ups, be it his love of octopi, or his hatred of that accursed Spider-Man. My favorite has to be the Robin Furth/Agnes Garbowska story of Franklin and Valerie Richards lost in the strange world inside the clockwork tree. I did keep expecting it to rhyme, even after a page or so when it became clear it wasn't going to. I kept thinking of those Calvin and Hobbes strips where Waterson would write the story in rhyme. Rhyme or no, I still enjoyed it considerably, and it neatly outlined the differences between the two kids in just a couple of pages. OK, that brings us to the Devin Grayson/Emma Rios story about Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Logan. I was intrigued, but I don't quite get the last panel, when Logan raises his mug to Scott. Is he congratulating Scott on being with Jean, or is he mocking him? "Sure Summers, she says we're just friends, but you're always gonna wonder, ain't ya? Cheers, bub." As you can see, my Steve Rogers writing is only matched by my Wolverine writing.

I don't quite get the inclusion of the She-Hulk pin-up in the middle. Marvel already had my money, and was someone going to buy it strictly because of that? The text pieces about Marie Severin and Flo Steinberg were welcome. I don't usually have much interest in the history of the comics industry, but in these small chunks it was informative without weighing things down.

Marvel Boy: The Uranian #3 - Marvel Boy's back on Earth, thwarting revenge-driven college professors with Not A Devolving-Ray and dating a college girl. Good times. Then comes Orlaa, who is not actually a monster, but a creation of fearful and corrupt idiots in the government. Nice to see the Marvel tradition of people mistrusting the costumed heroes didn't start with Spider-Man. Before the web-slinger and Jameson, there was Marvel Boy and Agent Belgard. Jimmy Woo arrives to help Marvel Boy out, and they have many adventures while the Uranian Council stew over Marvel's Boy refusal to follow their orders. The ominous foreshadowing of what his refusal will lead to is offset by the end, where Bob finds the home his parents lived in, which was a sweet ending. Too bad things will be so rough over the ensuing decades.

I don't have anything to say about this mini-series. It was entertaining at times, but I can't see the point of it. It moves from one thing to another so much, it doesn't seem to flesh out much at all. We see him fights some criminals, meet a girl, go back to Uranus, return to Earth, struggle with people in power who want to use him, I don't know. It's not bad, just sort of there.

Nova #35 - Old Sphinx has 2 Ka Stones now. This is bad, as he sorely outclasses all the remaining folks from his and New Sphinx' little battle for supremacy. Reed Richards realizes the things the Sphinx has done inside this magic bubble he created inside the Fault haven't started affecting the universe. . . yet. Once he moves out of the Fault, which will be once he's used to having 2 Ka Stones, then he can remake reality however he pleases. The key becomes to get him out of the Fault sooner than he's prepared for, which falls to Nova, who, with some computational help from Reed, makes it happen. Then everyone starts to be sent back to wherever they were plucked from, only Rich isn't going to let that happen to Namorita, and he pulled it off.

First, Darkhawk is right, Rich saving 'Nita from going back to the time she came from so that she doesn't die sometime after that at Stamford will cause problems. However, I'm with Richard in that I don't care. I'm very happy Namorita's back in play, even if I fear she'll end up having to go back, or end up dying in the upcoming Thanos Imperative. Damn, I can't even let myself enjoy the happy moment for five minutes. Second, I'm surprised Nova would say, during his standoff with the Sphinx that he's at maximum Nova Force, more than he's ever used before. Is he saying he wasn't going all out when he fought Annihilus (who was wearing Quantum Bands and feeding off Power Cosmic at the time)? What the hell, Rich? I'm not saying the Sphinx wasn't more powerful, but still, why hold back against Annihilus?

Whatever. I liked this issue. Most of that is probably my love for classic New Warriors, and so of course, I'm happy with how things turned out. I would have liked for the others to have the opportunity to do more against the Sphinx, so it could be more of a team effort, but considering the power the Sphinx had, it's reasonable that the others couldn't do much. Mahmud Asrar is on the pencils, and does a solid job. There was one page where the Sphinx spans two panels, and I thought maybe that was something that could have been played with more often, considering the powers at the Sphinx' disposal. Attacks not necessarily coming in a linear fashion, like what Chris Bachalo did in the Mayan Death God story he drew in Amazing Spider-Man in 2008. That was really cool. It's not something that needed to happen, just a thought.

That's it for my new comics. Amongst today's selections, let's give Nova my Happy Ending Award, and Avengers vs. Atlas the I Love Fights and Sad Iron Man Award. Girl Comics is Promising, but Needed More Pages, and Deadpool and Marvel Boy are co-winners of Why Did I Buy This? I might need to turn that into a weekly feature. The awards will change depending on what the books provide, naturally, but the concept would remain the same.