What I Bought 4/20/2010

If I were the sort to believe higher powers were pulling our strings, I'd say they're trying to tell me not to buy Batgirl. And to resume buying Booster Gold. Second time in 3 months Jack sent me Booster Gold instead of Batgirl. It's only four books this time around, which is kind of a downer. Naturally all my comics waited until tomorrow to be released. What can you do?

Amazing Spider-Man #627 - Peter has to break of his date with Carlie Cooper because his Spider-sense starts going crazy. Fortunately (I guess), it looks like he's having cluster headaches, so Carlie's understanding. Pete rushes to investigate, and finds the Juggernaut kayoed in the park. The cops arrive, and Spidey lets them take over, while he looks for some help. As usually happens for Spider-Man when threats of this level are involved, everyone is out of town. Which means the web-slinger is on his own when he meets the person responsible for bringing the pain on Juggernaut. No worries though, Spidey and the Uni-Force are old buddies, I'm sure they can settle this peacefully. For Spider-Man's sake.

As the start of a story, it works pretty well. If you didn't know about the Juggernaut, I think Stern drops enough info as things go along to keep you in the loop. He addresses some of the other aspects of Pete's current status (this thing w/Carlie, Pete's unpleasant roomie, the fact Pete's not actually a photographer anymore) enough so they don't bog things down. And Spider-Man stops a random purse-snatching, and I'm always happy to see him simply fighting random acts of crime, rather than dealing with world-threatening stuff, or elaborate revenge schemes. Lee Weeks is the artist, and I like his work, especially with some of Spider-Man's stances, when he lands on the arch at Washington Square, or how he leans on the car door as he opens it, or how he makes himself a little shorter when returning the lady's purse, which I think makes him less threatening.

Booster Gold #31 - Booster enjoys beating up present day robbers too much, and gets a little dog killed. Oh noes, the puppy! The crying, disillusioned little girl! Booster is mopey, and his sister is mad, and Rip is still spouting that crap about how time can't be changed, except where it can be. Like say, going back in time to save the little dog? And Booster and his sister make up, that's nice. Though it felt less like Booster apologizing for failing to save her boyfriend in Coast City, and more of a pity party for how hard it being a Time Master.

One thing I thought was a bit cheap. It turns out Rip and Booster were in the background of some of the panels right before the dog died, and so when that moment is revisited later in the issue, there they are again. Except the first time their heads are shadowed, or blocked out. I'm not saying I would have noticed them the first time through if they'd looked like themselves. Maybe I would have, but I'd have liked the opportunity. Maybe I was supposed to notice two people with no apparent faces in trench coats on a sunny day?

Guardians of the Galaxy #24 - The members of the team Magus spirited away try to fight their way through all his cannon fodder. The remainder of the team tries to protect the Galactic Council delegates, which they do, thanks to Rocket Raccoon and his 'unfeasibly large cannon'. No, that's not a euphemism. Afterward, Moondragon finally gets it across to them that yes, Magus is still alive. Meanwhile, Phyla is making yet another mistake, listening to Maelstrom, and yep, that's naked Thanos all right. Thank goodness for weird goo stuff. I'm not sure mortal minds could handle Thanos uncensored.

Phyla really can't catch a break. Sure, this was sort of a good thing she did, but it doesn't appear she'll be able to appreciate that. What sort of works is how clearly I can see Phyla's still making decisions out of desperation. She's been doing that for awhile, rather than taking time to think things out, and it keeps backfiring, which is appropriate. The issue starts in second-person narration, which some may find annoying. It doesn't bother me, I'm used to it from years of reading Spider-Girl, but not everyone feels that way. It shifts to third-person after the first few pages. Wesley Craig continues to handle the art chores, and things looked a bit more rushed than usual. I didn't really get the sense of the nearly overwhelming numbers the Universal Church of Truth had at it's disposal most of the time. It was more like they had maybe a dozen soldiers at any given time. Also, the backgrounds were kind of sparse, not as awe-inspiring as I'd figure the UCT would go for. His facial expressions were still mostly excellent, though, and the action was generally well-handled.

Secret Six #20 - Blake gives some thought to the offer, but chooses to not kill his now former teammates, and go after the kidnappers instead. Not sure how he knows the third member has asthma, though. he goes to Cheshire, she tells him what she knows, he sets to business. Cutting and torturing business. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is disintegrating. Again. Bane and Jeanette set off on a mission, the rest go after Catman. Except Deadshot may be right, and it's already too late to save Blake.

Well, that was interesting. It's one of the good issues of Secret Six, where it alternates between touching and disturbing. As for Calafiore, he's very good at drawing people gritting their teeth and looking either furious or deranged, and he has ample opportunity for that in this issue. That's not fair of me. Other than the fact he gave Blake saliva strand syndrome in one of the panels, I liked his work. I think his facial expressions really are quite good. A couple of the sad looks Scandal gives Bane, Alice's smirks, Alice and Ragdoll making a cat's cradle in the back seat of the car. OK, that last one isn't actually a facial expressions, but it was a particular touch I liked.

That's all my new comics. I'd give Secret Six Book of the Week, though it has to share I Want To See What Comes Next with Amazing Spidey and Guardians of the Galaxy.