Ant-Man and the Wasp #1 - That's a nice cover. I like the one for next issue better, where they argue while standing on an unconscious A.I.M. agent.Eric O'Grady's Ant-Man, and he's a sleaze. He knows this, feels sort of bad about it (or pretends to), so he jumps at the opportunity to earn some points with Hank Pym by warning him of a plan to swipe one of Pym's inventions. Except he's being tricked, and serves as the entryway for AIM's agent to breach Pym's defenses and steal the device, which is a sort of electronic Heaven. One which contains a copy of the consciousness of Bill Foster, who was Goliath, the poor fellow killed by Clone Thor in Civil War. Ant-Man feels guilty about helping this happen (or pretends to feel guilty), so Pym agrees to let him come along to save the day.
You might notice I keep questioning O'Grady's sincerity. What can I say, but he's a glory hound, a scumbag, and I liked Scott Lang. Lang being dead isn't O'Grady's fault (Bendis killed Lang after all), but it doesn't make me like Eric any more. Depending on how much you enjoy watching a character be sleazy (and occasionally receive comeuppance for it) there are some funny bits in the story. Tim Seeley, who writes and draws the comic, brings the reader up to speed on the status quo for the important characters, without it seeming blatantly expository.
There was one thing that bothered me, and that was Tigra's necklace. I didn't realize that was part of her ensemble now. I call it a necklace, because the other word I keep coming back to is "collar", and that creeps me out. It's probably my experience with Engelhart's West Coast Avengers, what with the story where Graviton put her on a leash.
Batgirl #15 - I had to look at this cover at least twice before I realized those were lots of people with hoods in the background. I must have glossed over them, or thought they were a low stone wall, carved with ridges and peaks. Like a picket fence, only rock.At any rate, the scientist guy from the previous issue is murdered by some guys in hoods, despite Batgirl and the new Grey Ghost's best efforts. It's initially ruled a suicide, though Detective Gage doubts it, and then a bloody Batarang magically appears, so the crime is pinned on Batgirl. Ths, she will spend the next couple issues fleeing police. Fortunately, Gotham cops have proven themselves generally incompetent, or there wouldn't need to be so many costumed vigilantes around.
I don't know what Steph is talking about, everyone hating Spoiler. I liked her from the first. I suppose she means the Bat-clan, though. Not sure why a Batarang pins it on Batgirl. There are a half dozen people in Gotham using variants of those things. It was probably Damian, the crazy little snot.
New artist Dustin Nguyen, which is cool. I never bought it, but I enjoyed the issues of Detective Comics I flipped through that he illustrated (one where Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum tried to pin their work on the Hatter comes to mind). Some of the faces here look a little unfinished, but I think that's Nguyen's style, trying to get the maximum across without too many lines? I thought the fight scenes worked fine, some of the expressions were fantastic, and the first several pages, where Steph is illustrating the history of Batman for Wendy (and she used Bruce's name? Is that OK? And why no Cassandra mention?) were beautiful. I might love this comic even more if Nguyen drew it all like that.
She Hulks #1 - Say hello to the second book I took a chance on. The credits say "McGuinness and Hollowell" for the cover, and I can see McGuinness in the Hulk in the background, but I thought the She-Hulks were Art Adams. The bend Jen is showing from chest to waist to hips seemed like an Art Adams pose, but I guess not.I haven't read a Hulk comic in, um, well, I flipped through World War Hulk, but I've heard online about the Intelligencia, a group of Marvel's super-geniuses who were up to something. I guess they were defeated and scattered, and the ladies have taken on the task of capturing them and throwing them into prison cells. . . in their underwear. Hope the cells have nice heating systems. Trapster and the Wizard are brought down this month, with Lyra (the redhead) having to brave the horrors of high school (and Jen the horrors of trying to acclimate Lyra to everyday life) in between. Both fights go roughly the same, with Jen making the actual capture, after Lyra charges in and gets clocked (or eats paste). I liked the Trapster fight more, since he seemed more clever about his attempted escape. Plus, the boat crash during the Wizard fight seemed awful abrupt, and shouldn't our heroes be more concerned about civilians? This is the Heroic Age people! Even Deadpool got that memo!
I don't know if I'll follow up with this. Perhaps if writer Harrison Wilcox shakes up the fight formula for their confrontation with Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. Or, show me more of Jen trying to teach Lyra about the rules of this world. It reminded me of Power Girl and Terra interacting, which was one of my favorite things about Power Girl. Ryan Stegman's art is nice, though it reminds me of someone else, and I can't put my finger on who. Maybe Salva Espin, but that might be the work of the colorist. it's mostly bright and cheerful, which I associate with Exiles, which was my primary exposure to Espin's work. The convoluted paths my mind makes.
Thanos Imperative #6 - Nova's really working a Dr. Strange pose there, don't you think? or maybe Dr. Doom. It doesn't work as well without a cape, though.OK, Cancerverse Mar-Vell is defeated. The Many-Angled Ones are damaged enough to be put out of commission for eons. This causes all the forces of the Cancerverse to either die, or be sucked back into their universe, thus sparing the Marvel Universe. The Fault collapses. Thanos still can't get what he wants from Death. Star-Lord and Nova make the big hero stand. Everyone starts to pick up the pieces.
Nothing went quite the way I expected. Death triumphed, but not how I expected. I definitely didn't expect the fate of the Cancerverse or the character deaths at the end. I do call bullshit on Star-Lord pulling out that busted Cosmic Cube, though. In Thanos Imperative: Ignition, he and Rocket Raccoon declared it dead, drained of power after Quill used it to knock Thanos for a loop. Now it has sufficient power for one, maybe two shots? Since when? I don't guess it makes much difference in the end (or does it), but it felt like a cheat. At least throw something in earlier about how you might be able to recharge it, but it'll take time.
So lots of surprises, to me at least, but I'm not sure they're good surprises. It'll depend on what whoever writes Cosmic Marvel stuff in the future does with them, I suppose. If I like it, then I guess they're good. If I don't, then they're terrible, and so it will be recorded.
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