Annihilators #1 - This is the book I've most been looking forward to so far this year. Big surprise, Calvin is excited for a Cosmic Marvel comic with a backup story about Rocket Raccoon and Groot.In the main story, Ikon, the SpaceKnight who appeared at the end of Thanos Imperative - Devastation, proceeds to whup up on our heroes, as a demonstration of how this team is too powerful to succeed. The team sort of seems to agree, but before they can go their separate ways, a disturbance in the Dark Nebula is registered. The Dark Nebula is where the SpaceKnights keep the Black Sun which powers the Dire Wraiths sorcery. The Dire Wraiths were the top threat on Star-Lord's "To-Do" list. Off the team goes, but they seriously underestimate Doctor Dredd, and the Black Sun appears in the skies over Galador (the SpaceKnights' homeworld). In the backup story, we learn what Rocket's been up to since Thanos Imperative ended, until he's attacked by a killer clown made of sentient wood. Which leads to him hitching a ride with U.S. Ace to Groot's home to look up his old friend. He learns a few surprising truths about his Groot, and I suppose he'll have to rescue him from the mechanical woodpeckers next month. Heh. "Guilty of Tree-Son".
I liked the art in both stories, but I think the colors aren't helping Tan Eng Huat's work in the main story. For a story like this, with cosmic heavy-hitters playing for big stakes, I think the colors ought to be brighter, pop off the page more. Quasar's Quantum Band constructs are this very pale, dull yellow, so they don't capture the eye at all, which feels wrong to me. Timothy Green II is drawing the backup, and his style is slightly simpler than I remember from his earlier work. I think he's thickened his lines slightly, but mostly, he's simplified his style, fewer light, thin lines on faces and such. That might be because most of the characters are aliens, and he goes fairly weird with the designs, rather than human-shapes with bumpy foreheads or whatever. Nathan Fairbairn's colors are very bright, really helping the art seem more vivid. I mean, this is weird and wonderful stuff they're dealing with, why dull its impact with bland colors?
Avengers Academy #10 - See, I like the colors on this cover. This is the sort of thing I'd like for the main Annihilators story. Anyway, Hazmat gets to spend the day with Leech, whose mutant ability to drain powers means she can go outside with out her containment suit. A nice gesture from Hank Pym, but it winds up being more bittersweet than he intended. The other story involves Veil, who is understandably worried about being kicked out, especially after she brings up Speedball's involvement in the Stamford incident. As is apparently typical for her, she takes the worst possibly approach to making things right, by sneaking into Speedball's room to gauge his mood before trying to talk to him, where she learns he's cutting himself. That's comes out during a visit to Stamford, and the way things play out gives Veil the idea that if she just does something heroic, she'll be forgiven for her past screwups. Yeah, setting out with the goal of being a hero always ends well.Sean Chen is the artist for this issue, and he's fine. The only thing that bugged me was how muscular he drew Speedball. Maybe Robbie's been working out. After all, if he's bigger, it gives him more surface area to cut himself and charge up his Penance powers. That's another of those things I'd as soon never see referenced again, like the whole Tigra/Hood thing. Thanks loads, Millar and Jenkins.
Heroes for Hire #4 - This issue mostly focuses on what the Puppet Master is doing to keep Misty under his control. How he dredges up specific memories to settle her down by either making her happy, or depressing her to the point she quiets down. Except he seems to keep bringing up the same ones, and I think Misty's starting to figure out something's wrong. So he gets more extreme, but in a way I'd think would really convince her something was up. She's suddenly under attack from Danny and all the heroes she's been cashing in favors with? Then again, with Skrulls, mind control, and demonic possession as regular occurences, that might seem less strange in the Marvel Universe than it would here. Misty does wake up and smack Masters around a bit, but her escape is cut short by his trump card.Robert Atkins illustrates this issue, which is a little strange because I thought Walker could do more than three issues in a row. I felt like with Guardians of the Galaxy, he got up to at least five in a row a couple of times. Maybe not. Atkins is a fine artist, his style isn't quite as unique as Walker's, so he doesn't exaggerate anatomy quite as much, and he's not as creative with his panel layouts (especially during fights). He does have pretty excellent continuity from panel-to-panel in his fight scenes, though, which is always appreciated here. Also, I didn't know Misty had weapons built into her bionic arm. Makes perfect sense, though.
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