Avengers Academy #18 - The possessed Titania and Absorbing Man lay waste to half the team, leaving Finesse, Hazmat, and Striker to try and win by playing dirty. They are, after all, the ones most likely to go bad. Not that they're particularly good at it. Well, the Pym holograms were a nice touch, but even possessed by gods, Creel and his lady aren't very bright. Too busy bellowing about fear and other bull. The students hope to enlarge themselves and grow out of the dimension Pym keeps the mansion in, but Absorbing Man's going to enlarge the entire mansion, which is expansive enough to destroy an entire city. Problematic.Even if their schemes don't work, the plans the cadets put into motion are fairly clever, in a rushed sort of way. Now that I think of it, this issue is a horror movie. Bunch of teens trapped with a pair of unstoppable monsters. Lots of running away, attempts to outsmart the monsters, only to find they've somehow already cut off the avenue of escape. I just thought of that now. Though thinking of it that way, Andrea DiVito steps in for an issue as artist. I'm not sure that it works with this idea I have about the issue as a horror flick, but that's hardly DiVito's fault. One thing I noticed is there's quite a few situations where something from one panel overlaps into another. Like Absorbing Man throwing his hammer in one panel, but it's traveling down into the next one. It's a nice touch, but I can't remember if DiVito's done that much before. It could fit the horror vibe, things leaping at you from outside the panel, which could be unexpected if the panel is what makes up the character's world at that moment.
I do wonder what dinosaur Reptil turned into. A sauropod with sharp teeth? I'm out of the loop on dinosaurs, clearly.
Batgirl #24 - That's a really nice cover. Nguyen even included The Blimpmaster! Maybe he'll show up again someday. Hopefully not in something written by Johns. I want the Blimpmaster alive and unmutilated, damnit. I like that Alfred's trying to dislodge some of Clayface from his fingers. Nice touch.It was the Cluemaster behind the Reapers all along. He's stealing Zoom's schtick, and wants to make Steph a better Batgirl. Oh, and he's cultivating Black Mercies. Where he got those I have no idea. He doses her, but she manages to trap him before falling into a coma. Wakes her up in the hospital with her mother by her side, who has at some point figured out her daughter's Batgirl. We see a little of what Steph dreamed while she was in the coma, she and Oracle have a nice chat, and Steph swings off into the sunrise to fight crime. Then Barry Allen had to go and mess everything up. Damn bow tie wearing dweeb. A pox on your house, Allen! A pox, I say!
Someone online wondered if the whole ending wasn't a sign Steph's still in the coma. Her mom knows and accepts her crimefighting, she fought her way out from under a Black Mercy, even Damien was watching over her. That's a terribly depressing thought, one I can't seem to unthink. It nibbles at the back of my mind, but I prefer to think it's a true happy ending.
Pere Perez handles the art chores and does his usual good work. Cluemaster looks very creepy, and slightly deranged, which is appropriate. There are still times I think the facial expressions are overdone, but better too expressive than not enough. The brief fight between Steph and her dad at the beginning was well done, too. Perez draws the action moving smoothly from one panel to the next. Strike, block, counterattack.
Daredevil #2 - Cap's after DD because of that whole Shadowland mess. Matt deduces Cap, having watched Bucky get put through the wringer in a trial for crimes he committed under outside influence, expects everyone to take responsibility for their actions. Matt points out he was controlled too, which Cap only grudgingly accepts. Enough to wait to beat Matt up. I know, Daredevil has no proof he was possessed by a demon, but you think Cap would be more open to the idea, considering all the stuff he's seen. That's barely a 5 on the Avengers "Weird Stuff-O-Meter". Daredevil starts asking other attorneys why they turned down Mr. Jobrani, which leads him to investigate Jobrani's old store, where he makes a startling, and weird, discovery.There are a lot of things I like about this. Matt's attitude (especially that he appreciates how well-balanced Cap's shield is), Foggy's goofiness, but still with a keen legal mind, but especially that the threat is weird. It would have been so easy to do police corruption, or some mob thing, but this is a very cool idea given Matt's powers and the particulars of the enemy.
I might buy this book for Rivera's art alone. The grin on DD's face as Cap's shield takes one of his horns. That Cap carries a canteen in that belt he wears. OK, I don't actually care for the belt, but if he's going to have - and apparently he is - then he might as well carry some water. He makes the bad guys look very spooky. Seriously, I'd freak the hell out of I saw one of those things, let alone a half-dozen.
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