What I Bought 9/9/2011 - Part 3

Going back to the opening paragraph from Part 1, you think Fraction's Defenders series is going to be any good? Immortal Iron Fist is the only thing of his I've read, and he co-wrote that with Brubaker. I haven't heard good things about his Uncanny X-Men work, but part of the problem is it sounds like he had access to every mutant, and he let the cast swell too much. The poster suggests a static lineup for Defenders, though he could mess around with it, as long as he kept it to a manageable size, and took the time to make us care about the characters.

Mystery Men #3 & 4 - Issue 3 introduces the Surgeon and Achilles, two men whose lives were wrecked by the General's plans. It also is the point when the fear god, Nox assumes physical form and we start to get an idea how her plan will take place. Issue 4 is more of a fight issue as the heroes struggle against a transformed General and some of Nox' children. The heroes seemed divided between the Surgeon and Achilles, who are more lethal, and the others who don't mind using violence, but don't want to kill anyone. Except the General, I'm sure.

I'm curious what point Liss is trying to make about loss. It's something that keeps coming up in the Mystery Men's internal monologues, what they've lost. Usually they mention it at the moment they become heroes, but I think it's more than a simple "they had to lose something to become heroes/power and responsibility" bit. I also like how Nox and the General are putting the plan in motion. It started methodically, and disguised within other motives, but now it's grown to the point that it demands audacity to keep momentum.

I'm not positive, but I think Zircher's gradually making the General look smaller. Certainly his sickness has gone from giving a terrifying look (the Surgeon's taken that role), to a more pitful, emaciated look. Any panel they're in together, Nox dominates. She's either standing in front of the General, or the color of her dress grabs the eye much more so than the General and his pale, grey skin. It's not that the dress is bright, it's more than it's such a deep, dark purple it's visually arresting, even in scenes where the background is a dark, murky color. Credit to Andy Troy there, no washed out, boring colors here.

Rocketeer Adventures #4 - The first story involves Cliff and Betty helping a man recover an antique surfboard, written by Dave Gibbons and drawn by Scott Hampton. I like the story, and in places I really like Hampton's art and the coloring. In other places, the faces look odd, which is perhaps the lack of inks. There's no inker or colorist listed, so I assume Hampton did it all

The second story involves Cliff ditching Betty at the amusement park to investigate what turns out to be a Japanese sub. I liked the idea of the Joe Pruett's story, but not so much that Cliff ditched Betty without bothering to explain why to her (he did tell Peevy). I think I prefer the stories where Betty's encouraging Cliff to help, or getting mixed up in things herself. Tony Harris' art is interesting, certainly expressive, but does he usually have such thick panel borders, and oddly shaped panel. There are these odd chevrons and patterns going on around the panels, I don't know what they're there for. Also, I think he violated the 180 degree rule when Cliff steps through the doorway and gets a gun pointed at the back of his head. I'm not sure why, I think he could have gotten the point across from the original direction.

The third story involves the Nazis swiping some plans Peevy drew up to add wings to the rocket pack, and Cliff tangling with the Aeronaut, who has her own jetpack, with wings. She supposedly speaks in a Midwestern accent, but dresses more like some lady from New York City, with the cigarette holder, and the short fur coat looking thing. Fortunately for her, Cliff's not very bright. After Arcudi's story here, I'm starting to wonder if anyone doesn't know Cliff's the Rocketeer. He's worse at the secret identity bix than Ultimate Peter Parker was (can't call him Ultimate Spider-Man anymore, can I).

"The Flight of the Aeronaut" had some nice action, but I think I liked "A Day at the Beach" best, since I guess I like Betty being proactive. Brendan McCarthy's art on "Aeronaut" was my favorite, though.