Darkwing Duck #18 - All the "HAHA"s on the cover remind me of some Joker image of him clutching his hair while "HAHA"s filled the background. Actually, there are probably a lot of Joker images out there like that.I'm not sure if I'm overthinking this, but I didn't understand entirely what's going on. We found out the source of the weird slime. The answer was pretty much what I guessed, originally, but then talked myself out of. Negaduck comes back to the physical plane, along with Morgana, but his return somehow makes the slime less powerful. Yeah, I didn't follow that, or how finding one's "inner Donald" helps to fight the slime. The assembled villains combine with the slime, which proves to be a poor decision when Darkwing beats Negaduck with the truth, triggering a spell Morgana had placed on the villain during their shared incarceration. And everything ends mostly happily.
I don't know whether this story was rushed by BOOM! losing the license, or if I'm just struggling because I'm missing two chapters, but there are definitely certain mechanics of this story that are confusing me. Silvani's art wasn't quite as strong as usual, but that may be due to the repetition of some of the panels (there are 12 consecutive panels of just characters hitting the slime). They also went with a few more double-page spreads than normal, and I'm not sure that's playing to Silvani's strengths. I think he's very good at having action flow from one panel to the next, but large single images perhaps aren't his forte. It bugs me that "forte" is supposed to be pronounced "fort". The "ay" makes it sound classier. Or has it changed to where "For-tay" is an accepted pronunciation now? Back on topic. It wasn't the strongest ending, but I do feel like things have to be sped up, and endings are tough under situations.
Grifter #3 - Cole's brother - with the aid of a helicopter - has caught up to Cole again. Which leads to several pages of them pointing guns at each other, while gradually moving closer to each other, and spouting all the ways in which each one has disappointed the other. Then one of the Daemonites shows up, and before Cole can kill it, Max has his ride land on him. Cole kills the alien (probably not), and makes its partner drive him back to where they came from. Which is Seattle, which is how we get Green Arrow showing up in the next issue. Also, Cole's former partner has been captured by people in black suits and trenchcoats, who want to know about Cole.There are certain parts of this that felt odd. The bit with Cole and Max moving closer to each other, until they're guns are pressed against each other's chests. Then they lower their guns, then Cole puts a knife up near Max' throat, only to throw it away two panels later. So what was all that? Macho posturing? Cole losing his temper for a second, or trying to make a point? That he's not the mad dog Max apparently thinks he is, because if he was, he'd have shanked Max just then? Why is Gretchen so unwilling to talk about Cole? Could be mistrust of authorities, or recognition that she's relatively safe as long as they need something from her, but I don't know. She seemed pretty done with Cole after pulling a gun on him and telling him to stay away last issue.
I don't usually have much to say about Cafu's art. It's not spectacular, but gets the job done in terms of presenting information clearly, which is more than some artists can say. I do want to compliment him on the title pages. Maybe it's Edmundson's idea, but either way, Cafu's done a nice job incorporating the title of the issue into the page. This issue, he fit the phrase "On-Ramp" in the 'copters whirling propeller blades. Last month it was on a sign in the diner, one probably used to announce the specials. It's a nice touch.
Legion of Monsters #2 - Contrary to the cover, there are no extended motorcycle sequences in this issue. Bikes are used, but in the parts we don't see.Morbius concludes the team is wasting its time sedating and incarcerating the crazy monsters in their underground city. He splits them up and sends them out to see if anyone else can determine what's wrong. Which sends the mummy and Manphibian to Damion Hellstrom, who does call up the force behind it, but only succeeds in getting N'Kantu possessed and then crispy fried. Damion Hellstrom, everybody! For when you absolutely need the situation to get worse.
Meanwhile, Jack Russell and Elsa have traveled to a closed down rest area which is a portal to hell dimensions. Because Jack wants to pick Satannish's brain. Elsa unwisely comes along, then even more unwisely, gives Satannish an opportunity to screw them over, by telling them something useful. This is bad because a) they now know Morbius knows what's going on (which puts them about 10 pages behind us), and b) the only reason the demons weren't eating Elsa's soul was Satannish owed Jack a favor, and now the favor is paid. Things go downhill from there.
It's an interesting issue, I don't know if it's a good issue, in an objective sense, but I did like it. I like the scenes, the unusual worlds the monsters travel in, and how they aren't accepted even by the people in those circles anymore than they are by average folk. I still haven't the slightest idea who is behind all this, unless it's the "Susanna" Morbius mentioned. Satannish said Dracula was the only other vamp besides Morbius to survive the last occurrence, but it doesn't strike me as a Dracula sort of scheme.
Tomorrow, the other two DC books, and Villains for Hire kicks off!
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