What I Bought 2/3/2012 - Part 3

I'm not sure I'm ready for a world where Eli Manning has 2 Super Bowl rings and I have to take the "Eli is an elite QB" talk seriously. Then again, I wasn't ready for a world where Tom Brady had as many Super Bowl rings as Joe Montana, so I was in trouble either way. This is probably the lesser of two evils.

Defenders #2, 3 - Danny Rand does not die of a gunshot wound. Hooray! The Defenders still wind up getting beat by Prestor John and the animal men that usually follow the High Evolutionary. John knows this Nul thing is on its way. It's looking for something called a Concordance Engine, which he has. It's going to use it to get home, and that will enable John and the beast guys to leave this universe. The universe will be destroyed in the process, so it's probably good he's planning to leave. The Defenders escape, they fight the beast guys for awhile, Nul shows up, they fight him for awhile, but another Prestor John, who has been sitting there the whole time, is the one who stops Nul. The Defenders might have managed it if the Surfer hadn't gotten a bug up his ass about not letting Prestor John get away.

I have a lot of questions about what's happening. I can't tell whether I have these questions because they're part of mysteries Fraction will be exploring in future issues, or because he thinks I've read comics I haven't. I'm also not sure about the characterization of Dr. Strange, but again, I'm not sure if Fraction's going somewhere with it, or this is just the voice he's chosen for Strange. One thing I wish he'd do, ditch the color coded caption boxes for the characters and go with thought bubbles. Or get rid of the third-person narration caption boxes. It's just bugging me that we have caption boxes of the Defenders' thoughts, and the narration of whoever is rambling on pretentiously. It's not a crime to use thought balloons, Fraction.

Amazing Spider-Man #677 - It's a book I'm only buying because it crosses over with a book I really like! Damn it, Marvel.

Peter Parker is depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him recently. He tries hooking up with the Black Cat, but she shoots him down. Then finds a spider-tracer on her costume when she gets home, and she gets arrested for stealing a holo-doohickey from the people Peter works for. Peter goes to Matt Murdock for legal advice, and some investigative help. They travel to the home of Wasserschmidt, the guy who made the stolen dingus, and see him being held hostage. Or not. Holograms! The follow into a tunnel, it collapses, Peter tries to dig his way out and grabs an exposed electrical cable, while Felicia looks on. Flash-fried spider, blech. Discussion to be continued with. . .

Daredevil #8 - DD and Felicia wrestle around a bit. Not like that. Well, sort of like that. She's angry because she thinks Spidey sold her out to the cops because she wouldn't sleep with him, which ouch. I thought she knew him better than that. Disagreement settled, they snoop in Wasserschmidt's house, find him, find out he stole his own invention, find out he was poisoned, and while Spidey saves the guy's life, the other two get to stop the bad guys, which they do. Holo-device recovered, Felicia's name presumably cleared, and she Matt resume their wrestling in his apartment. Whether that's because of a mutual attraction, or because of that conversation she had with one of the guys who framed her, we'll have to wait and see.

I have a hard time believing the Black Cat would actual suspect Spider-Man of such an underhanded trick, all because she wouldn't be his rebound girl. To steal Daredevil's line, who does she think he is, Batman? That's my one misgiving with the crossover, Spidey plays the fall guy through most of it. I know, in a three-way situation like this someone has to play the chump and Spider-Man has more history of it than the other two. Everyone has a role, and that's his. It's like Albuquerque. Randolph Scott marries Catherine Craig, Gabby Hayes gets his beard cut off while everyone tries to watch and laugh. Sorry, Webs, you're Gabby.

As to the art, I'm somewhat intrigued by Emma Rios' style. I heard she'd changed it a bit since the last I saw (filling some pages for Bachalo in "Shed"), and it's not bad. Kind of sketchy and murky at times, but not always. Mostly just when there's a lot of movement or some other reason for things to be like that. I would like it if she'd draw the eyes on Spidey's costume a bit larger, but minor quibble. Kano drew the Daredevil portion of things and he seemed closer to Paolo Rivera than I remember him being. Maybe that's the way his style's shifted, or maybe it was a choice on his part to more closely resemble one of the regular artists on the book.

All in all, it was an OK crossover. I can't say it fills me with confidence that the Daredevil/Punisher/Avenging Spider-Man crossover coming up is going to be any good. It doesn't help that the artist for all 3 appears to be Marco Checchetto, who typically draws Punisher as having a cast member who looks startlingly like Morgan Freeman in Se7en. That kind of thing really irritates me. Then again, it's going to be a hard sell for me with my "I don't need to read any more Punisher comics" stance anyway. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.