Thursday, August 09, 2012

What I Bought 8/3/2012 - Part 4

Will taking a three-day break from posting make this last set of reviews more coherent, or less? Let's find out!
Green Arrow #12 by Ann Nocenti (writer), Harvey Tolibao (artist), Tanya & Richard Horie (colorists), Rob Leigh (letterer) - Ollie goes a few rounds with Fang and his goons. He doesn't win, but Fang lets him go, stating that if he doesn't get the recognition software, he'll turn Ollie's company into a pet food chain. What's wrong with pet food? Ollie did manage to steal his cell phone, but promplty blows this advantage by not listening to his advisor, storming out into the streets, and being cpatured and thrown in an 'illegal jail'. Who's calling it illegal? I have to assume the citizenry, because the government would claim any jail they set up was A-OK, wouldn't they? *Shrugs* Ollie escapes, but even as his advisor negotiates with China's premier hero to keep her from getting involved, Fang has woken up his parents' corpses and sent them after Ollie. Which is a surprising turn of events to say the least. Can't say Nocenti doesn't keep things happening, which is one of the things to love about this book. No flippin' decompression.

Even though the Hories are the colorists for this and Dial H, the books look very different. All the colors here are kind of washed out, not the deep hues the other book has. I assume that's a purposeful choice, but I don't understand the reason. Unless they're concerned about overwhelming Tolibao's linework. His lines are quite a bit thinner and lighter than Santolouco's. Deeper colors might muddle the art even more. The purples of the robes of the now animated corpses do pop a bit, maybe because so much of the book is set against gray jail walls, or a grimy brown background out in the city. Which does work with what Jimmy Crew said about air pollution, at least.

Secret Avengers #29 by Rick Remender (writer), Matteo Scalera (artist), Matthew Wilson (color art), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - It's seems unwise to jump off a building with one's hands full of machine pistols, but I guess the Black Widow knows what she's doing.

Safe now from AvX, the team returns to dealing with the Shadow Council, who only need one more Serpent Crown for real bad things to happen. And John Steele's attempts to escape to warn the Avengers gets him killed, but not before he warns them. So now the team, somewhat reduced in number, has to find that last crown in a "red light nation" populated seemingly entirely by super-villains or wannabes. And it appears either Flash ahs lost control of the symbiont (which makes me wonder if that reanimated Rasputin attack wasn't more successful than it appeared) or if Flash is just embracing his inner whatever it takes.

This isn't exactly the plot I wanted Remender to pick up, but it beats all the fawning over Mar-Vell. I was disappointed to see Hardman had left the book, but Scalera's art reminds me abit of Juan Doe's which is never a bad thing. His style isn't quite as strong, gets a bit rough in places, but I get the feeling he really enjoys drawing Venom, and he's making good use of him. I do think Valkyrie should be taller than Flash, but that's hardly something unique to Scalera. Val was basically as tall as Dr. Strange back in the Defenders days, so it goes way back, but it just seems like an Asgardian ought to be bigger than your average human. Unless Flash is using the symbiont to make himself taller. Which I could absolutely see him doing.

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