What I Bought 10/31/2012 - Part 5

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was on last night, marking the second time in the last week there's been something I wanted to watch on TV (Syfy's showing of Shutter Island on Monday being the other, and how badly did that movie do that Syfy could afford to get rights to show it?). Anyway, I didn't realize Christopher Lambert was in Ghost Rider. That was kind of a neat surprise. I can't figure out why Blaze kept pronouncing Idris Elba's character's name different from everyone else. They all said "Morrow", he said "Moreau". Go figure.

Daredevil #19, by Mark Waid (writer), Chris Samnee (art), Javier Rodriguez (color art), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That is a truly creepy cover. All the little details on Daredevil's head are what make it, since hey emphasize this is really his head, not some dummy or prop. The scrtaches, flecks of blood or dirt, the crack in the eye cover.

So Matt struggles with whether he's lost his mind, and is open enough with himself to admit the possibility. So he goes to Hank Pym for help, but in the process of discussing things, he gets an idea as to what's really going on and why. He stakes a meeting of big drug bosses, and sure enough, the culprit arrives to kill everyone. Daredevil can't do a thing to stop him. In fact, he winds up with his head separated from his body. He's not dead, don't worry, his head is simply no longer connected to the rest of him. Yeah, the Spot, sorry, the Coyote's upped his game considerably.

With the black-and-white motif, I really should have figured that out sooner, but he's so different looking now. I'm not clear on how he pulled off the bit with Milla, given the things Matt's thinking when he returns to find her gone, but I think there's at least an implication the Coyote opens holes in time now, as well as space. So he may have grabbed Milla from before her breakdown. That's all I can figure.

I love the progression Samnee gives DD when he's trying to stop the killing. He starts off confused, but as each subsequent attempt of his is thwarted, he gets more frustrated. He also stops telling people to get down, and instead to just run, which is probably the best sign he's lost control. He knows he can't protect them, so they have to run to survive. Plus there was the deliberate callback to issue one with Matt leaping into one of the holes, fully confident he's got this covered. Things didn't quite go that smoothly this time.

Hawkeye #3, by Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist), Matt Hollingsworth (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer) - I like this cover a bit better than the first couple. Maybe the detail of showing the outline of the two archers within the outlines of their arms and bows. Or it's the arrows pointing to the title.

Today was Hawkeye's day for making bad decisions. Lots of bad decisions. Deciding to label all his trick arrows. Going to a store with no tape. Meeting a woman with a 1970 Dodge Challenger and offering to buy it. Having sex with her. Getting beat up by those incredibly irritating Russian jackass "bros", who abduct her. Chasing them down with Kate, getting his new car, and the lady back, only to have a running/driving battle through New York as Kate tries to hand him the right unlabeled arrow. Other than the car being trashed, and Clint probably getting romantically involved with this lady, things worked out pretty well. Let's just say that after Natasha (and Wanda, I suppose), Clint should have learned to be wary of redheads.

If I never hear or read the word "bro" again, it'll be too soon. I like that we're keeping the trick arrows. It's bad enough they had to go with some stupid "realistic" move costume, but it would have been really annoying if Fraction had dumped all the cool arrows.

Enough about the writing, let's talk about the art. Aja's on his game here, as usual. I will admit I find the panel where the Hawkeye face covers the naughty bits as Clint's dodging gunfire to be stupid. If you're going to cover it up, there are plenty of other ways to do it that are less, shall we say, obnoxious? Or don't cover it up. Whatever. It ain't gonna kill me (though I suppose it would hurt the rating for the book).

That gripe aside, it's beautiful work. There were a couple of different sequences during the chase scenes (one on page 5, the other on page 13) where Aja has these page-wide panels, with smaller panels on top of them (showing specific arrows, for example), and the way Aja laid them out, there were two different ways your eyes could be guided within the panels, and panel-to-panel, and they both work. The level of planning in that has to be considerable. I mean, I try to map my stories out as comics in my head sometimes and even just setting things up to flow properly in one way, for one page, is a challenge. Maybe actually sketching it out would help, I dunno, but still, to be able to set up multiple routes that work is pretty impressive. Plus, Aja does a lot with faces with what seem to be almost no lines. I don't even know how he manages it.

And Hollingsworth's colors are still great. The colors are still muted compared to say, Daredevil, but with the way they use them, those mostly solid blocks of colors, contrasted against other, duller colors (the buildings, the Russian guys' cars), it helps make the important colors pop out more. A lot of excellent work with contrast. The purple on Clint's jacket against the black. Kate's outfit against her hair. It makes it pop. The bit on page 4, where Clint starts talking to her. There's a hint of purple on the door of the grocery that lets the black of his jacket stand out, but the purple on the jacket stands is brighter, and stands out from both. And the line of the purple on the jacket leads to the car, where the red is contrast against the beige or sepia of the background (it's either an off-white, or a drowsy yellow), and the black line leads right to the lady. The raised trunk even leads the eye right to her red hair, which pops against that same dull building outline. Hot damn, that's awesome.