What I Bought 5/27/2013 - Part 8

I feel like I should say something about Man of Steel, but I haven't seen it, and I'm not planning to. Dangers of the Internet. I'm not a big fan of Superman to start with, and very little of what I've seen and read about it makes me think I'd much enjoy it. I'd like them to downplay Jor-El more. He got Clark off Krypton and that's great, his jobs over. None of this "Holographic Space Dad hands out edicts" crap, Clark is Superman (as opposed to just another super-powered being) because of how the Kents raised him, full stop.

Katana #3 & 4, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Cliff Richards (penciler #3), Alex Sanchez (penciler #4), Rebecca Buchman, Juan Castro, Le Beau Underwood, Phyllis Novin (inkers, #3), Art Thibert (inker #4), Pete Pantazis (colorist, #3 & 4), Matt Yackey, Gary Major (colorists, #4), Taylor Esposito (letterer, #3 & 4) - Because nothing says a consistent vision for a title like two pencilers, 5 inkers, and 3 colorists in the span of two issues! Cripes. There have got to be more artists who can stick to a monthly schedule and produce quality work out there somewhere. But why would they want to work in comics?

Katana gets wind of some big deal involving the Dagger Clan down at the boat graveyard. Which just so happens to be where Killer Croc had a taxi drop him off earlier that day. Yeah, it's a trap, and Tatsu suspects as much, but she lets her confidence and obsession get the best of her. Which is how she ends up in a fight with Croc, and he ends up breaking her sword, releasing all the souls within, including the Creeper, and her husband. The spirits scatter. Croc follows the dragon he was after, the Creeper dashes off to find a body to ride, a young girl of the Dagger Clan visits Shun, the girl with the tattoos, and removes her foot. She couldn't have simply taken a picture? And Maseo wonders what the hell is up with his wife, that she sleeps with her sword.

That particular conversation seems to break Katana for a bit. She sleeps a lot, brushes off Junko's advice to find someone to reforge her sword, quits her job as a waitress. I'm not sure if it's the thought that anyone she's killed is condemned to a Purgatory within the sword, or if it's what Maseo said about her. Either way, the Creeper showed up for a rematch, which may have lit the spark in her again. Frankly, if he's so worried about being trapped once she reforges the sword, just point out it would draw Maseo back in as well. I have to think that would stop her in her tracks.

That fight at the end of issue 4 ended abruptly. The Creeper lunged at her, she sidestepped, he went over the roof, she remarked it's not going to be easy killing her. But there's no sign of him. Is he unconscious, landing safely and getting ready to strike back? Did he just leave because he lost the element of surprise? There's a sound effect as he goes off the roof, "KRAK" which makes no sense at all. It doesn't look like Tatsu hit him, he didn't hit her or anything else, it doesn't represent thunder, I don't know what it's about.

This is one of my issues with Sanchez. For a book that is presumably going to feature a lot of martial arts style fighting, he's not real good at fight scenes. The posing looks awkward, and it's not always evident how a character got from one position to another. I'm not sure about how things are emphasized, either. Most of page 6 is devoted to the Creeper releasing sickles and chains from his cloak, but I feel like the beginning of Tatsu's conversation with Maseo probably should have gotten more attention. But it's wedged in at the bottom fifth of the page.

I preferred Richards' artwork on issue 3, at least the first three quarters of it. Whoever took over inking on the last 5 pages used too heavy of a line. It weighed things down, and  cost the art some of it's fluid nature. A lot of the sense of movement was lost, and the faces didn't look as strong, either. Prior to that, though, it was looking pretty good. The exchange between Junko and Tatsu, I like how even when she's standing on the roof above him, seemingly in the position of authority, the focus is on him and his relaxed smile. She stole his jug of wine, but he still has her hat, and she hasn't really gotten anything from him. The fight with the Daggers a few pages later has a nice shot where she swings low, cutting people at the shins, and the next panel is angled so it follows along the underside of the swing. The fighters changing up in response to what just happened.

I'm surprised Junko is pushing Tatsu to go to Japan. She just got here, we've just started to get to know this supporting cast, and she might leave? But it could be she's not going to do it. She'll keep trucking on with her other weapons, and the foreseeable future will be her trying to track down these other spirits and decide whether to try and imprison them again. Or she could help them settle their business and move on. We'll see.