What I Bought 11/10/2015 - Part 3

I think my laptop screen is about to die. Granted, I've been thinking that for 13 months now, but the periods where it goes static and unreadable are increasing in frequency. At least it's helping make me spend less time on the Internet. But not so much less I can't do these reviews!

Deadpool #1, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Val Staples (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - You know, I was starting to think I'd imagined the idea Wade was going to be popular in this book. That I'd just seen the cover and extrapolated from that, without considering it might be a joke. But no, he actually is beloved now, which is definitely a new direction for the character.

So yes, Deadpool is a beloved by some member of the Avengers, and even funding them with his merchandise and sales and public appearances (which are mostly being carried out by the other people he's hired to dress as him. Like Stingray, and Madcap!) He is doing some good things for free, though he's trying to keep those on the downlow, because he still wants people to think he's a merc. But also an Avenger. Already the conflicts begin. . .

And he's vowed to find the person responsible for killing his parents. Which was actually him, a fact the still inverted (from Axis, do we remember Axis still?) Sabretooth knows, that Agent Preston knows, but Wade obviously doesn't know. There's no way that can end badly. Oh, and he appears to have killed a zoning commissioner that was giving him static. Oh, and he's neglecting Shiklah, which can also not possibly end badly.

I am fond of hoods as part of an outfit, but Wade is sporting one with his business attire, and it just looks weird. Maybe because it reminds me of Zenpool, and I worry about what that could mean. Also, while I enjoy how expressive Hawthorne and Pallot are making Wade through the mask, I find it kind of disturbing when I can see his eyes through his mask. I don't recall that being a feature in the past, and it unnerves me somehow? Otherwise, this is some good work from Hawthorne, a little more smooth and rounded off than some of his work on the previous volume. I don't know if that's because of Pallot's inks, or because Hawthorne had enough lead time to really work on this. In the past, I think the roughest looking issues tended to come at the end of story arcs, just before Koblish would do a fill-in issue.

I continue to be annoyed by the attitudes of other Marvel heroes other than Wade, since no one besides Steve Rogers seems willing to give him the time of day. Like Rogue - give my regards to your terrorist of a mother, Rogue! - or Daredevil. But this is not a new thing, so no point in rehashing it now. At least Cage has a legit beef about Wade using the "heroes for hire" name. Which makes me wish one of the Deadpools was Iron Fist, in another of Danny Rand's "flat broke" stretches, just for that awkward moment when Luke shows up looking to bust heads and the only Deadpool around is Danny. Maybe I should write them to suggest that. Or not.

I'm actually OK with Wade being an Avenger - more than I was with Wolverine, certainly - and I'm curious to see how this all falls to pieces around him, and how much of that will be self-inflicted. Or maybe it won't!

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1, by Ryan North (words), Erica Henderson (art), Joe Morris (trading card art), Rico Renzi (color art), Clayton Cowles (lettering) - Is Wiccan's new look? Is everyone in the Marvel Universe going to start sporting hoods now? Is this the new version of the bomber jacket craze of the mid-90s? And why am I not more excited about it, other than I kind of feel like Wiccan shouldn't be trying for an ominous look? Be cheerful, kid!

Squirrel Girl and associates save people from a burning building, and we learn they spent that 8 month gap Hickman threw into his books learning to speak squirrel. Then Doreen drags Nancy along to meet her mother, and Nancy greatly enjoys the embarrassing stories, and we all learn Squirrel Girl is not a mutant any longer. I don't know if Marvel ordered this (because they're trying to downplay mutants in favor of Inhumans), or it's just North and Henderson making fun of all that. Then a Brain in a Jar attacks them on top of Doreen and Nancy's apartment building, and after they beat his crappy, 1940s technology robot butt, Doreen's mother suggests they started the fight, and he was just confused. So they rebuild him and get him enrolled as a computer scientist at their school. Which cannot possibly go wrong, getting a former Hydra guy in an artificial body more well-versed in computers. No chance of this backfiring whatsoever.

I don't think it's a good idea to excuse him bashing doors open with such force they can knock down people with the proportionate strength of a squirrel, either. Intentional or not, it shows a lack of consideration for others. But I suppose it's good Doreen's attempts to befriend her enemies is still working in her book, since I think she tried it in the first issue of New Avengers, and it was less effective. And I'm sure some day she'll meet a robot successfully distracted by computer science facts. Some day.

His disconnected googly eyes in the jar are oddly arresting, so good work there by Henderson. Also with her depictions of Nancy and Doreen in the flashback to some time in the past (Doreen with that odd eye makeup she had in her earliest appearance). And Maureen's shirt, and Doreen's tendency to just pick people up and run places with them. That really seems more like an opossum trait than a squirrel trait, though.

I have no idea what North and Henderson have planned for this series going forward, how much attention they have to pay to New Avengers now that she's in that book, or what sorts of long-term plots they have in mind, if any. It may just be a series of brief adventures, and humorous comments (like observing that squirrels and chipmunks are not very effective against fire). Which is fine.