What I Bought 2/12/2016 - Part 2

I did end up not buying two books of mine that came out in the prior three weeks. Illuminati #4 because I missed it being listed in last week's releases, and Deadpool #7, because it was 10 bucks. I appreciate it's a larger than normal issue, but that's kind of a steep order. I try to stay below six bucks on individual issues, new or old. Maybe it'll drop in a few weeks.

Descender #10, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Dustin Nguyen (illustrator), Steve Wands (letterer and designer) - I'm going to go ahead and judge by appearances and say those people don't seem friendly.

On the Machine Moon, the Hardwire are trying to be friendly to their new visitors, not that Telsa is making it easy. If UGC officer school had a diplomacy course, she flunked it. The Hardwire wants to hear more about TIM's dream, because they think it represents him having a connection to some server where the A.I.s of all the machines that have been destroyed are backed up. Quon insists it doesn't exist, but TIM is willing to be helpful. Elsewhere, Andy and his partners visit his ex-wife, who leads a group of cyborgs that live on a world hit the hardest by the Harvesters. We'll see if she chooses to be helpful or not. And the UGC has gotten concerned that TIM is somehow going to bring back those same Harvesters.

I'm not sure how to feel about Telsa. I don't particularly like her, but I'm not certain that's fair. It isn't just the gruff demeanor, it's that she doesn't show much common sense for someone who seems very aware of how vulnerable she is, surrounded by being she considers terrorists, who certainly don't want her going home and telling her bosses where they live. Does she try to play nice? No. When TIM asks her if he can go play with the other TIM, she gives him a gruff, "I'm not you mom, do what you want." Maybe you want to keep him liking you, since he's the only reason you aren't dead right now? For someone trying really hard to prove to her father she belongs, and to everyone else that she didn't achieve her rank because of her dad, she's doing a less-than-stellar job.

Interesting contrast in colors between worlds. The Machine Moon is almost all white, with just some faint pink hues in places (except for that sculpture garden, and I do wonder if Telsa's right to be suspicious of that). Sampson, the planet of the cyborgs, is all these heavy greys and blacks, with a few lighter shades, probably to represent a hazy dawn. It's almost the exact opposite. And then the UGC offices are all this light blue. I don't really know what the significance is of the differences. With the Machine Moon, to represent some sort of sterility in their thinking, or a lack of anything to hide or celebrate because their past is so brief. Could be for a general absence, or suppression of emotion. For Sampson, a ruined, patchwork world or horrors, with patchwork people trying to embrace their situation.

Nothing really new for me to report with this book. It's still pretty, but I'm still not sure whether I care about the characters enough to stay with it.

Henchgirl #4, Kirsten Gudsnuk - I was trying to figure that cover out, because it seemed different from the others, less funny and more of a pin-up. And then I noticed Mari's holding her friends security badge and it made more sense.

The Butterfly Gang steals some chemical with Coco claims will help them find the mole in their gang, though she's vague on the "how". Mari then lets it slip her roomie works at the lab in question, and is forced to steal her security badge to aid in the theft, Which leads to a lot of totally deserved yelling from Susan. Then the story shifts, as we learn Mari is actually the daughter of two superheroes, who have published a book about their career, and their other daughter, the really photogenic one who became a costumed crimefighter as well. Mary gets a little frustrated about being left out of the book entirely, and she and her friends end up at dinner with her family. Which has lots of tension and awkwardness, and then Tina lets it slip Mari's part of a criminal organization, and her mom kind of burns down the restaurant.

I hadn't expected that Mary's parents would have powers, let alone they'd both be well-known heroes. I had kind of assumed she got her powers by accident, which might explain her general lack of direction in doing much of anything with them. Although I could see how super-strength could be pain, since people would probably assume she was dumb, and just use her for her muscles. Like the Butterfly Gang. She really needs to just beat them up and take over. Make them do nice things, or else. Yeah, that sounds like a flawless plan.

Gudsnuk occasionally does these more realistic faces, or maybe more detailed is a better description, but she uses them to good effect. Mary's sad face when Susan was chewing her out, because it looks kind of awful, and crying shouldn't look pretty. Plus, she's trying to get her friend to let her off the hook, which Susan really shouldn't. Now the Gang knows Mari's friend works for Gaintech, what happens the next time they want to steal something from there? There was also that extreme close-up on her sister's teeth, which was kind of terrifying. Now I'm wondering if Photo-Girl is going to snap from the constant pressure of living up to her parents' public personas and expectations. Especially since Mary seems to have largely cut off contact entirely. Probably for the same reason.