What I Bought 3/29/2016 - Part 3

I do still buy some Marvel books, despite the company making a game effort to dissuade me, so let's look at a couple of those books.

Ms. Marvel #5, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Which Kamala are you? I think I'm the kind of disheveled one on the left, who I'm guessing is struggling to get going in the morning. I identify with that struggle.

Free of all her civilian responsibilities, Kamala's enjoying super-heroing it up. Unfortunately the weird duplicates have replicated like crazy, and are causing a panic. Not that they seem to be destroying things, they're just kind of a lot of them, and they're in the way. Even the first two aren't doing a great job of covering for her. Mike seems to have discovered the problem, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to fix it in a reasonable amount of time. And time is an issue, because there's one giant Mecha-Kamala about to completely disrupt her brother's engagement party. On the plus side, the two families seem to be getting along really well, except for all the stuff with Kamala's doppelganger melting after it drank tea.

I liked the slow burn on the reaction to the melting doppelganger. the increasingly horrified expressions as we go from panel 1 to panel 2, and then the complete freakout in panel 3, then the switch to Kamala desperately trying to change to civvies across the street, only to learn she's too late. It's funny, but also a good encapsulation of the way all this is spiraling out of control. She wants to be a super-hero, but there are all these other things other people want of her, too. And she can't make herself simply ignore those people. I mean, she could do the Batman thing, and just cut everyone out of her life and be Ms. Marvel 24/7, but she doesn't want to. Plus, there's no telling how her mother would react, and that is an issue for her that the old Goddamned Batman doesn't have to consider.

Also, were those Canadian ninjas? Their headbands had maple leafs on them. Leon continues the tradition of other artists on this book of adding nice touches to panels, or maybe they're in the script. The one ninja who keeps slipping on banana peels. The doppelganger riding on top of one of Loki's golems, while wearing a tricorne hat (maybe it's a tricorne). Kamala stopping to pet a cat in the middle of the ninjas chasing her down the street. And I like how the doppelgangers' faces are drawn much more simply than everyone else's, because they're cheap copies, comparatively. And they mimic Kamala when she's around, notice the two putting a finger in one ear and their other hand to their other ear while she's doing the same on page 11.

I don't know what the fallout from all this is going to be for her. It seems like it'd be hard to salvage without something giving way. Her friendship with Nakia is looking likely to crumble, but maybe something else.

Patsy Walker aka Hellcat #4, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Megan Wilson (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - And this is why I don't dance in public. You try to use a bat with nails in it to clear some space to show what you got, and Hellcat comes along and kicks ya in the face.

Patsy's on to another job, this time as secretary for someone named Tara, who is friends with Howard the Duck. I don't know, I don't read that book. Howard does drop by, and I gotta tell ya, that is not what a duck's bill looks like. It's more like a tern's bill, or a Herring gull. I can see what Williams is going for trying in trying to draw a duck's bill, but it isn't really working.

Anyway, after getting herself a tattoo, of herself, on her shoulder, Patsy heads off to have her meeting with Hedy Wolfe, only to be attacked by Bailey, the girl with magic bag. A girl who has to list jaywalking as one of her crimes is no match for the high-flyin' Hellcat, and Patsy calls in Valkyrie as well, to play bad cop. This seems like the start of a good plan, but then they fly directly to Casiolena's new hideout and promptly get captured. And it turns out Casiolena promised Bailey she would help with her student loans! Wow, that's evil. Also pretty gullible on Bailey's part. No one can help you with your student loans, not even Reed Richards, who totally could have recreated the universe as a place without student loans, but was just too fucking lazy and incompetent to do so. I bet you Doom's Battleworld didn't have student loans.

No, I'm probably never going to stop taking opportunities to pin random crappy things in the Marvel Universe on Reed Richards now. It's fun!

Griping about Howard's bill aside, I do like the designs for some of the other kids Casiolena's suckered into working for her. The redheaded twins with the energy fairy wings, the green looking guy with the diamond in his chest. I imagine Megan Wilson's colors help a lot, because it makes them all very bright and distinct from each other. I have no idea if they'll work as well once violence ensues and they're in action, but that'll be a question for next issue. The art is a little clunky at times, although mostly I keep getting distracted by the fact I think Valkyrie needs either some shoulder pads or a cape again. There's just a few panels where angles or proportions seem off. Williams does pretty well when she can focus a panel on just a few elements, and draw the heck out of those.

I do hope we get to see Patsy do some private investigator work in the near future, but Leth offers at least a sort of workable explanation for Patsy pursuing other lines of work. I don't know that Patsy's ever had what you might call a normal job. Child star, model, super-hero, published a book, dead, gumshoe. I'm probably missing something, but those are not necessarily doors open to every person with powers, which is the whole point of her temp agency idea. So yeah, I guess I can wait and hope for investigating soon.