Friday, May 13, 2016

What I Bought 5/10/2016 - Part 2

Sorry for no post yesterday. Still scrambling. I've got something planned, just couldn't bring it together in time, so expect it tomorrow, hopefully.

Deadpool #10, Gerry Duggan (writer), Matteo Lolli and Iban Coello (artists), Ruth Redmond (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I don't think Sabretooth would take such good care of his teeth. Unless his healing factor prevents tartar buildup?

Sabretooth tells Wade he killed Wade's parents because he wanted to die and thought Wade could pull it off. Which is bull, and not even good bullshit, but hell, Sabretooth is a dumbass, can't expect much better from him. He refuses to apologize, and Wade refuses to let it go, so there's a civilian-endangering motorcycle chase, which they both stop to rescue endangered civilians. Then Wade sucker-shoots Creed in the face, and we learn how Wade actually intends to kill him. Not by pulling him apart with a semi-trailer, but by making him breathe in the Terrigen Mists, which are, of course, now toxic to mutants.

You know, if Deadpool actually succeeds in killing Sabretooth like this, I will have to apologize to Reed Richards for giving him so much shit about recreating the Marvel Universe as a place where the Mists harm mutants. I can't decide whether it would be worth it to be rid of Sabretooth or not. Damn it, Wade, why couldn't you just cut his head off, then dump his body in an acid-filled coffin and leave it at the bottom of the ocean like Dracula did to you in that Secret Wars mini-series?!

This story is feeling really stretched out. The whole chase sequence, with the widescreen panels, and Wade making a series of fairly lousy attempts (and I mean in general, not just by his standards) at one-liners, only helping to make it seem more padded. Actually, the whole thing with Adsit knowing the truth and Wade not is feeling stretched out. It's been like 24 issues across two volumes, with a stupid 6-month break because of Secret Wars in there to boot. Get the fuck on with it!

In general, this book is not doing a good job of building goodwill with me before it embarks on who knows how many months of Civil War II tie-ins. Let's hope for some sort of excellent payoff in the concluding chapter, which came out this week.

Howard the Duck #6, by Chip Zdarsky and Ryan North (writers), Joe Quinones (penciler, inker, colorist), Joe Rivera and Marc Deering (inkers), Jordan Gibson (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer and production) - I know, I know, I didn't get the matching cover from Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and now they won't match. But I just really liked that other cover better.

Howard and Doreen scramble to find a way to defeat the cosplaying lunatic while their other allies buy time by being cannon fodder, basically. Which is the most helpful and least awful thing Hank McCoy has done in at least three years (our time). This results in Howard and Doreen finding a different, DC-themed supersuit, and letting Howard try to fight her with it. He gets beat up, but it buys time for everyone else to regroup and get the drop on her. And that's how Howard gets a cyborg cat, which would mean more if I was buying his book on the reg, but I'm not, so oh well.

I didn't enjoy this as much as the first half. I don't know if that's because this book slanted more towards Zdarsky's sense of humor than North's, or because I just don't care much about Howard the Duck, or if it's just one of those things where I'm more interested in the story early, when there are lots of ways it could go, than I am later, once it narrows down to a specific path. That happens to me a lot with all kinds of fiction. It might have worked better without Kraven, Beast, and Rocket, since they felt largely unnecessary. It was mainly about contrasting Doreen, who is always ready to fight against evil and sure she can win, and Howard, who wants no part of any of this, and apparently finds the whole thing so stupid he keeps screwing up chances to end it faster (like forgetting he had a phone until it was conveniently useless). I was trying to decide why he kept declaring things, "Case closed!" when it wasn't, and the best I could figure was he was trying to come up with an excuse to bail, and hoping everyone else would buy in. Like Shaggy and Scooby barely peeking in one room, declaring they've searched it, then trying to flee.

I actually like Quinones' art better when he doesn't ink himself. Something about how he shades on people's face distracts me. Especially his tendency to give people really prominent, rounded cheeks. It makes their smiles kind of freaky But the pages where either Deering or Rivera are doing the inking, I didn't notice that, so that was nice. The parts of the battle we actually got to see were pretty good. I would have enjoyed more of that, but I get the sense "fight scenes" are not a big part of what Howard the Duck is about. But "Let's Eat Bread and Kick Heads" is a solid battle cry, though.

So neither book lit my world on fire, but maybe Monday's selections will do better.

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