What I Bought 8/6/16 - Part 1

I did manage to grab a few of my comics in a nearby town while I was visiting my dad, but I already had a bunch of posts scheduled, so we're just getting to them now. Considering today's selection is Civil War II tie-ins, I'm sure you're fine with waiting.

Deadpool #16, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Squirrel Girl's riff on Spidey's theme song is better than Wade's version of Captain America's.

Wade winds up trapped in the bank vault with the Mercs, rather than blowing them up and doing me a favor. So instead we learn what Solo did while disguised as Deadpool that made everyone love Wade: He saved an ambassador from assassination. But it turns out the whole thing was a set-up by Madcap to frame Wade as the assassin, it just didn't work out that way. And Madcap's attached to someone - probably Adsit - while he plots and regenerates.

When I do my Year in Review posts, I also use it as an opportunity to find books from that year's purchases that aren't going to make it into the larger collection. This issue is definitely one of those. For one thing, I think the people of Earth-616 (or whatever it's number is now) would be more impressed by Wade wiping out ULTIMATUM than saving one ambassador. Yes, it helped said ambassador and the U.S. President end a war, but was it a war the U.S. was actively involved in? If not, then I doubt the public would care. Also, do people not remember Wade had a teleportation device he carried around for years? Solo acts like it's some big deal he can teleport.

Let's see, positive things. The art on those last two pages, the ones in the woods with Madcap and his host. Good work all around by Bellaire, Hawthorne, and Pallot. I especially like the effect of headlights against the shadows of the trees. Also, Wade's scowling determined face in the final panel of the page before that. Hawthorne and Pallot do a really good job making Wade expressive through that mask in a way that still makes it seem like he is wearing something over his face. On the writing side, Wade complaining about people thinking he liked Mexican food to the point of Tourette's was funny. You know how these rumors take on a life of their own Wade. You keep insisting you're a mutant, and the next thing you know your movie says you are, too.

Ms. Marvel #9, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist, pages 1-3), Takeshi Miyazawa (artist, pages 4-20), Ian Herring (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Come on, Kamala, you just had someone spray paint "traitor" all over posters of you six issues ago. You should know how that can be hurtful.

So Josh really was intending to do something that would knock out the power of the school. I had assumed it would be a science lab accident, but no. He was sad that Zoe broke up with him, but she explains she's actually interested in Nakia, and Josh is understanding. But he's still locked up, with Ms. Marvel's OK, until the time when he was going to cause trouble has past. Which earns her a rebuke from Nakia, and prompts Bruno to decide he's going to spring Josh himself, but he only succeeds in nearly blowing himself up.

It won't surprise you to learn the various tie-ins are not on the same page in this crossover. Deadpool had Ulysses state that he really only sees big tragedies - like Thanos coming to earth for a Cosmic Cube, or an earthquake - but here he's been warning them about convenience store robberies. Some things never change. I'm a little surprised how quickly the teen brigade Carol saddled Kamala with have gone foll police state, even immediately questioning if Ms. Marvel is emotionally compromised for knowing Josh, but I was very "no shades of grey" at that age, with accompanying blind spots, not to mention stupid in general, so maybe it's not surprising. Probably realistic that Kamala hasn't yet given up entirely on the idea. At this point her concern is that her squad is being overzealous, but she doesn't seem to have decided there's anything hinky about this whole thing. So hopefully it'll be a process, although you would think all her friends and family pointing how bad an idea it is would start to sink in. I mean, it didn't for Tony Stark in the first Civil War, but Kamala generally doesn't have her head lodged up her own butt like Tony does.

Miyazawa's art is excellent, as usual. I need to see the remainder of that newspaper headline in the paper Kamala's dad is reading. The raccoon escaped the zoo, but what did it eat all of? Doughnuts? Pizza? Strawberries? Why does Josh have rubber chickens in his cell? And I notice that when Kamala embiggens herself, she's making her fists even larger, out of proportion to the rest of her. Does it mean she's thinking with those and not her head, or that she's trying to maintain control and authority through force, rather than reason. I notice that when Becky and the cadets are arguing with Bruno, Nakia, and Zoe, Kamala doesn't try to enter into the conversation and discuss it. She gets big, then starts telling people what to do. And the cadets are under her command, and Nakia and Zoe don't know she's their friend (although I suspect Nakia actually does know, she's not an idiot), but Kamala's generally not resorted to that sort of thing unless provoked, rather than as a first response.