What I Bought 12/6/2016 - Part 2

Today, characters try to solve problems by talking to people reasonably. This will work in one book, and not in the other. 50% is still a better success rate than we manage in the real world.

Ms. Marvel #13, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Mirka Andolfo (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I understand the point of the cover, but it feels very unlike most of this book's covers up to this point. Much more typical superhero.

Kamala's brother-in-law to be appears abruptly in her English class because someone is gerrymandering the districts right before the election. This someone turns out to be a hate-spewing candidate who is working with Dr. Faustus and HYDRA. Geez, I thought HYDRA Captain America would have dealt with that sort of thing by now. So you can kill cool villains like the Red Ghost and the Super-Apes, but not losers like Dr. Faustus? I bet if John Walker were HYDRA Cap, he'd have killed Dr. Faustus for us.

Anyway, with Nakia and Mike's help, Ms. Marvel gets a bunch of people to actually go vote and they elect a third party candidate to mayor, and deal HYDRA another setback in their plans for world domination - by taking over a town in New Jersey. Maybe they should have focused on one block in one town in New Jersey. Really start small, like ACROSS did in Excel Saga.

As things go, it's fine. I like Andolfo's art a little better here than I did last issue, mostly because there aren't as many facial expressions that seem off. Mike does seem to have been slimmed down, though. I think Andolfo might be the first artist on the book I've seen who doesn't draw Kamala as having large feet when she stretches out her legs. Alphona and Miyazawa for certain both draw her feet as also being large, which makes sense, she'd want a stable base to maintain her balance. The range of people Andolfo draws as they attempt to get out the vote was pretty good.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #14, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Clayton Cowles and Travis Lanham (letterers) - Is Doreen shaking her fist at the Enigmo, or signaling to some unseen forces to charge? You decide! Crap, that's a voting reference.

There is an Enigmo not interested in world domination. He split off from the others long ago, and wants to help our heroes. Scott comes up with a plan for the Good Enigmos to gradually convince the other Enigmos to abandon this plan, but it crashes on the rocks of the Good Enigmo not being able to merge with the others any longer. So, huge scrum in Toronto, literally, as our heroes win by tricking all the Enigmos into merging into a Giant Enigmo, which promptly causes their leg to snap from the weight, and giving the good Enigmo a chance to force a merge and argue inside their collective mind for not taking over the world.

I feel as though I remember this whole thing about the vulnerability of being a big human from John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque's Blue Beetle run, when Jaime tangled with Giganta? Although that was explaining that magic is why her bones didn't crack. Whatever, not a complaint, just something I remembered. I did like this quite a lot. The fact Scott's "heist" is remarkably simple and this frustrates Doreen. So Scott specifically comes up with an extra thing she can help do. Brain Drain's constant lamentations on the futility of existence. Those feel as though they could get irritating, but they're being worked in while the plot is still going, so it avoids the sense of padding I was getting with the Ghost Bandits in Atomic Robo. The use of giant-sized toys to help win the day.

While I would certainly agree the new costume Brain Drain got in the last page wrap-up has a better mask than his old costume, I miss the cape. It's not as though he's going to be worried about getting sucked into a jet turbine. He'd simply accept it as an inevitable sign of the futility of accoutrements when we are all destined for entropic decay. Also, Maureen, trying to set Doreen up with Scott is a huge "NO." Even if he weren't written as kind of a loser by Spencer these days, his daughter isn't that different in age from Doreen. No, just no. The designs on all the action figures were pretty sweet. Galactus with moose antlers is awesome, to the point I hope the next time he appears in this book, Doreen sees him with moose antlers rather than those usual Kirby tuning fork things that come off his helmet.

Anyway, I look forward to next issue, even if it's going to involve Taskmaster getting jobbed out to a freaking cat. But after all the losses to Deadpool, the recent defeat by X-23 in two pages, and that time he got taken out by Rick fucking Jones, I suppose he's used to it.