Friday, January 20, 2017

What I Bought 1/11/17 and 1/18/17

Wednesday I had a question in mind I was going to ask everyone in this opening paragraph, and I've forgotten it. This happens a surprising amount of the time, which is too bad, because these opening paragraphs could use the help.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16, by Ryan North (writer), Will Murray (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Steve Dtiko (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - The John Allison variant was the only available option at the store, and there was friggin' Brad in the lower corner among the Squirrel Girl foes. Nice touch not having Doom there. He wouldn't show up and be recognized as a "defeated foe".

The story tracks Doreen from birth, thru learning she can speak to squirrels, to saving the Hulk from the Abomination, to her 20th birthday party with all her friends. Said party is crashed by the Red Skull, who is quickly trounced, though I refuse to believe that Tony Stark has never uppercutted a bad guy through the ceiling. Also, given her approach to concussions, I imagine Doreen could have a long career as an "independent" physician for an NFL team. "Nah, you don't need to come out of the game, it'll wear off."

Doreen as a little kid was appropriately adorable, and 10-year old Doreen's Dazzler poster and Thing clock were cute touches. It's important for kids to learn that it is always Clobberin' Time. I wish someone had told me that when I was 10, how different things might be. I'd probably be in jail. Wait. On other topics, I feel like Erica Henderson's version of the Hulk owes a lot to Mark Ruffalo. Mostly the last page with him, as he's taking the Abomination while refusing to share credit for the win. The chin, or the look on his face before he jumps off. It's mostly not a look I associate with child-speak Hulk.

Doreen's stated love for Nancy Drew and being a detective in the 15-year old sequence makes me want to see the creative team do a mystery story. Put her and Nancy in a "haunted" mansion, or solving a series of thefts from the university commissary, something.

Avengers #3.1, by Mark Waid (writer), Barry Kitson (penciler/inker), Mark Farmer and Rafael Fonteriz (inkers), Jordan Boyd and Wil Quintana (colorists), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Ah, there's the average citizens of the Marvel Universe I remember, chucking garbage at the heroes.

The public is unconvinced by the Avengers, but they trounce the Mad Thinker with Cressida's (or Avenger X) help. Now the public loves them, but Cressida is sowing doubt among their ranks, and when Pietro storms out at her suggestions, she remotely boosts Ox' power, and Pietro gets his ass beat by an Enforcer. I like how Ox doesn't even notice anything is different. He just seems to assume it makes perfect sense he can beat up Quicksilver. On another note, was Hawkeye this much of an ass to Jarvis back in the day? I know that a question that starts with, 'Was Hawkeye this much of an ass. . .' is almost certainly answered "YES," but the extent he's abusing poor Jarvis is surprising. That said, I'm eagerly anticipating Jarvis' revenge, whatever form it takes.

Credit to Waid, though. I was worried Cressida was going to fall into the trope of the shy girl who doesn't really understand her powers. Where she's scared and hiding things because of it. Instead, she's using that as a cover, so that the Avengers don't look to closely at how her powers work (and the lack of a scientist on the roster surely isn't helping there), and don't question all the things she so innocently suggests to them about their teammates. And she's made them reliant on her, so they've stopped building teamwork and cooperation.

I don't know what happened to that guy Ox was beating up. Pietro pulled him away, but I don't know where he left him before losing the fight. And Ox walked off with Fancy Dan and Montana under his arms. Hopefully he got to a hospital, because his face was looking pretty pulped. Kitson makes the miniature Awesome Androids regurgitating more miniature Awesome Androids look kind of gross, which does seem like it would be gross. On the other hand, he overemphasizes those parts of Pietro's hair that stick up slightly when viewed through Daredevil's radar sense. It looks like Pietro has Batman ears, or Wolverine hair.

2 comments:

SallyP said...

Squirrel Girl was even more awesome than usual! And it was a treat to see Monkey Joe again.

And yes, sadly it's true that Hawkeye really was a massive jerk then. He still has his moments, I have to admit.

CalvinPitt said...

I think I'd almost forgotten about poor Monkey Joe until this issue. Poor, poor Monkey Joe.