What I Bought 4/20/2017

1-for-2 on the new comics this week. Maybe I'll have some luck tracking down the stuff from the last two weeks at Cape-Con tomorrow. Looking for comics at a comic convention? That's just crazy enough to work!

Narrator, three days from now: It didn't work.

Ms. Marvel #17, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Takeshi Miyazwa (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) -  I've really enjoyed Nelson Blake and Rachelle Rosenberg's covers for this story arc.

Zoe has to deal with school after all her unsent texts to Nakia were leaked by the virus, but her friends are there for support, which makes it a little easier. Kamala's plan for dealing with the virus involves getting her online guildmates to come to Jersey and play nicely on the game so the virus will learn to be nice instead. The plan sort of stumbles when Kamala runs into a parade, and the virus first possesses people, then manifests as a physical being itself, but she punches it into temporary oblivion.

I don't understand what went on at all. Last issue Kamala went to a spot with no one else around, no machines, or networks, to tell the virus to shove off when it had nowhere to jump to. But there were, according to Mike, thousands of copies of the virus that hadn't been overwritten by the niceness attack at the time she ran into the parade. Which is why it's still possessing and attacking people, but then I don't understand what Kamala was hoping to accomplish by getting to a secluded place again.

So the specifics are fuzzy to me, but the overall idea is a good one. The unintended consequences of casual cruelty or anger, things we create growing in ways we didn't intend or anticipate. But also the capability of people to come together and work towards a good end. Also, I laughed at how Kamala's attempt to disperse the crowd resulted in a panic. Superheroes yelling at you that you're in danger would tend to make a person freak out.

All the odd background details Miyazwa puts in there continue to amuse. Mike's apparent fascination with someone called "Sleep Guy", going by the posters over her bed. And the collection of oddballs in the Founder's Day parade. orange Bear Suit Guy. Scuba Guy. A guy on stilts wearing a lampshade over his head (and a shirt with a light bulb on it). Maybe that stuff is normal for those sorts of parades. I don't think I've ever been to one, so hell if I know. Also, I think Miyazawa went heavier on the inks in the panel where the virus emerges from the giant screen. More hash marks, thicker lines and shadows in places. Makes him look more ominous, and maybe out of place.