What I Bought 11/29/2017

I went to the store hoping to find at least one of the two books that came out this week I was interested in, or one of the two from last week I wanted. I found none of those, but I did come up with a book from three weeks ago I'd wanted to try.

Master of Kung Fu #126, by CM Punk (writer), Dalibor Talijac (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I like that cover much better than the Mayhew one I saw in the solicits. Javier Rodriguez brings the goods.

Shang Chi's hanging out in Brooklyn, and he has a monkey. A monkey wanted by some ninjas, who capture both of them. The ninjas work for a Dr. Prasis, who is trying to teach animals kung fu. Having failed at that, he's going to try transplanting Shang Chi's brain into an octopus to achieve basically the same effect. That doesn't go very well for the doctor.

Not having any past experience with Punk's writing, this was a little different than I was expecting. It's played a bit silly, as the ninja henchmen are goofs, and Dr. Prasis got fired by the Hand, of all things. But I'm mostly used to Shang Chi having a lot of internal monologue, seeming unfamiliar with whatever he's encountering. This Shang Chi is more relaxed, comfortable. He's not bemoaning having to resort to violence, maybe because this is a mission he chose.

Talijac is inking himself this time, which results in a thicker line, and a less crisp look than in the Secret Wars Master of Kung Fu mini-series he drew with Goran Sudzuka. The musculature has a bit of a rough, sketched look to them. Which isn't bad, just a different look. The fight scenes are still good, and there's one panel where he gives Shang and the monkey similar irritated expressions that was amusing. Although every time I look at Dr. Prasis I kept having a bit of deja vu, and I just realized it's because he reminds me of Dr. McNinja.

Arcinega's colors are a little muted. Not enough to really muddy things up, but enough I didn't feel like the switch to the two-page flashback was as obvious as it was meant to be. Because the sepia tone wash over everything didn't produce that much of a difference.

As a stand alone story, I think this works a lot better than the Power Pack one did. Whether it would work better as an enticement to get fans to demand a revived Master of Kung Fu, I don't know. Shang, living in NYC with his monkey that knows some kung fu, helping people and animals that slip through the cracks. Given the wide variety of people living in and under NYC in the Marvel U., there's a lot of possibilities there.