What I Bought 12/13/2017

I can't stand that commercial with the kid using the tablet and her mom asks what's she's doing on the computer, and the kid asks what a computer is. Give me a break. We are not so far into the future that kid has no idea what a computer is.

Despicable Deadpool #290, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Well, they certainly know what the audience wants.

Wade and Cable travel into the future, where things are bad. Then they travel even further into the future to see Really Old Cable, so they can kill him and take his heart. Hey, I got a prediction right! He is less happy to see Deadpool than I hoped, and Deadpool very quickly grows tired of Old Man Griping and shoots him, then cuts out his heart. He and not so old Cable prepare to confront Stryfe.

Well then. The story feels excessively drawn out. We're four issues in, and it feels as though we could have covered this in two issues. I think Duggan and Koblish are banking on the reader enjoying seeing Koblish draw cool stuff, indulging in Kirby aesthetic. Like the vampire dinosaurs last issue, or the train station full of Cables this month. Those are cool, although one Cable is more than enough, but it lacks emotional content.

The problem is Duggan writes Cable and Deadpool as seemingly hating each other. Cable, certainly, appears to barely tolerate Deadpool, even if Wade wasn't trying to kill him. Which takes some of the bite out of the story. The punch of the story was theoretically going to be Deadpool be forced to try and kill one of the few people he likes and respects. If Wade isn't hesitant about killing a Cable, and Cable doesn't like or trust Wade, why am I supposed to care?

You can have Wade determined to do it, to save his daughter, and Cable understanding Wade's problem, but having obvious objections to dying or helping Stryfe. Otherwise Deadpool might as well be trying to kill Bullseye, or some random hero he doesn't give a crap about, like Captain Britain. Take that away, especially with the obvious bait-and-switch on the death, and there's nothing left. Stryfe is already a clone of Cable. So what if he wants to make more clones of Cable?

The last issue will have to really hustle to salvage this.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #27, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist and trading card artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - The cover working well either side up is a nice bit of design work there by Henderson.

Nancy and Tippy-Toe wake up to a world where everyone is super-interested in how Tippy and Doreen defeated Galactus. They've been abducted by intelligent squirrels and brought to their homeworld because an unusually buff Silver Surfer showed up and told them to produce all their precious stones or Galactus will eat their world. After it is blown up by the bomb they left. Nancy and Tippy are left to try and figure out how to solve this. Doreen is back on Earth trying to find them, and ends up at the door of the Sorcerer Supreme, which is Loki now. Really? Why not just give the job to Gwenpool? However, before Loki can transport Squirrel Girl across the universe (in a terrible outer space wardrobe), Dormammu appears to test his new Sorcerer's mettle. Well, that's not a good thing.

I was pretty down on last month's issue, but I'm excited for this. I have no idea how Squirrel Girl is going to outwit friggin' Dormammu, but I'm sure she'll manage it somehow, and I'm curious to see it. I'm certainly not counting on Loki to save the day. That page where Doreen and Loki can perceive the attack? That was pretty. Love the colors, and Dormammu as an opponent that's only partially even physical. Also, that image of him Rico Renzi did for the trading card was pretty good.

There are a few good gags and jokes in the book, as always. The online reviews of Dr. Strange's home was a personal favorite, North's story about trying to b.s. his way through a physics test, too. I know I considered something similar in pre-calc, during the trig proofs section. "You included this on the test, so it's obviously provable," or something. Which is not true at all, but I wasn't going to do any better trying to remember those rules about sine = 1/cosine radians something something. I hated trig proofs. Anyway, I appreciate North's attempts to fast talk his way through it.