What I Bought 2/14/2018 - Part 2

When I was reviewing the most recent issue of Copperhead, I mentioned Ishmael, the artificial human being colored deathly white during the scene in the hospital bed. I wasn't sure how that worked at the time, but reading back through earlier issues, it dawned on me that he's designed to unconsciously change color to match his surroundings. When he was fighting Clay, Clay had mentioned something about artificial humans being designed to be good at camouflage, but I thought he meant they had a skill for building clothing or face paint. Not that their bodies can actually change color. Whoops. I figured it out over the weekend and decided I'd use it as the intro before going into talking about the last book from last week.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #29, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Credit to the guy for remembering to paint the soles of his feet. He just didn't give it enough time to dry first.

Squirrel Girl unsuccessfully fights the Silver Surfer for several pages, even with Loki teleporting in a bunch of other heroes (to protect Nancy). Explanations are eventually offered, and the Surfer is about to deal with the dopes pretending to be him, when an armada shows up. It's comprised of people from planets the "hunks" bankrupted, out to destroy the Surfer, and with the weapons to pull it off. The Surfer decides to selflessly sacrifice himself and spare us all any of his soliloquies about how alone he is in the universe. Unfortunately, Doreen, Tippy, and Nancy tag along, which puts them on the bullseye as well. So next issue, everybody dies.

I call bullshit on the Surfer being able to so casually swat Beta Ray Bill aside. He's Cyborg Horse Thor, he's not getting punked that easily by that whiny flying hood ornament. Is Ryan North taking writing lessons from Jim Starlin? That said, North writes a very good Drax (this version of him, anyway). Drax taking everything people say literally fits North's writing style well. People pointing out obvious stuff or plot holes, but not realizing that's what they're doing. That's kind of North's go-to move.

Henderson draws a very, I'd say "stripped-down" version of the Surfer, but he's always naked, isn't he? *ba-dump tisssh* Thank you, thank you! Seriously though, her version of Surfer doesn't have cheekbones, ears, much in the way of defined musculature. Normally he's drawn like a fit guy who got silver sprayed-painted all over, but here it's more as though Galactus redesigned him and a lot of extraneous parts were left out. Makes him sleek, also a little unearthly. I was thinking it was the pupiless eyes doing that, but he usually has those. But Henderson draws him from a bit of distance frequently, and a lot of the time he's looking at something we can't see, even when he's talking to someone in the panel. Like he's only half paying attention because his "cosmic senses" are looking at something else. He rarely shows much emotion in his reactions, a big change from his usual melodramatic shtick. I really like it.