What I Bought 4/20/2018

I was on the road again for most of the week, and I spent Wednesday in a town with two comic stores. Neither one of them had any of the four books I wanted that came out this week. Real letdown. Fortunately, the store here in town had two of them, so let's review.

Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye #2, by Jon Rivera (writer), Michael Avon Oeming (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer) - I'm sorely tempted to cut the cover to pieces to assemble the, whatever it would be once I finished folding where it says to.

Cave, Chloe, and Bartrow crash land on a planet at war. The Lazer Monks, who seem to believe in the immutability of destiny and sacrifice, versus the Nejire, who are all about the chaos. The Monks think Cave is the reincarnation of their Progenitor. Cave doesn't care, but is very rude and grabby about the Monks amplifying crystals. They show him some special Chamber, as the Nejire close in, when they aren't constantly backstabbing each other.

The conflict between the two sides, as extreme versions of order vs. chaos, or self-sacrifice vs. self-interest, could be interesting. I'm not sure yet. If this thing with the Nejire constantly assassinating their leaders to claim leadership keeps going, that could get old. Sooner or later, they'll run out of guys. There's another force at work, certainly in the Nejire, probably in the Monks as well. Its motive could add something.

Cave seems like someone who has read about how to interact with people, but doesn't comprehend it. I can appreciate his disinterest in this war, but that being the case, it's not really OK to start grabbing sacred crystals of the people he declined to help. Really, it's not OK to do that without their thumbs up whether he helps or not. He's just that much of a geology nerd.

Oeming draws a lot of panels in this issue with peculiar borders. Like they're meant to be seen as carved gems, or maybe interlocking pieces. A couple of them remind me of the tail end of a trilobite, or maybe a scarab. There are also a lot of pages with some sort of design of interconnected dots and lines. Given the outer space setting, I'd figure it's meant to be a constellation, but one so massive we only see bits and pieces of it. Usually, that part stays outside of the panels, but on a couple of pages, it overlaps the panels. I don't know what that means, though. The panels in question feature the Nejire, and one of the Monks mentions that the Nejire's absolute dedication to chaos and unpredictability makes them predictable. So it's suggesting all their actions, no matter how much they might try to be chaotic, are still part of a design? Whether that's the psionic parasite Chloe and Cave found, or something else, future issues will tell?

Ms. Marvel #29, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The Archie look is not a favorite of mine.

Kamala is an aunt, as Tyesha gives birth to a son. Kamala is very happy, and she and Red Dagger kiss, just as Bruno comes home on vacation. He and Kamala try talking, only to be interrupted by some rude new student from Connecticut, who Zoe instantly falls for. And Mike misinterprets Kamala taking Bruno's hand to help him enter the school. Because Bruno didn't contact his actual girlfriend before coming home, apparently. If he's going to be that big a putz, it's hard to sympathize with him. Everyone is having confusing feelings, and the new girl is super-strong, and possibly crazy. Almost certainly evil. Damn, she's probably a relative to that annoying HYDRA girl. Lockup, or whatever she called herself.

This might be more teenage angst and confusion than I'm prepared to handle. Or I'd already decided Kamala and Bruno should stick to being pals and date other people. Or date nobody, whichever. I'm not sure I'm supposed to find Bruno's friend Kwezi as annoying as I do. Being called "Yankee Doodle" constantly would drive me nuts, and he's going to use Bruno as a subject for his sociology thesis? Well, Kwezi must be a true friend, because he's made it possible for me to feel sympathy for Bruno again. So I guess that stuff is OK then.

It's still the little details Leon adds to some panels I enjoy most. The pigeon looking on alongside Bruno and Kwezi as they see Ms. Marvel and the Red Dagger together. The nearly infinite number of devices plugged into that one outlet in the airport.

That said, the bit where Sheikh Abdullah seems to be freaking out a Kamala's confession, only to turn out to be joking, that was good. You could see it coming, but the way Leon goes from these close-up panels of his and Kamala's anguished faces, to one of him calmly smiling and saying he'll go make tea. Herring helps by using a lot of bright red for the freakout panels, then a very placid blue for the punchline. Plus, the panel of Kamala dropping to the ground in poleaxed surprise was funny.