What I Bought 7/11/2018 - Part 2

The Cardinals finally fired Mike Matheny this weekend. Probably two years too late, but better than never. I doubt this is going to magically fix everything, but it's one less incompetent boob in a position he's entirely unqualified for in this world. Progress!

Ms. Marvel #32, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Friends don't dump friends into beakers with bubbly liquids, Bruno. Ha, I almost called it a test tube. Boy, would my face have been red!

Bruno and Kamala resume trying to understand her powers, so naturally they go completely on the fritz. Certainly the close proximity of these two possibly-more-than-friends to each other has nothing to do with that. It's bad timing, because the Shocker has decided to host a crime wave in Jersey City. I thought for a bit her power issues were the result of Shocker using his vibro-blaster things. It's kind of like electricity, which disrupts her powers, but not quite, so maybe it would disrupt them in an unusual way. But no, no, it's probably just emotional turmoil.

Funny to see Bruno state he's done climbing fences and being the sidekick, then the second Kamala leaps into action Bruno is scrounging through his bag trying to find something to help. Like Kamala was worried about, making the same mistakes in all new ways. I'm not sure what the way out is, though. They're friends, they care about each other. Bruno's going to want to help his friend, and Kamala would naturally get his perspective on something that was troubling her, although I suspect he'll share that duty with Zoe, Mike, and Nakia going forward. As for the possible romantic flare-up, I don't know what to do about that.

Leon shows the Shocker's powers as functioning as a pressure wave pushing things away from him. A lot of times, artists show them more as generic power blasts, that hit something and pulverize, leaving a crater. Or sometimes it's treated almost like electricity. But this way, Leon can represent its effect by showing things being blown away, which allows for amusing visual gags. Like the guy walking his dog past the pizza place in one panel, then they both go flying the other way in the next panel. There's one panel where the sound effect has shockwaves emanating from him out towards the people being blown away, which was a nice touch. And he's very effective at using Shocker's eyes to convey emotion, considering that's the only part of his face there is to work with.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #34, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Is Kraven a good harmonica player? Can he hunt down a tune?

Everyone's in jail. Tony Stark can't get them out, but can at least get the cops not to snoop into their secret identities. Doreen yells at Kraven about his extensive criminal background, which, how did she not know about this? He had a supervillain trading card! Which, OK, fine, Deadpool was also listed as a super-villain on pretty much all the different series of trading cards I owned. But that is totally different! To be fair, the sequence of the Police Chief standing there, waiting for Kraven's record to print on their ancient printer made me laugh. Although I thought it was just taking a long time because there were so many crimes, not because the printer is old as the hills, but hey, the joke still worked.

There is a trial, with an annoying prosecutor named Courtney Alaska, which is not an awesome name, I don't care what Ryan North thinks. And she's deliberately baiting Jennifer Walters, which seems unwise. Yes, if she loses control and Hulks out, you probably win your case. Your skeleton will also probably be reduced to dust, which will limit your quality of life. Doesn't seem like a fair trade, but perhaps Courtney Alaska really loves winning cases that much. Poor life priorities, but she wouldn't be the first.

Everyone is acquitted - except Kraven, who is deemed beyond redemption. Which causes him to jump out a window. He encounters Spider-Man, who I don't recall ever actually saying he's going to catch villains just like flies before now, regardless of what Ryan North says. I am disagreeing with Ryan North a lot this month. If he'd stop being wrong, it would stop happening.

Derek Charm draws a pretty good Spider-Man. Reminds me of Mark Buckingham's work, from when he and Paul Jenkins worked on Peter Parker: Spider-Man back in the early 2000s. I'm gradually getting more used to Charm's art. His Nancy Whitehead is still the character I'm having the most issue with, but the pacing on a lot of the jokes - like the one about the cops' printer - still work with him as artist like they did with Erica Henderson.