What I Bought 9/12/2018

I had plans to come up with something for Wednesday, but consecutive 11+ hours days on the road took most of the initiative out of me. For today, we have a couple of books from this week, one that is wrapping up its opening arc, and the other is just halfway through.

Domino #6, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - When you put them altogether there on the cover, it sure looks like Domino has never had a decent costume in her life. I'd almost vote for the one with the shoulder pads and the helmet/faceguard, just because it looks like its designed to handle being shot at.

Domino has a final showdown with Topaz. Desmond/Prototype didn't survive that punch in the head from Outlaw, so now hurting Domino is all the crazy redhead has left. But Domino is able to control her powers enough Topaz can't use them against her, and then Outlaw and Diamondback hit the angry lady with a Quinjet, and Domino pumps 12 bullets into, to Shang-Chi's disappointment. We can't all spend our time moping about being forced on the path of violence, Shang.

I don't know if I'm used to villains getting away to be constant pains in the rear or what, but this felt vaguely anticlimactic. Maybe the point was for Domino to have gained enough control that Topaz couldn't mess with her powers, which required getting over being afraid of the fact the lady could mess with her powers. Once that happened, where she would have luck back on her side, Topaz really has no chance. The part where she describes herself as a Disney princess was an odd choice of metaphor. It's tossed into the aftermath that Prototype had planted a tracker on Domino at some point. When, I have no idea. I don't recall him getting close enough to do that at any point before he was already showing wherever she was.

 The fight scene is drawn well, lot of energy to it, impressive blur lines for punches, people making exertion faces rather than looking totally calm when they're trying to punch someone's head off. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it works. There is a scene early in the book I'm not quite sure of. We see Outlaw wheeling Diamondback into a hospital, telling her she was lucky to be alive. After a confrontation with a bigoted doctor, the two ladies call Adelbert for news of Domino, but now they're outside the hospital and getting into a car. I'm not sure if I'm meant to assume there was a gap in there where Diamondback got treated for her stab wound, or if Outlaw was supposed to be wheeling her out of the hospital at the beginning of the whole thing and Baldeon got it backwards.

Other than that, the artwork was good, and I like how Arubtov incorporates the colors of the lights of Hong Kong into the backdrop of Domino and Topaz' fight. Using the reds and blues, mostly reds, for anger or focus of the two characters. Topaz trying to pick herself up with dull yellows behind her, she's not up to a full head of steam yet, while Domino's in front of bright reds, because she's pretty much resigned to ending Topaz, because that's what it will take.

I guess we'll see if Simone does something with this in subsequent issues, brings back some remnant of the program that experimented on her. It seems odd to bring all this in just to put it in the trash six issues later.

The Seeds #2, by Ann Nocenti (writer), David Aja (artist) - Nooo, not the turtles!

Rosa travels into the Zone to be with her alien boyfriend, Race, and his expedition. The reporter, Astra, also travels into the Zone to find proof of these aliens, but is suspicious about how easily she got though the checkpoints. She has a run-in with the more crazy member of Race's expedition, but escapes for the time being. Someone is planning to drop something in the Zone, but whether they're trying to kill bees, people, or maybe the aliens I'm not clear on. Probably people. And there's the subplot about the farmer being sad he had to kill one of his hogs for food.

There's a page about some rich guy who tries to travel to another planet and it's gone catastrophically wrong, but the video feed from his spaceship is still active, so everyone can see him freaking out. I chuckled at that. And the part where the one alien learns the others all call him "Nutwad", when they aren't calling him "Gasbag". Sometimes you just don't like your coworkers.

Through most of the issue, there's a turtle making its way across the landscape, with those plastic soda can holders around one leg. It makes its way past Lola at one point and she pauses from turning a rotten apple into a bong long enough to remove the plastic ring. Which feels significant someone, bothering to stop to help this turtle which, if the planet is well and truly fucked, then so is the turtle. Maybe I'm just grasping.

The concept of making up a story and then making it come true pops up again, but I'm not sure how that ties in. Unless the point is you can make up most any story about people and it could eventually be true. It's possible for you to imagine it, so it's possible people would do it, even if they aren't at that moment. The story gives them the idea? Again, I don't know. If the GreenTech folks are trying to kill people, why? What's there to gain? Same delusions of grandeur as the rich idiot floating in space?

Aja continues to work mostly in 9 or 7-panel grids. Mostly focuses panels on small areas. A single character, or the turtle, or the rusted remains of an old car. Gives a feel for the place where things are happening. He does that bit where Astra is taking pictures and one row of panels are three consecutive pictures she's taking as she pans across someone's trailer and front yard. There are a couple of pages of switching back and for between the farmer preparing to kill the hog, and Nutwad sneaking up on Astra. The potential victims both oblivious, and their would-be killers telling themselves different lies for it to work in their minds.