What I Bought 10/12/2018 - Part 2

I'm on the road most of this week, so I'm trying to get all this stuff ready over the weekend. If I had stayed up those 42 consecutive hours, I might be doing better than I am. But here's two comics from last week!

Ms. Marvel #35, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm not sure the Shocker can look menacing, even when you're the size of a mouse.

Kamala turns the Shocker's experiment against him by taking him into the temporal vortex with her, while Bruno tries to figure out how to shut the whole thing down back in Jersey. Shocker is reluctant to go back, because that means go back to the same old, same old. It turns out worse than he expected, because he ends up back in Brooklyn in front Spider-Miles. Although as long as he doesn't attack Miles, the kid shouldn't attack him, right? Can't just assume Hermann is up to no good because he's in the old union suit. Back in Jersey, Kamala and Bruno get to have gyros! And possibly talk about feelings! But definitely sandwiches!

I feel a little bad for Shocker, but he just didn't know when to quit. Or I guess he made the mistake of assuming the grass on the other side had to be greener than where he came from. Otherwise he could have just gone back to Jersey with Kamala, and as soon as blue girl goes away, start the fight again. I'm not at all clear on why he assumes they'll get powers from this stunt, though. Especially when last issue he said he didn't know what his experiment was doing. Then again, in the Marvel Universe any experiment will give you super-powers.

The whole bit with Kamala, Shocker, and Singularity arguing in the void was funny, between the girls being intensely frustrated and Shocker alternating between being stubborn and completely freaking out. I still like how expressive Nico Leon makes Shocker even through the mask. And as always, it's some of the small details that make things fun. The goat being tossed through the air by the vortex when Bruno reaches Shocker's lair, as well as the old couple sitting there watching the show. Who are then up in a tree on the last page, still in their lawn chairs, just enjoying the show.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #37, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist and trading card artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Man, stuck with loki as a pallbearear? There's no way he doesn't get bored and drop the coffin halfway through.

Squirrel Girl is dead! Well, her book lasted 45 issues in total, that's not a bad run these days. But also, she's attending her own funeral in disguise as Bass Lass, so she can figure how exactly there is a dead Squirrel Girl. Which is how she gets to watch footage of the death, and eventually comes to a conclusion. But most of the issue is spent on the funeral, including two pages of various characters delivering eulogies. Some of which are good, some not so good. I am not as enamored with the idea of PG-13 Jean-Paul Sartre as the text at the bottom of the page was, but I don't need no French philosopher to tell me about how hard it is being around people, whether he uses swears or not.

The Octobliterator reminds me of how Beta Ray Bill's people perceive Galactus in the Stormbreaker mini-series. They saw him as the manifestation of their destroyer god Astra, which was apparently a big, multi-limbed thing. Funniest joke for me in this issue was Captain America thinking Iron Man is trying to start trouble up with Captain Marvel again when Tony tells everyone to attack her. It's a fair assumption to make, because Tony's kind of an ass like that. Derek Charm gets to draw Carol in her Binary form, and makes that look pretty cool. Rico Renzi's colors help a lot. That big red heat blast was pretty cool looking. I also appreciate that when the Black Panther's trying to slow himself down after being blown back by a big explosion, Charm and Renzi drew the marks from his claws doing that. Probably not strictly necessary, but it was a nice detail.

Skrulls are not really my favorite villains, but hopefully North and Charm get some decent jokes out of the cast trying to figure out who is the real (Insert Character Name) and who is a Skrull.