What I Bought 11/13/2018 - Part 2

I am enjoying taking a little time off from work for the holidays, even if I've mostly been using that time to run errands I put off for several weeks. Today we have the first issue of a mini-series tying into an event I'm otherwise ignoring, and another mini-series reaches its midpoint.

Spider-Girls #3, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Triona Farrell (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I wish there was some kind of background, but it's nice drawing anyway.

This ties into Spider-Geddon, which I otherwise don't give a crap about. If it killed off Octavius for a few years, I might care, but we know that isn't happening. Mayday and Anya are looking for something to turn the tide against Morlun and his family (still disappointed he's the JMS villain that hung around, but whatever). This leads them to the Renew Your Vows universe, where Pete and MJ fight crime together with their daughter Annie. Who has been having visions of some threat lately. Pete and Mary Jane opt to go help in the larger fight, while the Spider-Girls stay and try to figure out what Annie's visions are trying to tell her.

I keep wanting to type "April" instead of "Annie", but April was that combo clone/symbiote DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema introduced late in Amazing Spider-Girl.

Apparently Mayday is "Spider-Woman" now, going by what Anya said. She seems much more serious. Understandable under the circumstances (her baby brother has powers and he'll get killed too if they don't stop this), but Grim n' Gritty Spider-Girl isn't my jam. I was curious to see Mayday interact with a version of her parents who are together, since her dad was killed in the last of these big Spider-Event things, but we only get that briefly. It's interesting though, because in this reality, Annie is their second daughter, the first would have been May, but she died during birth, like she did at the end of the Clone Saga back in the '90s. Annie and May get a chance to meet a sister they maybe could have had, if things worked out a little different. Given that, I'm curious to see what role Anya winds up with in this trio.

I like Genolet's artwork. At different times it reminds me of either Stuart Immonen's or a little of Colleen Coover's, neither of those are a bad thing. It's expressive, the brief action scenes are well-drawn, and she lets the mask be expressive. I'm always in favor of letting the eyes squint and change shape, regardless of how improbable it may be. I like that Peter starts walking up a wall and onto the ceiling as he's thinking out loud. No reason his version of pacing would be confined to the floor. Triona Farrell's colors are what I'd describe as soft and light. They aren't extremely bright, and they don't weigh things down with a lot gloom or heavy shadows. But this is a mellow chapter, nothing has started going wrong yet. We'll see if the colors get heavier or more intense as the action ramps up.

Coda #6, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Man, I remember playing "Keep the screaming head away from everyone" back in college. Good times.

The angry fellow from the end of last issue tries to kill Hum, but is killed by Notch, the bandit lady who is also the daughter of that crazy wizard. She doesn't know if that's really a Whitlord controlling their city, either. But she won't rat Hum out, yet. Which is good, as Hum's got his hands full trying to keep Serka from charging up to attack right off. That they're sent out to find more sources of magic with a guy who admits to joyfully killing the innocent doesn't help. He ends up dead, but his steed is a pretty great source of magic. And that reveals to Serka a path to the Whitlord, and Hum a path to the akker he needs.

What I'll be curious to see is, when Serka goes to kill the Whitlord, will Hum be willing to abandon the shot at the akker, to watch her back? The spell to lift this blood curse she has won't do much good if she's dead because it really is a Whitlord. Will she even want him along? She's seen through his plans to try and distract her from her goal, will she doubt whether she can trust him? Or will she want him to have their steeds ready so they can get the hell out of Dodge once she's done? Assuming it is a Whitlord, of course.

Really like the effect for the death stare or whatever it is the cockatrice has. The eyes look like a roulette wheel, and then a mixture of purple and white around them, with the white sparking out in jagged lightning bolts. Very cool. The whole nighttime raid is colored very well, but it's mostly this sickly dark green for all the backgrounds, and then everyone is done up in dull colors. Until you get to the death stare, or the living firebombs, or blood as Serka beheads someone. All of that gets to pop that much more in contrast to the surroundings.