What I Bought 12/6/2018 - Part 1

I haven't been able to track down all the books from last month I wanted. November's issue of Coda being the one I'm still on the hunt for. In the meantime, let's look at the books that I did find, starting with two from Marvel.

Spider-Girls #2, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Jim Charalampidis and Triona Farrell (colorists), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I don't think you need a spider-sense to warn you of a knife one inch from your nose.

Pete and MJ head off to join the fight against the Inheritors, while the Spider-Girls go to warn the only other spider-person in that universe, which is Normie Osborn, thanks to mad science, I think. Then Normie turns into a full-on giant spider, and while the girls try to deal with that, two of Morlun's siblings show up. That's it, that's the issue.

So, no real progress whatsoever on whatever Annie is supposed to figure out from the scroll things. Which, you know, were the whole reason Mayday and Anya came their in the first place, to find a solution to the problem. So either the solution is going to be rapidly crammed into the third issue along with the big fight, or it's being saved for the main mini-series. Which is really what I should expect.

There are a couple of moments of humor, mostly involving Anya being sarcastic about things, but the levity is nice. That one relative of Morlun's thinking the world is primitive because they poofed into the Cloisters or something when New York City is right there if he turns his head two inches to the left was a good chuckle. I appreciate that Houser didn't even bother naming the two villains. We don't care, not really, they're just something to punch and have act menacing. They barely have one dimension to their characters, forget about two.

Genolet does a good job conveying tone with body language, kind of important since most of the cast are wearing masks for the entire issue. There's a scene where they're heading to warn Normie, and their postures and positions while web-swinging are all different. But Mayday and Annie's are much more similar to each other than Anya's. Which makes sense if you figure they were raised by Pete and MJ, and their versions of their dad were probably fairly similar (except for Mayday's being a bit older and having one artificial leg). It's a little detail, but a nice touch.

Ms. Marvel #36, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Uh-oh, Kamala's doing the "grim avenger" posing bit. Everybody watch out.

The entire issue is about why that one guy Kamala and Singularity met a couple of issues ago thought he recognized Kamala. The answer being, he met an ancestor of hers who looked just like her 800 years ago while he was sword-fighting a damn Skrull. Or it's just a hypothesis, since there are also people who look just like Bruno, Zoey, and Josh there. You know, I had almost forgotten about good ol' Josh, the guy who was arrested because they thought he was gonna blow up the school, then decided to become a fascist tool. He just kind of wandered off without facing consequences for that.

Where's the Punisher when you need him?

Breather issues are fine before the next big disaster, but maybe use them as an opportunity to set up or advance subplots with the supporting cast? Maybe it's just that my eyes cross when the Inhumans get brought up.

The swordfight wasn't bad, although you'd think a skrull would be a little more creative about incorporating shapeshifting into his technique. Watch One Piece or something. There's like 500 swordsmen with weird powers in that series, and they use their powers in ways that compliment their styles. No wonder the Skrulls could never finish off the Kree. What a bunch of putzes.