What I Bought 3/13/2019 - Part 1

I picked up the Ales Kot written volume of Secret Avengers in a back issue hunt, and there was an ad for Captain America from when Sam Wilson had the shield, and I went, "Oh yeah, Sam was Captain America for a hot minute there." I'd completely forgotten that. I don't even know what Marvel has going on with Sam these days.

Anyway, here's a couple of the comics from last month that finally showed up in the mail this week. The third issue of two different mini-series.

Atomic Robo: Dawn of a New Era #3, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Shannon Murphy (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer) - Bernard's just a little freaked because he didn't realize the machine had a vibrate setting.

Bernard has found the princess of the underground kingdom, or she found him, and something is going on. The Earth is going to be unmade? That doesn't sound good, although perhaps not the worst idea looking at what's going on around us. In other developments, Jenkins has returned for the first time since, Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur? Which was 2013. Now he looks like Cable. I'm not joking. Glowy, scarred eye, white hair, lots of belt pouches. Much grumpier and more vocal than he used to be. No metal limbs, unless he's hiding a metal hand under the bandages.

He's been busy tearing apart Majestic, but it turns out they were barely stopping a full-scale invasion from the Vampire Dimension, and with them gone, the vampires are about to conquer everything. that's bad, although I'm curious when the vampires figured out how to cross dimensions. They always appeared nearly mindless. Anyway, Jenkins isn't really impressed by the resources Robo has on hand, so we'll see how that goes.

Things escalated quickly. I thought Vik and Lang encountering vampires was going to be a simple sideplot. An extended gag about their vacation gone awry while Robo is comfortably at home introducing ALAN to the works of P.G. Wodehouse. Never mind that. I'm not sure how this is going to play out. It feels like Bernard's situation is relevant to the vampire issue, but I'm not exactly sure of that. It's nice to see Jenkins again. I would have thought he'd be more aware of what Robo was up to these days, but I guess when you're waging a one-man war from the shadows you don't keep up with your friends' social media.

Joking about Jenkins' look aside, I kind of like it. With as pale as he's colored, the way he grits his teeth, that weird round thing where his left ear used to be, he has a bit of a Frankenstein's monster vibe to him. Man has been through some stuff in the last 5+ years

Mega Ghost #3, by Gabe Soria (writer), Gideon Kendall (artist/colorist/letterer) - I see the Terrible Trio abandoned Gotham City for a more pleasant locale.

The moral of today's story is to not get a swelled head. Martin's feeling pretty cocky about how well he's protecting the city, so when it turns out his sister and her two friends have turned some roadkill into eldritch powered exosuits they can use to fight evil, we end up with a turf war instead of a team-up. Eventually Martin finds himself overwhelmed by an enemy and has to swallow his pride and ask his sister for help.

I like that Morgan assures Martin they used roadkill for the familiars, rather than seeking out and killing animals themselves. It's merely creepy, rather than potentially psychopathic. I feel so much better.

I like some of the monster designs. The Mechtoskeletons make for a good group villain look. Not something too difficult for the artist to draw several of in a bunch of panels, but not too bland. Most of the book is in dark colors since a lot of it takes place at night, plus the whole "monsters of the night" motif, so the panel of the explosion contrasts nicely with its use of a nice bright red and orange. Really makes it pop more than it might in a book with a brighter color scheme.

I don't really have a lot else to say on the issue. It's fine, I just think it's becoming more apparent it's probably aimed at a different audience than me. Younger one, most likely, which is a good idea, and sometimes that stuff still works for me. I don't think this is one of those times.