What I Bought 3/16/2019

I played chess with my dad over the weekend. I've actually managed to beat him a few times the last year, which is a nice change from every attempt up to that point. Even though it's never pretty. Usually a matter of which of us makes a mind-boggling screw-up last. This game was an ugly rock fight like that. He screwed up, then I screwed up later and about did myself in, then he made the last mistake and conceded. I'll take it.

Here's two books from last week. One is hitting a milestone (sorta), and the other is the first issue.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #42, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson, Derek Charm, Naomi Franquiz (artists), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - That weird swirl of white near the bottom of the hourglass looks like someone got sloppy with their paintbrush.

Kang tries to kill Old Lady Squirrel Girl, because he learned she was destined to defeat him. His attempt to drop a building on her is unwittingly thwarted by Present Day Squirrel Girl, so he goes back to try and kill her. Except his attempt to blow her up is unwittingly thwarted by Rookie Squirrel Girl (and Monkey Joe!), so Kang tries to go back to kill her, and then ends up fighting all three of them, because Doreen has some eidetic memory shit when it comes to the components of a time travel machine.

I enjoyed this a lot. If you're going to use multiple artists in an issue, this is a good way to do it. Have it make sense why you're switching artists when you do, and have a coherent story. Not one of those jam issues that just barely holds together. I enjoy repeatedly flummoxed Kang, although I find it hard to believe he had never used 'I've got some time to kill' prior to attacking Rookie Squirrel Girl. But I suppose this could have been Kang extremely early in the game for him. He's a time-traveler, it's hard to tell. Even the super-villain trading card was confused, and you'd think Deadpool would have a handle on time travel from hanging out with Cable so much.

Each of the artists has a bit of a different approach to Kang's look. Franquiz has the mask part of his helmet be a lot wider, and gives him a very large grin. I kept thinking Kang's smile reminded of a DBZ villain, but I think it was Cui, which is not a compliment to Kang. Cui was cowardly chump who got killed by Vegeta of all people. Franquiz also drew Kang with an actual neck. Charm and Henderson both draw the helmet as extending all the way to the collarbone.

Henderson gives Kang a lot of hilarious and bizarre scrunchy-face looks. To be fair to Kang, by that point he's getting extremely frustrated by how much effort it's taking to ensure Squirrel Girl doesn't defeat him. Henderson also makes the green portions of his costume a lot baggier than the other two.

Charm makes the face mask part of the helmet smaller than the others, and mostly gives Kang an annoyed scowl. Except for that one panel where's he's smirking and claiming credit for some line J.M. Barrie wrote. I liked the scrambled look he gave Doreen after she got a satellite dropped on her. Franquiz' art is somewhere between Henderson and Charm's. Not nearly as slick and clean looking as Charm's, but not quite as rough and stripped-down as Henderson's. It's easier to feel like her characters and Henderson's are the same, though. Charm's tendency to slim everyone down runs against the other two artists' willingness to draw Doreen as being more round in the face.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #1, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Mingkyu Jung (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I kind of like the elongated look there, but you'd think she'd want to go smaller, for less wind resistance.

Kamala's trying to talk more with Nakia about the whole being a superhero thing, but has to get home, where she learns her mother finally told her father about the whole being a superhero thing. I wondered when we'd get to that. Pops tells her no more crimefighting, which Kamala promptly ignores because Bruno's being attacked by a wolfman who turns into goo. Then she fights a birdperson, same result. Then she gets home and both her parents turn into goo. Seems like an extreme approach to try and get your kid to obey you, but what do I know. I'm not a parent.

When Kamala smashes the bird guy, she morphs her fists so they have meat tenderizer like bumps on the end. Which is not a thing I can recall her ever doing. That's more of a Plastic Man thing, or Reed Richards at times. I guess her powers could still be evolving.

I was surprised it was still Ian Herring on the color work. Outside a few close-up panels here and there where he uses that familiar shade of yellow for a solid background, it didn't feel the same. Which is interesting, because Herring always seemed to help keep the previous volumes in a similar tone regardless of which of the many artists he was working with was doing that issue. Things tended to feel bright, but also soft. Gentle colors, which is not the vibe I got her.

Part of that might be deliberate for this particular story. Something is going on in Jersey City, and maybe that's an indication. Or it's just the direction Ahmed and Jung want to go with things. Jung's artwork is closer to what I'd think of a typical superhero comic style than most of the artists Herring and Wilson worked with. Jung doesn't really go the route of simplifying the style for exaggerated effect, doesn't add a bunch of cute or funny background details to give an element of the absurd to the action.

Again, could be a deliberate choice for this particular story. The same way the narration is from someone other than Kamala. Typically we've had her thoughts as she deals with whatever is going on, but since the story is being told by someone else, that isn't the case here. It plays up the difference between how she's perceived and how she is, as opposed to how she perceives things and how they're actually going. The alien telling the story probably wouldn't know about all the stuff that's usually hanging around when she fights villains, or wouldn't consider it relevant, so that's why it isn't in the story.

Which makes me wonder if Deathbringer or the two goo monsters actually looked anything like how we see them. Maybe they were tiny, silly animated stuffed animals, but the alien guy figures they must have been mighty beasts to challenge the great hero.

I guess we'll see what the next issue brings.