What I Bought 3/27/2019

I'm going to be out of town for the rest of the week. I may or may not have the chance to get on the Internet. Posts are set to go, but if you comment and I don't respond, that's why.

Today we've got two new books to look at. One's a first issue, and the other is the first issue of a new story arc on a book I haven't bought previously.

Dial H for Hero #1, by Sam Humphries (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - Do kids today even know how to use a rotary phone? is this one of those Youtube pranks like "watch a 5-year old react to a Game Boy"?

Young boy became a thrill-seeker after being rescued by Superman, but is stuck in dead end life with his uncle's mayo-themed food truck. Tries to jump Springfield Gorge on his bike, and as he falls to his death, a phone appears. He turns into a '90s hero, saves nothing and causes a lot of destruction. Then he and a girl he met earlier in the issue steal the food truck and leave town. Also, anyone who has used the dial before can sense when it's being used, so there are going to be people on the lookout. People like Lobo, Alfred, and Snapper Carr.

Might take my chances with Lobo. Nah, I can beat up Snapper with or without powers.

Quinones' art is nice, the colors are bright, the characters expressive. Although I've always thought his shading emphasizes cheeks too much. But it's a consistent thing so I get used to it. He does a good job mimicking the outward trappings of '90s art for the hero sequence, but he needs to be more inconsistent in terms of human proportions and anatomy from panel-to-panel. I like the white jacket Miguel wears when he's thrill-seeking. It comes off as brighter, more vividly colored than all the other clothes he and the everyday folks he interacts with do. The same is true of Superman when he appears, so it's like the jacket is Miguel's costume, the little bit of that world he's chasing he's able to get.

Humphries decides the first time his main character uses the dial he just smashes a bunch of cars, rather than doing anything actually heroic or useful. Interesting choice. Would certainly explain the reactions of all the costumed types who sense the dial being used. And there wasn't any indication Miguel wants to be a hero like Superman, he just wants the thrills at this point. So we'll see if that relates to what hero the H-Dial calls forth, and if Miguel can or even will want to try and use the dial more constructively. Hard to believe he's gonna be able to help save anyone at this point.

Infinity 8 #10, by Lewis Trondheim and Kris (writers), Martin Trystram (artist/color artist), Hubert (color artist) - Those earrings seem like they'd get caught on a lot of stuff.

Patty there on the cover is working undercover within a group called the Symbolic Guerrillas, actually trying to get info on a sentient talking fish's trafficking operations. But the spaceship they're on has run into trouble, and she's called in to investigate the problem in an alternate timeline. If she can produce a good result, they'll stay with that timeline. If not, they'll try another (this series is apparently a bunch of 3-issue arcs exploring the different timelines and agents they keep sending). The problem is a massive space graveyard, including at least one thing that glows green, and that someone planted a tracker on here. Is it the captain of the ship, the leader of the Symbolic Guerrillas, the talking fish?

There's a lot happening here. The weird space graveyard is the sort of thing that would normally command my attention, but I'm more curious about the Symbolic Guerrillas and what they're up to. Are they a weird artist movement, or a terrorist group, or what? There's a lot of drugs and free love, and Patty's outfit definitely looks like mid-to-late '70s, so I could see a Jonestown vibe. A mass suicide in a space graveyard would be. . . something, I guess. Also wondering how Patty's bad past experiences as some kind of an operative are going to factor in. Getting used by scumbags to enrich themselves under the illusion of nobler means.

I don't think I've ever seen Martin Trystram's art before, but they way he draws one character's eyes when he's out of his head on drugs is really familiar somehow. Most of the aliens fall into a basic bipedal shape, other than the captain of the ship, but there's a wide variety of designs. Every different part of the ship has its own color scheme, from the green in the fish guy's office, the the soft purple in the Guerrillas base thing, to a deep blue in the ship's command section. The parts where Patty is out in space have a deep blue/purple vibe going. Makes everything distinct, even if I'm not at all sure what effect Trystram's going for with each one.