What I Bought 5/8/2019 - Part 3

We'll discuss the baseball outing with dad tomorrow. Spoiler alert: the lost. Booo. For now, two Marvel comics. One book's time is up with me, and it is not the one in the middle of a Big Event crossover, remarkably.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #44, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - The store didn't have any with the regular cover, so I wound up with the variant. Which is OK, but I liked the Erica Henderson cover a lot more.

Squirrel Girl and Ratatoskr defeat the two frost giants while Ratatoskr explains why she's willing to work together. Answer being, because Malekith is going to enforce a singular vision - his - over everything, and that's boring to a being that thrives on chaos. Better to help those fighting him. In an attempt to figure out where the main Frost Giant base is, the two visit the town they just saved to try and question the locals. Ratatoskr's attempt to pretend to be a regular human is even worse than Doreen's attempts to protect her secret identity, so things go downhill quickly.

I got a few laughs out of this issue, which is the most you can hope for with event tie-ins. Doreen's cover i.d. being a dowager when she had no idea what that meant, or the backstory "Rachel" made for herself, which Doreen nixed, but I think Rachel used it anyway. Plus, Rachel being confused about various aspects of English. It is a confusing muddle of a language. I didn't realize that Squirrel Girl makes the "Chrrrtt" sound when she whistles. I thought it was a vocalization she used to call squirrels.

I still really like the Arctic Gear alternate costume for Doreen. It's pretty nifty. I need to go back and compare, but I feel like Charm's version of Ratatoskr looks a little more goofy than Henderson's did. Having the big, bulging eyes looking in entirely different directions reminds me of early Daffy Duck, when he was more crazy than angry. Like I'd expect Ratatoskr to plant a wet one on someone then, laughing crazily before running off. Probably necessary softening of the edges so the two can have a team-up. Like when the Punisher agrees to use rubber bullets or whatever.

It took two readthroughs to realize that the first panel on page six is an Action Comics #1 homage, only with Jane Thor hefting Mangog's foot instead of a car, and the Freaking Out Guy commenting on how Mangog won't stop talking about how he has the power of a billion billion beings. Which is true. I think I own two comics that guy is in, and he never shuts up about that.

Still, our heroes are not making much progress towards repelling the invaders. Maybe next issue.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Nolan Woodward and Federico Blee (color artists), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Not sure why there's Kirby Crackle floating around on the cover, unless Spider-Bite is an imp from the 6th Dimension.

OK, Spider-Bite is not actually a new kid sidekick, or an imp from another dimension that just wants to be pals. Spidey is trying to do a nice thing for a sick kid, and so they set up a kind of play thing where they fight a bunch of Spidey's foes and protect the city from Spider-Man's greatest adversary. I recognized most of the members of the "Sinister Sixty", although there were a couple I have no clue about. There's a guy to the right of the Green Goblin's leg, in some kind of suit with a big emblem on it. The guy with their face in shadow of a purple cloak to the upper left, and the colorless guy to his right. Wait, the guy in the purple is The Swarm. Still no clue who the other two are. Eh, doesn't matter.

It's a nice issue, decent little one-off. The little bits and pieces are still my favorite stuff. Spidey's commentary on the mastermind, or how has one of his action figures, but won't take it out of the box. I agree with that kid, that's a waste. Play with the damn thing, or at least put it someplace you can look at it happily.

The fight scene doesn't look terribly dynamic, but that makes perfect sense once you understand exactly what's happening. There's a bit where the boy doesn't want to take a nap, which he shouts. The next panel is silent, and Cabal draws Spidey in the same position he was in two panels earlier, with his arms crossed over his chest and having a relaxed conversation. Except now the fingers of one hand have come up off the opposite arm. A little thing that suggests he was startled, and everyone is on edge now, because they aren't sure what to do.

It's the issue I enjoyed most so far, but I still don't think I'm sticking with it. We're going back to longer plotlines next month, and those haven't worked so well so far.