What I Bought 7/19/2019 - Part 1

Hopefully the heat wave is over by the time this post goes up. It's 9 am Saturday as I type, and my AC is trying to keep it at 80 right now. Summer is easily my least favorite of the seasons. Considering how much I hate driving in ice and snow, that's saying something.

Of the four books from last week I actually found, two of them were mini-series on their final issues. So let's start with those.

Ghost Tree #4, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - "Get off my poorly landscaped lawn," says old man.

Through Brandt, Arami, and Brandt's grandfather's efforts, the demon is put at rest. Which just leaves picking up the pieces. Brandt delivers a message to his grandmother, says goodbye to Arami, and goes home to save his marriage! Yeah, about that. . .

It's not the ending I expected, but it makes a sense. Brandt ran from his present into his past. The place he enjoyed as a kid, when he didn't have responsibilities. Even met his teenage girlfriend, the first love and all. It wasn't forever, like his grandfather, who preferred to stay at the tree rather than participate in his marriage. Maybe a week. But as Alice notes when Brandt comes home, her life didn't just stop while he was gone.

I'm not clear if she's saying she met someone else while he was gone or just did some thinking. I'm also curious that she says they've done this so many times before when Brandt starts to say he knows they can make it works. Brandt said they never talked about things, because she'd make a cutting remark, and he'd just leave. Apparently Alice saw it differently.

The interior walls of their house are colored this bluish-grey, just a little darker than their fridge, and it makes everything colder. The tones are washed out a bit, I think, everything is less lively than it was back around the tree and the old house. Brandt tried to come back to his life, but it isn't there any longer. In most of the other conversations in the issue, Gane will draw both characters in the same panel, and usually at least parts of both faces are visible. Here, there are a lot more panels of just one character, and even when both are in the panel, we're usually viewing things from behind someone's shoulder, so we can't see their reaction. The positioning plays up the distance between them.

Well, shit, now I'm depressed. Thanks a lot, Ghost Tree.

Domino: Hotshots #5, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (artists), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Later that day, the Celestials were charged with third-degree creepy peeping by the Living Tribunal. They were sentenced to have their teapcup head designs repainted by an over-caffeinated class of second graders. The other Cosmic Bigwigs laughed at them for the next 3 billion years.

The attempt to fight the lady with Celestial power directly goes badly, but the White Fox shows up having somehow acquired the cosmic doohicky Stark was supposed to dispose of. Guess if you want something shot into the Sun, you have to do it yourself. Or ask the Sentry. On second thought, do it yourself. Never contact the Sentry.

Domino gets a boost from the doohicky, briefly considers what she could do with it, but refrains from trying to act like a god because all mutants know about the Dark Phoenix. I guess she's hung around the X-Men enough to have heard about that. Always hard to tell how the rumor mill works with the X-folks. The actual conflict boils down to punching, just punching with glowier fists than normal. I guess the important part was deciding to only use the power to stop Geun, rather than start judging humanity. Deal with the immediate problem, not by killing her, just stopping her long enough she'll calm down, then giving up the power.

One thing I notice is that other characters have to keep asserting that Domino's worthwhile. Sometimes to us, but a lot of times to her. Black Widow pointing out this is why she came to Domino with this, rather than the Avengers. White Fox insisting Domino's the one who should use the Constellation's power. I had never pegged Domino as one with self-esteem issues, but maybe that's because most of the time, she's either working alone, or as part of a group where she's not in charge. Cable's the boss, Domino is the one that reins him in as needed. Being the one in the big chair is different, and having people actually trust your decision-making when it comes to them is weird.

Alex told me a few weeks back he expects me to plan his bachelor party, and while I pointed out expecting me to plan any party is a terrible idea, he seemed entirely confident I'd figure out something good.

Shelfer draws the last two-thirds of the issue, so things look more ragged than on the pages Baldeon draws. Which isn't bad, for the parts of the fight on the boat, where the Hotshots are getting stomped. Domino's Celestial design is fairly cool. The way it's drawn and colored reminds me of Daimon Scott's work a bit in the angle of the eyes and the shading on the skin, where it has this almost plastic texture to it. That said, Shelfer has this particular face he draws, when characters are supposed to be smiling at one another, where it comes off as a vacant look. Diamondback makes that face at Outlaw right before they dive in after Domino and it's like no one is home.