What I Bought 9/13/2019 - Part 2

It's been 90 degrees here all week. Guess I should get used to that state of affairs, but I would rather complain futilely about it. Where's my autumn? At least the temperature is supposed to moderate this weekend. it's Alex' birthday, so it'd be nice to not feel trapped inside.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #48, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist/trading card artist), Michael Cho and Doc Shanher (trading card artists), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Doom is unimpressed by Squirrel Girl's ability to cradle Iron Man's unconscious body.

The villains all agree to work together until Squirrel Girl is defeated, then it's everyone for themselves. Totally sure none of them will try to jump the gun on that! Doreen advises the villains attacking her at school that this is a bad idea, and they give up. Traveling to what's left of Doreen and Nancy's apartment, they find Mew did not get blown up. Hooray! Then they track Melissa to the park, where she spends the rest of the issue monologuing about how she hired someone to tamper with Iron Man's armor so she can hijack it, and how she let Brain Drain send off that message and blah, blah.

OK, "Iron Ring" is not a great name, but not even Melissa can bat 1.000. It is impressive how much time she's spent maneuvering and preparing for this moment, although I'm not sure we needed roughly 6 pages of her talking about it. Less chat, more splat, lady.

During the scene where the cast is rushing to Doreen and Nancy's apartment, there's one panel where they leap from what I assume is a building that is just below the border of the panel, but between the way that's laid out, and the next panel where they're off in the distance above seemingly empty space, it looks like they jumped off air. Or an invisible building. Maybe it's Melissa's secret lair! I hope they remember to go back and check that out later!

I did enjoy the three panels of Doreen and Nancy gawking at the assembled villains, and then Doreen hands Nancy their respective trading cards so she (and the audience) can all get familiar with these bad guys. Also the fact that on the final page, it looks like Tony is trying to fight Taskmaster by throwing rocks at him. Not a boulder, mind you, just ordinary rocks. While fighting in his Iron Man boxer shorts, which I call bullshit on. Everyone knows Tony Stark would have special-made boxers with his own face on them. Iron Man boxers are for everyone else.

Giant Days #54, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (color artist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I don't remember if I threw my cap in the air at my high school graduation. I didn't attend the ceremony when I got either of my degrees. The fact I didn't have to was something I was very pleased about when my mom told me. Pay a bunch of money for a stupid gown and sit there sweating for hours to get a piece of paper that tells me something I already know? Hell with that.

Esther and Daisy bunk with Susan for the 6 weeks between the end of their classes and receiving their degrees. Esther didn't clear this plan with her parents before having them haul her stuff home, so that's awkward. When they notice the back tattoo she got first year they didn't know about either, that makes things worse. Also, her influence has got Susan thinking about stealing all the diplomas for herself. So many useless degrees! Ed got himself a haircut, and a job at a bank. Poor Ed, bad luck right to the end. Daisy got a job working on historic sites for the city council, but must avoid the tomb of Derek Dooley. Well now I have to know what's in it! There are tearful farewells and that's it, until next month's "One Year Later" one-off

Daisy's whole hypothesis about what could potentially end their friendship came from left field, but I've had some notions like that during conversations before, so I can't talk. I like that Allison touched on the recent passing of McGraw's father (part of the reason there was room for Esther and Daisy was he went home to help his mother for a while). That's not the sort of thing that just resolves itself quickly and neatly, not in the legal sense or the emotional one. Dean Thompson got a one-panel send off from Esther that was all he deserved, but not all that I wanted him to get.

Susan's video-game version of herself is hilarious, and the bizarre, mini-Susan Daisy envisions as a product of an affair between McGraw and Esther is adorable. If you set aside the part where she pictures them giving the child cigarettes. There's no way McGraw would be so irresponsible! There's one panel of Esther's mum freaking out about the tattoo where I love the postures. her mouth is wide open (as are her eyes), and her hands are in her hair, while Esther scrambles to put her dress on, and you can only see one big, embarrassed eyes peering out. It captures the moment so well. I am going to miss Max Sarin's artwork so much.