What I Bought 9/18/2019 - Part 1

While I was on the road last week, I managed to pick up three of the four books that were out I wanted, which was better than I thought I'd do. That was a nice development in the midst of all the heat and my allergies going haywire again. Really hope I'm nearing the end of that difficulty for the year.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #7, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Joez Vazquez (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nakia strikes me as someone who drives aggressively without realizing it. She gets on a tirade about something and all the while she's crossing three lanes at a time without signaling.

Kamala's in one of those stretches where the personal life aspects are suffering. Grades are down, father sick, late for school, needs to join an extracurricular, unresolved romantic tension with Bruno, all that jazz. So Zoe and Nakia take her on a road trip to the place with the best gyros in New Jersey. But the place is only full of wage zombies from a nearby company, who quickly surround them, and then Josh and that annoying redheaded fascist girl show up.

As far as recurring enemies of Kamala's go, they aren't the Inventor, but they're better than the sentient computer program. Because she can punch them. Although first we'll have to listen to them whine about how all their misfortune is Kamala's fault.  At least Josh already got his in this issue. No we'll just have to sit through Lockdown's next month.

Vazquez' style reminds me of Sara Pichelli's from when she was drawing Ultimate Spider-Man. Crisp look to the characters, not a lot of excess lines. Everything and everyone looks fairly clean and not necessarily a lot of background detail, It works. I like the liquid (tears?) running from all the zombies eyes, if you figure they're victims being abused by their bosses. Nakia says Rubicon "bought the whole town", and you wonder how accurate that is. Of course, all the zombies also have the liquid running from their mouths, which is gross rather than sad, but oh well.

The color work from the diner until the end was really nice. A lot of purples and oranges on the horizon, as we move towards dusk. The way the town or the trees are just shadowy outlines all around, with no hint of what's there. It's capturing that horror movie feel of being in dangerous, unknown territory as it's about to get very dark.

Test #4, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - I'd say Aleph has stuck their neck in out, but it might be they need to push the rest of themselves through, too.

The person who asked Aleph to lead them last time may actually be Aleph, but a future version. Or someone who can look like them. That doesn't exactly reassure, so Aleph runs from place to place, through mirror after mirror, through some of their memories, and eventually they meet a personification of the town of Laurelwood itself. The town was able to access the future, but bringing pieces of it here only excited people as to the commercial possibilities, instead of scaring them. At the moment, all the different forces are burning the city to the ground in a struggle for dominance, but that doesn't seem relevant, as Laurel and Aleph are planning to do something, but it requires Aleph to die. Again, because this isn't the first time Laurel's tried this.

So everything that's happened with Aleph has been an attempt by Laurel to make him ready for whatever it is the city plans to do with their access to the future? Like, going all the way back to childhood, or just since Aleph started trying to modify themselves? And it's been attempt after attempt after attempt? Or is that all those times Aleph thinks they should have died, they actually did, but Laurel's winding it back somehow? Laurel said the future isn't a place you can go, but I don't know that means the same is true of the past.

Yes, I'm fumbling here. I really don't grasp what Sebela's going for here, beyond Aleph trying to figure out what they really want and why, and how difficult that can be for someone else to understand. Laurel admits they never know what to say to help Aleph understand, and that they can't grasp why Aleph wants to not exist so badly. I feel like Aleph's line about "sapes" barely being able to exist now is and that being off the board entirely is the only way to be is just another cover. It's easier to pretend not to care, speaking as someone with experience in that viewpoint.

The weird in-between space is kind of nifty. A whole lot darkness, except there's something that reminds me of lungs sitting in the middle of a field of weird mushroom things. Everything has a soft blue tint, like the mushroom things are giving off the light. You could see it being almost soothing in spite of how weird it is. At least no one is chasing after Aleph or trying to attack him there, right? But it's still off to Aleph, enough they feel they have to run, even if there's no place to run to exactly. And hiding seems futile from something that can see you anywhere, since you're within it, sort of.

As a man once said, Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass. True enough. Maybe I'll be able to make sense of it after next month. But probably not.