What I Bought 10/12/2019 - Part 1

I am sort of doing Sketchtober this year. No theme, other than trying to draw some stuff I've had in mind for some time. And pretty much just drawing when I feel like it. Which, granted, means I'd only done 5 pieces as of last Saturday. I'll try to pick it up in the second half of the month, I guess.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Joey Vazquez and Alex Arizmendi (artists), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That's not a good place for Kamala to be.

Kamala, Nakia, and Zoe are brought to the Rubicon factories, to meet the boss, who tells people to call him Uncle Brett. Kamala's suit gets her free of some shackles, but they have to run when it turns out "Brett" has some sort of contact-based mind control powers. Actually, he's some sort of monster. Lots of faces and eyes. If he had more teeth I'd say he could have come out of John Carpenter's The Thing. He tries to absorb Kamala, but she's been watching some DragonBall Z and flares her ki aura to blast him apart. Or maybe she grows really fast? Not at all clear on what exactly she did, but neither was Brett, so maybe that's by design. Something is going on with the new suit that Kamala's not clear on, because she almost crushed Josh. Oh no, she almost crushed the whiny baby, how awful, he said in the flattest, least sympathetic tone you can imagine.

Not a lot of fighting zombies in this story I had the impression was going to be about fighting zombies. That said, watching Kamala kick the crap out of Discord and Lockdown with relatively little difficulty was fun. Especially while they're trying to talk trash and/or complain about how their current status is her fault, as opposed to them being fascist losers. Ahmed's really expanding the ways Kamala can use her powers, since she pulls out the old "make your arm into a slingshot" bit Reed Richards uses sometimes. I guess it ties into the idea of her powers evolving, the way she used to be able to change her appearance.

The art shifts from Vazquez to Arizmendi in the last 5 pages, right as Brett shows his true form. Arizmendi's style is a bit simpler than Vazquez's so all the additional faces on Brett's body look less like anguished souls in torment, and more almost silly. It still works, although I thought being enveloped looked more gross than terrifying. I guess it would be both either way, although the space inside Brett just ends up looking like some purple void with bluish goo floating in it. I do like the increasing size of the panels as you move down the page and everything closes in on Kamala before she's able to break free.

My favorite panel is Kamala punching Lockdown in the face and telling her to shut it. Doesn't seem like it knocked Lockdown very far away, though. She was maybe a step or two in front of Josh before the punch, and she's still about even with him after, and already shooting at Kamala. I guess her suit was built to handle Kamala and her powers.

Anyway, I think I'm done with this book. Even the stuff I like comes with qualifiers.

Gwenpool Strikes Back #3, by Leah Williams (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Carmagna (letterer) - I like that Williams at least references in-story that Dodson plays up Gwen's chest more than Baldeon (or any other artist I can remember) does. Might as well use it.

Gwen escapes from Sue and Reed by terrifying David Baldeon while he's drawing the page so his coffee spills into the panel and soaks them. Wade thanks himself for giving her a sales boost, and then leaves. Apparently he's not mad about her unmasking Spider-Man any more. Or he forgot about it already. Gwen reads her sales figures and learns readers prefer her to be evil. Says who? So, she lures a bunch fo heroes to an island under some fake "kid's dying wish is to see heroes play beach volleyball" plan, then reveals they're all going to have to fight for their lives so she can prove she's a real threat. Or something. Then she shoots Bruce Banner in the head. He comes back of course, since that's his shtick, but he winds up as Gwen's opponent. Which she didn't plan for I guess? Whoops.

I laughed a lot. Gwen charging right through her speech balloon to escape Wade. Her use of her retcon power to both capture Banner and make sure there's a cash prize. Tony taking advantage of the rules to punch Steve Rogers in the face, only to have the "I forfeit" bit not save him in time. Although Baldeon kind of fucked it up, since Steve is clearing throwing a left jab in the first panel, but connects with a right cross in the next. Unless Steve was able to hit him twice before it kicked in. That doesn't seem likely. Reed Richards with a stretched out face and wet hair is kinda weird looking. Like a sad, shaggy dog. Sue looks more like cat, extremely pissed off about this indignity. Squirrel Girl asking to leave because Gwen won't look good if she loses to her.

I don't really agree that Gwen's better when she's bad. "Wild card" is much more interesting, and can be used in a lot of different ways. Versatility is key! It's why Ben Grimm and Spider-Man were both able to sustain team-up books for so long. You can plug them into almost any situation, deep space, street crime, weird magic crap, and they can fit. Also because they were already extremely popular characters. Doom's a great character because he has just enough nobility to be unpredictable. And that's kind of what Gwen's doing here, a little. She's doing anything she can to survive, but she isn't thinking ahead about any of it, so the consequences are getting away from her. Granted that most of it is leaning towards bad - unmasking Spidey, pissing off Deadpool, pissing off the Hulk - but it wouldn't always have to go that route.

Who knows, maybe Gwen will do something good to fix all this stuff at the end? Or at least try to fix all this stuff. I wouldn't put good odds on her getting it right, as opposed to fouling things up.