What I Bought 3/17/2021 - Part 1

Between the relatively few books I'm getting, and it being a five-Wednesday March, it's been, not feast or famine, more moderately-filling snack and famine? But there were three comics this week, and I even managed to get all three. So let's look at the two first issues I picked up.

Black Knight #1, by Si Spurrier (writer), Sergio Davila (penciler), Sean Parsons (inker), Arif Prianto (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Huh, the little wings on his gloves actually project out from them.

Spurrier's big retcon to Dane Whitman and the Ebony Blade during King in Black was that it isn't the blade that taints Dane, it's that the blade actually is powered by all the ugly emotions inside the person wielding it. If you're too nice or good or whatever, you won't be able to draw on its full power, and possibly can't even pick it up. Thor, for example, can't pull it out of the ground at one point in this issue, which, I dunno. Thor's been pretty full of violence and ego over the centuries. He's no Boy Scout.

Dane is trying to decide what to do about this. Can he be a hero, if he's only useful when he embraces the Dark Side? Is spending time worrying about this of any use? The Avengers are presented as barely tolerating him (I mean, Captain America refers to him as their 'W.M.D.', which is just bizarre when Thor and Carol Danvers are standing right there). He's contacted some history student to try and help him dig into the history of the blade, but thinks maybe that's pointless, too.

Then he gets his head cut off. It's not a permanent thing, though.

 

I feel like Spurrier's going too far afield with the character, but the only two times I've really read much of Dane Whitman were the Stern/Buscema Avengers, and that '90s Heroes for Hire series Ostrander wrote. So it's been a while. And I guess being leader of the Avengers during one of their least fondly remembered eras could do things to a person's self-confidence.

I don't really like Dane having the cape with the fur-lining trim. Looks like it would be heavy and in the way. But hell, he's already wearing a suit of armor, how much more weighed down can he get? The changes to the armor when he lets himself go are kind of cool. More jagged, more points and spikes. He's going to use his trauma in an entirely unhealthy way, and the armor's going to reflect that by becoming more aggressive looking.

Other than that, I like that when we see Dane's bedroom, he's seemingly taken a swipe at every item in there with the sword at some point. Walls, doors, couches. Also there's a mannequin that's either Sir Percy of Scandia or Forbush man holding a broom against one wall. No slashes in it, interestingly enough.

Midnight Western Theatre #1, by Louis Southard (writer), David Hahn (artist), Ryan Cody (colorist), Buddy Beaudoin (letterer) - It would seem, if you're sunlight sensitive enough to need an umbrella, that you should keep your giant bat wings in the shadows.

A gang led by a goon named Red Tom kills everyone in town, children included. The bartender gets to live, though. Then in walk the pair on the cover, although the guy is significantly less imposing since he's whining about being thirsty and how they always do what she wants to do. Tom ultimately shoots the guy (Alexander) in the head. Then the lady (Ortensia), stabs him in the hand and lights the bar on fire. Not because he shot Alex - who is fine, if annoyed - but because of all the other murdering. Alex gets his drink, Red Tom gets shot, and they're on their way.

Southard doesn't waste much time getting down to it. The first two pages are set 20 years earlier, Ortensia somewhere out west with her father, and then it's onto cold-blooded children murdering (off-panel, for the record). And by the end of the issue, the threat of Mad Tom's gang is dealt with, but we get the opportunity to see a bit of Alexander and Ortensia's personalities and relationship, which raises plenty of questions. Why are they traveling together? What's Alex' need to get to the coast? Where'd Ortensia get that horse? What's the significance of the white owl that watched the kids get killed (assuming there is one)?

But I like the two main characters well enough. They play off each other, and I want to learn more about them, so that has to be considered a plus.

 

It's funny how much less dangerous Alexander looks inside the comic versus the cover. Even when Hahn draws him with his wings out near the end of the issue, most of the time he's unimpressive. A little short than Red Tom, skinny and kind of socially awkward. The way Beaudoin letters his dialogue makes it seem like he talks in a constant whisper (although the font size, combined with the white letters against a black speech bubble is kinda hard to read.) He's like either a sheltered child, or an absent-minded museum director. The sort of guy who gets punched in the face, and loudly wonders why you punched him in the face.

Now Ortensia looks fairly cool either way. The bowler hat (or is it too short for a bowler? A derby?), the vest, the white streak in the hair, a couple of facial scares. Hahn makes those more prominent than Andrasofszky does on the cover, but then Hahn makes the white stripes on her pants much narrower than they are on the cover. I think I prefer the light and dark being equivalent, but it might be more symbolic that there's only a bit of white here and there.

The next issue's supposed to be out in June, according to the back of this comic. Hopefully the solicits for June back that up when I get to actually see them.