What I Bought 3/4/2021

Well, I hoped to also get the last issue of Sympathy for No Devils when I swung by the store last week, but no dice. So we'll just look at the two comics I did manage to get. The theme this week is Wolverine guest appearances! Are they gratuitous? Maybe!

Power Pack #4, by Ryan North (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Wolverine smiling like that creeps me out. Also, if he's about to stab a dude, that is not the best place for Jack to be perched.

The other Power kids use what little power they've got left to bust free and keep Julie from dying horribly. Unfortunately, that means they're basically out of power, against the Wizard, who has all their powers, and is talking a bunch of shit about it. Katie's got a little left and actually tries to kill him, to their extreme concern of her siblings, but the dude can move at lightspeed, so good luck with that.

He talks some more junk about how they're dumb, and he's great, and that's why he should have this power, and then he flies off. The kids yell at each other, Julie puts forth a highly questionable theory that while the Wizard drained their powers, some of his personality went into them and that's why Katie's trying to murder people and complaining about how adults have screwed everything up for them. Or she's justifiably pissed about how adults have, in fact, screwed everything up for them.

Deciding they a) need help, and b) still need a mentor, they leave a note at the Krakoan embassy for Logan, and he shows up at their apartment, where the kids introduce him as "Dr. Brucie Mansworth", and tell their parents an extremely convincing story about how he tutors children from kindergarten up to college. I really hope their parents are just playing along, because no one can be that stupid. 

 

North wants us to take Julie's explanation for them being angry at face value, but it really just sounds like someone who doesn't want to admit they're angry they fucked up and wants to blame it on something else. I mean, she's chastising Jack for saying "frig", I'm pretty sure she's just grasping at any control of the situation she can manage.

Is the Wolverine appearance gratuitous? Well, he doesn't do much of anything here, and I feel like Katie just as easily could have contacted Shadowcat, so for the moment, yes.

Runaways #34, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunnifee (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Here we see Molly following in the proud tradition of Shadowcat and Jubilee by already being taller than Logan by the age of 13.

So Molly did check out Krakoa on their official website, and the X-men (or whoever) did receive two e-mails from Griffith Park. One asking to be picked up, the second telling them to stay away if they know what's good for them. So they assumed it was Molly, until Chase points out Griffith Park is over 4,000 acres, so there's probably more than one damn mutant living there.

Good to see Krakoa has failed to solve the issue of bureaucratic incompetence, in addition to the issue of populating your government with fucking war criminals and the equivalent. So much for mutants finding a better way.

The X-jerks prepare to leave, while doing a piss-poor job apologizing (another thing mutants apparently haven't improved upon), when Molly insists she's going to help find this other mutant. They find a suspiciously vacant lot, then march into an invisible passage to some empty mist-covered place, where they all get attacked by monsters.

Hey, Chase actually found something he can fight without getting his ass whooped! I'm frankly disappointed by that.

Nico does a spell that disperses the void and reveals a big mansion and all of the sudden she and Pixie are into each other? I have made no bones of the fact I don't get relationships where you just show the characters fighting and arguing constantly, but even allowing for that, this development makes no goddamn sense. And I have no idea if I'm supposed to know who the Legolas-looking guy we keep seeing each time Nico uses her magic is supposed to be. If he's shown up previously in this run, I haven't bought that tpb yet.

 

Rowell seems to be hinting that Molly might be getting frustrated their her friends are still treating her like a kid, instead of an equal. Chase tells her if he and Nico decide she needs to leave the search for this missing mutant, that's it. I know they legally adopted her, but I imagine that gets a little frustrating. Especially considering Molly is stronger and more capable than probably either of them. Certainly more so than Chase.

That said, if she's thinking maybe Krakoa would be better, she's got another thing coming. I'm pretty sure she'll get dismissed even more readily there, based on the bits I've seen from the current New Mutants run. Gabby (aka, Honey Badger/Scout) is not having a good time.

I like Genolet's designs for the monsters. They're sort of generic, with the yellow eyes, and the teeth, and a couple of them have mechanical parts, but I think that's the point. This was a defense system, probably generated by someone's mind, and they defaulted a sort of basic "Scary Monster" look.

Is the Wolverine appearance gratuitous? Well, as he notes, almost anyone would have been a better choice to send on this mission than him. He clearly doesn't want to be there, and spends all the time he's not fighting monsters rolling his eyes and making sarcastic comments. So I'm going to say "no", because it's a good representation of how poorly Krakoa is being run, and that's why Molly should stay far away.