Did you know there are Skittles freezer pops now? I found that out this week, when the coworker without respect for peoples' personal space brought some in. Not sure the world was crying out for that product, but it probably wasn't crying out for the Starburst jelly beans either, and I do love those. Anyway, the other two books from last month. A second issue and a first issue.
There's a brief bit at the beginning with Frank Castle interrogating drug dealers, then doing what he usually does with drug dealers, but most of this issue is focused on getting to know Kevin a little better. His uncle is apparently super-villain gear supplier the Tinkerer, and Kevin sometimes sneaks into places with suspected super-science activities and steals things for him, for money. When he isn't leading tour groups, or listening in on the Thing and the Human torch discuss the merits of scary books versus scary movies. But he has some larger role to play in whatever's coming, although the people watching him don't seem terribly impressed.
That's pretty much the issue, bar a brief fight between a hero and a villain in the capital city of Siancong, where a bunch of weird shadowy tendrils erupt from a building. So there's a bit of plot advancement in this issue, but mostly it's about getting to know Kevin Schumer. Which makes sense. If he's going to be important, we need to care about him. I don't know if him helping the Tinkerer is the way to do that, but it's an approach to take.
I feel like Cinar's Frank Castle looks too young. I know, he's not a Vietnam vet any longer, but he could still look grizzled. Castle should probably look old before his time, or that kind of old where he could anywhere from 40 to 70, you know? But the Tinkerer also look a bit younger than I'm used to. I was trying to think who he reminded me of, and I finally decided it's Stan Pines from Gravity Falls. Which, there are worse fictional characters to resemble than one that successfully rocks a fez.
I do think my initial impression after issue 1 was correct. This is going to read better as whole once it's done. When you can see how all the different pieces fit and built. Like I said then, I have pretty high confidence in Kurt Busiek to be able to do that successfully.
So a stereotypical pervy old master brings his granddaughter to the zoo. While he's distracted hitting on a lady, Yuki goes to stare at pandas, but refuses to share her ice cream with one of the babies. What's more, she taunts the panda. When the panda gets some ice cream while she's distracted, she reaches through the bars, grabs its skull and bites part of its ear off. The granddad pulls her off and does the vanish in a smoke cloud trick, and the baby panda shortly thereafter escapes from the zoo. Flash forward ten years, Yuki's getting put through ninja training before school, or training for School Olympics, and that's as far as it gets.
So, we all know who I'm rooting for here. I mean, biting a panda's ear partially off? Shouldn't you throw her in jail for harming an endangered species?
The story has the potential to be a lot of things. It feels like it might turn into almost a Road Runner/Wil E. Coyote thing, with the panda constantly trying to take revenge and failing at every turn. Yuki could be either oblivious and simply avoid danger on instinct from her training, or actually know there's a panda after her. Or it could become a violent revenge fantasy story where the panda brutally slaughters all her acquaintances until Yuki is the Last Girl, Final Girl, whatever that term is.
Jones' art definitely has manga influence to it. Linework on the characters is thick, makes them stand out against what are mostly soft focus backgrounds. The surroundings don't get a lot of emphasis. His shading is more varied or graded when he's trying to convey some momentous thing. The first page, when the narrator is intoning about rivalry and showing all these different people fighting each other, and later when Yuki and the Panda have a staredown and a wind appears from seemingly nowhere.
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