Any Elsewhere But There

Elsewhere volume 1 (collecting the first 4 issues) starts with Cort and Tavel escaping from prison, only to stumble across a woman dangling from a parachute in a tree. A woman who calls herself Amelia Earhart. A name that means nothing to them, because this is Korvath, not Earth. Amelia just wants to find her navigator, Fred Noonan, but everyone's a little busy trying to rebel against Lord Kragen at the moment.

The basic set-up reminds me a lot of Lost Planet, a 6-issue mini-series Bo Hampton published through Eclipse back in the late '80s. Both stories even include DB Cooper, who doesn't look like Adam West at all. Newsradio lied to me! Jay Faerber makes Earhart the central character here, while Hampton created a treasure hunter character to be the protagonist.

The plot really zips along for just four issues. Earhart meets Cort and Tavel, gets herself captured to try and rescue Fred, but finds Cooper instead. They escape, join the resistance Cort and Tavel are part of, escape flesh-eating insects that don't seem native and find evidence other people from Earth have visited. They attack Kragen's fortress, seemingly defeat him, and Amelia learns what happened to Fred. The pace works against the big reveal in issue 4, because Faerber hasn't had enough time to establish the emotional connection to make us care. He does succeed in making Kragen's motivations make sense. They aren't deep, but suitably petty for a tyrant. (I'm being vague to try and avoid spoilers.)

Most of the cast don't get much more than bare bones characterization. Cort is more noble and heroic. The one who interrupts his escape from prison to investigate calls for help. Tavel is the friend who goes along with it, but grumbles the whole time. Man after my own heart. There's a guard who helps Amelia and DB escape that tries to pass herself off as just doing it for money, but it seems like there might be something deeper there with her. Hopefully we see her again.

Sumeyye Kesgin goes with the Star Trek approach to alien species. Same basic body type as Earthlings, but some head ornamentation. Cort's people are furry and have facial markings, Kragen's are green and have bull horns on the sides of their heads. Kragen's forces aren't the same as Cort and Tavel, though they seem to be native to the planet. Likewise, the buildings are a bit different in style, but still generally recognizable. It's more they're built into the natural terrain, than on it. There are these odd rocky spires, seemingly too narrow to be as tall as they are, and Kragen's fortress looks as though it was carved directly from one. The resistance live on natural ledges on trees in a forest. It's enough, combined with Ron Riley's colors, to give the landscape somewhat of an alien feel, but not so much you expect Amelia would spend all her time just gawking at stuff.

Kesgin goes weirder with the "steeds", large, vaguely gargoyle-looking animals. They're also empathic, and Amelia forms an almost immediate bond with one, surprising Cort and Tavel. Maybe it's the little tuft of fur at the tip of an otherwise smooth tail, but they seem like something you might see in a Dr. Seuss story, albeit with big, pointy teeth.

I should have the other four issues by the end of this week. I'm curious to see whether Amelia gets home, or how many other people, from Earth or wherever she happens across. Whether Cort learns what happened to the friend he's seeking.

Sunday Splash Page #207

 

"88-mm Wake-Up Call," in G.I. Combat #148, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Russ Heath (artist), John Costanza (letterer), colorist uncredited

Another of DC's war titles my dad was apparently very fond of, although this'll be the last one we see for a few years. All of the issues I can recall him having were in the stretch from #137 to this issue. Only missed the crew's Stuart tank being destroyed by about three issues. This is actually the last of a five-issue run where it was "BIG G.I. Combat", because they were doing double-sized issues (for only a quarter). Mostly by rerunning stories from earlier issues.

For example, other than the story above, this issue has four other comics, ranging from 5 to 19 pages, that originally ran in the late 1950s or early 1960s (this issue came out in 1971). But at this point, the odds that there were many kids reading G.I. Combat in '71, that had been reading DC's comics in 1960 were low. My dad would be an example, since I don't think he was buying comics at that point. 

It gives you an interesting mix of writers and artists. Here's a Bob Haney story about some Navy scuba guys running into a bunch of weird traps. Here's Mort Drucker drawing a Korean War story. Here's an older Haunted Tank story with Joe Kubert art.

You can see more of a formula in some of the earlier stories. The Joe Kubert drawn Haunted Tank has that structure where the central premise is laid out (the ghost of Jeb Stuart makes a prophetic warning about the crew's lives hinging on one shot), and then they keep getting in confrontations with either seem to disprove the prophecy, or fulfill it, while there's an element whose purpose hasn't been shown yet (an old French soldier sitting by the window in a small town). 

That's not quite as prevalent by the early 1970s. The story this week's page is from is about the crew being placed under the command of a new general who insists they all be clean-shaven and showered when going into combat. Because it's professional. There's not really the same structure. The Haunted Tank wins a fight, the general scoffs at their appearance, they clean up, they win a bigger fight later where the general ends up looking like, 'he just stepped out of the coal bucket, sir.' It's almost more like a sitcom, with the final panel being the general getting a one-liner about why it's OK if he looks like a bum.

The Haunted Tank had been the lead feature in the book since at least issue 90, and held that position until pretty much the book ended. Although there's a brief stretch in the 260s where it looks like DC tried to pivot to a trio called "The Mercenaries" as the lead. There was a crew shift, as one guy died and was replaced by a black American G.I. who I think they met previously when he worked at an ammo depot (issue 141, which I have.) Of course, then you have the awkward bit where you've got a black man fighting in a tank supposedly blessed by the ghost of a Confederate general, but Jeb was the only one who could see or hear his namesake, so maybe it's just a matter of everyone else thinking their boss is a bit daffy.

Saturday Splash Page #9

 

"Everybody Flee the Bald Guy in the Sky," in X-Men First Class (vol. 1) #1, by Jeff Parker (writer), Roger Cruz (penciler), Victor Olazaba (inker), Val Staples (colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer)

Predating the movie of the same name by about 5 years, this was a sort of all-ages, 8-issue mini-series focusing on the original 5 X-Men. Before a morally compromised Hank McCoy dragged them into our present day as a way to try and shame a wildly radicalized Scott Summers. Yeah, the years were not kind to any of them.

Of course, as it predates the movie and his creation as a character, there is a disappointing lack of a Mr. Sinister that looks like Kevin Bacon and dresses like a pimp. Seriously, with all the movie synergy Marvel does, why did they never make Mr. Sinister look more like Kevin Bacon?

Ahem, where was I? Right, the comic. I don't know precisely where in the early X-Men years this is set. It's definitely after Amazing Spider-Man #6, as issue 2 involves Xavier and the team going to check on his old buddy Curt Conners in Florida and the Lizard had already fought Spider-Man once by that point.

Parker doesn't spend a lot of time on the teens dealing with typical X-Men stuff. Magneto doesn't show up, the Juggernaut only does in some weird mental landscape created by Xavier's brain. Instead, they fight the Lizard, Iceman gets kidnapped by people who worship Ymir, so Thor shows up. Dr. Strange pops up as a follow-up to some adventure involving him, Jean, Scott and the Juggernaut. Warren and the Scarlet Witch have a tenuous romance as best they can given Wanda's overbearing brother. The last issue is a team-up with Gorilla Man, which Parker referenced in X-Men vs. Atlas.

All the stories are done-in-one, which is nice, and beyond trying to show their progression in control of their powers and ability to function without Xavier, Parker tries to broaden their personalities beyond what they got back in the '60s. Iceman gets played as the goofy kid most of the time, but Warren's actually the one who struggles the most to pay attention in class, as he wants to get outside a fly a lot. Jean's powers are maybe the most abstract, and the ones increasing the fastest, so her self-confidence and assertiveness tend to fluctuate a bit based on how things are going. Basic stuff, but it makes them feel like more well-rounded characters.

The Cruz/Olazaba/Staples art team handles all 8 issues. Cruz can handle the action sequences just fine, but he gets a lot of opportunity to show personality through how characters move or react to things. Very expressive style, works well for the more light-hearted elements. Staples tends to use sort of broad, brighter colors. Keeps things from looking too murky or grim all the time. This is before things went entirely to hell in these kids' lives. Save that for the moments when it's actually needed.

Random Back Issues #81 - Runaways #36

Well, far enough in the future and we'll all be dead, Chase. Be more specific.

A new leader in the most recently released comic to get Random Back Issued, taking over from Coda #8. We're two issues from the conclusion of Rainbow Rowell's stint writing Runaways, not that I was entirely sure of that at the time. This issue is focused entirely on Chase, Gert (both of them), and Victor.

Chase, having accepted Gert's moved on with Victor, works up the nerve to ask out Van, the lavender-haired girl at Haul Mart who helped Chase when he had to buy various hygiene products for a house full of women. Old Lace is pretty judgmental towards the one who most often provides him with cheeseburgers, but all that's forgotten when they get home and they find Gert waiting.

Not the current-day Gert, back from the dead but now several years younger than Chase. A Gert probably the same age as Chase, who time-traveled from the future specifically for him. More specifically, to take him with her back to the future, which she tries to do on the sly while they're hugging. Chase, showing more intelligence than I'd normally credit him for, catches her and demands answers. Gert, naturally, won't give them, other than she loves him, and she can't tell Chase anything else about why she came back now.

Which is pretty suspicious, as Gert is just about the last person I'd expect to give a shit about something like preserving the timeline. Her solution to the Gibborim problem was to just send two of them 999 years into the future and let them eat the souls of whatever humans were still alive.

Back at high school, Present Day Gert and Victor walk home from school! Look, this is a very talky issue, you'll have to take your action where you can get it. Gert may have actually made a friend with her partner on a group project, and Victor might be a little jealous. This segues into a whole thing about the recent fiasco with Doc Justice and how the rest of them just left Gert - no powers, no special training or skills Gert - behind to go superhero.

Gert's trying to find what she's good at, since being a superhero doesn't seem like it's in the cards. And she expects her friends to all ditch her for other superhero friends. Victor's attempts at reassurance are of limited use in the face of her sarcasm and cynicism. See, she does have a superpower. The same one as me.

Victor is frustrated he fell for Doc Justice's spiel so easily, because Ultron programmed him to be a big superhero fanboy. So he's back to angsting about if he's destined to go evil because of his parental figure. Didn't he just talk Doombot out of this same line of thinking ten issues ago? Gert figures either Chase or Molly are far more likely to go evil, which is just stupid. Nico is obviously the one most likely to abuse her power for evil ends.

All the talking about emotions leads to kissing, which leads to finding a secluded spot, which leads to Victor and Gert finding Chase and Future Gert making out. Which is just awkward for everyone. "The future version of present-day girlfriend has her tongue down the throat of my present-day girlfriend's ex-boyfriend." I thought that only happened to the X-Men.

{9th longbox, 45th comic. Runaways (vol. 4) #36, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)}

Not Much New in May

Like the title says, May's solicitations were about as short on new things that interested me as April's. Marvel is. . .I don't know what Marvel's doing exactly. I think they're trying to play it both ways, give the writers that have been there for decades more nostalgia-themed projects. See Ben Reilly: Spider-Man, which ships its last issue in May, or Wolverine: Patch, up to issue 3, or the All-New Fantastic Four mini-series written by Peter David that starts in May. I'm not buying that, but it's a good example. But Marvel's also bringing in new writers and artists to push the Marvel Universe forward. Alyssa Wong on Iron Fist (up to issue 4 in May) is one example.

I don't know why they're having Ryan North write a 5-issue Secret Invasion mini-series, though. Anyway, besides the three books mentioned above I was already buying, there's She-Hulk and Moon Knight, and that's it for Marvel. The swoon has begun, or will begin, I guess. Still better than DC, which is at Batgirls and that's it. At least the solicit confirms Tutor and Spellbinder are not the same person.

On to other publishers! At Image, Slumber will be on issue 3, while Step By Bloody Step is wrapping up. Hopefully I'll have the first issue of that later today. If so, fingers crossed it's good! One sort-of-new thing from Dark Horse is Jenny Zero II, a four-issue mini-series following up on the one from last year. Kind of wish they'd just done an 8-issue mini-series, since the conclusion of the previous one was a little underwhelming, what with it being 4 issues of just getting Jenny to know and embrace her father's legacy.

Kaiju Score: Steal From Gods is up to issue 2, promising Michelle will get a helping hand from a couple of familiar faces. Familiar to us? Because Marco was the only member of the crew that survived the first story. One person is not a couple, I don't care how many personalities they have. Strgrl will be on issue 3, though I'm still not sure if I'll get issue 1. Find out in March. Ice Canyon Monster is on issue 4, and there's a new monster challenger entering the fray. Hey, hey, I already got one kaiju fight comic on the pull list, fellas.

Lead City is on issue 3, and the solicit confirms that the contestants in this death battle are not all gunmen, there's a variety of style involved. Good, that makes me feel better about this being a fun read. Distorted is supposed to be up to issue 3 as well, and Broken Eye at issue 2, but considering the former only finally shipped issue 1 this week (a month late), and the latter hasn't shipped yet at all, and with the typical 3 month gap between first and second issue Scout Comics does (for whatever reason), I have my doubts. No sign of The Rush in Vault's solicits, but Lunar Room #5 looks like it's a backstory issue, and West of Sundown will be on issue 3, too.

That's it for single issues, potentially 17 in total. So, down a little bit from April. 

In collections and manga, Magnetic Press has a solicit for Andrastee, about a 1000 year old former king of Hyperborea, who travels to ask the gods why he's gotta be immortal, and learns some lessons along the way. That sounds like it could go a lot of different ways. Seven Seas Entertainment has the first volume of Weakest Contestant in All Time and Space, which is about a really weak human who gets abducted for a tournament to find the weakest being in existence and escapes with a few of the other competitors. Viz Comics has Crazy Food Truck volume 1. What can I say? That's a title that gets my attention. It's about a guy who drives a food truck in the post-apocalypse and rescues a girl some mean people are very interested in. It does warn it's for mature readers, so, that could mean a lot of things, some of which I would definitely rather not deal with.

Fistful of Vengeance

Am I a sucker for titles about having a fistful of something? Apparently so.

This came out this year, courtesy of Netflix, which should have been my first warning. This follows a series called Wu Assassins, about a cook named Kai who becomes the Wu Assassin. Which is basically a super-powered martial arts badass who fights demons. In this case, Kai's teamed up with his friends Tommy and Liu Xin, to track down whoever killed Tommy's sister. This turns out to be a chaos being of some sort, seeking power to destroy her other half, who represents order. Or does she? There's a whole thing about them being two halves of the first man, who created everything, but went too far when he decided to recreate it in his image, and was subsequently defeated and split by the first Wu Assassin.

Why didn't he just make everything in his image the first time?

There's a lot of backstory here I'm guessing was covered in the TV show that is only vaguely alluded to. There's an Interpol agent that shows up because the chaos lady was getting mixed up in organized crime. She and Liu Xin have a whole thing. There's a killer lady who has some beef with Kai because she used to work for his dad. I don't have any clue about what Kai's dad was up to or what he made her do, so that all kind of falls flat.

They kill a lot of people in this movie. Now most of them appear to be devoted adherents to one or the other of the two demigods, or whatever you'd call them. But we see the chaos lady can take control of other people and make them her puppets. They don't show any mercy to those people, either. Just murder the hell out of them. Not like they had any way to restrain them or undo the effect, I guess.

The movie isn't quite a continuous string of fights, gunfights and car chases, but it's pretty close. The chase sequences aren't much to write home about, but the fights aren't bad. Each character kind of has their own way of doing things. The effects on the supernatural/super-power stuff aren't great, and actually kind of detract from the fights. One guy hits another and rather than just sending him flying, there have to be a visible shockwave. Except the shockwave almost looks like someone released a burst of air freshener or something. Just looks silly, you know?

I figure the movie would have been more engaging if I'd seen the TV show first, where I would have time to build up some concern for these guys. As it stood, it kept losing my attention and for a 95 minute movie, felt longer than it was. I gotta stop watching stuff on Netflix, I always end up choosing crap.

What's This Apocalypse Doing in My Shark Mayhem?

 

My expectations for the first volume of Carthago were too basic, is the problem. I went in expecting a story about someone messing around in the deep sea and running afoul of a Megalodon. Either there's an undersea base, or the giant prehistoric shark makes it to the surface, but either way, chaos ensues. Sure, there's stuff like Meg for that itch, but reading it in a prose novel, or watching Jason Statham try to react to CGI, doesn't work the same as a comic, where the artist can better shape the scale and response.

But the Megalodon's just the hook, really. One is encountered by a deep-sea drilling operation, and several ultimately make it to the surface, but that's not what the story's about. By the time that happens, everyone has basically moved on to other concerns. Writer Christopher Bec's got a lot more going than that. There's a whole world of prehistoric creatures existing in undersea chambers around the world, several of which may be connected to each other. The world starts to undergo a series of environmental catastrophes, at the same time evidence of an ancient, highly advanced civilization is discovered. A civilization that would have lived underwater.

Getting involved in all this is a company, called Carthago, which owned the deep-sea drilling operation and is run by a mysterious guy who wears a ski mask all the time. This means lots of scenes of men in suits talking in boardrooms about doing illegal shit to maintain their stock price. There's also a reclusive, wealthy, centenarian collector named Mr. Feiersinger (who is in a wheelchair after a yeti encounter). Who I feel like might have some level of precognition. He has a explorer/survivalist who works for him as a trouble shooter, a London Donovan, who he saved from dying at sea once. He then promptly informed Donovan he owed him and would work for him for the next forty years. The way he gives a precise number suggests the guy has some idea what's coming, but maybe not. There's a lot of other scientists mixed up in all of it as well, along with an environmental group that gets wiped out by mercenaries hired by Carthago.

Caught in the middle of all this is Kim Melville, who the back of the tpb calls and oceanographer, but I think she's a marine biologist, and her daughter, Lou. Lou is very at home in the water (the gills on her back probably help), and has a certain connection with animals. She also seems to have prophetic dreams or visions. Maybe Feiersinger got hold of a diary from someone else like Lou, and that's how he seems to know what's going on.

I mean, that's a lot of stuff, I can't say Bec isn't trying to give me my money's worth on plot. He sets a lot of threads in motion right from the start, and he tries to give everyone some time and some backstory. The problem is some of it feels like pointless tangents. Do we really need pages about why Mr. Snyder's face is horribly burned and he keeps it under the ski mask? Do I care that Feiersinger's younger brother tried to upstage him by catching his own Megalodon to show off to the world? Do we really need Donovan to take Kim and Lou to Uluru to speak with some shamans there about Lou's nature? No one could figure out the kid needs to be in water regularly? Gee, the kid with gills needs to be around water. Glad we traveled to the middle of the fucking Outback to establish that.

(Question: Is it still using the Magical Negro trope if the characters are Indigenous Australians, rather than African?)

This is a really talky book for one I went into with the hopes of giant shark mayhem. Bec tries to give Eric Henninot (who draws the first 115 pages), and Milan Jovanovic (who draws the remaining 165) a chance to spice up the setting, and the story rarely stays in one place for long. Bec jumps from one character or plot thread to another pretty regularly. But it often feels like the reader just bounces from one conversation to another, with maybe a two-page bit where someone's ship is randomly attacked by a giant shark. Gab gab gab in a boardroom, gab gab gab in a castle, gab gab gab on a ship, oops some people died, gab gab gab. I think Bec is trying to give a sense of the scale, that this is going to effect everyone and so everyone is involved, but a little more focus wouldn't hurt.

Henninot's style is more detailed than Jovanovic's, although both lean to the photo-realistic end of thing. Not just that Henninot's faces have a lot more lines on them. His version of Feiersinger's castle does a lot more to suggest just how rich this guy is. Special display cases with appropriate lighting. Feiersinger in his special motorized wheelchair, waiting for London on a raised platform lit from below like he's a pro wrestler. No pyro, through. Jovanovic's version has much lower ceilings, the prized items are displayed more conventionally on walls. Maybe it's because Bec is trying to shift Feiersinger to less of an antagonist to Kim and more of an ally. In that, he probably shouldn't have the old man abduct Lou to use to blackmail Kim into helping. Kind of creates an unfavorable impression.

Page layouts are straightforward regardless of the artist. Everything is square or rectangular. Lots of short, wide panels stretching across the page, with the occasional clump of three panels in a row. Both artists stick a lot in the middle distance. Even during conversations, there will be a few panels of just one character's face, but most of the time they hang back a bit to show someone else's reaction to what's being said, or just to give a sense of place. When the story calls for showing something impressive, they can pull back and give it a full-page splash. Again, trying to offer the sense of scale. That these people are deep underwater in a tiny little submersible, descending into a massive, unknown region.

The book also has five different colorists (although Yvan Villeneuve is only credited with one page), and that makes a bit of a difference. Jovanovic's art looks better under Delphine Rieu's work than Bertrand Denoulet's. Rieu (who also colors about half of Henninot's pages, the rest handled by Pierre Matterne) adds depth and a sense of detail by doing a lot more shading and gradation of colors, whereas Denoulet's colors tend to be very solid and sharply defined. It doesn't obscure Jovanovic's linework, but it doesn't enhance it, either. Some of the best panels of the Megalodon's are the ones Rieu colors, like those above, because they use the water to selectively obscure the shark.

I think Bec's trying to look at the human drive to understand, learn, explore, and what happens when that's corrupted is the best word I can use. Carthago is concerned with profits, and so is Feiersigner's younger brother. Feiersinger seems to want acclaim as the one who captured a Megalodon, or else made some other great discovery or achievement. He wants, as the mayor in Jaws put it, to get his name in the National Geographic. Feiersinger was apparently a friend of Werner von braun's, and is still bitter von Braun's worked helped the U.S. beat the Soviets (who he was helping) to the Moon. I think the idea is that in the rush to be the first, the actual importance of what's being achieved or discovered is lost, or disrespected. Damage is caused, and the effects of that ripple out. 

That's my guess, anyway. I leave you with this page of Yuri Gargarin taking a whiz before heading into space. The greatest human accomplishments are no match for biological necessity.

Sunday Splash Page #206

 

"Comics from a New York City Jail Cell" in Giant-Size Man-Thing #5, by Steve Gerber (writer), Frank Brunner (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker), Glynis Wein (colorist), Annette Kawecki (letterer)

The single most joked about title for a comic series in history, and likely not be the last we see of Howard the Duck this year. I own two issues of this, and probably just parts of each. The comics pick up where Howard's previous appearance left off, with him falling through some inter-dimensional space after mistiming his jumps on a bunch of floating rock platforms. If this came out ten years later he would no doubt have enough experience from playing his world's equivalent of Mario Bros. to avoid making that mistake.

He ends up back on the world of talking hairless apes where he encountered Man-Thing, but in Cleveland rather than the Everglades. So a reeking swamp either way. That would be Howard's home for at least the first part of his ongoing series, which starts up about six months later.

Gerber doesn't get started on Howard's supporting cast at this point, as the duck is still just trying to adjust to his unfortunate circumstances. Howard does demonstrate more of a heroic streak than even he might expect, trying to protect a couple of kids that help him out from someone who turns himself into a giant talking frog. Later on, he tries to pursue a career in law enforcement by capturing what turns out to be a vampire cow, but gets no traction because the cops, who accept he's somehow a talking duck, just walk away when they see him the next time.

The vampire cow seems like an example of the sort of absurdity Gerber would use more of during the ongoing series. You could probably add the fate of Garko to that. He tried to make himself into a power, and ended up squashed under the wheel of a car.

When he was pondering the fact that the only use of power is to gain more power, and then use that power to be rid of enemies, so why waste time conquering the world, I expected Gerber to have him chuck his "potion". because what's the point of power for power's sake? Then it would change some unsuspecting schlub Howard would have to contend with. Instead, Garko decided he should take the potion and get right to the "killing people" portion of his plan. Maybe if he'd shown up later Gerber would have gone the other way.

Saturday Splash Page #8

 

"All The Ninjas Ship Jean/Logan" in X-Men Forever Annual #1, by Chris Claremont (writer), Sana Takeda (artist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

So one of the things Claremont did in X-Men Forever was go ahead and put Logan and Jean in a relationship, at least the early stages of one. Which sort of makes sense. Claremont did send Cyclops off into the sunset of husband and fatherhood with Maddy Pryor and The-Boy-Who-Would-Be-Cable, only to have that thwarted by whatever genius demanded there be a team book with the original five X-Men. Which did bring Jean back from the dead, but Cyclops mostly refrained from restarting his relationship with her, even if he never seemed to get around to mentioning being married and having a kid.

Going from that perspective, I could see those two not getting back together, even if Inferno apparently played out the same as it originally did (since X-Men Forever doesn't diverge from what actually happened until a few years later. More's the pity for Maddy.) Or Jean's just in a different headspace after spending however many years in a cocoon and finding out everybody kind of moved on with their lives. And here's Logan, still carrying some sort of torch, but maybe matured (or civilized) a bit over the years by having to be a more responsible member of the team.

This annual (which didn't come out until the ongoing had reached its final four issues), was how those two crazy kids hooked up, prior to the ongoing series actually starting. It involves a mission for Nick Fury, and pretending to be a married couple. The Hand are involved, obviously, somehow able to block communications and Jean's telepathy. Logan's weakened condition - due to burnout, though they don't know it yet - makes him vulnerable to demonic possession, but Jean's able to get through to him with emotions. She tries to moonwalk it back immediately after, but that doesn't work and away they go.

It's a nice enough story, and Sana Takeda makes it look very pretty, and at least remembers Logan is kind of a hairy guy. There's a few staging things I question. The four X-Men that come to the rescue arrive with Nightcrawler and Psylocke somehow punching through what appears to be a cave wall. It seems rather odd the guys Shadowcat sees chanting around some glowy purple thing are in lab coats. Stuff like that.

Like I said, though, it's a little weird to do this story when Claremont killed Logan off without doing more than hinting vaguely towards the fact Jean and Logan's connection had grown more intimate, but that's life in the X-Offices.

What I Bought 2/16/2022

Given how few books from any other publishers have shown up lately, I guess it's a good thing I did this brief foray back into Spider-books. I'd have practically nothing to review otherwise.

Amazing Spider-Man #89, by Patrick Gleason (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), Andrew Hennessy and John Dell (inks), Bryan Valenza (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm very confused as to how they're falling like that while the Goblin glider is swinging around the building in the shot far below.

So, Beyond Corporation combined some Goblin, stuff, I don't know what, with the clone of Ashley Kafka they have on staff and created this Goblin Queen lady, who is tearing up a lot of stuff. Peter wants to go play hero, so Felicia webs him to his hospital bed and heads out herself. She manages to save Mary Jane, who is mixed up in this for reasons not worth explaining, but gets otherwise whupped by a knockoff Penance Stare. Except it doesn't make you feel the pain you inflicted on others, but all your worst self-doubts or something.

Felicia's about to be street pizza, but Peter managed to get himself free and save her. Actually a pretty nice sequence where she's falling and we're watching her face through a tear (because of the emotional trauma attack), and then the web bursts the tear. I thought it was a nice bit, anyway. Peter finally gets the costume back and jumps into battle because hey, he was able to break through his webbing, he must be almost back to normal. Except we see in a flashback it was Ben Reilly's girlfriend that cut him loose.

That probably won't end well. Especially considering Dr. Kafka already had a pretty good idea of all the crap running around inside Peter's skull. Not like he has a massive guilt complex or anything! On the other hand, attacking him on that level might actually work better for him, since his spirit seems willing to fight crime, but the flesh ain't up to snuff.

I'm guessing Hennessy inked the first part of the issue and Dell the second based on the order they were listed in. If so, I'd say Hennessy did the stronger job because on the last few pages, some of the faces are really indistinct and vague. Like "Rick Leonardi when he doesn't have a strong inker," vague. Bagley's Peter Parker is also a little different looking from how I'm used to, but the look does convey the fatigue he's under just trying to climb walls. The sense that he's still not right inside, but he's itching to get back out there.

Iron Fist #1, by Alyssa Wong (writer), Michael Yg (artist), Jay David Ramos (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I thought he was supposed to be Iron Fist, not Gun Show.

OK, the new Shou-Lao hasn't hatched yet after the events of Heart of the Dragon and when the egg does crack open, people are shocked by what they see. Back in New York, Danny Rand's fighting some demons when he gets an assist from a guy in a Iron Fist outfit. Who doesn't seem to have much control of the old dragon chi, but does have some glowy green fist thing working. Danny tries to ask the kid questions, but he just runs off.

Wong doesn't waste a lot of time on the mystery, revealing right off this is a character called Sword Master. Got introduced with White Fox, Aero, some of those others characters they put in that new, more Asia-themed Agents of Atlas group a few years back? Anyway, he nearly died in something spinning out of Dr. Strange dying and his sword got shattered. Which is bad, because it's supposed to help keep some demon locked up. A demon whose henchmen are after the pieces of the sword, some of which are embedded in Lin's arms. Hence, the glowy green thing. They also hurt, raising the question of why, if he's trying to reassemble the sword, he doesn't just, you know, take the pieces out of his flesh. 

Anyway, he hasn't, but when he fell to his apparent death, he somehow or the other got infused with Shou-Lao's chi. Maybe all of it. Which he can't control, and will destroy him if he doesn't figure it out. And the family he's staying with in K'un-Lun seems nice, but the dad is secretly one of those demons, and he's after the sword (although it's supposed to be in a box no one but Line can open.)

Well, they definitely hit the ground running with this issue. A lot going on. Lin's got this quest to repair his family's sacred weapon, while also trying to figure out how to be Iron Fist. There's the inevitable family drama, the dad being a demon, and the daughter helping Lin by somehow opening portals to Earth from K'un-Lun, which is unfortunately helping demons enter K'un-Lun. And now Danny's clued into the fact something's going on, so he's not going to let this drop. Not sure why Lin wouldn't at least ask a guy used to using the Iron Fist for some help, but he figures everything is his fault, so he probably figures he has to fix it himself.

Michael Yg's is nice. The costume's not bad, could probably ditch the single shoulder guard, though. Yg can make Lin look cool when he has the mask on, then he removes it and looks more like an exhausted teenager. I don't know if that's what you'd expect since he's been fighting demons and things prior to this, but he's also struggling with feeling like a failure on multiple levels, so maybe it fits. I think he overdoes it on Danny's jawline though. A couple of panels his chin just looks massive relative to the rest of his head. Maybe just the angle, or the particular expression.

Child of Fire - Harry Connolly

This is, I think, the first of three books in what the collection I bought calls "The Wooden Man" series. I didn't know anything about it going in other than three 250 page novels for a total of $6 seemed like a worthy gamble. So what do we got?

Ray Lilly just got out of prison after being mixed up in some serious magical stuff involving his best friend, an other-dimensional monster, and a sorceress/witch/mage named Annalise. If he wants to remain breathing, he has to act as Annalise's "wooden man", essentially her lackey/decoy. If he disobeys, he dies. 

Of course, he may die anyway on their mission: To investigate a little town in the Pacific Northwest with a toy company doing inexplicably well. Also, children around town are spontaneously combusting, their remains turn into silver worms, and everyone immediately forgets they existed.

Ray's very much the driver of the plot, for all that Annalise is the reason they're up there. She vanishes for long stretches of time where Ray's roaming around town, asking questions and getting abducted or threatened by various elements. Part of that may be due to the personality Connolly gives Annalise. Her preferred method of handling any opposition is to kill the person doing the opposing. It would rather remove the suspense from things, and her absence plays into the air of danger for Ray. 

Connolly establishes that Annalise really doesn't give a crap whether Ray lives or dies. Being a wooden man is to be expendable. So he can't count on her showing up to save his butt. All he's got are his own smarts and the one spell he knows, which is a ghost knife. (When I read the book jacket describing him as only knowing one spell, I assumed using it would kill him, possibly involving fire. Hence, wooden man.)

I don't know that I buy Ray's slow-developing concern for Annalise's well-being, or that he should really care about whether he can help with her mission. Especially since there are multiple occasions where he passes up opportunities to just leave, even once he thinks she's dead. Maybe he'd get hunted down and killed by the other people in her secret society of sorcerers that protect the world (yeah, never heard that spiel before), but sticking around her isn't any better for his long-term prospects from where I stand.

It would probably help if I had more of the backstory on both of them and this world, because Ray's just guessing at a lot of stuff and I don't find Annalise a trustworthy source, either. We'll see if the second book has any of that when I get to it next month.

"At Hammer Bay Toys, did you notice anything strange about the fire?"

"You mean aside from the fact it shot out of the mouths of a bunch of middle-aged paper pushers?"

What I Bought 2/10/2022 - Part 2

I'm still irritated about the DH thing. Make pitchers hit and if they don't like getting laughed at for being bad at it, take some damn batting practice. Make shitty fielding sluggers play defense. Put them in left field or at first base if you want, but they should at least have to try.

Amazing Spider-Man #88.Bey, by Geoffrey Thorne (writer), Jan Bazaldua and Jim Towe (artists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - I really hoped Marvel had stuffed that decimal point numbering crap in the trash disposal where it belongs, but no.

I always forget Hobie Brown built Peter's Hornet outfit originally. Although the idea he managed to build anti-teleport technology is stretching the limits of my belief. Anyway, he's being Hornet and decides to investigate Beyond when it buys out his crowdfunding app (for triple what it's worth) for people who got fucked from exposure to weird super-hero stuff and runs into Dusk. She wants his help finding Ricochet, which leads them to another Beyond lab, where Ricochet is acting as security, or troubleshooter or something. They help him contain some big pink things that came through some uncontrolled rip in dimensions, and then they get offered jobs. The end.

I guess the fact Beyond wants information on people who reacted to weird extra-dimensional energy is kind of interesting, and makes a certain amount of sense with them as some creepy corporate front for. . .whatever the hell they're a front for. I forget what Beyond Corp turned out to be in NextWave. 

Hobie tracked down Ricochet by finding a reference to a "Kroatan Farm". "Kroaton" is a sort of misspelling to Croaton, the Native Americans that lived on Roanoke Island, where that colony "mysteriously" disappeared. I.e., they moved somewhere else. Or "kroata" is Esperanto for Croatia. I figure it's more likely a reference to the former than the latter, but I'm not sure what. They find things that disappeared? They figure out how or where those things disappeared to?

The art shifts halfway through, about the time Hobie goes sneaking into Beyond and is spotted by Dusk, but I don't know which half is Bazaldua and which is Towe. The first half makes Hobie a lot more jacked in the upper body (and a huge forehead, makes his facial features look too small), and his entire face is covered in the costume. The second half tones down the musculature a bit and his mouth and jaw are exposed at least part of the time. That half also uses a thicker line than the first half. I prefer the second half, but that's also the half where they don't waste pages talking about buyouts and crowdfunding apps, and instead fight monsters. That probably has something to do with it.

Batgirls #3, by Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad (writers), Jorge Corona (artist), Sarah Stern and Ivan Plascencia (colorists), Becca Carey (letterer) - Steph's leaping through the air with her eyes closed. Did Cass tell her to do that for training as a joke?

Steph briefly falls under Tutor's control, but shakes it off. They fail to catch the Tudor. The big exhibit made of stolen junk at the docks is also the Tutor's thing, apparently. So Tutor is also Spellbinder? Barbara goes to the showing undercover and meets an old flame from college, while Steph and Cass sneak into the ship and. . .again fail to catch the Tutor as Steph falls temporarily under his control again. The three Magistrates watch, but misread the situation and don't get involved. 

I actually like that. Their whole plan was to let the Tutor draw the Batgirls into the open, then get all of them. Because obviously the vigilantes wouldn't let the villain just escape. The fact they did something unexpected - not pursuing Tutor - threw the whole thing off. And it messes things up enough they don't decide to charge into the hull of the ship to try and attack the Batgirls directly. There's a certain level of sense to the actions and reactions.

After, Stephanie feels like she's the weak link on the team. I'd disagree because after all that hassle Barbara put them through to make a secure network, the Seer already found her and is taunting her with images of a tied up and beaten Nightwing, which may or may not be real. Cass is the only one winning, since she found the cook pot her neighbor had stolen in the wreckage of the art exhibit.

I don't understand the random black spots in the panels. What they're supposed to be, or why they exist. Things are dirty, or grimy? It's like Corona and/or Stern are trying to add a gritty texture to the art, but I'm not sure how that helps.

At some point, I would really appreciate it if Cloonan and Conrad would actually explain why Seer is after Oracle. Three issues in, and I have no fucking clue what her beef is. Jealousy, professional rivalry, citywide conquest, revenge, just being a dick? And it would seem Seer knows who Oracle is, and apparently that Dick Grayson is Nightwing, so how were they ever going to hide from her? And shouldn't that be a bigger deal?

Batman (1989)

I reviewed Batman Returns a few months back, so I figured I should go ahead and watch the first Tim Burton Batman flick.

First things first: Having Jack Napier be the one who killed the Waynes is still stupid. "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" is also pretty dumb. I can almost excuse that with the argument it shows Jack was already kind of messed up long before he became the Joker, or even long before he became a major hitter for Carl Grissom. That's the best I can do, that it establishes that the chemicals may have loosened what few inhibitions he had left, but he was a dangerous fellow already.

Incidentally, I like that Jack Palance is in this, if only for a couple of scenes. I remembered that, unlike somehow forgetting Christopher Walken was a major part of Batman Returns.

Beyond that, I like Nicholson's Joker. He laughs like he thinks things are actually funny, for one. Cesar Romero had that, Mark Hamill's got that, Heath Ledger didn't (presumably because Christopher Nolan didn't want that), I honestly can't remember if Jared Leto laughed. He was too busy laying on the floor of a hotel room surrounded by knives.

Beyond that, the Joker has charisma, somehow, and Napier has that even before the chemicals. Bob is loyal to him, not Grissom, and is immediately there to pull a gun on the bent cop or Commissioner Gordon. Burton doesn't run away from giving the Joker killer joy buzzers or acid squirting flowers. It seems silly, but it's still deadly. That's the point. The Joker deciding to go on his Smylex killing spree - complete with ludicrous commercial/threat - in part because he killed all the other mob bosses in broad daylight, including killing one with a quill pen, and still the news will only talk about Batman, felt perfect. He's indignant about it.

This Joker is dangerous, but he isn't some clown that read about nihilism in his first semester philosophy class and thought he was the first one to ever have the notion that life is meaningless. Nicholson's Joker has the showmanship and the willingness to run up a body count, but it's in service of his ego. His obsession with Vicki Vale, the whole spiel in the museum about how he's going to be the world's first homicidal artist, the huge parade where he throws out 20 million dollars just to try and gas a bunch of people to death. The one part that doesn't fit is the Joker wearing makeup to mask his chalk-white skin, but I assume that was a concession to Nicholson not wanting to have to go through that all the time.

OK, so that's five paragraphs about the villain. Michael Keaton's playing Wayne as this endearingly awkward sort of guy. Not the smooth playboy, but someone that has been mostly alone, save his butler/surrogate father, and it shows in his interactions with other people. He's not cruel, but he doesn't always know what to say. Such as the scene where he tries to tell Vicki he's Batman, before Joker comes barging into her apartment. (Also love Joker has a henchman specifically to carry a large boombox around and play whatever music the scene requires.)

Keaton's Batman is very efficient in his actions. He doesn't dart around through shadows or do a bunch of martial arts. No dramatic postures when he throws down a smoke bomb. Just throws it at the ground, waits for it to swallow him up. The "wonderful toys" do a lot of the work. He fights the guy with the two swords and doesn't move his arms or legs much to block the attacks, and the two attacks he lands are a simple jab and one good kick. (I remembered the fight shorter than it was, closer to Indy versus the guy with the sword in Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

Obviously that's because Keaton didn't go study Krav Maga or whatever to get in ripped shape for this role, but it suggests a Batman perhaps aware of his limitations, aware of the odds against him. There's lots of criminals and just one of him (although he designed his Batmobile with a passenger seat), so he tries to save energy. I feel like Burton tries to let the cape do a lot of the work in making Keaton looking imposing. A lot of swooping in from above with the cape billowing out around him.

Of course, Batman again kills some dudes. A lot of dudes, if you figure most of Joker's henchmen didn't have time to get out of the Axis Chemicals factory before he blew it up. But definitely the henchman that was kicking his butt in the bell tower. I'm not counting the one who tried to jump him from behind and just fell through the floor. That was that guy's own doing. And it sounds like he threw at least one guy off a roof, based on the conversation the two muggers had at the beginning. Or maybe the guy fell off the roof while trying to flee? Then there's the whole bit with the Batplane having missiles and gatling guns. Which he fires at the Joker, when the targeting computer has him on a big bullseye, but he somehow misses? Guess Bats needed to trust his instincts, but what the hell are we doing, Batman's trying to machine gun people? I know, I know, that cart's been pulled far away from the barn by the horse.

Kim Basinger is, part of me feels like she should handle this madness more calmly than she does? She was in "Corto Maltese" right before this, which was going through a war/revolution/ethnic cleansing/something horrific. Some guys in matching jackets with handguns shouldn't be that frightening. Maybe she was always on the scene after the dying was over, I don't know. Or maybe it's Joker is a different kind of killer from what she's seen before. Not killing for religion or power or control, but because he thinks he can make art of it. That makes him unpredictable. With the Smylex thing, even Joker doesn't know precisely who is going to die, because it all depends on who mixes the wrong products together. 

Vicki does see through Wayne's facade almost immediately. Before the apartment scene, before she sees him at the street corner where his parents died, she knows there's something going on there. (I didn't remember how quickly those two were having dinner together.) Of course, seeing him hanging upside-down working out in the middle of the night was probably a bit of a clue. Still, she's observant in a way that Knox (Robert Wuhl) isn't. He sees exactly what Wayne intends for him to see, and even when he realizes Vicki is intrigued by Wayne, can't perceive why. He's open-minded enough not to dismiss the rumors on the street of a "bat-man", but can't make that critical leap. He does try to attack the Joker's guys with a bat during the parade to make them let go of one of the balloons, which shows he's not just someone asking annoying questions and making smart-ass remarks.

When I was younger, I absolutely loved this movie more than Batman Returns. Not even close. And this one doesn't have the villain bloat, where Catwoman can barely find any space to have her own arc between everything going on between Batman and Penguin, to say nothing of Christopher Walken. But that warped reflection aspect of Wayne and Cobblepot is something this movie kind of lacks. I think because Burton bets too much on, again, having Jack Napier be the one who killed the Waynes. the whole, "you created me, I created you," thing.

(For the record, I'm not any more fond of Nolan's movies having the Waynes' deaths be part of some chess move by Liam Neeson. At least in this one, Napier attacked them for their money and killed them because he's a sick puppy. It's still ultimately a random crime, it just ends up being part of a weird twist of fate down the line.)

What I Bought 2/10/2022 - Part 1

Major League Baseball announced they're going to implement the designated hitter in the National League permanently next season. Assuming the labor strife gets sorted, of course. The DH sucks, and I will brook no argument on this fact. You want to hit? You need to play an actual position? You want to pitch? You need to hit.

Oh well, with the time I used to waste caring about baseball freed up, maybe I can get some sketching done. Or play video games, if I ever buy that PS4!

The Thing #4, by Walter Mosley (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jordie Bellaire (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Dear God, Ben's falling through a 1960s overhead projection of a presentation on the Solar System!

Alicia has a bad dream, but worse, her boyfriend is somehow connected to the weird, spectral entity that's going to bring doom. Bad for her. Back at the FF's headquarters, the Silver Surfer shows up to help with the Champion. He takes him somewhere, but agrees to leave his matter transmitting belt behind. It gets triggered during breakfast, and Ben, Amaryllis and Bobby end up on the Blue Area of the Moon. Ben fights an insect robot, just one of thousands and wins (maybe), but gets mangled pretty badly. Some food Bobby finds fixes him up, but the rest of the bug-bots activate, and then Terrax and two other guys show up, so Ben gets ready to fight them.

Champion makes reference to Bobby's lineage, but still not being able to grasp the power the serves an Elder of the Universe. Which still strongly suggests Bobby's much more than a simple kid, but what? The personification of Curiosity? Even the Surfer got momentarily googly-eyed over Amaryllis, then shook it off in the next panel. 

The Amaryllis in Greek mythology became infatuated with a beautiful but cold-hearted man and shot him with a gold arrow. Is she trying to pull Ben away from Alicia for some reason? Are she and the cloaked Decay/Death whatever on the same side, rather than opposed? She and Bobby argue briefly over Death during breakfast (complete with Black Wheat-os! Natasha got her own cereal?). She describes Death as an ideal where perfection can exist. Bobby counters death is a 'negative ideal', and she argues that's only if you see Death as a negative. The old, "no life without Death" chestnut.

I still feel as though Ben is somehow messing up by continuing to press on, by always being ready to fight. Because each fight seems to just bring on another fight. Or maybe he's not being "perfect", and that's the important thing. It isn't perfect, because, contrary to what Bobby says, life isn't perfect, ideal or no.

Moon Knight #8, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  Everybody loves to perch on that gargoyle. The owner ought to start charging them.

Moon Knight's in jail because of Devil's Reign, so Hunter's Moon has taken over the Midnight Mission. An old cop friend of Marc's brings word that people are marking a "S" on walls to call out Stained Glass Scarlet, who kills the ones those people request. Except she's supposed to be dead. Hunter's Moon heads to a church and gets attacked by Stained Glass Scarlet, who has become a sort of living story or urban legend. That's not something a mortal can punch, but it is something his god, even in a reduced state, can fight.

So Stained Glass Scarlet became something like Bloody Mary? You follow the ritual, summon her, she does your bidding for this one thing? And she grows stronger because that's another person to spread word of her around. Interesting, and I guess it's good Dr. Badr was there, because Marc sure as heck can't call on Khonshu. It's a temporary solution, as Khonshu mentions. You can't kill a legend, although legends can probably be forgotten, or changed so significantly they no longer resemble their original form. Either way, I like Cappuccio's design for Stained Glass Scarlet. The red robe with the faceted yellow body and face, the multiple arms, each with some way to harm.

The other bit in the issue is, right at the end, Badr apologizes to Reese for trying to kill her for being a vampire, even though she didn't ask to be turned and never fed on anyone. Stained Glass Scarlet brings it up as a reason she can take his life without anyone asking her to, because he harmed the innocent. And Reese doesn't immediately forgive him just because he's being helpful, which I always appreciate.

Sunday Splash Page #205

 

"Night Hospital Madness," in Giant-Size Black Cat #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer)

I reviewed this back in December, so there's not a lot else to say. It's the conclusion to Jed MacKay's two-and-a-half year stint writing solo star Felicia Hardy's adventures. Felicia gathers people with the power of the Infinity Stones in a desperate attempt to save her mother, while she's got Nick Fury and Squadron Supreme Nighthawk after her because they both want to control the Infinity Stones.

I mostly wanted to show this double-page splash because I mentioned it in that review, and that I wasn't really sure about how it's laid out. Black Cat and Star are both shown in different rooms, but with Felicia you can at least easily track her progress. Star's going right on the 4th floor, while also shown going left on the third floor. Where she's right next door to Nighthawk, who on the following pages, reaches Felicia before anyone else, and before Star catches up to him.

It's a nice idea for a splash in theory, but I'm not sure it really works in-story, except as a general representation of chaos.

Saturday Splash Page #7

 

"Devil in a Red-and-Black Spandex," in X-Men Forever 2 #2, by Chris Claremont (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Cory Hamscher (inker), Wilfredo Quintana (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

X-Men Forever was canceled at 24 issues. As is typical, Marvel restarted the book the very next month with the so-clever name X-Men Forever 2. The story picks up in the aftermath of where the previous series ended, with the X-Men having their usual Pyrrhic victory. They slowed the Consortium down, but lost some friends and put a big bullseye on the backs. So Claremont pulls out the "fake your deaths" stunt again.

Mr. Sinister is still lurking in a kid's body, trying to get Nathan Summers, and now he's sending out the Marauders, including clones of both Sabretooth and Wolverine. The Wolverine clone actually follows Shadowcat to Japan in a two-parter drawn by Mike Grell, who draws Logan's bone claws like they're made of several bones, like a finger, instead of just one long bone. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else draw them like that. Shadowcat herself is continuing to change, as she's developing a healing factor and the fingernails on the arm that doesn't have one of Logan's adamantium claws no extend into claws themselves. Plus she's thinking in Japanese a lot. Not sure what Claremont was going for there. Something with Ogun, probably.

Not content with having two Storms - one an adult and evil, the other a teenager and essentially good - running around, Claremont adds a third Storm to the mix. Also an adult, but seemingly composed of lightning (and a mohawk). Which is actually pretty cool, I have to admit. There's a whole plotline with Evil Storm, sorry Perfect Storm, trying to conquer Genosha, and the X-Men covertly invading Wakanda to get her. Which runs them smack into the Avengers again. Most bizarre of all, Mystique decides she actually wants to be a good mom and help her kids. OK, well now I know Claremont's just fucking with us.

As with last week's entry, it's hard to believe Claremont would have been able to do all this, even if it was his original plan. But it does have the feel of his original run on Uncanny X-Men in that sense of lots of plates spinning at once, and the X-Men constantly scrambling. They've got threats coming from multiple directions, and potential allies that aren't sure they can't trust them, but they aren't entirely alone. Spider-Man finds out they aren't actually dead, but keeps it a secret. Dr. Strange lends a hand to the Storms. Nick Fury's sticking with them. They're outnumbered, and forced to pull together a awkward group, but they make it work.

The book ran 16 issues before cancellation, ending on a cliffhanger for more than a few characters. The whole thing with Mr. Sinister doesn't get resolved, for one thing, but when does it ever where that creepy fucker is involved? The book struggles a bit more to hold onto a consistent artist. Tom Grummett draws 4 of the first 6 issues, with Rodney Buchemi handling the other two. Then you get two issues by Ron Lim, the Mike Grell two-parter, Buchemi again for two issues, Robert Atkins, Andy Smith for two issues and Ramon Rosanas for the conclusion. Most of the artists, except Grell, fall into a similar enough realm of "solid superhero art" it isn't too jarring. Nobody's shifting wildly off-model from one issue to the next.

Random Back Issues #80 - Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #10

Just so long as she doesn't date Matt Murdock. Or Logan. Or Scott Summers. Or Gambit. Or. . . maybe just keep taking a break from the dating scene?

This was Patsy's post-Secret Wars (Hickman's version) ongoing. At this point, Patsy's gotten the rights to her likeness back from old arch-rival Hedy Wolfe with Jennifer Walters' legal assistance. Except She-Hulk's in a coma, courtesy of Thanos and/or Bendis, so there's no big green help when Hedy sics both of Patsy's ex-husbands on her.

So Patsy's stuck in Belial's realm where Hellstrom sent her. She runs into a fake She-Hulk, who tells Patsy this is her own fault, but that she always blames things on other people. The scene shifts to her old school, but the way it was portrayed in the comics her mother got published about Patsy, Hedy, and the rest. Patsy wants out, but keeps getting reminded of bad stuff going on back in her real life. When Patsy tries to argue none of this real, just overly sanitized fluff, fake-Buzz asks if that means she never felt anything for him.

That leads into a whole trip down memory lane of her relationship disasters, and how things are never neat and tidy. Fake-Buzz tries to blame her for his transformation into Mad Dog, and then it's on to marrying the Son of Satan. Patsy's taste in guys is legendarily terrible. Belial uses a false Hedy to makes his pitch: Patsy has a lot of mystical power in her, what with traveling between Hell and Earth a few times, and she could do a lot with it, if only she embraced her anger.

Because Patsy is not a dumbshit, traumatized teenager like Anakin Skywalker, she just kicks false Hedy in the gut, and Belial finally reveals himself. Patsy gets him to take her back to Earth, if he wants to prove he's got so much juice.

During all that, Patsy's friends, including her new assistant Jubilee (still a vampire at this point), are trying to convince Hellstrom and Buzz they got suckered and to get Patsy back here. Mostly via Jubilee verbally murdering those idiots. She points out to Buzz if Patsy really had something that could cure him, wouldn't she help Jubilee, too? And if she wanted revenge on Daimon, she could 'take the trash out.' Unfortunately, it's Belial's domain, so Hellstrom can't pull her out, no matter how much Jubilee threatens to bite him. Which may or may not make him a vampire. 

That's when Patsy and Belial show up, and Jubilee immediately punches the demon in the face. Love that even Belial is offended Hellstron jumped the gun. There's going to be a lot of gossip around the, well, they probably don't have water coolers in Hell. Hot cocoa dispensers? That would be suitably cruel, right? Can't be warm beer, some people like that. Maybe warm soda? Point being, all the other demons will get a good laugh at Daimon's expense.

Belial's still determined to have Patsy, because she has too much hate in her to resist unleashing it, but her friend Ian telekinetically levitates Belial into the air, and Daimon sends him packing. Both exes apologize, and that's pretty much it. The next arc was the worst of the run, as it involved the Black Cat in her "Queenpin" phase, targeting Patsy and her friends using friggin' mind control magic or some shit. Blech.

{8th longbox, 15th comic. Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #10, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Megan Wilson (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)}

Ronin

I'd never gotten around to actually watching this late-'90s DeNiro flick. He plays Sam, an ex-CIA agent who gets hired on as part of a crew to steal a mysterious silver case for an Irish woman named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone). Numerous double-crosses, broken promises and reversals of fortune abound.

The initial 40 minutes or so, where the crew prepares for and ultimately executes the heist are very well-done. Laying the basics of the characters, especially Sam, in his tendency to ask questions and worry about details. How he and Vincent (Jean Reno) start to become friends of a sort. The way you just tell something's going to happen with Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard) from the way the camera lingers on him, the way he seems to watch the others.

After that point, director John Frankenheimer likes to keep things moving. He'll pause occasionally for Sam or whoever to figure out their next move, or the next move of whoever they're trying to find at the moment. But it isn't long before there's another chase scene, whether on foot or in a car. Lots of car chases in this movie. The last one in particular, that runs all over Paris, goes on too long. Especially for how long they spend driving into oncoming traffic. Although we do get to see Deirdre gradually become more and more tense and stressed as she tries to avoid crashing. You can tell she's reaching her limit.

I notice it more in the early part of the film, but Frankenheimer is fond of these moving shots that give you the impression you're spying on whoever is in the frame. As though you're on a parallel course with them, and peering around corners or cover. Adds to that sense that something is going to happen they aren't expecting. It's the kind of movie where each time you think they have things sown up, something unexpected happens. 

Although the surprises are less someone you wouldn't expect showing up out of nowhere, more that characters don't behave as expected, and nobody gives up easy. Gregor in particular runs into that problem several times. The movie leverages the idea there are lots of interested parties to create chaos. Such as the scene at the old gladiatorial arena, where there seem to be two parties chasing Gregor and fighting each other, but there are actually three. Things are changing constantly. It's enjoyable, because there's a constant string of new problems to find solutions for, but also a little exhausting after awhile.

He also seems to like showing the characters' faces via a reflection. Vincent's sitting in a car and the camera is looking the same direction as him, but we can see him in the side mirror. Or Gregor has his back to us, but we see his face in a wall mirror off to the side. I guess because no one is being straight with each other, their intentions aren't genuine, so we see them in reverse or something like that. You can't seem them head on, you have to come at it from a less direct angle?

The title's a bit of a misnomer, since Sam is only pretending to be a free agent. But everyone seems to be masking their true intentions and goals. Working for people we never see or whose own goals are left unsaid. Except maybe for Vincent. We don't know his backstory, but he seems to be basically who he presents himself as.

Sixteen Years of Purchases

I'm stealing this from Gary at Crisis on Earth-Prime, who did this last month. Little graphical breakdown of my comic buying habits, since 2006, roughly when this blog started. Everything is in total number of comics purchased, I didn't want to make a second graph for percentages. You can click on it if you want to get a better look. Probably have to, actually.

 

As far as total across all publishers, 2006 and 2020 are the outliers, albeit in opposite directions. I thought 2007 would be as well, but I did one of those box and whisker, quartile graphs to check and, nope, it is right on the edge, but it's in. It's mostly been a slow downward trend, especially from 2008 to 2018, when it only went from 144 to 114. That's only about three fewer books a year. The last few years have been a little more chaotic. Total went up in 2019, then 2020's global clusterfuck, and then last year.

Marvel leads the pack every year. Usually the majority, but not always, and not often recently (see 2018-2020). Still, I think the smallest gap between #1 and #2 is ~17%, and that was in 2020. 2006 and 2007 are outliers, the only years Marvel's total exceeds 105 (exceeds it by a lot both years). Reviewing comics on this blog and realizing certain titles were disappointing me month after month did help me cut down on the excess. There's also 2020, again in the other direction. Marvel seems to hover in certain ranges for a while, then shift sharply. Three of the last four years, Marvel's been in the low-to-mid 50s. Before that, three years in a row in the low 70s. Couldn't tell you why that happens, just seems to go that way.

In that sense, 2014 is an outlier, too, at 101 comics (and just under 79%, next highest percentage after '06 and '07.) The 4 years prior went 79-70-64-80, and the next three were 74-73-72. Then right smack in the middle, one year where Marvel published a bunch of stuff I was willing to at least try, right before they canceled everything because of Hickman's Secret Wars.

DC's usually in second, although again, not so much lately. IDW got the silver in 2016, Boom! in 2018-2019, and Scout last year. DC peaked in 2010, the last full year before their big New 52 reboot, and they've been dropping pretty much ever since. 2015 was the last year DC averaged 2 books/month, and 2017 and 2020 are the only years since where it was even 10% of the total.

So if Marvel's cut has dropped, and DC's is down to almost nothing, the difference is going to all the other publishers, right? Yeah, pretty much. Their percentage went above 40% in 2018, and hasn't dropped below it since. Non-Marvel/DC comics made up over half of the total in 2019 and 2020. But I'm not sure individual publishers are getting much more, because I'm buying stuff from so many more companies now.

In the first 11 years of this blog, the highest number of non-Marvel/DC publishers I bought from was 5, in 2009. That was a grand total of 14 comics. In 2012 and 2013, when I bought 33 and 23 comics from those publishers, it was from three companies (Dark Horse, IDW, Red 5). It's only in the last few years I've really branched out and started scouring the Previews catalog for anything that looks good. But in a lot of cases, I'm buying one title from that company. So you get 2021, where I bought 51 comics that weren't from Marvel or DC, but they're divided among 10 companies. Nobody's really getting a big percentage.

Beyond that, it's mostly just interesting to see companies pop up, in some cases become the major player among the second or third-tier, then drop off the map for years. Boom! was a big deal in 2010-2011, then I didn't buy anything from them again until 2017. It was even beating out DC for a couple of years, actually had the best two years of any non-Marvel/DC company. Almost broke 20% in 2018. Now they're nowhere, because I'm not interested in Buffy comics or Power Rangers. 

Red 5 was doing very well from 2011-2014, then Atomic Robo switched to IDW, and viola! Nothing from Red 5 until White Lily last year. Scout and Vault have been doing OK the last few years, but who knows how long that'll last. Especially for Scout, which hasn't actually shipped any of the comics that were supposed to come out this year. Life on the fringes is volatile like that.