Well, I almost got every comic I was looking for from last week. I knew the first issue of Lead City was going to be a longshot. I'll try again at the end of the month. In the meantime, here's the only two ongoing series I'm buying from Marvel right now.
Moon Knight's confrontation with the escaped mental patient, Rutherford Winner, is related in flashback as Moonie talks with Dr. Sterman, who is also Winner's doctor. The doctor seems rather unconcerned with Winner, dismissing him as a hopelessly damaged individual who can only be contained. Unlike Marc, she says, who contains himself, but perhaps, shouldn't?
At first I thought this was her trying to do what Zodiac wanted, possibly in the most ham-fisted, obvious way possible. I guess I should have paid more attention to the disinterested posture and expressions Cappuccio gives her. She looks bored, talking about Winner, only leaning towards Marc when she encourages him to stop holding back.
As it turns out, this Dr. Sterman is actually Waxman, a Clayface-looking shapeshifting killer. Moon Knight busts out some liquid nitrogen canisters (where's he getting this stuff if he's broke and on the outs with the Avengers?) to freeze him, then seals Waxman inside a steel ball. Cappuccio does all those panels of Waxman as these tight, narrow boxes, where Rosenberg has colored almost everything black and Waxman's just outlined in the green glow of the walkie-talkie.
Moon Knight says he will bury the ball in the foundations of a condo ('execution by gentrification') unless Waxman tells him where to find the doctor. Waxman does, and Marc buries him anyway. OK, then. Glad to see therapy is helping. That would seem like an indication Marc is doing exactly what Zodiac wanted. Trapping a potentially immortal serial killer in a box and letting him go insane certainly seems like not holding back. Is MacKay going to have Moon Knight show Zodiac exactly why it's a bad idea to encourage him to cut loose, and if so, is that going to be one last trap Zodiac has for him? It's hard to see Moon Knight taking prisoners or showing restraint at this point.
Jen gets to work trying to get some non-super-type clients. We don't see any progress on that front. She returns home with pizza for Jack and the two of them try to figure out what happened to him, and what about his origin can actually be proven. Which is apparently very little, since Jack has mostly relied on what other people told him. Hmm, I feel an "origin retcon" migraine coming on.
Jack still can't figure out where he was, what was happening, how he escaped or why he came to She-Hulk, though he thinks the last might be out of some guilt over that time he drained all her radiation. Everybody in the comic keeps saying that happened in Indiana, but I thought it was inside a secret biological weapons facility hidden in Mount Rushmore? It was Geoff Johns' Avengers run, the story where they figure out Red Skull made it to Secretary of Defense, right? I know, not critical, and I'm probably misremembering, but it keeps nagging at me.
They do figure out that Jack has barely any access to his powers. The way he describes it, the power is there, he just can get to it, but you have to wonder if it got drained out of him. The other thing I notice is Jack doesn't say what happened to his mother, only that she was an alien. So maybe Rowell is bringing her into the picture, trying to address her son's condition somehow. That wouldn't necessarily explain sending him to She-Hulk, though.
Rowell is still moving slowly, but she's taking pains to highlight different parts of Jennifer's past continuity that's been brought into play. For example, Mallory has apparently rebooted Andy, the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android as her assistant, the role he played in Slott's She-Hulk. Jennifer also calls Patsy Walker to see if she knows anything about Jack's history, so Rowell's also continuing that friendship, which I think Charles Soule established in his She-Hulk run. That could indicate Rowell's going for something more upbeat, or that She-Hulk's really going to need the support network. Or just that this is a version of She-Hulk willing to actually let other people help her.
I'm mostly just grateful Rowell writes She-Hulk as skeptical of Patsy dating Tony Stark as I am. Patsy Walker: Exhibiting terrible taste in men since, I dunno, 1952 or something!
Still, there probably needs to be more forward movement at some point. If only to give Roge Antonio something to draw other than people sitting and talking. Antonio is trying to keep it visually interesting by changing perspective or the characters' posture to reflect their emotional state. Jen spends most of her conversation with Jack resting comfortably back into the couch, leaning forward only when he's getting despondent, while Jack tends to hunch on himself.
2 comments:
I try to forget the "Dell Rusk" story. What a mess that was. So much dumb.
I'd say that's a sound decision, although the Black Panther breaking the Red Skull's jaw was pretty satisfying.
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