What I Bought 5/28/2022 - Part 2

Welcome to June, where the weather is actually cooler than it was the last few days of May. I can never decide if I'd rather have the more worse weather on the weekends, when I don't necessarily have to do anything, or during the work week, when I wouldn't be out having fun anyway, but I have to at least get up and go to work.

Lead City #3, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist) - The cover is an assortment of panels from the interior of the comic, so I don't see the need to say anything else about it.

It's an issue of fighting and killing. Colman had a bead on Dolores from the high ground, but goes after Kavinder Singh instead. He doesn't kill him, either, which seems like a deliberate choice. Borden has him note he's down to his last shot, and then Colman shoots Kavinder in the foot. Doesn't seem to slow the guy down much, as he catches up to Colman while he's talking with Leslie Sharp (already dying from getting gutshot by Dolores last issue) and Kavinder cuts Sharp open like a hog he's slaughtering.

I still think Colman's making it out of this somehow, but it's getting harder to see how. He doesn't seem on board with the killing. When Sharp dies, Brummond draws a reaction panel for Colman where he has these wide eyes that made me laugh. Like he didn't think this tournament of death was going to involve people actually dying.

The rest of the issue is given to a fight between Jiao Long and Major "Reb Stalker" Walker, the latter of whom speaks to a doll he carries around. It's the classic, "skilled little man vs. incredibly strong big man," fight. Borden and Brummond manage to keep it interesting, with the advantage swinging from one to the other. Jiao tries strangling Walker at one point, and seems to have it cinched, but his foot slips, he loses his leverage and things shift. But then Walker can't seem to actually hit him. Back-and-forth. 

Walker also tells Jiao someone tried lynching him already and Brummond draws his neck as being this impossibly thick mass with veins (or tendons?) bulging out of it. Kind of an odd choice, rather than going with the classic rope scar signifier. Unless the point was they couldn't lynch him because his neck is so powerful.

With one issue to go, there's still four contestants standing.

Moon Knight #11, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Trapped him in an Hourglass of Death. Very Silver Age.

Zodiac gave Jigsaw the opportunity to guard Dr. Sterman, but this confrontation with Moon Knight didn't go any better for him than the last one did. Might be irrelevant because Zodiac is outside the Midnight Mission with a bunch of mercs. He's down three, but Hunter's Moon is out of commission, and unless Reese comes out to be killed, he'll kill all the other people in the neighborhood.

So with no way to get back in time, Marc asks for Khonshu's help, a decision I'm sure will have no consequences later. He and Tigra are on their way, but time's up and Soldier is going to try and pull a fast one on Zodiac. Eh, good luck with that. I think Cappuccio actually tries to draw the "Mr. Knight" suit as not fitting as well on Soldier as it does on Marc. It usually looks immaculate when Marc wears it, even if he's moving through a dirty alley, but it's wrinkled and actually bunching in places. Of course, Marc and Solider probably aren't exactly the same dimensions, but it could be because it means something different when Marc wears that outfit versus someone else. For Soldier, it's just a set of clothes. For Marc, it's a ceremonial garb.

There's not a lot else to discuss. MacKay doesn't exactly overstuff this series with plot; it's more a a mood thing. Marc losing himself in beating Jigsaw, or having to ask Khonshu for help, knowing it's going to cost. The page where he admits he knew Tigra's been reporting to T'Challa on him, but it was OK, because he understood why the Avengers would want to keep tabs on him, and he needed a friend. He's in a mess of his own making, the result of bad decisions he's made going back years. Probably going back to when he became a mercenary, and he can't ever quite get clear of them. Can't be done with the violence, can't be done with Khonshu, can't be done with not being trusted or even trusting himself.