What I Bought 10/26/2022 - Part 2

I didn't really plan to save the horror book for Halloween, it worked out that way because Friday's books were loosely, "concluding stories", and these two books are still in their first half.

Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead #2, by Bruce Campbell (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Kristian Rossi (colorist), Rob Leigh (letterer) - Rock is not happy with the festive burning zombie decoration.

Good news, everyone! Campbell and Risso did mostly get exposition out of the way in the first issue! By the time we see Easy Co. in this issue, they're already sneaking around the "industrial district" of Berlin, looking for the zombie-generating lab. They find a heavily-guarded place where bodies are being delivered, but their attempts to commandeer a truck fall prey to the rear of the truck being full of undead Nazis.

Dealing with that requires a lot of shooting and some grenades, which somehow doesn't attract immediate attention. So they're able to spy on the factory long enough to see Hitler's personal physician leaving (after receiving some drugs, which I'm sure implies something unpleasant with regards to the genocidal failed painter). But more undead soldiers show up, and fire doesn't kill them, or at least not quickly, so it's out the window, into a truck and chase that doctor.

The opening scene is definitely the creepiest part of the issue (not that the book is terribly creepy or scary). A bunch of the undead soldiers in a tavern, drinking. Then they start shooting each other, but it's all in fun as they laugh at how it doesn't kill or even really harm them. One of them gets shot through the back, laughs, drinks, and watches the beer pour out the bullet holes like he's Daffy Duck. Then they all laugh with these wrinkled, decayed faces, and Rossi colors the whole thing in a sickly grey-green that almost matches the undead's skin.

I don't know if it's more unsettling or less to think these guys still have some capacity for thought and understanding of their situation. The fact they understand and seem to revel in it is disturbing. When Bulldozer's stuck fighting one in close quarters later, he empties a revolver in the guy's gut, and said guy just keeps grinning (and drooling, these undead guys have all got permanent drool coating their chins) and saying he'll live forever. Reminds me a bit of the Letzses Battalion from Hellsing, although these guys are a bit goofier than that lot, who gleefully mangled and shredded human bodies at will.

X-Men Legends #3, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Javier Pina (artist), Jim Campbell (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I want Spiral to be throwing up some devil horns with her fingers to show she's enjoying this descent into a weird portal thing.

This is set immediately after the original Nocenti/Art Adams Longshot mini-series from the '80s. Longshot's captured by Mojo and dragged back to the Mojoverse, where Mojo plans - I use the term loosely - his next big cinematic piece with his incredibly lucky star. Dr. Strange may have stitched the portal shut, but Spiral reopens it and grabs Wolverine, Shadowcat and Lockheed, who came to investigate. Little reprogramming and recostuming later, and they're ready for starring roles in a big war picture. On opposing sides, naturally.

The heroes are almost props in this issue, as Nocenti seems most focused on Mojo, Spiral, and Major Domo. The resent the latter two hold for their boss, only thinly veiled (if that.) The contempt he holds for them, if even that. Mojo typically gets written as a comedy villain, maybe ever since the X-Babies thing. Just a big yellow blob that sees everything in terms of the entertainment value he can squeeze from it. Nocenti's the only one who seems to actually show that he's dangerous. Not just whatever it is about him that kills natural things by his mere presence. More the complete disregard for anyone or anything else.

He's a bit like a child, but an especially cruel one. Pain that happens to others, doesn't exist. Everyone is to be used by him, and you're only hope in getting him to listen is by appealing to his ego. He has no grasp of depth. As he puts it, characters change by being alive at the beginning of the story, and dead by the end. Major Domo argues in favor of creating real characters and giving them conflicts, but it only works because he points out that Mojo's ratings will plummet if they're bored for even a second. In panels where Mojo's the only character, he fills them, or close to it. A lot of those panels are close-up on his face. If he shares the panels with someone else, he still dominates it. 

Even in a full-page splash where Longshot briefly escapes and makes a speech while attacking Mojo, Mojo is in the foreground, taking up more of the panel than Longshot and Spiral (relegated to a small corner) combined. Even when Spiral and Domo plot betrayal, they're presented as greyed outlines, while Mojo's is this yellow shadow that looms in the background. He's got to be the star, the genius, the one everybody loves. Or else.

Sunday Splash Page #242

 

"H4H Is Blowing Up," in Heroes for Hire (vol. 1) #3, by John Ostrander (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Jamie Mendoza (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), Jonathan Babcock (letterer)

"Heroes for Hire" was originally a sub-title for Power Man and Iron Fist, and didn't become the main title of a book until 1997, when John Ostrander wrote a team book in the aftermath of Onslaught.

With most of the heroes gone, and the U-Foes assisting a mysterious mastermind in a breakout from the Vault, Iron Fist decides to use his company's resources to put together a team of, well, anybody he can find. Hercules joins briefly, then departs to get his shit together. Black Knight tags in (with a new sword and potential role), as does Scott Lang. After some reluctance, so do Luke Cage and She-Hulk. Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch is helping to run things, and Ostrander gives us a few scenes during the series of him and Namor being chummy. Always weird to see Namor being relaxed and pleasant. Ostrander also adds in a new White Tiger, a woman who actually transforms into a white tiger if she loses control.

The book doesn't ever really offer a sense that the available heroes are stretched thin with the Avengers and FF "dead" and the X-Men on the run. The first year is the team dealing with various threats, with Ostrander ranging far and wide, like the U-Foes and Nitro. They get tangled up with the Thunderbolts (still pretending to be heroes) and Silver Sable. A couple of issues deal with Sersi popping up after she and Black Knight got separated at some point, which drags the team into fighting the Deviants. All the while, the mastermind is moving in the background.

Ostrander does a bit of a dive into Luke and Danny's friendship. The different ways they see things, the different ways they respond to problems. Danny thought the world needed some symbol of hope, some reason to think things weren't falling apart, and he took certain steps. Big, idealistic, poorly thought steps. Luke's more cautious, more capable of being sneaky or deceitful if he thinks it's necessary.

Most of the rest of the series is a crossover with Quicksilver, which I think Ostrander was also writing. The heroes get caught in the middle of a struggle for control of Wundagore between the High Evolutionary and Exodus, and . . .look, I'm pretty close to ride or die for John Ostrander, but even he can't make me give a shit about the High Evolutionary or the Acolytes.

Pascual Ferry draws most of the 19 issues of the book, and he uses a much stiffer, harder line here than he would show in the 2000s. Compared to his art here, his work on Ultimate Fantastic Four had an almost ethereal look to it. Pretty stylized, exaggerated proportions. White Tiger's legs seem to go on forever, so maybe there's some Jim Lee influence in there? Not sure. 

But Ferry's very good at laying out panels and pages, and he gets a lot of fight scenes to draw and illustrates them well. Sometimes he'll go move-by-move, and other times he focuses on the big moments. Ostrander adds some humor occasionally, not a lot, but enough to keep things from getting grim, and Ferry does alright with that. Luke gets an updated costume, brings back the tiara they ditched in his '90s Cage series, but stays away from canary yellow clothing. Scott Lang got a more armored look when he was in DeFalco's FF run, but Ferry brings him back to a more classic Ant-Man costume.

The book got canceled after 19 issues, which is still the longest any book titled Heroes for Hire has lasted.

Saturday Splash Page #44

 

"The Cleaner", in The Way of the Househusband vol. 1, chapter 6, by Kousuke Oono 

There's apparently a term to describe a series like Way of the Househusband: gap moe. Basically, that the series plays on the difference between what you expect based on appearances. I think that's pretty much all it does.

Tatsu is a yakuza legend, "The Immortal Dragon", who still basically dresses like it, minus his Shiba Inu apron. So while he does perfectly innocuous things like try to entertain a neighbor's kid, or sing "Happy Birthday" to his wife, it's presented as looking really intimidating or creepy. Oono often draws Tatsu with his head tilted at an odd angle, so that he peers down at people through dark sunglasses. He uses a different, scratchy font when Tatsu is speaking in what I assume is meant to be a threatening or creepy tone, even if he's just asking the door-to-door salesman if he can test these knives the guy's hawking.

That's basically the entire manga, Tatsu going about the business of being a househusband who talks like a former gangster while everyone else gets freaked out by him. To be clear, Tatsu's presented very devoted to the task and his wife. He's apparently pretty good at cleaning, baking, growing his own herb garden (which the cops assume is weed), being active in the community swap meet or yoga practice. It's just his way of speaking and acting unnerve people.

Oono added more former yakuza to the cast in later volumes, like a lady boss that now worked at a grocery store, but it's still basically the same gag. Her yelling you're not going to disrespect her by not getting your points card punched or whatever. I bought the first two volumes, but one was enough.

What I Bought 10/26/2022 - Part 1

I got most of the books that came out this week I wanted. The remainder, plus the ones I was still looking for from earlier this month, ought to be here by early next week. So I should be good for comics reviews into the second week of November. Huzzah!

Moon Knight Annual #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Federico Sabbatini (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - I guess Marc's been forced to skimp on the silver after he lost most of his money.

MacKay brings Marlene back, as their daughter's been kidnapped by Jack Russell, the old Werewolf by Night. Jack's got his eyes on a prophecy that will enable Khonshu to be killed, since he blames Khonshu for there being werewolves, what with the whole moon connection. Seems to me there's probably more than one god of the Moon - hasn't Artemis got that title in one of the mythologies? - but maybe one's as good as another.

Hunter's Moon clues Marc in to the prophecy, and even agrees to help, although he insists Khonshu's fists are not supposed to have children. Like, what, Khonshu creates a mystical condom any time they get freaky? Don't let Fox News hear about this pagan birth control. Either way, Marc (or was it Jake?) slipped one past the goalie, so the prophecy is in play. While Marc keeps Russell occupied, Hunter's Moon is supposed to be rescuing Diatrice. Or he's supposed to be obeying Khonshu and killing the potential threat.

Sabbatini draws Khonshu in a variety of ways. A reflection in a mirror Badr walks past. A shadow on the wall. An actual physical form leaning over Badr's shoulder. There's probably something that represents each of Khonshu's styles or phases. Otherwise, Rosenberg maintains a fairly consistent look for the book compared to when Cappuccio is drawing it. Sharp divides between dark and light, especially on Moon Knight's costume. Sabbatini's character's are more rounded, almost gentler looking than Cappuccio's. Cappuccio's Marc looks like a wreck under the mask; Sabbatini's looks like Paul Rudd: a kind of scruffy goofball.

I thought this was a solid-enough done-in-one. Presents a problem, a couple of them actually. Provides resolutions, at least temporarily since I figure the alignment can't be a one-off, so Russell could always try again. MacKay has mostly dealt with how Moon Knight sees himself, and to a lesser extent, how people that have only recently come to know him - Reese, Soldier, Hunter's Moon, Zodiac - see him. Marlene is someone who's known him longer than all those people put together, and known him in better times and worse. I know some fans who will definitely disagree with some of her statements - especially the one about loving each of Marc, Jake, and Steven - but it's still an interesting alternative perspective.

Iron Cat #5, by Jed MacKay (writer), Pere Perez (artist), Frank D'Armata (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - The faceplate on the Hulkbuster armor makes me laugh. It's like a grumpy, chubby baby face.

Felicia and Tony's plan appears to have crapped out, since it relied on Tamara and she got killed. Yep totally dead. No doubts. Not a fakeout.

Oh, wait, it was definitely a fakeout, and Tamara pops up with her plan. The Sunset Bain causing problems is a copy of the real deal. A copy that was supposed to free the real deal, but surprise! did not. The real deal is rather irate and Stark sets her loose in the system against the copy, then purges the system while they're occupied. Kind of hilarious that works, but smart people can be dumb as hell. Just look at Tony Stark.

The two cats fight Sunset in the Hulkbuster armor until Stark can upload the original, and I feel like MacKay overplays Tamara's competence versus Felicia's a bit. I know they say she's supposed to be better at everything, but Felicia should definitely have more experience with this sort of insane superhero stuff than Tamara, which oughta count for something. Also, I liked how Villa drew the energy claws on the armor as very long, but Perez draws them as short little things, closer to the talons Spider-Man 2099 has.

Sunset's beat. Tamara accepts Felicia's explanation for why she sent the Fox to the Gilded Saint. The fact Felicia presents it as the Fox asking her because Tamara would have been too smart to be fooled probably helped. Tamara escapes with the black-and-white armor, plus the diamond Felicia was trying to steal when this all started. Stark makes an extremely funny pouty face when Felicia tells him he'll never catch Tamara.

If the Annual felt like a solid one-off story, this mini-series felt thin. I think it could have been fine in four issues. If Mackay was trying to draw parallels between Tamara/Felicia and Bain/Stark, I'm not sure it works. The former pair's history kind of gets shoved aside for all the flying around in armors blasting stuff. It feels like an Iron Man story, but one not focused on Iron Man. Like neither story really coexists easily with one another, because Tamara just wants to strike at Felicia, but Bain is willing and eager to harm the entire world. It helps present Tamara as not irredeemable, but the scale of things gets skewed.

My Name Is Nobody (1973)

Henry Fonda plays a legendary gunslinger who just wants to take a boat to Europe to finish out his years. Terence Hill plays a younger gunslinger that idolizes Fonda and keeps following him around, trying to force him to go out like a legend "ought" to.

There's some vague stuff about a businessman acting as a front for the Wild Bunch by pretending the gold they steal is coming from a tapped-out mine he bought, and him going after Fonda because he expects Fonda to come after him.

The movie doesn't really hold together. Amazon Prime's listing made sure to mention Sergio Leone (but he's credited with the idea for the movie, while Tonio Valerii is the actual director, and he's no Leone. The movie is both slow, and lacking in story. The plot doesn't hold together, because there's nothing much holding the characters together. No shared goal, or bitter past. Fonda and the businessman may have issues, but Fonda doesn't care about revenge. Hill has no history with either of them outside of being a big fan of Fonda's. He's briefly hired by the businessman to kill Fonda, and any tension from that is tossed aside within minutes. 

Fonda has no interest in making a heroic last stand, and Hill doesn't act to force his hand. Fonda basically just eventually decides to go ahead and do it. It would be one thing if Hill was taking actions that pointed the Wild Bunch towards Fonda, but he just sort of goes wherever Fonda's going, always ahead of him somehow, even if he left later, and is irritating. Like Jiminy Cricket with a six-gun.

There's a whole scene where he takes part in a shooting contest in a bar that seems designed to show his skill, but mostly just to waste time and have there be a couple of characters mad at him that he can beat later. But it contributes nothing to story, and it doesn't reveal anything interesting about the leads we didn't already know.

I think Hill's supposed to be a comic twist on the Eli Wallach/ Rod Steiger characters in Leone films. Except for those characters, the exaggerated mannerisms and motormouth disguise truly dangerous people. Hill's character alternates between grinning like a brain dead idiot fanboy and giving Fonda sage advice, or showing off his speed by drawing another man's gun and then smacking the guy in the face when he tries to stop this.

The movie tries for the dramatic build, but it hasn't succeeded in making us care, so the response is more, "get on with it already!" And it ends with a voiceover of a letter Fonda is writing to Hill that goes on for at least a couple of minutes, belaboring the points the movie has been trying to make.

Survey the New Year from October

With some of the erratic release schedules for books these last two months, perhaps I should put less stock in January's solicits than normal, but what the hell. Let's have something to look forward to in the not-so-cold winter months.

What's new I might buy? There were a surprising number of things I'll at least consider. Al Ewing is following up that Ant-Man mini-series about all the Ant-Mans with one about the Wasp with Kasia Nie as artist. Looks like it's focused on Janet and Nadia. Could always work Cassie Lang as Stinger in there. She was basically Wasp in the MC2 universe, and she's rocking that codename in the main Marvel U now. Might tradewait on that though.

Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura, who were the creative team behind I Kill Giants are teaming up for an 8-issue mini-series through Image, Immortal Sergeant. A cop tries to solve a crime that haunted him for decades with his estranged son. Dynamite is doing a new Darkwing Duck mini-series, by Amanda Deibert and Carlo Lauro. Will Calvin's nostalgia win out over common sense? Well, it typically has in the past.

Blood Moon Comics has the first issue of Northern Blood, by Jason Michalski and Antonio Rojo, about undead Vikings rising because some Nazis robbed a tomb. Nazis dying, a surefire sales approach. Luca Frigerio and Emanuele Ercolani have Kitsune, published through Scout Comics, about a fox ronin who returns home after many years to find his land in ruin. 

There was one hardcover, The Exile by Erik Kriek, about a Viking returning home to find things aren't forgotten. I'm detecting a pattern in the things that interest me, but this thing is 40 bucks. Eeeh, I dunno about that. Finally, there's Nightwalkers, about addicts at a treatment facility where they're entirely isolated, who find themselves under lockdown when a creature gets in. I was actually pretty excited based on the solicit, but Cullen Bunn's the writer, and nothing of his I've read has ever clicked with me.

Like I said, that's a lot. So, What am I buying that's ending in January? Actually, the answer is, "nothing for certain." There are a few things on the verge of being dropped. West of Sundown is up to issue 8, but I'm not sure it's going to make it that far with me. Seven Seas Entertainment has volume 5 of Yakuza Reincarnation and volume 2 of Box of Light. I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about the first volume of either, but I'd like to at least read the second volume of each to decide whether to keep going. There's also the second issues of both Grit N Gears and that Mary Jane and Black Cat mini-series.

With all that said, what does that leave to discuss? No, we're not going to discuss Lazarus Planet from DC, fuck off. Or whatever event mess Marvel has going that month. There is the penultimate issue of Sgt. Rock versus the Army of the Dead. The third issue of a bunch of stuff, assuming I'm still buying all of them: Fantastic Four, Tiger Division, West Moon Chronicles, and Nature's Labyrinth. Also, Deadpool, who appears to have something growing out of his body. That's going to make Blogsgiving awkward if he's eating for two.

Theoretically, that's a lot of books. If they all come out on time. And if I buy all of them.

Natural Selection - Dave Freedman

A sci-fi horror story about a predatory species similar to manta rays that exist in the ocean depths, rising to the surface and evolving at an insanely rapid rate. How rapidly? The juveniles learn to fly - like real flight, in the air - by watching seabirds do it. That, and lots of trial and error. A few - four dozen to be exact we are told - even figure out how to hover. Like a 1500 pound hummingbird. Within a matter of months of reaching the surface, mind you. Maybe a year, tops. 

They also somehow figure out how to breathe air through their air bladder - there's some thing tossed in about there being oxygen geysers at the sea floor that pop up periodically that would explain this adaptation - and all their senses, adapted over millions of years to life at miles below the ocean's surface, instantly adjust to not only life in shallow water, but on land. Their electroreception works, in the air, from miles away, as do their eyes. 

They can kill a 900-pound bear with ease, outsmart dolphins within minutes of encountering them, set traps better than the freaking Predator, and from observing one human shoot a deer with a gun, once, understand that humans carry weapons that kill from a distance. To the extent they understand a bow and arrow - because one of the biologists is one-eighth Indian - are also dangerous the moment they see it.

The only hope of stopping this thing, that resembles the fanciful animal a five-year old would devise, is a small crew of marine biologists who were originally just chasing down a rumor of a new ray species to keep their jobs for a dot-com millionaire trying to make a name for himself and impress the old money types at the country club. I am entirely serious.

You could draw several conclusions from the fact I read this entire 414 page book in one night. That it was fast-paced, switching between what the biologists were doing and what the rays were doing so the plot never lingers on boring old scientific exposition for too long? Yes.

That it was bizarre enough of a concept, with ludicrous enough pseudo-science - written in a faux-Michael Crichton level of detail - that the sheer lunacy impelled me to keep going, like reading a Bob Haney comic? Yes.

That it was not a deep book at all, easy to read and with little of the depth to characters or motivations that would force a reader to stop and process what they just read? Yes.

That I was staying in a hotel that night and there was jack shit on the, frankly, piss poor selection of cable channels, so I might as well read this book? Yes.

I can enjoy a "terror from the deep emerges" story. I liked Meg back when I read it, but I think the key was, the Megalodon was still written as basically a shark. A really big, hungry shark, but still just a shark. It gets to the surface in more a less a fluke - another Megalodon gets caught in a cable around a tiny manned submersible as it's pulled up and is wounded, the first Meg attacks at the scent of blood and swims through the layers of cold water, shielded by all the warm blood of the shark it's eating. Ridiculous, but not in terms of the animal's behavior.

This? This is, well, I mentioned Bob Haney, and yeah, this feels like something he would have written in an Aquaman story. "Menace of the Meta-Mantas!" Or like that Simpsons Halloween story where the dolphins come on land and kick the humans off. Like I said, Freedman keeps the momentum, but by setting the pace like he does, the characters' motivations come off as flat or cliched. 

When he tries to build a romantic relationship between two of the biologists, it doesn't land. The guy is supposed to notice the lady is dressing more "sexy", but there's nothing about how that makes him feel, what it stirs in him. Or what her thoughts or motivations, if any, were in dressing like that. It feels like an outline of a relationship, waiting to be filled out. Since it isn't, it comes off as perfunctory, "put the two single characters together," trope.

Also, he often writes from a third-person omniscient, peering into a character's mind to describe what they're thinking. But within the same paragraph, will abruptly switch to a first-person transcription of the character's thoughts. It's just awkward and disrupts the flow of the story.

Still, reading this beat paying attention to Game 1 of the NLCS.

'They were goddamn frightening eyes. Not just because they were bigger than baseballs, pupil-less, and in the strangely unnerving color of jet black. But because of what was behind them. They were cold, calculating, and, above all, intelligent. An awfully smart animal lurked behind those eyes. Darryl knew its brain weighed six pounds, but now, actually seeing the creature, he would have believed its brain weighed twenty-five pounds. Look at those goddamn eyes.'

What I Bought 10/21/2022

Well, I made it through last week. Take the victories where you can. The comic guy in town moved his store. He's definitely got more space in the new place, but the old one had carpet, which I prefer to white linoleum. It's more welcoming.

Moon Knight #16, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Moon Knight's lived in New York for, some period of his life, but he'd never been to Chinatown until company came to visit.

Mr. Knight takes Reese and Soldier to meet with the boss of the vampires in Chinatown, a Lady Yulan. Find out why the Tutor doesn't encroach, and if they're open to an alliance. The answer to the first and second is, Yulan is sort of responsible for Tutor being turned, but Tutor knows who sired Yulan, and that they're looking for her. So there's a uneasy truce. "Leave me alone, I leave you alone." Works for me and the rattlesnakes.

Yulan is willing to tell them what the Tutor hopes to accomplish. Networking, essentially, to build his rep and possibly challenge Dracula for rule of the Vampire Nation of Chernobyl?! OK, hold up, hold up, when the hell did that happen? Was it in Avengers? This sounds like something Jason Aaron would do. Anyway, Tutor's having a big get-together with most of the other major vamps for this networking, and Yulan knows when and where.

Cappuccio continues to draw vampires as looking human, minus the red pupils and black scleras. However, with Yulan, we do see her appearance shift to something more demonic. Her veins turn black and are more prominent, and she has almost like tusks sticking out the sides of their mouths. Kind of resembles a mask of a tengu or oni or something. Doesn't seem like those teeth would useful for drinking blood. Not sure if that's a reflection of how long she's been a vampire - says she'd killed a thousand men for her sire before Dracula was even on the scene. Quality not quantity. You ever turned a Sorcerer Supreme? -  or because of how she was turned. She says it was by her alchemy, whatever that means.

While all that's going on, Hunter's Moon is busy fighting the two European assassins that went after Moon Knight a couple of issues ago. He's not down with making alliances with vampires. Somebody didn't learn the importance of teamwork. He's not doing badly, but then he gets jumped by a couple dozen of Tutor's vamps as well, and, I mean, one of them stuck a crowbar in his chest. Crowbars are not stabbing weapons, come on, vampires! Also, don't give Blade any new ideas on how to kill you. I find it hard to believe MacKay is going to kill off a character he introduced a year ago, but it didn't sound good.

Sunday Splash Page #241

 

"Another Day at the Office", in Hero Hourly #2, by James Patrick (writer), Carlos Trigo (artist), Alex Sollazzo (colorist), Marco Della Verde (letterer)

Written by James Patrick, who also wrote the two Kaiju Score mini-series, Hero Hourly follows Saul Smirkanski, who expected a life making a lot of money in high finance, but ends up working a 9-to-5 job as a superhero-for-hire when the economy tanks. There's a somewhat longer review here.

Patrick writes a lot of humor into it around regular job problems like lazy co-workers, crap bosses, and the company doing things like diluting the formula that temporarily provides super-powers to cut budget. But he also sends Saul through a character arc. Initially, he resents the job and keeps waiting for something to turn it all around and give him what he thinks he deserves. Later, he seems to decide this is what his life is, and he'll just do well at it and someone will reward him with a promotion. Finally, he concludes he's got to seize the wheel and make something good happen in his life.

That's a little simplistic and overlooks a shitload of issues that can make that difficult for someone, but it's progress for Saul. And it contrasts with another character, Foreclosure (or "The Foreclosure"), who can't get his shit together and keeps waiting for that one big thing that's going to fix it all.

Trigo and Sollazzo make sure the look of the book fits with the tone Patrick's establishing. The company uniform is not flattering. All the villains' costumes look home made and mismatched. Nobody looks especially fit or heroic in it, and that everyone wears the same outfit makes it even more mundane. This is job for these guys, not some great calling. They got bills to pay, this beat working at Taco Hut. The monsters look more interesting, but it's also not a job for them.

Saturday Splash Page #43

 

"Fly-By-Night Operation," in Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/artist), Sal Buscema (inker/finisher), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

In the late 2000s, Marvel briefly brought back Web of Spider-Man, this time as an anthology title. There was a mixture of done-in-one stories focused on supporting characters, but it was also another place for folks like me to get their "Mayday" Parker Spider-Girl fix.

The Spider-Girl parts only lasted a few issues, and continued threads from earlier stories in Amazing Spider-Man Family, the previous attempt at a Spider-themed anthology book. At this point the big issue was Mayday had a clone of her own, who was actually part symbiote thanks to Osborn. Calling herself "April", the clone tried to integrate into the Parker family life, but tended to resent the fact she felt she was the original and May had stolen her life.

That's woven in with an ongoing gang war involving Tombstone and the Black Tarantula, and then Fury the Goblin Queen up there rushes onto the scene, trying to both destroy traitors and the Parkers once and for all. April has to decide which side she's going to be on (for now, at least), and Mayday's boyfriend maybe figures out her secret. It's pretty standard DeFalco/Frenz Spider-Girl stuff, with Sal Buscema providing the finishes on the art. Lots of melodrama and big speeches. Lot of Spider-Girl triumphing through hard challenges and throwing big haymaker punches.

Oh, and DeFalco and Frenz show up working for Tombstone, only to be killed by Batwing, the character Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe created in Untold Tales of Spider-Man (which we'll get to in a month or so.)

Random Back Issues #95 - Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #3

Hank, the last time you didn't hold anything back, you built an android with your memory engrams and it went genocidal.

We looked at the issue after this 2.5 years ago, so let's see how we got to the point of Hank Pym having nightmares about crunching Adaptoids between his giant teeth like mints!

Nick Fury's sent the Avengers - Black Panther, Hawkeye, Wasp, newbie Vision, and leader Giant-Man - to an island that serves as base where AIM may be trying to make an army of Adaptoids. Still blaming Fury for the Black Widow breaking up with him and joining SHIELD, Hawkeye's giving Fury static about why he doesn't just use SHIELD agents. Apparently Fury was ordered to leave this to the superhumans, which Pym leverages to make Fury release Vision from custody, since the authorities have no proof Viz is the original Adaptoid in disguise.

For his part, Vision is grateful the team stuck up for him, and determined to keep them from failing. Hank's, on the other hand, feeling jittery, a feeling that gets worse when they find the Adaptoid replication plant leveled and the machines carving a path through the island, including at least one innocent village. A half-dozen knockoff Adaptoids notice the Quinjet and attack. Despite Vision's best efforts, they wreck an engine. The team bails out, except Hawkeye, who is determined to land the thing. Clint, it's fine, they'll just send the bill to Stark.

But he manages, in the Launchpad McQuack sense, and now he's in the main AIM base, joined by the Panther and Vision. The beekeepers aren't causing much trouble, but Hawkeye's not sure they're actually accomplishing anything beating up a bunch of libertarian nerds

(Hank notes at one point AIM loves to claim persecution when they're listed as outlaws, but they don't care who their experiments hurt. All for me, none for you types. I'm more used to AIM just openly admitting they do criminal stuff in the name of science and not caring, but maybe that mindset came in when MODOK took over.) 

Fortunately, the king and the tin can made a plan. T'Challa hacks into AIM communications and the base layout, using panicked AIM chatter to track the Adapotid, while Vision seeks out the main reactor and overloads it.

Back in the jungle, the swarm of Adaptoids are two miles from another village and closing fast. Pym sends Wasp to help the others and orders the villagers to leave. Then he gets ready to fight the entire army himself. Probably not a good sign he's having to work himself up by repeating that they aren't human, so he doesn't have to hold back. 

Casey also uses the first page of the issue to establish a subplot where certain Wakandan elements contract the Death Tiger to kill T'Challa, allegedly because he's not being a good king, hanging out with Avengers and being a schoolteacher, but probably really just to grab power. That won't come to a head for a few issues yet.

{2nd longbox, 26th comic. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes II #3, by Joe Casey (writer), Will Rosado (penciler), Tom Palmer (inker), Wil Quintana (colorist), Comicraft (letterers)]

What I Bought 10/15/2022

I'm somewhere out on the road as this post goes up, smack in the middle of a long week. From where I sit, typing this on Sunday morning, if I make it through tomorrow, I can almost coast through Friday. I hope.

Anyway, trying to get any comics I want to actually come out is still a pain in the ass, as apparently everything is waiting until the end of the month (counting today, 5 books through 3 weeks). I got one from two weeks ago, so let's go with that.

The West Moon Chronicle #1, by Frank Jun Kim (writer), Joe Bocardo (artist), Manoli Martinez (colorist), El Torres (letterer) - First time I saw that I cover, I thought he had a lightsaber. Told myself no way, it's not that kind of story. It's the beam from a flashlight. Got a closer look now and it is a glowing sword after all.

Jae-sun returns to his grandfather's house near the town of Vane, Texas. he doesn't want to be there, but he's in debt to some unpleasant people, and his lady friend Sunny suggested he convince his grandfather to sell his home to get the money. Grandpa, who is only referred to as that or Mr. Rhee, isn't willing to sell his home or land, certainly not when Sunny is a nine-tailed fox. Bocardo draws the old man with a lot of sharp lines. There's age on him, but it's expressed not by him having lost strength, but that most anything soft has been carved away. His face is still open, if not expressive, during the conversation, but once he starts swinging a sword, his eyes tend to go into shadow.

Lit on fire, "Sunny" flees into the forest, grandson and grandfather after her, bickering all the way. They don't find her, and what are likely some old arguments kick up and get them in trouble with some gremlin-looking things called dokkaebi from Korean folklore. Bocardo sticks to short, wide panels during the argument, zooming in first one their faces, then on just mouths or eyes so the audience can't see how bad the situation has gotten until the characters calm down. 

Trying to escape, they run to a nearby lake, Grandpa intending to use the full moon to escape through a lotus gate. Except Jae-sun's old girlfriend/wife/baby mama comes out, with a dragon, after being gone 18 years, saying their daughter is in danger.

There's a lot going on. The old man's sword glows sometimes. He fought in Vietnam, but his unit committed war crimes. He contends he wasn't involved, but didn't stop them, either. Jae-sun carries a lot of resentment of his grandfather being taken away because of this and left in the care of a local bartender or something. There's a lot of backstory Kim just hints at, I assume to be expanded on later. I'm not sure why Texas would be such a hotspot for being of Korean mythology, unless they're there because some who believes in them is as well. Or they exist all over and it's just a matter of what different cultures call them.

Maybe this is common, but the old man mostly speaks in Korean, which Jae-Sun clearly understands, but responds to in English. Which the old man knows, because he uses it when he's still conversing politely with Sunny. I guess each of them sticks with what's most comfortable when they can.

Populist Seduction in Latin America - Carlos de la Torre

Carlos de la Torre's book is mostly focused on populist movements in Ecuador, but he compares and contrasts with other Latin American countries. He feels that "populism" is used to describe such a wide range of movements that the meaning is almost lost, and so tries to define specific characteristics of populist movements. 

He argues that there is a framing of the struggle in stark terms of those with the movement and the "other", who are entirely immoral and evil and can't be reasoned or compromised with. That whoever are the current elites of the country are positioned as that other, in contrast to those who are seen or feel they lack power. The leader will argue the characteristics of the neglected or excluded are good qualities, all strengths and no flaws, while the other are entirely the opposite. And the leader will position himself as the one who speaks for the dispossessed, focusing less on policy he will enact in his speeches or public appearances, and more on how he is the one who will give the people what they deserve.

I spent a lot of this book comparing de la Torre's definition to Trump. He discusses in the book that the mistake historians often try to make is imposing their view of European democracy on Latin American democracy, without allowing for societal or cultural differences. So maybe trying to draw a comparison between what he describes and Trumpism is a mistake, but a lot of it seemed to fit.

He looks into the rise of both Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra's rise to the presidency in 1944, the beneficiary of a movement he didn't even lead (as he was living in exile at the time), and Abdala Bucaram's brief reign as President in the mid-1990s. These are both ultimately failed populist movements, as neither man retained power for very long, Bucaram being ousted under questionably legal methods roughly six months into his term (Congress had him declared insane and thus unfit for his position). Velasco lasted a few years, and then after being driven out, was elected president three more times over the next 30 years, but never seemed to last for long.

These failures are contrasted with more successful movements. Successful in the sense the leader retained power, not in the sense the goals of the people were truly met. One of de la Torre's arguments is that the successful populist leader, once in charge, turns on the people who got him there, or at least doesn't enact policies to help. Instead, he focuses on forming clientalist relationships with those who can help keep them in power. Alberto Fujimori made an ally of Peru's military by pardoning its soldiers of human rights violations and granting them wide leeway to suppress dissent, including by the same people who got Fujimori elected. Which meant the military had his back. Bucaram didn't do this - he assigned the military an extra responsibility, but not one they apparently wanted - and they weren't on his side.

The book's written in a very dry style, with lots of focus on citations and analyzing other literature on the topic. The conclusions other writers drew, what de la Torre sees as their shortcomings or gaps. It feels like it was originally a dissertation (and the back lists it as No. 32 in a series from Ohio University on Research in International Studies, so that tracks. It's only about 180 pages, though, so it's a quick enough read to not devolve into a slog.

'Populist discourse and rhetoric divide society into two ethically antagonistic fields: el pueblo and la oligarquia. These terms do not refer to precise social categories but rather to a series of social relations; thus it is essential to examine who is included and excluded in each specific case of populism.'

Drink Like the Zombies Can't See You

What are the odds, he asked sarcastically. Like saying, 'one of those fish that likes water.'

The first volume of Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata's Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead lays the premise out very neatly. Tendo has spent the last three years steadily killing himself working ridiculous hours at an ad agency. His apartment, in the scant pages shown of it, is piled with trash and entirely dark other than the light of the TV Tendo watches with vacant, glazed-over eyes while slurping cup ramen. 

He wakes up one day to find the zombie apocalypse has kicked during his brief, blessed hours of unconsciousness. Now he doesn't have to go to work! He can do all the things he's been wanting to do for so long! But first he needs some beer.

The bucket list comes into play halfway through the volume, after Tendo encounters a young woman at the convenience store. The woman (who gets a chapter of her own at the end where we learn her name is Shizuka Mikazuki) is there for specific, useful items like batteries and bottled water, while Tendo just needed more beer. So she declines his attempt to exchange contact info on the grounds he lacks any capacity to plan and steals his bicycle.

Shizuka's shown keeping her own list of how not to be killed, as well as maps and a treadmill she uses to keep in shape. As opposed to Tendo, who seems to be skating on being in shape from playing rugby in school (even though that was 3 years ago and he's been living like a troll ever since). I do question how smart she can be when she seems to wear the same sports bra and running shorts all the time. You could definitely find something that still lets you move but provides some protection from zombie bites (in volume 2 Tendo goes to the extreme in that regard.) 

But Kotaro's art is heavily male gaze when it comes to any female character. I could argue this is a reflection of Tendo's being horny/desperate for love*, except that really shouldn't factor in to Shizuka's chapter, since Tendo is barely present.

Anyway, Tendo grabs a moped, then a big Harley motorcycle, and decides he should make a list of the things he wants to do. While "grow a cool beard" is a bust, his desire to reconnect with old friend Kenichiro goes better, as he rescues him from a sex hotel or something. So it may be that Haro and Kotaro are aiming to have Tendo slowly reclaim the person he wanted to be, or could be, now that he's freed of his horrible job. He and Kenichiro last parted on poor terms, so Tendo being willing to apologize and admit he misses his friend could be a big step.

The story likes to play the contrast of Tendo's cheerful attitude with the actual situation. Tendo pedaling down the street, shouting about using all his saved-up vacation, while a horde of zombies chase him. His neighbors downstairs panicking in their apartment while he shimmies down the drainpipe and asks if there's anything they need from the store. The touching moment brought on by Tendo's full-page, tearful apology to Kenichiro is interrupted by all the zombies who heard him shouting. There's nothing I would call laugh out loud funny, but there are some parts that use the absurdity of their situation well.

* He decides early on he needs to confess to the cute coworker he liked, only to find she and their boss are both zombies. After, Tendo reflects that at least he, 'got to see her tits.' Tendo might be a psychopath, where his job has burned any capacity for empathy from his self.

Sunday Splash Page #240

 

"Legend", in H-E-R-O #11, by Will Pfeifer (writer), Kano (artist), JD Mettler (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)

In 2003, Will Pfeifer and Kano dusted off the Dial H for Hero concept for the first time in. . . a while. Late '80s, maybe? After the initial, four-issue story focused on a young man in a decaying Rust Belt town who stumbles across the dial, Pfeifer and Kano spend the rest of the first issue on short, one or two-issue stories, as the dial bounces from one person to another. People discard it, people lose it, but there's always another curious person sooner or later who finds it and presses the buttons in the right order.

Rather than a phone dial as it was in the original stories and in China Mieville's version, Kano draws it as a metal disc with four buttons: "H" "E" "R" "O". Press them in that order, become a hero. Reverse the order, revert to normal. Some of the hero designs are fairly generic, blocky colors and masks, but there are some more creative designs. A young schoolgirl is able to dial up a woman with illusion powers that has a nifty hooded robe design, some guys who essentially use the dial to do Jackass stunt dial up a big metal dude at one point.

There's no sense that the dial responds to the desires or interests of its user in terms of which hero they become. Unlike with Mieville's Dial H, there's also no sense these heroes exist somewhere else. If one is dialed up, the dialer knows their codename, and may know their powers, but may not. The first guy makes the mistake of assuming he's invulnerable and tries to stop a moving car by standing in the way. It does not go well. There's also no apparent time limit, as the caveman above dialed in a hero and remained that way until his death.

The dial also doesn't seem to care how someone might use it. In Dial H, The Centipede couldn't use the dial, because he ultimately was not a hero. We already briefly mentioned the guys using it for dumb stunts, and there's one issue where a low-level henchguy in Gotham gets it and tries to go big time. But from the point when Dale Eaglesham takes over as series artist is spent on what happens if the wrong person gets the dial, and hits what Robby Reed calls, "the jackpot". Superman-level powers, in this case in the hands of a serial killer.

So the second year of the book shifts from shorter stories to a long arc as Reed, the original Dial H for Hero lead, gathers up some of the people who used the dial over the first year, to try and prevent a mess he foresaw with a hero he dialed years ago. This would seem hard to manage, but this version of the dial leaves people with a hint of the powers they gained from using it, even without dialing. Seems to be a feature unique to this version, although Mieville's had dialers retain memories of the heroes, which was more a problem than an advantage.

Saturday Splash Page #42

 

"Explosive Finale," Web of Spider-Man (vol. 1) #68, Gerry Conway (writer), Alex Saviuk (penciler), Keith Williams (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

What'd we discuss last week, about selling books by slapping Popular Character on them? Well, here we are again. Amazing Spider-Man is always the primary Spidey book. Spectacular is usually #2, although I've never been able to tell if there's a real difference in the stories the tell. Maybe that Amazing tends towards bigger stories and Spectacular's to smaller-scale, more personal stories. But that might have been simply the difference between David Michelinie and J.M. DeMatteis, the authors on those books back in my youth.

I have no idea what niche Web of Spider-Man filled. Focus on organized crime rather than costumed villains? A lot of the issues I have heavily involve the Kingpin or some other mob boss types jockeying for position. Chameleon trying to sucker the second-raters that went after Spidey in Acts of Vengeance into killing Kingpin for him. The Lobo Brothers, Hammerhead, Tombstone. Again though, maybe that's because most of those issues were written by Gerry Conway.

Possibly also "redemption" as a theme. Conway, between this book and his stint on Spectacular prior to DeMatteis taking over, regularly used characters that had been enemies of Spidey's but were now allies, if not always easy ones. Rocket Racer, Puma, Prowler, the Sandman, even Will O' the Wisp on a couple of occasions. Harry Osborn took a couple of turns as the Green Goblin, trying to redeem his father's name (though DeMatteis then sent Harry into the downward spiral that ultimately killed him.)

Conway was the writer from #50 to #70. Before and after that, the book cycles through writers, nobody sticking around much longer than one storyarc until Terry Kavanaugh, who writes the book for most of its last three years. Saviuk hung on as the regular penciler until almost the final year of the book, dropping off right about when the Clone Saga got going. I'd say it was just in the nick of time, but he'd already drawn Kavanaugh's "Who is FACADE?" story that I've never read, but heard nothing but bad things aboout, so maybe he was still too late.

Saviuk's style feels like it rests halfway in between Sal Buscema and John Romita Sr. Little rougher around the edges than Romita, but with thinner linework and not so squared off as Buscema. Either way, Saviuk always makes sure you've got all the information you need on the page, and that you can follow what's happening. Nothing flashy in panel or page layouts, just solid, straightforward storytelling. Characters are easy to distinguish, like Saviuk could do a guide to how the characters are going to look. Or maybe I just think that because I saw his art in so many comics when I was younger.

Random Back Issues #94 - Ultimate Spider-Man #91

Aw crap, I hated fighting this guy in Mega Man 4. At least I could make it to him. I had to rely on one of my friends to get me to Bright Man.

I'm a little surprised it took me this long to land on an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, but the wait is over! Remarkably, we got the first issue of one of Bendis' swifter stories, clocking in at a, by his standards, economical 4 issues.

At this point, Spider-Man and Shadowcat are dating, as the Council of Kitty Prydes (fewer pipes and less ethically compromised than the Council of Reeds) continue their long-standing goal of dating Peters across the multiverse. As far as it goes, I'd rate Ultimate Peter Parker ahead of Pete Wisdom and Peter Quill (certainly the movie-inspired, idiot man-child version of Star-Lord Kitty dated), and maybe Colossus, depending on what point in time we're talking and their respective ages.

Anyway, our power couple are bonding by fighting crime together. In this case, the terrible Ringer, who has Spidey in a bit of a bind. Of course, metal rings don't work against an intangible person, but Kitty can't figure out where the mechanism for the suit is, and the Ringer bails once she starts phasing her head through his skull. That gives her a chance to free Peter, he webs the Ringer's gauntlets, the mechanism (on his back) overloads. Turns out the Ringer is from Ohio, not Maryland. I assume he was just trying to throw people off his trail. No one could think claiming to be from Maryland makes them cool. The cops show up, Peter gets them the heck out of here.

As for Kitty's costume, it does have the advantage of not looking a thing like her X-Men outfit, but it's kind of. . .not great. Costume design has never been what I'd describe as a strength of Bagley's. Immonen gave her a much improved look when he came on as artist, but I can't give him too much credit because he basically just changed the colors on Hellcat's costume. That's 25 issues away, however.

While they webswing, which Kitty really enjoys, they discuss Peter's lame villains. He responds his villains are better than the Ultimates, and Kitty counters they just fight each other. I mean, you're both correct. That's why their villains are so lame, because they, themselves, all suck. The conversation turns to their relationship and the possibility of going on a date in public, as Peter Parker and Kitty Pryde. Peter's worried it will cause his aunt more stress, but Kitty points out having a girlfriend gives him more excuses not to be at home when he needs to fight villains. Maybe Kittys dates Peters because they're all dumber than her.

Kitty has to leave, because the X-Men sent the plane of remote to pick her up. After a kiss which ends awkwardly by Kitty phasing partially through his face to cut it short, she heads home, worrying she screwed everything up. The mansion seems deserted when she arrives, except for Wolverine. Which would be good until I remember this Wolverine was originally a double-agent sent by Magneto who dropped Cyclops off a cliff once. 

Man, why couldn't it be Marvel Universe Scott Summers getting dropped off cliffs?

Wolverine tries to cut Kitty with a knife, which fails, but another attacker with some sort of taser is able to at least partially hurt her, even while she's fazed. Then Storm tries the same thing, while not recognizing her own name. Kitty's frantic escape attempt fries the communications array, and while she's able to launch the jet, she's zapped before she gets to it. 

Peter eventually notices said jet back hovering over the warehouse, goes to investigate, and is whisked back to the mansion. Where he is tased by. . .Deadpool! Working with a bunch of cyborg guys who are supposed to be the Reavers. This version of Deadpool is long on the amoral craziness, but low on the comedy. Also, I think he may actually talk less than regular Deadpool. Staggering when you consider he's being written by Bendis.

{11th longbox, 220th comic. Ultimate Spider-Man (vol. 1) #91, by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), John Dell (inker), Justin Ponsor (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)}

Vivarium (2019)

Gemma (Imogen Poots) and Tom (Jesse Eisenberg) are a young couple thinking of getting a place together. They try a new housing development, one of those horrid places where every home looks identical. All perfectly spaced, all neat boring lawns in front of neat, boring houses. Perfectly shaped clouds spaced apart overhead. It's not for them, but they find they can't escape. The agent who brought them vanishes, and all roads - even through the backyards - lead to the house he showed them.

It's then the baby shows up. In a box, no less. The baby grows, over some indeterminate amount of time, into an extremely creepy child who watches them constantly, perfectly imitates their speech and mannerisms seemingly on a whim, and shrieks like a banshee when it's hungry.

If you are a person like me, who thinks the notion of raising a child would be akin to hell, this movie isn't going to shake you of said notion.

Gemma and Tom cope in their own ways. They drift apart, then closer together, then apart again. They find little pleasures in the fact that their car - long out of gas - still has a real smell, as opposed to whatever this place they're trapped in smells like. Tom begins trying to dig his way out - which kept reminding me of the The Simpsons, "dig up, stupid!" - and this kicks off one of those stretches where he distances himself.

As Tom digs himself a hole, day after day, Gemma finds herself trying to form a connection with the odd child, who they apparently never named. But every time it seems as though she might be growing fond of him, the child does something that reminds her it is not hers, not even remotely. Then she shifts to trying to follow the child, learn where it goes, if there's a way out, who is behind this. The movie focuses on her face a lot. The dark shadows under her eyes, the sallow, greasy skin, but also the way she occasionally looks at the child with fondness, swiftly replaced with horror or revulsion.

The movie is very upfront about where it's going, since it opens by showing us what goes on when a cuckoo lays its egg (in another bird's nest, because cuckoos, like brown-headed cowbirds, are nest parasitizers). The bird whose nest was parasitized continues to feed its bizarre, overlarge offspring, presumably because it doesn't know better. You'd think this wouldn't work on humans, but we have a horrible little thing called empathy. Just not right, to light a baby on fire, or so the thinking goes.

I had wondered if the point was that, as the child imitates them, things might have gone different if they could have shown it more compassion, more understanding. That looking after others is not a burden. It does feel like a metaphor for a larger experience. The man working himself to the bone on some pointless job, slowly killing himself but telling himself it'll be worth it. The woman trying to look after a child she can't understand, who can't make its needs known, but absorbs everything the parents show it.

I don't think so, though. If it's a cuckoo, then it was never going to give a shit about its unwitting adoptive parents, no matter what they did. But maybe that's the point, that people have hope, and will keep at something long after there's any hope of a positive outcome, for lack of a better option or being unwilling to consider other options.

Not Choosing's a Choice, Too

One of the things that interests me about West of Sundown is the bond between Dooley and Rosa. Or, more accurately, what everyone else believes is the bond between Dooley and Rosa.

In issue 3, when Dooley tries to explain to Mr. Manor it wasn't his call to buy out Manor's loans to the bank and oust him from his saloon, Manor replies with the above argument. In issue 5, after most of the cast have settled down in Del Moro, Griffin has his own theory. It boils down to much the same, that being Rosa's Reinfeld is Dooley's way of absolving himself of making choices, or at least the guilt of making choices.

I'm not sure Griffin, who seems very excited at the opportunity to dissect people, has any grounds to judge anyone else. I imagine he would argue that he makes his own choices and accepts responsibility for them, and that's the difference between he and Dooley.

The question is whether either of them are correct. Dooley wanted out of the Civil War, something he seemingly got dragged into without any interest in it. Rosa offered him that, and so Dooley serves her in exchange. He guides her to people to eat, but tries to make it criminals. A robber baron who let child workers burn in his factory. A bunch of outlaws who think he's transporting something valuable and try to rob him. 

In that sense, Griffin's right. Dooley feeds these guys to the beast, and rationalizes it by saying God would 'bring charges' against them. Griffin is wrong that Dooley does this without guilt. It's clear even in the first issue that he seems troubled by what he's party to. Granted, that's after having traveled with Rosa for a solid decade, but that it's the first time we see it, doesn't mean it's the first time. So maybe Griffin was projecting there. He does not come off as someone who feels guilt about anyone he may have cut up or operated on over the years.

Is Manor right that Dooley doesn't want to make choices, and would rather someone else tell him its OK to do what he wants? Again, maybe on the first part, but not on the second. I think if Dooley truly wanted to kill people he considered evil, he would just do it, rather than waste time justifying it by claiming God would agree. And he has opportunities to shoot people at different times and does not take the shots. Griffin during the fight in town, Herman Jung in the final battle at the ranch. He opts to hit each of them with the rifle instead. He only shoots Jung when he's on the verge of killing Rosa.

That could be an unwillingness to lose his master, or it could be loyalty to a, I hesitate to call them friends, but it's more than an employer/employee relationship to be certain. And that situation only came about because Dooley insisted on trying to rescue the townspeople from Jung, even when Rosa walked away. That was a choice he made, and all the others - Griffin, the Monster, and eventually Rosa - followed his lead.

The thing we don't know is whether this is something that's just starting to develop, or whether it's been like this all along. Maybe Dooley has just begun to reassert himself, or question what he's doing. Possibly because for a time, he had to make the choices. During the long ship ride, Rosa was incapacitated, which meant Dooley could not rely on anyone but himself.

Boo (2022)

Was it a wise idea for me to watch a movie about idiots breaking into the ruins of a haunted hospital, the day before I was going to go snoop around the ruins of an abandoned hospital? No. In my defense, a) this movie was not at all scary, and b) I'm pretty sure I have more brainpower than every character in the movie put together, so it's fine.

It feels like it's meant to be a splattercore horror film. Lots of corn syrup blood. When the spirit of the child molester that's trying to escape the hospital possesses someone, their body starts breaking down and being covered in ooze. If you shoot them with even one bullet, the body explodes, which means more corn syrup blood.

At the same time, it feels like a parody of those sorts of movies. One of the characters is a cop, that used to play a vampire hunter in blaxploitation flicks. His trademark was to strike a match, then kick it into the vampire's afro to light them on fire. A trick he tries during this movie. The acting is overall extremely wooden, especially the lead character's idiot boyfriend, who oversells everything with his gestures and speech patterns to the point where, again, I'm not sure he isn't exaggerating the typical idiot jock boyfriend in these movies for comedic effect.

Except, it's not trying to be funny. Again, the ghost is a child molester that tried to force his escape by starting a fire, except the head nurse refused to unlock the doors, so she, the diddler, and all the other patients on that floor burned to death as a result. That's not exactly a laugh riot, you know? The lead character is her daughter, who gets psychic visions for some reason. The cop's there because his old partner's son broke in looking for his missing sister and her friends (unrelated to the other idiot teens).

Disconnect between intent and execution, I think.

A Self-Affirming Paradox. . .of Fun!

These Atomic Era sci-fi movies are really scraping the bottom of the barrel. And the pictures uploaded normally. *shrug*

Mister Invincible (written and drawn by Pascal Jousselin, colored by Laurence Croix) is billed as, 'the one and only true comic book superhero.' This owes to the fact his powers are derived from being in a comic book. He can see what's going on in other panels, both on the page he's currently on, and the page facing it, and move between them. So if he needs to get from one place to another, he can call someone where he needs to be. When the next panel shows that person, he simply steps or drops into their panel. 

He isn't limited to the forward flow of time, either, as the him from later on the page often helps the earlier version. This does, as he explains to his recurring foe the Mad Scientist, result in a paradox, but oh well. If he stops for bread on the way to visit his mother, because the him in the panel where he arrived throws a paper airplane back up the page to alert him to the need for bread, well, the important thing is he got the bread, right?

It is rather funny to watch the Mad Scientist keep trying to destroy Mister Invincible, only to fail because he doesn't realize they're competing on different levels. It's a little like Wil E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. The coyote is operating within the rules of their story, which are never going to let him win. But he doesn't know that, because he can't see the rules. Likewise, the Mad Scientist moves through the panels of each page unaware of them, which means he's fighting Mister Invincible blind and dumb. It's just a matter of how Mister Invincible will thwart him (besides with ridiculous ease.)

Jousselin sticks mostly to either 9 or 16-panel grids, and switches between stories that run for one page or several. He introduces a few other characters with other powers related to comics. An old man who can make his voice balloons take physical form when he's ticked (or singing), seen below punching Richard Nixon (who apparently faked his death to become mayor of a small French town). An awkward teen who can mess with perspective within panels, who becomes a sidekick/apprentice of sorts. There's one villain who can shift between panels on opposite sides of the same piece of paper. Not breaking the fourth wall, but whichever one is the back wall of a panel. Second wall?

There's also a rather melancholy story about a woman who seems to go through life backwards, as though she's moving towards the beginning of the book rather than the end. Mister Invincible keeps her from losing her backpack, but she seems condemned to a life spent unable to communicate properly with other people. She's always reacting to things they haven't said or done yet.

Overall, though, the tone is light. Some of the stories are just Mister Invincible using his powers to help him plant a sapling in his yard. Jousselin gets a lot of humor out of the reactions of other people to the things Mister Invincible does. Since they can't see things as he does, he seems to simply vanish and reappear at random. Produce objects from thin air. The Mad Scientist in particular keeps coming up with theories on how the powers work, and plans to thwart them. These plans sometimes act as a way for Jousselin to have more fun with the format, such as having part of a page burned away, so characters see things from the next page instead. 

Still, I think my favorite story was probably the one where Mr. I asks his friend to read a passage on the Arctic. So he can hope into the panels that illustrate it and get some ice for their lemonade. Polar bear-related shenanigans ensue, and it also hints at how he sees the "white space" of panel borders that becomes critical in one of the last stories in the book.

Sunday Splash Page #239

 

"Revenge of the Mustache Petes", in Heralds #1, by Kathryn Immonen (writer), Tonci Zonjic (artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

2010 was one of those years where Marvel decides they want to court women who read comics. Sometimes this takes the form of series that star lady characters, but are still written and drawn by guys (see Fearless Defenders or that Brian Wood X-Men book from 2013). Sometimes it's an anthology series, like the 3-issue Girl Comics book that came out around this time.

Then there's this five issue mini-series, released weekly in June of 2010. It groups together a bunch of characters with varying amounts (Emma Frost, Hellcat, She-Hulk, Monica Rambeau, Valkyrie, and Agent Brand) of shared history and randomly brings back Nova. No, not Richard Rider, the Herald of Galactus Nova, Frankie Rayner, who died fighting Morg back in Silver Surfer #75 and never got brought back.

It's all kind of strange. The characters are brought together through Cyclops asking them to help Emma celebrate her birthday. Because no one would spend time with Emma Frost otherwise. Nova comes back in part because the Silver Surfer placed some piece of her soul (or something) inside a random red-haired waitress named Frances he apparently found similar to Frankie. Which has kind of screwed up Frances' life because, I think, her desires and dreams got overwritten or scrambled by this other person that's inside. Meanwhile, Nova's physical form is running around, attacking Johnny Storm and blaming everyone else for what happened to her.

The problem with that is, I've read the story where Frankie becomes Galactus' herald. She offers to take the job, not to save Galactus, not to save the Earth (this is also the story where Dr. Strange drops Big G and then Reed declares they must save his life), but because she wants to go to space. When Sue points out being Galactus' Herald will possibly mean feeding him planets full of sentient life, Frankie basically says, "Who cares about some bug-eyed aliens as long as I get to go to space?" 

Point being, while Frances has every right to be pissed with how her life (bizarrely) got fucked over, Frankie made her own call, so I figure she's pretty well S.O.L. But at the end of the day, Frances ends up merged with the Nova-thing anyway, and that's pretty much it. As far as I know, absolutely no one has used her since this mini-series, not even Immonen. So what was the point? Guys excuse it a lot of ways, but they still fuck up women's lives? Frances' life was ruined by the arbitrary decisions of a shiny imbecile, and Frankie certainly blames a lot of men (Johnny, Reed, Surfer, Big G) for what happened to her, even though, as I've established, she made her own bad decision.

There's also the fact that Frances suffers a kind of freak-out when the Nova thing gets to Earth, and in the process stabs a man in the heart at the diner where she works. As far as we know, he died. This is never commented on again.

Also, why did Immonen choose the characters she did? I can sort of see Valkyrie, who has a history of being superimposed on different women (I don't remember who was the current one at this point, not Barbara Norris.) Val and Patsy are old friends even if, as Patsy notes in this series, there are experiences she remembers with Val that Val does not. Plus, Patsy has her own history of being caught up in schemes of men, as we saw in Sunday Splash Page #236.

Brand's there, probably because she's someone Scott and Emma already know, and to be the government-adjacent person who considers going to extreme measures to resolve the problem. Emma is there because, telepaths are handy? She seems to be feeling her age (whatever that is), but I'm not sure how that ties in. I have no clue about Monica or She-Hulk, who seem to be there mostly to make up numbers. I guess Monica's the one who gets to try and fight the Nova-thing.

And, in typical Marvel fashion, they rushed the damn book. By issue 2, we're already getting fill-in pages by James Harren, whose art does not look a damn thing like Zonjic's, and Emma Rios jumps in for part of issue 3. Why not wait until September, which also had 5 Wednesdays, to release the book? Maybe Zonjic could have drawn the whole thing.

I feel like the first issue is the high point, when it's just a weird birthday party interrupted by an outbreak of clones of famous people SWORD keeps near Las Vegas for some reason. That's where the panel of Hellcat punching Einstein I used in my Favorite Characters post for Patsy came from. Once it gets into all this weird shit about Nova/Frankie/Frances, it really bogs down.