Hopefully I'm having a good final big inspection trip of 2023 when you read this. Everybody will be in compliance, and all the people I've been waiting on paperwork from for months won't decide now is the perfect time to e-mail me and expect immediate response. Fat chance on the latter, but might as well try to wish it into existence.
As for you, you get reviews of two books from last month's Marvel stuff today, and a pair of first issues on Friday.
Captain Marvel's fighting Nada, who alternates between big talk and pity plays at the drop of a hat. Taunt Carol that she won't be able to drain away Nada's energy in one panel, accuse her of mocking the disabled for noting Nada's biological and mechanical parts don't get along. Matches Nada's say whatever suits her purposes approach, but also the narrow line she seems to walk with her power as she suddenly collapses. Captain Marvel manages to talk Blake's robot into helping Nada on the grounds she can help get Blake home, where it's safe, but the bot seems to be evolving in problem-solving faster than anyone's aware.
I like the use of basic symbols and sub-emoji faces for the bot, although at this point I have to think it's a ploy by the bot to make people underestimate it. Oh, it's just a simple robot, can't think for itself, doesn't even have real expressions. No reason to feel threatened or wary!
The Feral Five are not on the same page about their next moves. Blake wants to go home, Zaka's starting to miss his mom (who, along with Spider-Woman, is finally in space and on their way), Keziah is learning to communicate with the locals. None of them are happy when Captain Marvel shows up, and then Blake falls wrong and gets badly hurt. The bot shows up and starts merging/uploading Blake and I'm getting a little lost.
Nocenti's got too much going on in this. The kids' frustration with their lot, Keziah's anthropological interests, Nada's nihilism, cynicism, whatever. The concerns about A.I. How Captain Marvel's confidence can be a blessing and a curse. The polluted alien world.
Nitro's here, but done nothing the last 3 issues. We've not really seen enough of the alien world or the people still living aboveground to get a sense of how badly Earth's dumping fucked it up. Or Villanelli's erring drawing it as a mostly rocky landscape with nothing much else. The whole subplot of Spider-Woman trying to follow after Captain Marvel to help is there, plodding along at roughly 2 pages an issue, which I assume will pay off in some manner in the conclusion. I appreciate Nocenti's trying to pack a lot in here (a sharp contrast with the next book), but I'm afraid there's no way to pay most of it off, or even properly develop a lot of it.
Moon Knight, Hunter's Moon and Tigra attack Black Spectre's headquarters, with the help of 8-Ball's flying Hover Rack. Which promptly gets shot down, but they crash land in the building, so it's fine. Hunter's Moon quickly gets sidetracked holding off a bunch of masked guys in suits, so that's one-third of the assault team out.
Tigra, after insisting she's coming on this mission and telling Marc he better not think of sidelining her because they're dating. . .triggers a pressure plate for an explosive and is reduced to standing in a hallway while Moon Knight goes off to confront the bad guy alone.
Sigh. Really, MacKay? She doesn't even get to handle some member of Black Spectre's crew that she'd be better suited to than Moon Knight? Like, after he leaves her, Moon Knight runs into more of the mask-and-suit guys, presumably so he can be kind of beat up when he actually reaches Black Spectre, and Rosenberg can put red stains on the white costume. Too bad he didn't have an incredibly agile and tough person with enhanced senses along to help. Who could probably have jumped out the window ahead of the explosion and used her very sharp claws to climb the building and meet Moon Knight up top. Maybe that's being saved for next issue, but my confidence in MacKay is draining fast.
What is it with writers at Marvel, they are incapable of figuring out anything cool to do with Tigra? This should not be difficult!
Moon Knight reaches the top floor and Black Spectre's waiting with a bat. The wooden implement, not the mammal. They don't actually fight, of course. Gotta save that. And Zodiac - wearing a gold chain that says "Zodiac" like the cheesiest loser alive - reaches the Midnight Mission, where he's gonna get to fight Reese. So she gets to confront the guy who's the reason she turned Soldier into a vampire, which is nice for her. I guess after MacKay went to the trouble of having her point of that a vampire who can turn to mist might be useful for the mission, he had to actually, you know, do something with her.
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