I went to the next town over to try some local store Christmas shopping, and in between that, stopped at the comic stores. The guy at one store remembered what town I was from - surprising, considering it feels like a year since I've been in - and asked if I visited the shop here. He said he asked because he heard the guy wasn't doing too well.
He may have meant healthwise, though I haven't noticed anything in the brief stretches I'm in the store, but assuming he meant financially, I said there never seem to be new releases on the shelf these days. Which, of course, was why I was looking for last week's books in this guy's shop. Still, if the word's getting around to stores in neighboring towns, the local shop's probably not long for this world.
Victorious, Doom's herald and wife is trying to bust through the magic barrier he placed around Latveria. Just for the heck of it, I note that Pinti draws the barrier as a green wall or partially transparent energy, while in Fantastic Four it was a solid, metallic-looking dome.
Even with the Power Cosmic, she can't get in, but her punches are wrecking stuff in all the neighboring countries. So most of the team goes to try and talk her down, or punch her down as necessary. The punching doesn't go terribly well, but the talking eventually gets her to stop and fix what she did.
But, suspecting this is more cover for a heist, the rest of the team look for different activity and find something happening at an old mine in a neighboring country. The Serpent Society's there, but it's actually a trap, as they have their Serpent's Tears ready. Viper says each ampule can infect a city, then wastes one throwing it specifically at Shang-Chi, knowing Captain America will dive on it first. So now Cap's a snake-guy.
OK, so here's the thing where I trip up. The whole running bit has been the Serpent Society goading one person or another into starting something, which draws the Avengers' attention, giving the Serpents cover for their heists. So am I supposed to be believe they somehow goaded Victorious into trying to punch her way back into her homeland right now? Because otherwise, they sat around waiting for some sort of big problem, so they could go cause trouble nearby that the Avengers would notice and investigate, all to spring this trap on one guy. And yeah, Sidewinder's a teleporter, so mobilizing isn't that difficult, but still. It's thin.
Some of the faces Pinti draws look a little strange - mostly mouths, and mostly in smaller panels, maybe the lines need more space - but the panel of Captain America mid-change, is solid. Although I do wonder why transforming into a snake-guy made his fingernails become more clawlike. Snakes don't have claws, or hands.
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