What I Bought 3/19/2020

Both of the comic stores in town were open last week. One wasn't letting people inside, but you could call ahead. The other one was still letting people walk in. Anyway, I rolled the dice and entered a building with other human beings in it, and here's a comic.

Deadpool #4, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Wayne Faucher, Al Vey, Livesay, Jamie Mendoze, Tim Townsend, Derek Fridolfs (inkers), David Curiel (color artist), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I think the Homeowner's Association will have some problems with that lawn display.

Wade fights Kraven. Wade loses an arm. Fight continues. Wade's knights show up to get involved - again. Fight continues. Wade maneuvers Kraven near the water. Kraven gets eaten by the giant tentacle monster. Wade has funeral for murdered bird chancellor guy, considers abdicating throne. Elsa talks him out of it. Kraven turns up not dead, somehow.

There's also a two-page story, drawn by Strychalski, where Wade tries to cheer up Jeff the Land Shark by dressing as Gwenpool. Yikes.

Not the most thrilling start to this run. I guess it's important that Deadpool make the decision to be king, since he basically fell ass-end into the job by killing the previous king via 40 grenades. But the fight against Kraven, which spanned 2.5 issues, was not terribly interesting. Maybe more time spent on Kraven killing Wade's citizens and Wade trying to catch the killer would have worked better. I don't buy Kraven, especially not a Kraven that's actually just his dumb kid, as being this big a threat to Deadpool.

Situation is not helped by the fact I still can't really figure out what Bachalo's shooting for with his layouts and whatnot, although it's not as noticeable in this issue as the previous two. The part where he captures all the parts of Kohlaab in a net, and then someone starts shooting arrows. The net panel is big, then the two where one arrow flies past and the next hits him in the chest are off to the side, maybe a quarter as large. It seems like conveying information is not a major concern for him. I don't know what it is he likes about those small panels almost entirely filled by a character.

What I Bought 12/8/2017

Now that it's actually occurred to me to use the scanner for these posts, I find myself with a difficult choice. Do I select a panel or panels I think were funny/cool, or one that illustrates some point I was fumbling to make when I was discussed the art? The second option seems like the best, but the first one is awful tempting.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #23, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - In an attempt to really make her win impressive, Gwen has opted to fight Dr. Doom after shrinking herself with Pym Particles! Or maybe she enlarged Doom with Pym Particles!

Gwen's attempt to defeat the "real" Dr. Doom fails. Because Doom is not going to lose by being tossed into a weird dimension. Gwen eventually realizes she is entirely outclassed and tries to run, which doesn't work either. The current, "nice" Doom shows up and bails her out, leaving Gwen depressed at how little impact she's allowed to have, and her rapidly approaching mortality. Doom tries to give her some advice, but Gwen doesn't seem to have taken it the way he hoped.

So Gwen has to figure out how she fits in the Marvel Universe. Her early attempts at being a hero were not at all heroic. Her future self told her she was meant to be a villain, which Gwen rejected. She isn't succeeding at making herself important by trying to disappear villains, either. Which leaves what? Gwen doesn't want to be the person in the back of crowd scenes, who dies unceremoniously in some Big Event just because (fair enough). What's her solution? I doubt she wants to be some updated version of Forbush Man or Howard the Duck, popping up every 5-10 years to issue silly commentary on whatever's going on at the moment. It looks like she might be trying for the "rogue with a grey mortality", kind of a Black Cat/Gambit thing. Neither one sustains an ongoing for any extended period of time, but neither one gets killed or vanishes for too long, either.

I appreciated Hastings' writing for Evil Doom. 'You would open a dam because it is not satisfying enough to drown in a puddle,' is a pretty good putdown. 'But let us see how long you hold under a gaze as fierce and hateful as the Sun!' isn't bad, either. And Gwen telling Doom he's got a long fall coming, and a page later, he's been dumped into the void, with only his thought balloon still on the page (Strychalski gave Gwen a pretty good hardass glare on that page as well. Frank Castle would be impressed). After rereading Volume 1 earlier this week, it was funny to see Gwen trying the leg sweeps Batroc regretted teaching her against Doom.

Strychalski mostly works with 3-6 panels per page, and mostly straightforward squares or rectangles. Nothing too out there in terms of layouts (which would be worth exploring in whether that says anything about Gwen. Can she impact the design of the pages she's in?) But there's one 9-panel page, 8 of those panels as narrow vertical shots of Vic the Doombot struggling to process Doom's defeat, while Gwen moves through the same process much more quickly. Everything had been zipping along through the first 5 pages, but at that moment, it looks as though Gwen has actually beaten Dr. Doom. Two of him, no less. So the story pauses to let that sink in for the characters, even though we know it won't take (and Gwen realizes it as well a page later).

Also, I like Strychalski using what little is available in the Gutters to form panel borders when possible. She uses Doom's cape once, the outline of the pages Gwen is sitting on a couple of times. It's tricky, because how could there be panels in a place that exists outside the panels, but it still helps to have something to guide the flow of the conversation as it moves across the page (although for most of those pages, they go with a 3-panel layout most often, so things can just proceed vertically straight down the page).

I don't know if the book is actually dead two issues from now or not, but I hope not. It's got a good mix of funny and intriguing.

What I Bought 11/9/2017 - Part 1

There were no comics out this week I was interested in. Here's a couple of books from last week I was interested in. There were five comics from Marvel last week I wanted, I found four of them so far. Only two or three other books for the remaining weeks of the month.

Despicable Deadpool #289, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - How is Cable missing at that range? Wade at least has the excuse he's missing an arm (and holding his gun sideways). Cable's aim must rival an Uzi-toting bad guy from an '80s movie.

Deadpool confesses to Cable surprisingly quickly, so the two try going back to kill Stryfe right after he gave Wade the cure for the plague weapon Madcap used. Stryfe anticipated this and unleashes dinosaurs. Cable anticipated that and has a neurotoxin ready. So Stryfe unleashes a bunch of vampires, who bite the dinosaurs, who then bite Deadpool. Before the vampire dinosaurs can spread, the military decides they're sick of leaving everything to the Avengers and nuke the city. Before his death, Cable opens a time portal and warns Wade and Cable not to try ambushing Stryfe like that.

So the entire issue is to explain why they don't just solve the problem with time travel. I feel that could have been solved by Cable simply handwaving some explanation for why it wouldn't work. Wouldn't have needed 20 pages for that, unless Bendis was writing it. I do kind of like Cable and Stryfe essentially being a couple of kids playing together. Each one comes up with some bullshit counter to whatever the other imagines. Even so, my enthusiasm for this arc is dropping fast.

Koblish tries a version of the end three-way faceoff from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Just doesn't work as well without music. Also, he doesn't move the camera view in, or intersperse any panels of fingers on triggers. Points for effort I guess. On the other hand, he's very good at drawing a hideously ugly Wade, and he shows a good attention to detail. Wade's left arm being smaller than the right because it's still regenerating, the bullet holes in the back of Wade's mask where someone shot him earlier. And I think he tries to make his art style more similar to Matteo Lolli's on the page showing Stryfe giving the cure to Wade (which Lolli drew originally). His lines are a little smoother and thinner than normal. And four wide panels stacked on top of each other is a page layout Lolli uses pretty frequently.

Still waiting for Cable to get killed, though.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #22, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Gwen, you're supposed to write on the back of the postcard, not the front.

Vincent the Doombot brings Gwen to some underground castle so she can try to kill Doom away from Vincent's community. Doom has engineered all this and drops her in a cell. Which pushes Gwen to learn she can now move backwards in time through the gutters, so she escapes and confronts Doom, who is chatting mostly pleasantly with Vincent. Gwen realizes she's dealing with a Doom trying to reform, but is so desperate to be an Avenger, she pulls a stupid. Her powers somehow release an earlier (later?) version of Classic-Talking, Evil Doom from within Current Good Doom. Hastings really just wanted to write a Doom who talks like Dr. Doom, didn't he?

So Gwen really hasn't learned anything? She's still doing dumb, morally questionable things in an effort to "matter". Before she was trying to be important enough to not be killed off, now she's allegedly trying to be a hero, but it boils down to the same thing: She's recklessly endangering the lives of everyone around her because she never stops to think about what she's doing. Probably because she doesn't want to.

Which is fine! I was curious how her newfound commitment to not becoming a villain would play out, and here's the beginning of the answer. Having seen a future outcome she didn't like doesn't mean she'd become aware of all her weaknesses. And it isn't as though wanting things a particular way is unique to her, or comic book fans. Nostalgia's still a thing.

I think of the non-Guruhiru art teams on this book, Strychalski/Rosenberg are my favorite. There's nothing flashy in their style, but they can handle actions scenes or humor pretty well, which are the major components of this book. The castle has that imposing look to it where you could believe what Vincent said about it having many previous users. And I liked the panel where we see how Doom perceives Gwen stepping between the panels, where part of her has simply vanished. Just as a way to show how odd that might appear even to someone like Doom, who has seen (and done) some shit over the years.

Rosenberg's colors never get too dark, which keeps things easy to follow, but also keeps the book feeling more light. This story could be pretty dire, Gwen either dumping people into some empty void for all eternity, or her and a lot of other people getting killed because she brought back DOOM. But the book probably won't go that route, and so it stays brighter.

What I Bought 10/12/2017 - Part 1

Got four of the five comics that came out this week. Maybe I'll find the other and Giant Days from last week over the weekend. As it is, this constitutes almost all of the Marvel comics I'm getting this month. So let's start with two characters setting off on dubious new paths.

Despicable Deadpool #287, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Wade, that is no way to treat your action figures.

Deadpool is trying to kill Cable, with a chainsaw. Little low-tech, but OK, still a solid old-school murder weapon. The fight progresses to a hospital, and Wade isn't doing so good until Cable mentions Captain America. At which point Wade immobilizes Cable with an MRI, and cuts off his bionic arm. Before he can finish things, the Time Variance Authority arrives to arrest Cable for eventually becoming Stryfe. Leaving Wade with no recourse but to cut off his own arm, attach Cable's in its place, and use the time machine in it to chase after them.

I mean, I'm sure there were other ways to accomplish that, but the removing limbs approach was what Wade opted for. Pretty effective way to show he's not messing around. I mean, he cut his husband's arm off, that's severe.

I thought there'd be a little more reluctance on both sides, but Duggan plays them as less close friends than I was used to when Nicieza wrote them. Like they've both just been waiting for a chance to resume hostilities. Still, the moment where Cable wants to know why was telling. Once again, Deadpool has managed to surprise him, this time by deciding to try and kill him. That Cable even cares, that he doesn't just assume it's for money, has to mean something.

Filardi needs to brighten the colors up. Everything is murky, and combined with Koblish's tendency to get creative in how he transitions from panel to panel (or differentiates one panel from another), there were a few times I got lost halfway through a page. Had to stop, back up, figure out what was happening. I like the transitions, the ways Koblish leads the eye - he uses the chainsaw to point to the next panel as it's swatted from Wade's grasp at one point - but sometimes, it's a little much.

Anyway, I am still entirely on board with this arc, even if I figure it will go about as well as Deadpool's attempt to kill Sabretooth 25 issues ago went.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #21, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - That is an incredibly horrible costume for Trapster, I don't care how intentional it is.

Gwen wants to be an Avenger, and is out fighting villains. Who she then takes into that space between the panels, and dumps them into the void. Which seems a lot like killing them, which should not get you a place on the Avengers, but after Wolverine, Deadpool, Cable, whoever the fuck else these days, sure why not? But Gwen's after big game. She wants to take down Doom, ignoring the fact that a) she should understand that in the pecking order of the Marvel Universe, they ain't letting her kill Doom, and more importantly b) he's not a villain right now. Because things have kept happening in the Marvel Universe since Gwen arrived, and her knowledge is getting increasingly out of date.

I can't believe she did that to Paste-Pot Pete. We need villains who just come up with weird inventions to rob armored cars, Gwen! They're a vital break from all the mass murderers and world conquerors.

Sooner or later, Hastings was going to have to address that Gwen's knowledge of the Marvel U. is going to be less and less relevant the longer she's out of the loop. Which is perhaps why she's gained this new power to move through the gutters, the spaces between panels. Her old power was knowing everyone's secrets, but that's going to be less accurate going forward. This is her new thing, though she's still kinda of using it like a villain. Making people disappear into Limbo is not the action of a hero Gwen. Knives did that to people in Trigun, because he was a genocidal lunatic asshole. Don't be like Knives.

I was certain I'd seen Strychalski's art somewhere before, but I can't figure out where. So perhaps it's Rosenberg's coloring that makes it feel similar to some of the other artists that have worked on the book? There's not a lot of fighting to judge her action sequences by, but she has a knack for some expressive faces. The Doombot's barely contained eyeroll at her "incredible new moves" went really well with the dialogue in that panel. The look of terror on poor Pete's face. Farewell Pete. Now who will Deadpool trick/coerce into helping him?