What I Bought 7/6/2021 - Part 1

Hey, I finally got some comics! There were about six books I wanted out last week, plus one from the week before, and one from May I missed entirely somehow. So we're set into the middle of next week on reviews.

So let's get to it, starting with an Annual and the fourth issue of a mini-series.

Black Cat Annual #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Joey Vazquez (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I actually wound up with Travis Charest variant, because that's what was available. It's fine, if not terribly exciting.

Felicia and her crew decide to take an overseas vacation, but are detained in South Korea by White Fox. She needs Felicia to help because some crime boss has got Korea's version of Superman (or Hyperion, whatever) over a barrel and are demanding the country be placed under their control. She's got a whole team of superheroes to face Taegukgi, but she needs someone to help with the criminals. And she took a page from Amanda Waller and jammed a bomb in Felicia's neck. Sorry, nanomunitions.

Turns out, the gangsters aren't blackmailing him, they busted out some Korean Shadow King to possess him. But the guy decided being Taegukgi is pretty cool and killed them all. Whoops. Felicia found him before White Fox, and lifted the nanomunition injector thing and once they trick the guy's mind back into his body, she lets him monologue a bit and then kills him. Not sure how she knew it would only trigger his and hers, but I'm assuming her luck powers would cause the ones injected into her to malfunction anyway.

There's a five-page thing after this about Nick Fury trying to find these people the Infinity Stones are bonded to and getting ambushed by what looks like some version of Nighthawk, going by the silhouette. I don't care about that, so I'm grateful it stayed out of the main story. Not that the main story was spectacular. Felicia feels like bystander for stretches of it, since MacKay's gotta introduce most of the characters (who do sound cool, to be fair). And White Fox has to compel Felicia's help somehow, because otherwise this isn't the sort of thing she'd bother with. Feel like they could have done the thing where she's in the middle of a job and this whole mess erupts around her, but MacKay did already use that when Blastaar showed up while she was trying to swipe a book from under Johnny Storm's nose.

Vazquez gave White Fox a very different costume from the one she was rocking last time I saw her (that Domino: Hotshots mini-series), but it does help distinguish her from Felicia more. And the sort of holographic multiple tails things is a neat touch, even if I can't see any practical use for it. I feel like Vazquez maybe elongates arms too much, or maybe it's just how skinny her draws Felicia's arms that makes it seem that way. I did enjoy the two pages cutting back and forth between Felicia and Fox' fight against the mercenary death cult and the rest of Tiger Division getting pummeled by Taegukgi, even if the ladies costumes naturally get the strategic tearing effect.

Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #4, by Si Spurrier (writer), Sergio Davila (penciler), Sean Parsons and Marc Deering (inker), Arif Prianto, Chris Sotomayor and Andrew Crossley (colorists), and Cory Petit (letterer) - No Dane, that's the special drink for the pledges, man.

Dane drank from the chalice so he knows lots of horrible things now. Like how Merlin started banishing anything from Camelot that didn't meet the image he wanted it to project, creating a sterile, I hesitate to use the word Puritanical given that wouldn't have existed but Spurrier does, myth. And how all the past wielders of the Ebony Blade tried to convince themselves they could bear up under the misery of what they did for a greater purpose, but all of them broke and became monsters eventually. So after fighting Mordred a bit, Dane drops his sword and lets himself be knifed in the gut. 

Elsa already left because Mordred handed over the chunk of the Bloodstone so she can resurrect her father. After telling Jacks that, as an orphan, she wouldn't understand the importance of family bonds. Elsa Bloodstone for Biggest Asshole of 2021. I mean, I'd expect that from Emma Frost or Monet, but it feels needlessly cruel for Elsa. But it keeps her from persisting in shooting at Mordred, so plot must be served. Mordred grabs up all the enchanted thingamajigs, except the Blade, to form an Ebony Crown he will use to conquer Britain. Between this guy and the villains from The Union, everyone's trying to conquer the British Isles. Hell, they'd probably be better leaders than Boris Johnson.

When Jacks tries to use the sword to stop him, she's reduced to dust. And since she's presumably not of Arthur's bloodline, it won't resurrect her like it did Dane. Meanwhile, Dane (who knew that was gonna happen to her and just let it), crawled off to die in a bathroom. Well, real feel-good issue there. No, seriously. You can always remind yourself you aren't as big a fuck-up as Dane Whitman when you're feeling down.

No, I know, he's seen how it ends, so there's some big twist coming he knew had to play out like this. Jacks will be back, presumably Dane will, too. Maybe Jacks is descended from Merlin, which might explain her ability to speak with the raven. Maybe Elsa pulls her head out of her ass, maybe she doesn't.

Multiple inkers and colorists rarely bodes well, but the art stays solid here. Davila draws Dane as hunched over, like he's being crushed under a great weight (or about to hurl). The only point where he really stands up straight is the moment he decides he's going to let go of the sword. He's not trying to think of or use all the painful stuff to empower the sword. He's made a decision and come to peace with it.

What I Bought 11/16/2019

For today, we have yet another one-shot from Marvel (sure hope it's better than all the others I've tried this year), and the final issue of a particular ongoing series. So a little bit of good, and a little bit of sad.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #50, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Erica Henderson (song sequence artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I have no idea what expression that's supposed to be on Kraven's face. I'm guessing something noble, but it comes off more, vaguely constipated.

After all my guesses as to how Doreen was going to survive the quantum inversion bomb, the answer was, "she's tough enough to not be killed by it". That was a letdown there, really. If it can't kill one person laying directly on top of it, how the hell did Doom expect it to do any good against a whole mess of heroes? It seems like there were so many clever things to do, that was kind of a dud.

Then Galactus shows up, does Power Cosmic stuff to throw the villains in special jail, and has a long conversation with Doreen on the moon about how people change but the things they did don't, so they'll always have this time as friends even if they end up as enemies under another writer later. Which is probably the best way to think about it, since I have no idea how long this version of Squirrel Girl will stick now that this series is over, and who the heck knows with Galactus. I'm pretty sure he went from World Devourer to whatever the hell he was in those Ultimates series post-Secret Wars, and maybe back to Devourer by now.

Then Tony Stark broadcasts a theme song video about Doreen to "properly introduce" her to everyone now that her secret identity is kaput. The main takeaway from it is that at some point, Squirrel Girl punched Mr. Sinister in the face with a coffee mug, which is something the X-Men should have thought to try at some point.

As far as ending go, it's a pretty good one. In keeping with the tone of the series, in that Doreen doesn't let bad circumstances drag her down. Instead she tries to make the best of them. Her secret identity is blown? At least she doesn't have to keep that secret from her friends any longer? Although I'm not sure which friends she had that didn't know her secret identity already.

Black Cat Annual #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Joey Vazquez, Natacha Bustos, Juan Gedeon (artists), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Oh great, Octavius probably rigged that tie with a gizmo that'll let him steal Peter's body again. Creepy bastard.

The story takes place prior to the first issue of the ongoing. Felicia convinces Spidey to help her use the cover of some weird Maggia wedding/combat thing to steal three million dollars from the Maggia. Except she tells Peter it's only two million dollars. One mil to charity, one mil to the two kids who were supposed to fight to the death. One mil for her and her two henchmen.

Each artist handles a different section. Gedeon handles the Dr. Korpse parts, as he infiltrates the a bank to retrieve a particular phone needed to make a call. Although the part I focused on there was his monologue about observing and studying Felicia because she seems the opposite of a criminal mastermind. Which makes me think eventual double-cross.

Bustos handles the sections where Bruno swipes an impounded SHIELD vehicle and picks up the cash, then has to escape when the guys in their weird gold masks realize something is up and try to kill him. Bustos' work reminds me a bit of Steve Lieber's, or maybe Chris Samnee's (with a lot fewer shadows). Reber's coloring on that section might be part of it. I was thinking he was colorist for Lieber on Superior Foes of Spider-Man, but looks like that was Rachelle Rosenberg. Both Gedeon and Bustos mix in a lot of small panels focused on a specific act. Dr. Korpse snipping the wire on a bomb protecting the phone, Bruno wiping the transponder from the car he's stealing. Helps a little to break up what are some not terribly exciting parts of the book.

Vazquez draws everything involving Felicia and Spidey, which means he gets to draw a lot of action sequences and banter between the two, and I think does a pretty good job. There's a difference in the way they move, where Spidey's limbs are kind of all over the place, while Felicia seems like she's closer to following specific forms a gymnast might. You look after he after-images in the panel, her limbs are tucked in tightly during the flip. She's making sure of her balance and posture, while Spidey's arms are just wherever. Which makes sense, considering she undoubtedly has training, and doesn't have spider-powers to let her just fling herself around haphazardly. Plus, I like the Dreadnaught being represented at times as this massive shadowy figure with glowing eyes standing behind whatever attack it's using at that moment.

One other thing I notice is Vazquez makes the material of Felicia's outfit look like leather or something else slick and reflective. Which, to be fair, is what a lot of artist have opted for since, probably when Terry Dodson drew her for either Millar's Marvel Knights Spider-Man run or that Kevin Smith mini-series we're better off just forgetting. Travel Foreman tends to not make it reflective or slick, gives it more of a cloth appearance, which is what I think it was meant to be originally.

Costume discussions aside, I enjoyed this a lot. Just really entertaining little caper, and I always like seeing Black Cat and Spider-Man working together on good terms.

What I Bought 10/12/2019 - Part 1

I am sort of doing Sketchtober this year. No theme, other than trying to draw some stuff I've had in mind for some time. And pretty much just drawing when I feel like it. Which, granted, means I'd only done 5 pieces as of last Saturday. I'll try to pick it up in the second half of the month, I guess.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #8, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Joey Vazquez and Alex Arizmendi (artists), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That's not a good place for Kamala to be.

Kamala, Nakia, and Zoe are brought to the Rubicon factories, to meet the boss, who tells people to call him Uncle Brett. Kamala's suit gets her free of some shackles, but they have to run when it turns out "Brett" has some sort of contact-based mind control powers. Actually, he's some sort of monster. Lots of faces and eyes. If he had more teeth I'd say he could have come out of John Carpenter's The Thing. He tries to absorb Kamala, but she's been watching some DragonBall Z and flares her ki aura to blast him apart. Or maybe she grows really fast? Not at all clear on what exactly she did, but neither was Brett, so maybe that's by design. Something is going on with the new suit that Kamala's not clear on, because she almost crushed Josh. Oh no, she almost crushed the whiny baby, how awful, he said in the flattest, least sympathetic tone you can imagine.

Not a lot of fighting zombies in this story I had the impression was going to be about fighting zombies. That said, watching Kamala kick the crap out of Discord and Lockdown with relatively little difficulty was fun. Especially while they're trying to talk trash and/or complain about how their current status is her fault, as opposed to them being fascist losers. Ahmed's really expanding the ways Kamala can use her powers, since she pulls out the old "make your arm into a slingshot" bit Reed Richards uses sometimes. I guess it ties into the idea of her powers evolving, the way she used to be able to change her appearance.

The art shifts from Vazquez to Arizmendi in the last 5 pages, right as Brett shows his true form. Arizmendi's style is a bit simpler than Vazquez's so all the additional faces on Brett's body look less like anguished souls in torment, and more almost silly. It still works, although I thought being enveloped looked more gross than terrifying. I guess it would be both either way, although the space inside Brett just ends up looking like some purple void with bluish goo floating in it. I do like the increasing size of the panels as you move down the page and everything closes in on Kamala before she's able to break free.

My favorite panel is Kamala punching Lockdown in the face and telling her to shut it. Doesn't seem like it knocked Lockdown very far away, though. She was maybe a step or two in front of Josh before the punch, and she's still about even with him after, and already shooting at Kamala. I guess her suit was built to handle Kamala and her powers.

Anyway, I think I'm done with this book. Even the stuff I like comes with qualifiers.

Gwenpool Strikes Back #3, by Leah Williams (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Carmagna (letterer) - I like that Williams at least references in-story that Dodson plays up Gwen's chest more than Baldeon (or any other artist I can remember) does. Might as well use it.

Gwen escapes from Sue and Reed by terrifying David Baldeon while he's drawing the page so his coffee spills into the panel and soaks them. Wade thanks himself for giving her a sales boost, and then leaves. Apparently he's not mad about her unmasking Spider-Man any more. Or he forgot about it already. Gwen reads her sales figures and learns readers prefer her to be evil. Says who? So, she lures a bunch fo heroes to an island under some fake "kid's dying wish is to see heroes play beach volleyball" plan, then reveals they're all going to have to fight for their lives so she can prove she's a real threat. Or something. Then she shoots Bruce Banner in the head. He comes back of course, since that's his shtick, but he winds up as Gwen's opponent. Which she didn't plan for I guess? Whoops.

I laughed a lot. Gwen charging right through her speech balloon to escape Wade. Her use of her retcon power to both capture Banner and make sure there's a cash prize. Tony taking advantage of the rules to punch Steve Rogers in the face, only to have the "I forfeit" bit not save him in time. Although Baldeon kind of fucked it up, since Steve is clearing throwing a left jab in the first panel, but connects with a right cross in the next. Unless Steve was able to hit him twice before it kicked in. That doesn't seem likely. Reed Richards with a stretched out face and wet hair is kinda weird looking. Like a sad, shaggy dog. Sue looks more like cat, extremely pissed off about this indignity. Squirrel Girl asking to leave because Gwen won't look good if she loses to her.

I don't really agree that Gwen's better when she's bad. "Wild card" is much more interesting, and can be used in a lot of different ways. Versatility is key! It's why Ben Grimm and Spider-Man were both able to sustain team-up books for so long. You can plug them into almost any situation, deep space, street crime, weird magic crap, and they can fit. Also because they were already extremely popular characters. Doom's a great character because he has just enough nobility to be unpredictable. And that's kind of what Gwen's doing here, a little. She's doing anything she can to survive, but she isn't thinking ahead about any of it, so the consequences are getting away from her. Granted that most of it is leaning towards bad - unmasking Spidey, pissing off Deadpool, pissing off the Hulk - but it wouldn't always have to go that route.

Who knows, maybe Gwen will do something good to fix all this stuff at the end? Or at least try to fix all this stuff. I wouldn't put good odds on her getting it right, as opposed to fouling things up.

What I Bought 9/18/2019 - Part 1

While I was on the road last week, I managed to pick up three of the four books that were out I wanted, which was better than I thought I'd do. That was a nice development in the midst of all the heat and my allergies going haywire again. Really hope I'm nearing the end of that difficulty for the year.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #7, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Joez Vazquez (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nakia strikes me as someone who drives aggressively without realizing it. She gets on a tirade about something and all the while she's crossing three lanes at a time without signaling.

Kamala's in one of those stretches where the personal life aspects are suffering. Grades are down, father sick, late for school, needs to join an extracurricular, unresolved romantic tension with Bruno, all that jazz. So Zoe and Nakia take her on a road trip to the place with the best gyros in New Jersey. But the place is only full of wage zombies from a nearby company, who quickly surround them, and then Josh and that annoying redheaded fascist girl show up.

As far as recurring enemies of Kamala's go, they aren't the Inventor, but they're better than the sentient computer program. Because she can punch them. Although first we'll have to listen to them whine about how all their misfortune is Kamala's fault.  At least Josh already got his in this issue. No we'll just have to sit through Lockdown's next month.

Vazquez' style reminds me of Sara Pichelli's from when she was drawing Ultimate Spider-Man. Crisp look to the characters, not a lot of excess lines. Everything and everyone looks fairly clean and not necessarily a lot of background detail, It works. I like the liquid (tears?) running from all the zombies eyes, if you figure they're victims being abused by their bosses. Nakia says Rubicon "bought the whole town", and you wonder how accurate that is. Of course, all the zombies also have the liquid running from their mouths, which is gross rather than sad, but oh well.

The color work from the diner until the end was really nice. A lot of purples and oranges on the horizon, as we move towards dusk. The way the town or the trees are just shadowy outlines all around, with no hint of what's there. It's capturing that horror movie feel of being in dangerous, unknown territory as it's about to get very dark.

Test #4, by Christopher Sebela (writer), Jen Hickman (artist), Harry Saxon (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - I'd say Aleph has stuck their neck in out, but it might be they need to push the rest of themselves through, too.

The person who asked Aleph to lead them last time may actually be Aleph, but a future version. Or someone who can look like them. That doesn't exactly reassure, so Aleph runs from place to place, through mirror after mirror, through some of their memories, and eventually they meet a personification of the town of Laurelwood itself. The town was able to access the future, but bringing pieces of it here only excited people as to the commercial possibilities, instead of scaring them. At the moment, all the different forces are burning the city to the ground in a struggle for dominance, but that doesn't seem relevant, as Laurel and Aleph are planning to do something, but it requires Aleph to die. Again, because this isn't the first time Laurel's tried this.

So everything that's happened with Aleph has been an attempt by Laurel to make him ready for whatever it is the city plans to do with their access to the future? Like, going all the way back to childhood, or just since Aleph started trying to modify themselves? And it's been attempt after attempt after attempt? Or is that all those times Aleph thinks they should have died, they actually did, but Laurel's winding it back somehow? Laurel said the future isn't a place you can go, but I don't know that means the same is true of the past.

Yes, I'm fumbling here. I really don't grasp what Sebela's going for here, beyond Aleph trying to figure out what they really want and why, and how difficult that can be for someone else to understand. Laurel admits they never know what to say to help Aleph understand, and that they can't grasp why Aleph wants to not exist so badly. I feel like Aleph's line about "sapes" barely being able to exist now is and that being off the board entirely is the only way to be is just another cover. It's easier to pretend not to care, speaking as someone with experience in that viewpoint.

The weird in-between space is kind of nifty. A whole lot darkness, except there's something that reminds me of lungs sitting in the middle of a field of weird mushroom things. Everything has a soft blue tint, like the mushroom things are giving off the light. You could see it being almost soothing in spite of how weird it is. At least no one is chasing after Aleph or trying to attack him there, right? But it's still off to Aleph, enough they feel they have to run, even if there's no place to run to exactly. And hiding seems futile from something that can see you anywhere, since you're within it, sort of.

As a man once said, Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass. True enough. Maybe I'll be able to make sense of it after next month. But probably not.