Sunday Splash Page #347

"Land of the Dead," in Marvel Zombies (2015) #1, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank D'Armata (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

In 2015, when Marvel canceled all their ongoing titles to play along with Hickman destroying the universe in service of his Secret Wars, the need for product was filled by a bunch of mini-series, allegedly set on different pieces of the patchwork world Doom cobbled together from what survived the Beyonders' attempts to destroy the multiverse. I bought 3 of those mini-series. Mrs. Deadpool and Her Howling Commandos is long since excised from my collection. The second book we'll get to next month. The third, is this thing.

I never really got into the Marvel Zombies fad. Maybe the premise just felt too much like a '90s What If? blown out to increasingly bloated proportions, what with multiple mini-series going back to the same well. Obviously I'm not entirely immune to a "everybody dies" story, just look at last week's entry, but it's rarely my favorite thing. But Spurrier had written something I liked previously, and Kev Walker drew the hell out of Avengers Arena, and I liked Elsa Bloodstone (and my list of books was dwindling), so here we are.

And the zombies are not really the focus. One does manage to teleport Elsa far away from her post along "The Shield", a giant wall I think Doom made out of Ben Grimm to hold back the section of zombie world he incorporated, but it's mostly Elsa wandering the wilderness with a peculiar child that she wants to protect for reasons she can't explain. All the while something else is tracking them. There are still other zombies, an entire gang of them led by a Mystique, and they retain their intelligence because they keep a Deadpool tied up and take out a little of his brain to feed on everyday via, as Wade puts it, "le Spork."

But as with the best zombie stories, they're really there to give the non-zombie characters a way to show their true selves. Spurrier and Walker keep showing us flashbacks of this Elsa's upbringing with her demanding bastard of a father. Who insists on no weakness, and goes so far as to expose his wife to a horror that shreds her sanity so he can have her taken away, because she was interfering in his training of Elsa. So Elsa is constantly confronted with the notion of how her father would deal with this frightened, secretive child with no survival training or combat instincts, who for some reason doesn't turn after being bitten. And then she keeps going against that training, right up to the point they encounter something much worse than a zombie.

Walker mostly gets to draw various Marvel characters in various states of physical decay, and his does it very nicely. When he's not drawing that, it's mostly the flashbacks of Ulysses Bloodstone being an emotionally constipated ass towards a very young Elsa, who looks suitably frightened or sad. It makes a nice contrast from her as an adult, where she's mostly glowering with gritted teeth or looking irritated while stomping some zombie's skull to a pulp and cursing about the annoyance of the whole situation. Which also serves to contrast her from her father. Even after all the training, she still refuses to just accept the harsh realities of the life she's stuck in and bear it stoically. Is constant sarcasm and cynicism a better approach? Eh, probably not.

And with that, we bid farewell to Many Months of Marvel.

Six Isn't His Lucky Number

"Yo mama" jokes are passe. It's all about "my daddy" jokes now.

Venom: The Savage Six is the end of Rick Remender's stint writing Flash Thompson's - aka "Agent Venom" - adventures, and the beginning of Cullen Bunn's. In fact, the two of them co-write issues 18-21, which form the actual "Savage Six" portion of the trade.

The three issues prior to that revolve around Flash having been drafted into the "Secret Avengers", which Remender was taking over as writer from Warren Ellis. Flash trying to adjust to being on a team with Captain America (until Hawkeye takes over as leader), putting his foot in his mouth around Valkyrie, and having a whole other set of people to lie to about the fact the new Crime-Master knows who's wearing the symbiote. All of which also means more lying to his mother, his now ex-girlfriend Betty Brant, and his pal Peter Parker.

The Savage Six story itself is mostly Flash scrambling to protect his mother, sister and Betty from the fairly random assortment of villains the Crime-Master assembled. There's the Jack O'Lantern Remender and Tony Moore introduced in this series, but also The Fly, Death Adder from the Serpent Society(?), some digitized goof called Megatak, and the Toxin symbiote, bonded to Eddie Brock. It's not a great team since I'm not sure what history Flash has with Death Adder or Megatak. There's no meat to their presence, they're just here to make numbers.

At least two of those are Flash's own fault, as the Fly plays him with some sob story about a kid so that Flash lets him escape custody in issue 16. As for Brock, he was going around trying to kill all the symbiotes, and messed up Flash's attempt to put a bullet in Crime-Master's skull. Flash had to bail, and let Eddie webbed up to another symbiote bonded to him.

Flash ends up pulling the Fly's wings off, while Flash's mom watches, while Brock goes up like oil fire along with the symbiote because Flash can't pull him free in time. Not sure what point to draw from that. He showed mercy to one guy, and that guy turned around and tried to kill him. He left Brock to the wolves, then fucked up saving him.

Maybe the conclusion is Flash sucks at this. The last issue in the trade is his final showdown with Jack O'Lantern, who went ahead and stole Flash's dad's corpse as a taunt. How convenient Flash spends the entire issue thinking about his abusive drunk of a dad, and how similar they are.

Artist-wise, this collection is a mess. I know, no big surprise from Marvel in the early 2010s. Lan Medina draws issues 15 and 18-21, with Robert Atkins handling some pages in issue 20. Declan Shalvey draws issue 22. Kev Walker draws issues 16 and 17. There's 7 inkers, including Shalvey inking himself, and Walker doing likewise, but only on issue 16. There's 3 separate colorists, and no, they don't correspond to the primary artists, as Chris Sotomayor handles issues 16-21. There's even two different letterers!

Of the various art teams, the Shalvey/Lee Loughridge pairing is probably the best for setting mood. Shalvey sticks to a lot of wide, short panels, and more than the other artists, remembers the way the symbiote looks when Flash wears it is just something he's making it do. So as Flash loses control or gets angry, spikes start to protrude from it, and there are panels where you can see it's shifting more towards its classic appearance. And Loughridge drenches panels in a particular shade, playing up melancholy or fury.

Walker's art has rougher texture, and he tends to illustrate the violence more vividly than Medina or Shalvey. He likes tilted panels with rough-edged borders, although at times it's difficult to tell if I'm supposed to read across two pages or finish one then move to the next. Either way, the more graphic approach feels like a good choice; this is Venom, not Spider-Man. What's more, it's a Venom desperate to fix his earlier mistakes, proves he's not a fuck-up who lets people down all the time.

Comparatively, Medina's work is cleaner, more straightforward. Easy to read and tell what's happening, but kind of flat next to the others. Walker's Flash looks tired, eyes narrowed, face pinched, and he's not even scrambling to keep people alive yet. Medina's looks way too clean for someone already beat up and allegedly feeling a lot of pressure.

Random Back Issues #67 - Marvel Zombies #4

I was under the impression parents weren't supposed to make kids choose sides.

Years after Marvel ran the whole "Marvel Zombies" concept into the ground, they brought this out as one of the "Battleworlds" mini-series published during Secret Wars. Set on the world Doom cobbled together from the bits and pieces of different universes he was able to save during Hickman's Avengers run.

Here, Elsa Bloodstone was one of the people who defends Doom's realms from the hordes of the undead, but she got dropped from the shield wall into the zombies' turf. Where she found an odd child, who led her to a coastline, where they encounter a version of Elsa's dad from a different reality. He's a zombie, but able to maintain a sense of self from all the bloodstones he collected from other realities' versions of himself or his kids. There's only one piece left and this Elsa's (who has been gradually realizing what an asshole her dad was) got it.

Elsa tries lopping his head off, but it doesn't take. She's ready to destroy her stone, but it turns out the "child" is actually the manifestation of her stone's power. Somehow it took a form that could convince Elsa to come to this place, something the bloodstones can do, apparently. Elsa tries for the big hero play, and gets her arm bitten off, causing her to start turning into a zombie. She also has the flashback at the top, which is the aftermath of her being too slow to kill some monster, and her father ordering her to leave its toxic blood on her head, staining her hair permanently red. When her mother objects, Ulysses shows her the monster in the basement, driving her mad, so he can have her locked away as the abusive parent.

Mystique and Bruce Wayne are impressed with that level of shitty parenting.

Elsa makes a speech that distracts Ulysses long enough for the little kid-thing to grab her gun and shoot him in the chest. It wouldn't kill him, but it does knock a big chunk of the stones loose, which Elsa gobbles like Jughead diving on a plate of cheeseburgers.

While all this has been going on, a group of zombies led by Mystique have been watching. They'd been pissed at Elsa because she killed their endless source of brains - Deadpool - the issue before. Also, they knew the child didn't turn when they bit it, so they wanted more of that. Now, with their minds falling apart rapidly from lack of brain food, they call up some big mutant with a cannon strapped to his back and take a shot. Elsa, now with a hand made of bloodstone, just blasts them to dust. Worried about having too much power, Elsa uses most of it to revert both herself and this version of Ulysses back to living humans, leaving her with just one piece of stone in her palm.

She tells Ulysses she'll accept his judgment might have been skewed by both the bloodstone and his mullet, and she's giving him a second chance. Which she will rescind by beating him to death with his own face if he screws up. Does she mean just the skin, or like she'll break off the facial portion of his skull as well?

The two of them head towards the wall, ending on Elsa suggesting 'Let's go exploring.' Which would be the strangest Calvin and Hobbes reference I've ever seen.

[7th longbox, 31st comic. Marvel Zombies (2015) #4, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Guru-eFX (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #50 - Avengers Undercover #4

Even for a guy who wears an '80s aerobics legwarmer over his head, that armband is tacky as shit.

So, for our big 50th Random Back Issue we got, the follow-up series to the much-derided Avengers Arena. Not much-derided by me, but the larger critical consensus was it was terrible. Which gets you a coffee at Starbucks, assuming you have five bucks on you.

 

The previous issue ended with Hazmat seemingly killing Arcade for what he put her and the rest of them through in that prior series. Even as a huge, huge fan of Arcade, I can't find fault with that act. Only problem, they attacked him in the middle of his new set-up, where people get to pay to slaughter others (or be slaughtered), while other folks pay to watch online. Meaning a whole bunch of people watched them commit murder.

Cammi's the only one thinking straight and suggests they run, but SHIELD naturally shows up and arrests them. For killing Arcade. It's no big, I'm sure they've got Logan locked up somewhere nearby for the 375 Yakuza guys he murdered earlier that week. What's that? Logan is being given a free pass for his frequent murders? Right, right, I forgot. 

 

Amid the rest of them having awkward greetings with anyone who bothers to visit, Cammi and her mom have a heartfelt conversation where Cammi tells her mother she should give up on her, because mum just got herself shit together, and trying to protect her daughter is only going to drag her down.

I already liked Cammi quite a lot from Annihilation, but Hopeless really cemented it. I have no idea what she's been up to since this series, and I'm a little terrified to look it up. Donny Cates probably killed her in his Guardians of the Galaxy run or something equally stupid.

The kids are magicked away to the fictional villain harboring nation of Bagalia thanks to Daimon Hellstrom, who is in full shirtless villain mode here. Hopefully Patsy Walker doesn't show up. if she sees him like this, she'll probably make another horrible decision. Then Zemo makes a sales pitch for them to join up with what he's got going. Stop worrying about using your powers altruistically, and use them for your own benefit. OK, I'm listening. He does say no one is asking them rob banks or 'man their moon base death ray.' Which implies he has a moon base death ray and if I'm going to be a villain, that's where I want to be.

Besides, less chance of being eaten by Galactus if you're stationed on the Moon.

The kids spend the next issue looking around, and decide the only way to clear themselves is do a big heroic thing. Meaning pretend to join the villains, and bring them down from within. Yeah, no possibility that will go horribly awry, but they're traumatized teens. Their judgment was going to be shit no matter what.

[2nd longbox, 102nd comic. Avengers Undercover #4, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)]

Sunday Splash Page #58

"Live From Bagalia, It's The Arcade Prison Special!', in Avengers Undercover #7, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

The follow-up series to Avengers Arena, where the teen heroes who survived have to deal with what happened during Arcade's little horror show. Made worse by the fact Arcade naturally recorded all of it and posted the footage on the Internet. So the whole world knows all the bad decisions they made.

After making another poor choice to seemingly kill Arcade, and getting "rescued" by Baron Zemo, they decide their only chance to redeem themselves is to pretend to work for him and then bring him down. Because 7 teen heroes were going to pull that off when Zemo had an army of hundreds of super-villains.

The series only lasted 10 issues, and you can tell Hopeless kicks things into overdrive to tie things up the last few. My guess is he was originally hoping for 12-18 issues for this. The general idea is sound, to follow-up with these characters and see how they're dealing with what happened. If you're going to put characters through the wringer like that, you really shouldn't just walk away and leave someone else to deal with your mess (that's called pulling a Millar). Plus the fact they think there's going to be some magic move that can fix all this, but they haven't thought things through remotely well enough for their plan to have any chance of working.

There is, however, the significant issue that these kids are thrown in cells by SHIELD for killing Arcade. Who you will recall was a successful hitman even before he started building homicide-themed amusement parks and torturing kids. Are we really supposed to believe SHIELD thinks these kids are now super-villains because they killed Arcade? 

I pointed this out at the time, but Wolverine kills like 50 dudes every week. Not even people that experimented on him, just random criminals and thugs he runs into while motorcycling through the Canadian wilderness (or Japan.) I don't see SHIELD throwing his butt in jail over the fact his body count is higher than some small wars.

Kev Walker draws most of the issues, and his work is still very good. The expressive faces and body language, and the way Bagalia is this bizarre patchwork of like a shantytown and Las Vegas' seedier twin. Beaulieu's colors pop off the page in the action scenes. I love that shade of purple he uses for Nico's powers. The other artists, mostly Tim Green II, aren't nearly as good, which is a bit of a disappointment. Especially since I liked Green's work quite a bit on Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord and some of the other cosmic stuff he did with Abnett and Lanning.

Sunday Splash Page #51

"That Was the General Critical Response, Yes", in Avengers Arena #14, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler/inker), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

There wasn't a full-page splash, at least not one in a Kev Walker-drawn issue I liked. But I didn't want to pass over this series entirely, so here we are.

I don't actually know what the overall critical response to the series was, either. Only that the few people whose stuff I read at the time weren't fans of it. I get the complaints. If you were a big fan of Avengers Academy or Runaways, you weren't going to be stoked about characters you liked being potentially tossed in a meat grinder. As a New Warriors fan, I've been there. Although the group that sustained the most damage was the Braddock Academy kids Hopeless created specifically for this series.

(I read once his original plan had been to have a book focused on those kids. Introduce them, flesh them out, then they get abducted into this mess. I don't know if it would have involved all the pre-existing characters once the abduction happened or not, though.)

But I generally enjoyed it. I wasn't a fan of Arcade being more invested in winning than just having a good challenge, but I could rationalize it that nobody enjoys losing all the time. And especially nobody enjoys hearing themselves shit-talked at their own birthday by friggin' Constrictor. I thought we got a lot of time seeing the different approaches all the characters were taking. The ones who were holding out hope they'd escape versus the ones gearing up to kill. The ones scheming versus the ones being manipulated. The alliances and the petty rivalries. The poor decision making under stress, with Arcade trying to ratchet things up from time to time to make it worse.

I was only really worried about Cammi and Darkhawk surviving, and they both made it. Cammi even got to be frequently badass. I was on-board with that. I really enjoyed when she knocked Chase the hell out. Never was much of a fan of Chase.

Kev Walker managed to hold up fairly well under a 3 issues every two months pace. At least once or twice, Hopeless seemed to work in issues away from the main action for the fill-ins. Like an issue where Molly Hayes goes to Hank Pym because she's worried about her friends being missing. Walker's work is less busy here than it was in Annihilation: Nova. He inks himself at least some of the time, so maybe that's part of it. He drew some pretty good fight scenes, and Beaulieu's color work was really excellent at times. There's a fight where Nico comes back from near-death and just wrecks Katy/Apex, where I thought the purple shade for her magic was really great to contrast a fight in a snowy forest.

Sunday Splash Page #31

"Round 1," in Annihilation: Nova #4, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Kev Walker (penciler), Rick Magyar (inker), Brian Reber (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer)

The point where Abnett and Lanning start writing Nova. Rich lands in the "Kyle Rayner" role as the last member of the Nova Corps, tasked with carrying not only the entire Nova Force, but also the Xandarian Worldmind, which is constantly trying to get him to do what it wants. Which is rarely what Rich wants. Rich, traumatized by the initial attack on the Nova Corps, alternates between revenge and apathy. Or fear, because he's afraid the power is going to drive him nuts (as it did the last person to hold the entire Nova Force). On top of that, he's got Drax the Destroyer and Cammi following him around, telling him to nut up, essentially. Also, Cammi keeps making fun of his helmet and complimenting his butt. That's awkward. This was my intro to her and this version of Drax, and I became a fan of hers pretty quickly.

This was also my introduction to Kev Walker's art, at least as far as I know. It's scratchier here than it is in his more recent stuff. Quasar shows up as a fairly calm, confident hero, but he has as many lines on his face as Robert Redford does these days. At the time, I joked everyone was getting skin damage from all the stray particles and cosmic radiation out there in space. Walker tends to ink his own work now, which probably accounts for the difference. 

I love the version of Annihilus here, though, much more shadowy and ominous than he appears in a lot of other stuff. This looming hulk with spindly limbs, sharp points coming off everywhere, barely illuminated by that Cosmic Rod around his neck. He never really hurries, just advances steadily. He pushes through Quasar's shield with ease. He deals Nova a scarring blow with a casual backhand when he isn't even looking in his direction. It sells him, personally, as a threat far beyond what the Wave itself represents. Drax states the Wave is a hive mind, so you just need to take out the head to stop the whole thing, the head being Annihilus. Yeah, good luck with that.

What I Bought 12/6/2017 - Part 2

My neighbor downstairs I complained about last month came up last week and apologized. Turns out it really was the people in the apartment behind me who were the problem. Will wonders never cease? For today's post, we've got the first issue of a mini-series, and the last one of those three Marvel Legacy books I wanted to try. Will the mini-series fare better with me than Ragman did?

The Demon: Hell is Earth #1, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - It's never a good thing when both Etrigan and Jason Blood are smiling. If they're actually agreed upon a course of action, the title will be extremely accurate.

Jason's been having nightmares of a young girl, which have brought him to Death Valley. The young girl is on a vacation with her family, also plagued by the nightmares. Madame Xanadu is charging in on a motorcycle, hoping to avert whatever is about to happen. And then a test missile crashes in the desert, with a real warhead. A warhead of something unconventional.

Don't think I've read anything drawn by Brad Walker in a while. His Jason Blood looks fairly haggard, his Etrigan has a bit of that Kirby style, which I mostly notice in the Demon's hands. The squared off nails, the thick fingers that almost look like he's carved from rock. I guess most artists hew to the original design, but I've grown used to John McCrea's almost skeletal, oddly proportioned Etrigan. Anyway, Walker's Etrigan is a hulking wall, an almost solid mass, looming over everyone else. Even in panels that are supposed to focus on Blood, Etrigan barges he way in, either physically or via internal narration.

The idea of Blood floating about offering commentary on Etrigan's actions isn't that novel to me, I assumed since Etrigan could do so to him that it worked both ways, but I am curious what the deal is with the little girl, and how they're going to keep Etrigan involved in this story, since it's hard for me to see him objecting to Hell being unleashed on Earth.

Darkhawk #51, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Kev Walker (artist), Jeff Tartaglia (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Chris Powell looks awfully young there, unless it's meant to be a flashback to when he found the amulet.

Chris is a rookie cop now, trying to be the man he thought his father was (before he learned he was dirty). The amulet hasn't worked in a year, which hasn't stopped two of the Fraternity of Raptors from coming for the amulet. I didn't remember the suits having their own kind of sentience, but apparently Powell had an impact on his, and it had been trying to disconnect the member of the Fraternity from their access to the suits. He and Powell come to an understanding and prepare to head into space to contend with the Raptors. Issue end.

Of the three of these I bought, this is the one I feel like spends the most time recapping origin stuff, but also the one trying most seriously to set up something in motion for future stories. I wonder if Sims and Bowers could have gotten things to where they wanted without quite so much rehashing old stories, some of it feels unnecessary. I think it's meant to bring Powell back to the start before taking the first step on a new beginning. So make him a cop like his father, but making the choice to be a clean cop. Send him back to where he first got the amulet, give him a choice to keep it or not, accept the challenge or not, this time with a better sense of what that means.  And this is the one I'd most want to see going forward, if only out of some vain hope I'd get to see all the stuff I wanted from the Abnett/Lanning cosmic run.

When Powell accepts the amulet again, Kev Walker gives it a new design, and I'm not a fan. Remember how in the new 52, Jim Lee gave a bunch of heroes needlessly busy costumes, with seams on them suggesting interlocking armor pieces? That's kind of what Walker goes for here, in addition to even bigger shoulder pads than Darkhawk's traditionally had. And I know a belt may seem a strange accessory for a partially sentient armor, but I think the new look could use it. Compared to how the old armor looks when he draws it, I can't consider it an improvement.

All that said, Walker uses the jagged, broken panels he favors to good effect here. During the fight in the House of Mirrors, where the way the panels are set up combines with the reflections of the characters to be almost disorienting, and plays into Powell's confusion with everything that's going on. And during the reveal of what the suit has been up to while away from Powell, where you figure we're only catching glimpses of what's being revealed to Chris, or that this is how it gets processed by him - brief flashes, only barely connected by the spiel he's getting from the suit. And there's one panel of Chris reflecting on his past in the rain where I just really like the lighting and shadows Tartaglia gives it. Powell looks so much older and more thoughtful in those panels, at the moment he's going to be presented with a decision about who he wants to be.

What I Bought 3/29/2016 - Part 4

One last book, all by its lonesome. But it's a villain book, so it's fine. They didn't want to hang out with those dumb super-heroes anyway.

Illuminati #5, by Joshua Williamson (writer), Kev Walker (artist), John Rauch (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I know he's trying to look like a big wheel (not to be confused with The Big Wheel), but Parker just looks like a dork wearing a red suit and a red tie under a huge red cloak. It's just too much.

The team does not die in the explosion. They don't do so well against Odin's Thunder Guard, as it turns out their Enchantress is a fake. There's a fake Enchantress? Anyway, Titania gets angry/desperate enough to trounce some guards and punch the Hood in the face, both buying them time and giving Parker enough of a power boost (blood magic) to get them the hell out of Asgardia. And into actual hell, which is where Parker's hideout is. Brilliant. No possibility of disaster there. Titania is understandably ready to ditch this nonsense, but then the Hood mentions he knows where the Absorbing Man is being held - that Pleasant Hill place where they make the villains believe they're some other, average person - and they should totally go free him. Team bonding exercise!

I'm still waiting to see if the story is going to confirm my suspicion the Hood's staged attack on Titania in issue 1 is behind her power upgrade. Or else what is the explanation. It can't just be her being angry, because she's been angry pretty much every time she's shown up, except those times she was afraid of Spider-Man. Nice touch that of course the villain team is full of people lying about themselves and the resources at their disposal, or how they got them, but there are a couple (Thunderball and Titania) who seem to be open about what they're doing and why. It helps to make me actually care when the Hood gets them in over their heads, and turns out not to have other members he can call in for backup. These others are actually trying to buy in, be team players, and their boss is just screwing them over.

I hadn't paid enough attention to the solicits to know Kev Walker was drawing this issue, but I'm never disappointed to see him. A little surprised. He was drawing Hickman's Avengers books last year, I'd think he would be on a more high-profile book, but then I probably wouldn't get to read it. And it's his usual excellent work. The shift from nice, straight, rectangular panels in the build-up scenes to ones that are tilted and more trapezoidal during action is still in effect. I especially like the page where Titania backhands basically the entire Thunder Guard, and the sound effect is so big it's weighing down the panel below it, where she's still in the middle, breathing hard from the exertion while Thunderball looks on in awe, and the Hood fist pumps in the background.

I do think he draws her a little small, though. She should be a lot taller than the Hood, right? Also, there's a sequence near the end of the issue where she grabs the Hood by his collar, then decides not to hit and lets go, then abruptly grabs his face in one hand, which just feels awkward. Like, she maybe should have grabbed by the face second, when she asserts she won't hit him, then let go as she explains he's not worth it. Because after that she starts walking away, so it's like grab, let go, grab differently, then walk away, and it just feels clunky. Could be a scripting issue. Or it could just be me. If she's running a range of reactions, and not sure exactly which way to go, it would make sense her actions are a little herky-jerky.

What I Bought 10/20/2015 - Part 3

Wrapping up this round of reviews with two Secret Wars-related titles. Because everything at Marvel is Secret Wars-related right now. Still.

Marvel Zombies #4, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Guru-eFX (color artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Composite Zombie Ares is probably not the Sensational Character Find of 2015. I sure hope he isn't, anyway.

Elsa and the mysterious little child are trapped between an undead Ulysses Bloodstone, himself full of all the other pieces of Bloodstone he could get his hands on, and Mystique and her band of zombies, all rapidly getting stupid now that their Deadpool food source is blowed up. As it turns out the child is some manifestation of Elsa's stone that emerged to draw her to all the other Bloodstones, because they all want to be together. Things are looking pretty bad for our hero and her hallucination, especially as Elsa is turning undead herself, since dear old alternate dad tore her arm off with his teeth, but she distracts him long enough for the little one to blast the stones, Elsa eats a bunch of them, and uses that power to save herself, restore Ulysses to human, and kill all those zombies.

I think Spurrier ended the story on a Calvin & Hobbes line. 'Let's go exploring.' It does fit, as Elsa has rediscovered some hope for the future, and thinks she can actually make the world better, rather than simply maintain a miserable status quo. She barely regards the hordes of undead between them and the Shield as a nuisance, and Walker shows them walking off together towards hills bathed in sunlight, and everything is colored in warm yellows and pinks. None of the ominous grey clouds we saw throughout her trek south with the child, no dust cloud indicating legions of flesh eaters approaching. So the tone the creative team is trying to strike fits the quote, it just amuses me in the larger context of the world they're in. Then again, Calvin & Hobbes often had stories where the title characters went exploring and discovered things they were either unable to comprehend, or unleashed forces they could barely control (the duplicator, the snow goons). So there's every possibility Elsa will start something she isn't prepared for. I'm speaking as though anything that happened here is going to be referenced in the main Secret Wars mini-series, which I'm sure it won't, but not my problem (or Spurrier and Walker's).

The back and forth blasts between the zombies and Elsa near the end were nicely done. Walker placed the respective hits at the top of consecutive pages, and the way it's set up, Elsa is slightly lower in the panel she gets shot at than Mystique and the others are in the panel where they get blasted. So the spot where the zombies' blast comes onto page 17 from the left is a little lower than where they are when they get shot by Elsa's retaliation on page 18. And her blast comes from a place off the right a little higher than Elsa's placement on page 17. It's a little thing, but I it's a nice attention to detail, and really makes it feel like those two panels are connected, part of the same set piece. I hope Walker will be the artist on something else I want to read soon, whatever that might end up being.

Ms. Marvel #19, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Callback to a cover from earlier in the series, but I think it works better lie this than with Kamala's face hidden in shadow, which made her look slightly menacing. That isn't really her style.

Kamala's mom knows she's been superheroing, and is largely OK with it. Her father doesn't know, so I'm curious to see how that plays out. Kamala puts off talking to Bruno about their feelings, but has to talk to Nakia about how she hasn't really been keeping her best friend in the loop. Which is true, Nakia has largely fallen out of the book since the initial story arc. Bruno's been sort of Kamala's Alfred, but Nakia's totally in the dark. I don't know that there's any real resolution there, Kamala can promise to do better, but words are cheap, and once the dance party starts up, she heads off to talk to Bruno. For which I think her. I don't need to see any dance party. On the roof, as the world ends, Kamala and Bruno discuss feelings. They both love each other, in some sense or the other, but Kamala is too invested in helping others to have time for romance, which Bruno is very cool with. Then the world ends. Great hustle out there, Avengers, way to save the day.

So maybe everything was a little too tidy, since everyone wound up being OK with Kamala's choices, but this book has largely taken the approach that trying to help others is the right thing to do, and worth encouraging, and if people care about you, they'll understand and give you a chance. It's surprisingly hopeful for a Marvel comic, now that I think of it. Most people aren't suspicious of Ms. Marvel, she tries to help, and they see that and buy into it.

I'll be curious to see how close to this the new series picks up from. Will it be months later, or just a short amount of time? Mostly because, as much as possible, I'd like for the new volume to be a continuation of what Wilson and Alphona had going here. I would have liked to seen how they handled the subplot with Nakia feeling ignored if they'd had the time, or the thing with Zoe. I did laugh at how, even as Zoe is trying to be better, she's still being helpful because useless people get eaten first in zombie apocalypses. There's still that vein of self-interest in her actions, mingled with an apparently honest desire to be helpful that felt legit.

Alphona really does take full advantage of these crowd scenes to fill them with all sorts of details. That's assuming Wilson doesn't have Alan Moore-like scripts that tell Alphona to draw things like a bamboo quarantine cage on wheels, surrounded with guards wielding piranhas on sticks. Perhaps I should write into the book and inquire about those. Also the person in the non-denominational, non-judgmental prayer area with the eyepatch and hair done up like a Minish Cap. And the little person in the Hazmat suit that keeps popping up. Crap, AIM knows Kamala's secret identity! I'm still trying to figure out the significance of when Herring goes with a solid yellow background in a panel, because it only happens a few times, and they aren't grouped together. It's usually at some emotional turning point, the football guy announcing the dance party as Nakia and Kamala are making up, or Kamala opting not to tell her parents the world is ending. I guess it comes when she chooses not to focus on the inevitable, but instead on the things she can do right then.

What I Bought 9/1/2015

So besides, Roche Limit, there was one other book that came out the last week of August, so let's get to that.

Marvel Zombies #3, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Jason Gorder (inker, pages 6-15), Guru-eFX (color artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Where the heck did Elsa's legs go on that cover. They vanish after Manphibian's(?) hand, but she has to be standing on something. Also, I feel like it'd be difficult for her to stand and defend herself from that posture. Not a solid base.

So yes, by using a spork to get pieces of Deadpool's brain to eat, Mystique and the other zombies have maintained intelligence and kept a self-replenishing food supply. Except now they have the kid, and she doesn't turn into a zombie even when bitten. Elsa gets a surge of power, grabs the kid, grants Wade an explosive death - his favorite kind - and then that big guy shows up and kills all the zombies. Well, I would have preferred a death for Mystique where she had time to really process everything falling apart for her, but I'll take what I can get. Elsa flees with girl, and as the run and talk, Elsa finally admits that her father was an awful man, and she shouldn't feel bad for being glad he's dead.

Which leads to a scene the next morning of the two of them on a lovely windswept beach, arms out, both yelling "Wheeeeee!" That's not something I expected from Elsa, unless she was beating someone to death with a sack of charcoal briquettes, but it's charming, even if I do find it a little odd that Elsa would be able to let go of her old habits of suppressing happier emotions in favor of sarcasm and disinterest so quickly (speaking from long experience of failure to do so here).

Then all the fun is ruined by the appearance of the big guy, who is a Ulysses Bloodstone, all amped up on pieces of the stone he's stolen from other Bloodstones and jammed into his face. Which makes for a sort of cool visual (assuming you don't get reminded of bad acne by it), but seems a less than secure location to store your power.

"Curses! How did you know punches to the face were my weakness?"

"I dunno. I just wanted to punch your stupid face."

I don't think he's supposed to be this Elsa's dad, given the kid mentions the dupe effect, but it would make a little sense, considering Elsa didn't see her father die. He went off, found a different Bloodstone, killed him for his stone, and left his corpse behind. Eh, maybe not. If he were going to take that approach, based on the flashbacks, he probably would have started with Elsa herself, since he felt she was such a disappointment. And the little girl is another Elsa, I assume, though I'm not sure how that relates to her being able to give Adult Elsa these power boosts.

I really do love that page of the heroines enjoying themselves. The pink tinge Guru-eFX gives the page makes for a pleasant, calm feeling. You notice the skulls in the soil near the ladies, but it doesn't make a big impact, because everything seems so calm and pleasant. They're just leftover from something long ago, no danger here. Wrong. The pink is lighter that then glow from Elsa when she's rocking the Kaio-ken look, where that red glow contrasts against all the darkness, the blues and the shadows, the things hiding in there that the Bloodstone protects them from. Of course, it also lights them up and makes them a highly visible target. Everything's a tradeoff.

Also, the panel of Elsa at her father's funeral, something about how Walker drew her face made me think of Chaykin's art. I think it's the little black dots that represent the mourning veil she's wearing, or maybe her beret. Feels like something Chaykin would have one of his characters wear, though he'd probably have her wearing nothing else but a smile.

What I Bought 7/22/2015 - Part 3

OK, it’s that time again.

Deadpool: [To butter our toes with marmalade and do a clog dance?] 

Clever Adolescent Panda: To get started filing taxes for next year and buying Christmas gifts? 

No, it’s time to look at Secret Wars tie-in mini-series! Look at it this way, it’s not as messy, and attracts fewer insects than the marmalade dance, and less boring than what the panda said.

Deadpool: [Great plan! I can't wait to hear what you think of Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars!]

I didn't buy that. I did buy the one where you're dead, though!

CAP: Oooh, I love that one. 

Yeah, stories where Wade's reduced to a hapless bystander are the best.

Deadpool: [You guys are jerks.]

Marvel Zombies #2, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Guru-eFX (color artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer and production?) – Lashley’s cover reminds me of an old Sgt. Rock cover. Rock entering a bombed out town with a squad of child soldiers (Unit 44 comes to mind for some reason), Rock proclaiming the town all clear. Of course, there are actually Nazis lurking in the upstairs of some abandoned building. I’m pretty sure no person on a Joe Kubert cover that has proclaimed things safe has ever been right. Which certainly ought to keep one on their toes.

Elsa and the mysterious kid continue their trek south, away from the mass of zombies and towards the unknown. They’re being followed, presumably by the person owning the hand that was holding Elsa’s knife last issue. I had assumed it was Red Nightcrawler, but no, and whoever it is survives Elsa rolling a MODOK zombie down at him, plus said MODOK exploding, plus a mountain falling on him, so that’s bad news. Here’s good news, the Shield has an Angel in its ranks, and he was scouting and spotted them. He can only carry one of them, so it’s time to say goodbye to the kid, but he lends Elsa his tracker and promises resupply soon.

Except the tracker is actually a baseball. Angel was actually Mystique, zombiefied, but intelligent, because she’s been feeding regularly on a captured Deadpool’s brains. I would think eating Deadpool’s brains would make one dumber, not smarter, but maybe it’s just the regular, endlessly regenerating food supply that’s the key. If they keep eating they don’t rot, so they can think? Not clear on the rules for zombies in the Marvel U. I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing Elsa kill a Mystique in an impressive manner next issue. Mystique is always such a horrible being, and she always gets away with it. Seeing her get explosive comeuppance will do me a world of good.

Place your bets: Is the mysterious being following Elsa a) a different version of her, or b) a different version of her father? With all her flashbacks to her miserable childhood, plus her explaining that sometimes you more than one version of the same person due to the strange nature of the patchwork world they inhabit (she describes it as a ‘tolietsplash’ of a world, which is an excellent phrase), it would seem the most likely reveal. I’m betting on it being Ulysses, a version turned undead, but still hunting and killing monsters. Possibly denying himself flesh, if he also holds to the “wanting is the opiate of the weak” philosophy Elsa’s did. He probably wants her piece of the Bloodstone to add to his power. I said Elsa killing a Mystique would be good for me. Elsa killing a version of her asshole father might be good for her. I wonder if she’d welcome the chance to be rid of the bloodstone. She clearly believes it poisoned her dad, and she doesn’t wear it when she doesn’t absolutely have to. Perhaps she’d just as soon take her chances with her own skills, minus the magic poison rock?

I like it when Walker uses the range of vision through the binoculars as panel borders. Simple touch, but a good one. He still switches from orderly panels with thin borders during quiet scenes, to lopsided, tilted panels with thicker, jagged borders during actions scenes. But he doesn’t lose the flow on the page, and it kind of gives this sense of things happening too fast, so you kind of catching glimpses. You see the kid get grabbed, then catch sight of Elsa throwing a Carnage head, bits and pieces through the confusion of the moment. Or I’m talking out my ass. Whichever. At the point when Elsa and the kid are going to part ways, there’s one panel where Elsa leans down to talk to the child at the same level, and it’s the moment where she’s kinder than she has been at any point up to then. No yelling or cursing, almost doesn’t blame the kid for wasting 4 of her 6 bullets. Up to then, she’s either spoken to the child with her back turned, or when looking down at the kid and speaking in anger. How her father speaks to her in every flashback, in other words. So the shift, even for one panel, was a good touch.

Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos #2, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Salva Espin (artist), Val Staples (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) – I don’t get the appeal of the Funko figures. They just look weird to me.

Shiklah and her merry band of bodyguards/overseers have reached the River Styx, but the boatman won’t ferry them across because they aren’t dead. So he attacks them with zombies instead and it turns out Frankenstein’s monster is afraid of zombies. Yes, the shuffling assemblage of corpses is scared of walking corpses. Go figure. And he’s scared enough he knows fear, and all who know fear burn at the touch of, yeah, you know how it goes. I did laugh at that part. Once zombies are being chucked into his boat, Charon changes his mind and agrees to take them across, only to get his head punched off by Franky. They steal the boat, reach the other side, Shiklah unceremoniously dumps her stupid brothers’ ashes on the ground, and tells the Commandos to scram. Her plan to use the Medusa head again is thwarted because the Living Mummy’s a skilled pickpocket. Again, go figure. Then Werewolf by Night tells her they’d also like to defeat Dracula, and she should give the weapon to them. Her counteroffer is they can tag along, but she’s the boss, and Jack doesn’t object once she liplocks with him. Much to Ghost Deadpool’s consternation.

I think I was expecting more focus on the challenges they’d face trying to recover the other half of the scepter, which thus far, hasn’t really been the case. I was probably expecting a more serious story than I got, though why I thought this would be serious is beyond me. I did laugh pretty hard when Shiklah went for Medusa and pulled out a melon with bananas tied to it. That’s going the extra mile with the deception. Then Shiklah smushed it, and now what will Marcus the Minotaur do if his blood sugar gets low? Somehow I feel like the symbiont he’s wearing ought to be able to compensate for that, but I don’t know what diabetes is like for a minotaur. That I still say is a centaur. He has 4 horse legs, with a sort of human upper body attached. Minotaurs are two-legged animal people, things, usually bulls, right? The credits page even describes him as a centaur, but the splash page in the first issue said minotaur. I am so confused!

I’m also confused trying to figure out what happens to Shilklah’s clothes when she changes into that bigger form on the cover. They don’t tear, ala the Hulk, they just kind of vanish and reappear when she shrinks back down. “Magic” is probably the simplest answer.

Deadpool: [No contemplating my wife with her clothes off!]

Wade, I’m not trying to – look, shouldn’t you be more concerned about Jack Russell?

Deadpool: [You’re right! I’m off!]

You want to take that one, or should I?

CAP: Too easy.

What I Bought 6/12/2015 - Part 5

Let’s look at the other two Secret Wars mini-series I decided to try. I can tell you right now, I was pretty happy with both. This is not going to convince me to try more of the ones currently coming out, mind you, but it’s still a nice turn of events.

Marvel Zombies #1, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank D’Armata (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) – Is Elsa grabbing the scalp of Zombie Volstagg? Volstagg is a zombie? Noooooo! Next you’ll be telling me he ate his kids or something. Don’t tell me he ate his kids.

Here, the Shield is a giant wall staffed with people who keep the ravenous zombie hordes in their little piece of land. Why the hell did Doom include a piece of Marvel Zombies Earth in his planet? Poor planning, Victor. Elsa Bloodstone is a commander there, and after killing one of her new recruits after he got bitten – because I guess Kev Walker was disappointed he didn’t get to draw Striker dying in agony in the pages of Avengers Arena? – Elsa gets teleported way the hell out into Zombie Wasteland by Zombie Nightcrawler’s Dad, I think. Where she wakes up to find some bald, amnesiac, non-zombie kid, and they try to make the trek back to safe territory. The kid spends a lot of time telling her he thinks they should go the other way, and Elsa spends a lot of time being verbally abusive, because that’s how her father raised her. I have to admit, as much time as the kid spends sniveling and crying, I’d probably tell him to shut up a lot, too. Anyway, after narrowly surviving Zombie Juggernaut thanks to some unexpected reaction from the Bloodstone amulet, Elsa sees just how many zombies are between her and home, and decides to go with the kid’s idea, while some creature, probably Zombie Nightcrawler’s Pop, watches them from a distance and plots to use her own knife on her.

I bought this for the promise of Kev Walker drawing Elsa bloodstone killing lots of monsters, and I’m getting just that so far. Spurrier’s taken the backstory Ellis gave Elsa in NextWave, about her father putting her through all this crazy training as a baby, and approached it from a more serious direction. That would be traumatic for a kid, it would certainly affect how she relates to other people she regards as soft, or unprepared, and would give her a mindset very focused on doing her job. It works, though I’m not sure that backstory was ever meant to be taken seriously. Also, I had figured Ellis was the only writer Marvel let use “toerag” in his books (considering Pete Wisdom couldn’t go 5 pages without saying it during Ellis’ Excalibur), but Spurrier gets to as well.

I don’t know if it means anything that most of the people on the Shield with Elsa had glowing red eyes. That seems like an ominous sign. Also have no idea what the kid’s deal is. No memory, vague sense of wanting to go south, no apparent skills, but somehow still alive in a land where anything alive is food for everything undead. Actually an android? An attempt at a Trojan Horse, zombies eat him, he infects them with some virus that kills them once and for all, but they can sense it and avoid him? Juggernaut went right for Elsa, even though she had the gun, instead of the kid. Paid the kid no mind whatsoever.

Particularly liked the panels Walker did of one of the zombies with rats crawling around inside its flesh while it lay dormant. Reinforces the idea the zombie is dead, rotting meat, also adds the idea they can remain still and silent for a long time, until something catches their interest. I also like how the panel borders get thicker and more ragged, the panels themselves slight tilted or angled, during tense moments, like the Juggernaut fight. Then the borders gradually smooth out, and the panels revert to a nice, even, rectangular shape. It helps zoom in on the action when that’s what needs the focus, and after is when you can pull back and get the sense of how desolate and alone the place they occupy appears to be.

Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos #1, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Salva Espin (artist), Val Staples (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) – I don’t feel like those guys really qualify as commandos, but it’s been several years since the last time Marvel used that to describe a team of monster creatures, so what the hell, right?

So there was the Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet mini-series, where Wade fought and defeated Dracula, and then married Shiklah, to much rejoicing. In this version, Wade lost, because Dracula cheated, so Shiklah is still married to Drac. And it’s the crappy, “updated”, Final Fantasy villain Dracula, instead of cool, dark cape and beard, Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman Dracula. The Howling Commandos work for him, and Shiklah can’t stand them any more than she can Drac. But as the last living member of her family, she’s kind of up the creek. Until she finds part of the Scepter of the Manticore on one of her brothers’ corpses, and the other has a map leading to the other part. So she comes up with some excuse about ferrying their remains to Hell personally, and sets off in her best Lara Croft/Indiana Jones outfit. But Drac insists the Commandos accompany her, and tells Werewolf by Night to make sure she doesn’t survive the trip. Deadpool’s only present as a ghost narrator, telling people to get over making jokes about Man-Thing, then promptly making a Man-Thing joke a few pages later. Also, he grouses about dying in books in back-to-back months. I don’t have the heart to tell him he’s going to team-up with Thanos this fall, so he’ll probably be dying every page when that happens.

It says the one Commando is Marcus the Minotaur (also combined with a symbiont), but he looks more like a centaur to me. He has four horse legs, plus arms. Maybe Dracula’s just trying to confuse his foes, unless “minotaur” is the name for centaurs with diabetes, since Marcus has that. I also don’t know why one of Shiklah’s brothers is wearing an outfit that’s a cross between one of Jamie Madrox’ shirts and Rachel Summers’ old Hound outfit (the red one with spikes all over it), while the other stole that horrible outfit Frank Castle wore when he was Captain America for 5 seconds. Remember that, after Civil War, Fraction had him fight Hate-Monger and Frank decided he needed to stand up like Cap would have, and he wore some incredibly stupid garb? I do not appreciate this series making me remember that happened.

It’s nothing spectacular, pretty much an exposition issue, but I’ll trust the creative team to make it work. They used a Die Hard quote, that buys them some leeway, and I’m curious whether Shiklah will turn all these guys around to her side of things, or kill a few first to make a point.

Espin's art seems well suited for this. He draws monsters well, but since the book is far from serious in tone, the art needs to be able to do silly or comical, and he's up to the task. It's all kind of bright and exaggerrated. When the Commandos are temporarily turned to stone, it's done in one quick panel showing them looking surprised. No drawn out thing where they tried to flee, or close-ups on their terror. It's essentially so Shiklah can later tell Drac when he asks what she did, 'I made them hard.'  Jokes, but with monsters.

What I Bought 7/31/2014 - Part 4

Since it's Friday, let's step over to the wrong side of the law for these reviews. Get a little rowdy and such. Teenage rebellion, nefarious deeds, and all that.

Avengers Undercover #7, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I would question making out with someone right next to your own tombstone, but Alex just got out of Hell, so I guess any place is an improvement.

Nico trying to hone her control of her powers with some instructions from recently back from the dead ex-boyfriend Alex. Except Alex' teaching method is mostly to flirt with her. Then she finds out Chase was shot, and though she heals his injuries, he won't wake up. Frustrated with that, she decides it's time to make bad decisions, and makes out with Alex. Also, Deathlocket didn't mention she shot Chase. That's going to be awkward later. So the guy Zemo's crew attacked AIM to get is the person who designed basically all of SHIELD's security and systems. AIM couldn't get anything out of his brain, but that's because they relied on science and super-powers. Hellstrom has magic, so yeah, that's bad. Perhaps SHIELD should do something, but as Hank Pym's discovering, Maria Hill has no intent of invading Bargalia, and certainly isn't worried about the kids. Oh, they killed a man who tortured them! So leave them in the hands of super-villains. Brilliant! At least Pym cares. Too bad he stole Buffyverse Spike's hair, and got his head shrunk in the process (that first panel he appears in, his head is much too small for his shoulders. Rare misstep from Walker).

Good news, though, Cammi's alive! And trapped in a cell right next to Zemo's living room! And Arcade's in a cell next to her! So nobody really died! But I guess my theory about the bad guys actually working for the good guys and testing the kids is going down the toilet. Plus, I think Hazmat may have thrown in full-scale with Zemo. Some young girl with long straight black hair was there sharing drinks with the baddies. Can't be Cammi, Nico was occupied, Deathlocket only has half a head of hair, kind of just leaves Hazmat. It would tie in with her being the one to seemingly toast Arcade. I guess I'll have to see if Hopeless and Walker can tie this whole thing together in the 3 issues they have left.

Nice touch, having Nico's pupils disappear early in the issue when Alex starts winding her up, and having it get progressively worse throughout. By the end, it looks like she's burned out her eye sockets, and magic is just pouring out through her eyes constantly. Not a good sign, but it definitely looks cool (though I wonder how she sees where she's going).

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #13, by Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - It's the Shocker stumbling around in the Rhino head that gets me. That or Speed Demon dumping the Gwen doll. Sick, but funny. Surprised Boomerang went with Kraven's get-up. Does he really want to emulate the guy who celebrated his greatest success by blowing his brains out? Though I guess Fred could be about to find out getting what you always wanted can be hollow.

Boomerang, Overdrive and the Beetle made off with the (fake) painting of Doom's face. I don't know if that means there's never been a real painting, or if this is a forgery of the real painting. Boomerang called the cops, but one of the poor saps that got drafted into his Sinister Sixteen called Mach 7, so now he knows Fred was leading an attack on the Chameleon's headquarters with a bunch of criminals. The Chameleon's not pleased with Fred, and since the Owl apparently knows he got double-crossed again, neither is he. If this doesn't end badly for Fred, I'm going to be stunned, because I still can't believe he's smart enough to talk his way out of it. But our intrepid villains make their way to a safe house in a stolen taco truck, and meet Speed Demon along the way. He and Fred have got something going they aren't telling the other two, and Fred is not doubt preparing to betray Speed Demon at any moment. But someone else is also in the safe house - the Shocker, with Silvermane's annoying, old man head, after they were forced to flee Hermann's apartment to get away from Hammerhead.

I have no idea what Boomerang's plan is. At this point, I'm not even sure what things are and are not part of it, other than he wasn't counting on the Shocker showing up. I'm not criticizing Spencer for this, he's done pretty well so far at putting the pieces in place, then bringing them all together. Just saying, I can't even make a guess at the end game here, 'cause all Fred seems to do is be making enemies, and that's the sort of thing best reserved for people with the power to get away with it. Dr. Doom or Kang can piss off a bunch of villains, because they can incinerate anyone who gives them any lip about it. Boomerang may be punching above his weight class here. But it's nice to have goals, I guess.

I can't figure out what that little "X" Lieber draws on Mach 7's right shoulder is. It honestly looks like a couple of Band-Aids, but surely Abe could afford a better patch job than that. He's looking at freaking buttercup yellow couches and scented candles. Fix your super-suit! Unless it's an insignia. Is Abner a member of the X-Men now? Well sure, why not? They won't let Deadpool in, but accept the guy who doesn't even have powers! I'm sure that's not it, but I don't know what it is.