Saturday Splash Page #184

"Gorilla-Robot-Uranian-Merwoman Alliance," in Secret Wars: Agents of Atlas #1, by Tom Taylor (writer), Steve Pugh (artist), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer)

So, besides those 3 mini-series I bought during Hickman's Secret Wars, I also bought this one-shot. Probably because Marvel wasn't putting much else out I was interested in at the time. It starred the Agents of Atlas, who hadn't gotten much run in the previous 4 years, though this was written by Tom Taylor rather than Jeff Parker.

Like most of the tie-ins, this focused on a specific section of Doom's Battleworld, one Heinrich Zemo rules through constant, totalitarian oversight and control, with SHIELD as his police force. Atlas is a hidden cell fighting against Zemo, but their leader Jimmy Woo (rocking an eyepatch in this world) went missing after the last mission. So besides the exposition, it's a rescue mission story.

With only one issue, Taylor can't spare much focus for Namora or Marvel Boy. Gorilla-Man gets most of the page time, since he describes the mission where Woo went missing to SHIELD boss Phil Coulson (who's been secretly helping Atlas), and is the one who finds Woo. And since this is essentially a What If? story, Taylor can afford to do a few things Parker didn't. So we finally see the Gorilla-Man curse transferred (to Helmut Zemo, who Pugh draws as a psychotic-looking kid before he becomes a psychotic gorilla-kid.) And we see Venus return to her roots as a siren, leading Heinrich to his death.

Those Zemos, always falling off stuff.

Pugh's design for Zemo's realm, called Metropolitia, is a weird mix. SHIELD's HQ reminds me a bit of Jetsons' architecture, all curved lines and discs, while the vehicles hew to a sort of '50s aesthetic. Which maybe fits with the origins of some of the characters, especially the later idea of Jimmy Woo as sort of a super-spy. But the Metropolitia also has circles in the ground that seem to discharge huge bursts of fire or energy, so there's a bit of Apokolips there. The bits of the city and factories imply a closed-in place, though this place is nowhere near as dirty and drenched in shadows as Darkseid's turf. Zemo's home basically looks like a classic medieval castle, all mortared stone and wooden doors with barred windows.

It could be argued to fit the hodgepodge nature of Battleworld, plus Zemo's attempts to dress up 20th Century fascism with a veneer of the divine right of kings. He should rule, because he's Zemo and he's better. And he should get to have a goddess for a wife. But he rules through a repressive watchdog state that treats his subjects as guinea pigs (he has an army of Weapon Xs, which are just regular people that were experimented on and run around in the weird helmet and underwear from the Barry Windsor-Smith story), and he has to imprison and torture Venus' friend to have any hope of getting her to speak with him.

Continuing Logan's Tradition of Awkward Family Gatherings

I'm guessing Laura didn't mention this moment to Logan when he came back from being dead.

All-New Wolverine: The Four Sisters was the opening arc of Tom Taylor's series about Laura Kinney assuming the mantle of Wolverine during the stretch where Logan was dead, but there were somehow more books about him than ever. The overarching plot is about Laura tracking down a group of clones of herself Alchemax made with some of Laura's genetic material they got from the bunch that created her. David Lopez makes the older clones look very similar to Laura, while Gabby is a bit less so. All that might just be her tendency to smile a lot, something none of the others, including Laura, do often. Alchemax CEO Guy insists the clones are inhuman monsters who killed a bunch of people when they escaped. Alchemax CEO Guy is, of course, full of shit.

Also, it is weird to me to see a fictional company I associate with 2099 Marvel in present day Marvel. It's not 2099 yet!

Laura ultimately tries her best to protect the other girls - Gabby, Zelda, and Bellona - both from Alchemax, who wants to treat them as test subjects, and from themselves. From their urge to take bloody, murderous revenge on these people who took away their ability to feel pain and expected them to be obedient weapons. 

Those efforts lead to one issue of teaming up with Doctor Strange, and then another issue of teaming up with the Wasp. There's a little advancing of the plot in those issues, but in practice, they feel more devoted to using other characters to tell the audience how different Laura is from Logan. Mostly with regards to how she handles her anger. Strange remarks that she has all her father's rage, but she can control it, channel it. The Wasp is surprised that, once they encounter a nanobot, Laura hasn't just charged over there snarling and clawing it to pieces. Excuse me, have you not read Kitty Pryde and Wolverine? Logan can channel his berserker fury whenever he wants!

I'm joking. I know that even if someone has read it, they would never admit to it. I'm not entirely clear on why, but apparently it's a shameful act. The tattered remnants of the comicsblogowhatchamafloogle are a strange land even to its inhabitants. 

Taylor also does the bit where Strange looks at Laura's soul and is just stunned by her experiences, which, c'mon man. I didn't buy that move when Starlin tried it with Strange and Adam Warlock in Infinity Gauntlet, I'm not buying it here. He's Doctor fucking Strange, he's seen shit most other Marvel heroes couldn't comprehend. Don't try to hard sell me.

But Taylor does keep playing it where Laura holds back. She wounds - as one of the sisters points, she won't kill a guy, but she'll cut his fingers off - but she refrains from killing. Even when she thinks Taskmaster has killed the girls, she doesn't kill him. Nathan Fairbairn tends to color panels entirely in red during the moments when Laura's on the verge of cutting loose. 

It's an interesting character choice, given Laura's whole thing with the trigger scent (which Taylor addresses in the third arc). People have been able to send her into a killing frenzy whenever they wanted, so I can see her wanting to make the choice not to kill. And she does emphasize it's a choice, one she makes, and one she doesn't entirely hold others to. She lets Gabby have a moment alone with Alchemax CEO Guy, knowing how that could end.

Taylor's writing is a bit quippy at times, lends itself to snappy responses. Sometimes that's amusing, sometimes he starts to overdo it. The issue with Dr. Strange I think veered over that line with some of Gabby's comments about 'cabinets of horrors' and so on. But he does use the fact Laura's bones aren't coated with adamantium (other than the claws) so she tends to get broken a bit more and have to heal, and that's painful. The bits of her interacting with the time-traveling teen version of Angel, who is her boyfriend apparently, are sort of cute. It's a different slant on her questionable social skills, dealing with the largely sheltered rich boy who really doesn't understand her life, but is trying his best.

When the Bill Comes Due

And we never had to see Old Man Logan, Sabretooth, or Lady Deathstrike ever again, he said, wishing it was true. Actually, I'm fine with Lady Deathstrike, but the other two, especially "last week's stale pizza" version of Logan, can fuck right off.

It's colder than shit here today, and has been for over a week. On the plus side, I have learned that wind chills lower than -5 are apparently the point at which I'm no longer willing to try going for a run, but reviewing comics allows me to stay inside where I can sneer at the elements. (Until I see my electric bill for the month.)

Volume 5 of All-New Wolverine finds most of the Logan knockoffs under siege from a group calling themselves the "Orphans of X". The grieving family members of the many, many, many people Logan, his kids, enemies, and alternate timeline versions of himself have killed over the years. This wouldn't normally be an issue. People with a grudge coming after you is called Tuesday for a Wolverine, but these folks found the shattered remains of the Muramasa blade Logan had forged with a piece of his soul, and made bullets from it.

It boggles my mind that a weapon Daniel Way introduced in Wolverine: Origins as a method to hurt Wolverine without his healing factor countering it, has actually stuck in continuity. Of all things. Taylor actually expands it, saying the swords-smith made a shield from some of Logan's more noble aspects without telling him. And then he makes a suit of armor from bits of Laura, Gabby, and Daken's souls. You can judge what you think of the design yourself.

 

I feel like the mask reminds me of Ogun's oni mask from the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini-series a little more than is maybe good, given that guy's past history with Logan. Actually a little surprised Ogun has never tried to start shit with Laura. Although he may be completely dead these days. Frank Tieri killed him off in his Wolverine run 20 years ago, but it was really just a soul appearing to dissipate, so that's easily wormed out of.

There's a couple of problems with the storyline. One is that, as Laura points out, she wasn't given a choice. She was raised in a lab and trained to be a weapon. Manipulated so that a trigger scent would send her into a killing frenzy, then thrown at anyone someone with money wanted dead. She is a victim as well. And Gabby, so far as I know, hasn't killed anyone who didn't try killing her first.

That doesn't clear the other four. Old Man Logan, Deathstrike, Sabretooth, and Daken (not to mention regular variety Logan) all have massive body counts, and have generally been unrepentant about it. At best, the Logans excuse it with "honor" or "vengeance" or "they deserved it". The other three can't even make that argument. I mean, Sabretooth really has no business not being executed, even if this is during that stretch where he'd been "inverted" by events in Axis, and is nominally not a terrible person.

Laura even acknowledges this right before she goes to make her pitch to the Orphans of X, by telling he and Deathstrike to leave because they are, as Creed notes, 'inexcusable.' So frickin' hand them over and let the Orphans kill them and be done with it. Show of good faith and all that. I'm also not sure about the idea that the location of the wound doesn't heal, but if you cut away the affected areas, you're fine, and that having a seemingly unlimited timeline. I mean, it had to have been at least several hours, if not a day or more, from when those three get shot in the brain and anyone removing the bullet, and they heal back up. 

They were dead. That's kind of pushing it. (Also, if the sword works by cutting at a 'molecular level', then why do the bullets do anything? Bullets don't cut; they tear or push.)

The idea behind the threat is a decent one, but the realities of the characters mean the ending doesn't entirely land, even if Laura's actions feel in keeping with the direction Taylor was trying to move her. It's hard to picture Logan doing this, rather than just deciding they tried to kill him, so mass slaughter is once again acceptable. but Laura's tying to move past being a weapon, and probably set a good example for Gabby.

Gabby continues to be a delight. At some point I'll get the first six issues and hopefully understand how she's as well adjusted as she is, but she's great fun. Cabal's artwork is as expressive here as it would be on the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man run he did with Taylor a couple of years later, and that fits well with her character, as she's a very animated child. 

 

And for the first time I can recall, Daken actually adds something to a book he appears in. His interactions with Gabby are different from how she and Laura interact, since he definitely behaves like an older sibling. Alternately encouraging and insulting her, as it suits him. That's kind of how Daken normally is, the guy that enjoys winding people up, or else egging other people on, whatever makes things more fun. Turns out he's the one who gave her the "Honey Badger" codename, which doesn't detract from its coolness (much), but he also tells her at one point their aliases don't need backstories, to her annoyance.

Cabal also draws Laura as a bit more muscular than most artists, especially in the shoulders and the jawline. I think she's doing a lot of chin-ups. It makes sense; most artists seem to take the approach that she inherited all her looks from her mother, and everything else from Logan (she's already taller than him). But it wouldn't be a surprise if she got his broad shoulders and jaw.

I feel like Cabal also does a little better with the flow of fight scenes here than he did in Friendly Neighborhood, although there aren't a ton of them. Daken's initial escape from the Orphans is done pretty well. The surprised expression on the face of the dog Daken hurls at one person is kind of hilarious. In Daken's defense, the dog had been trying to kill him. In the dog's defense, Daken's kind of a prick and he deserves it.

A Tale of Two Halves of a Trade

Damn, I miss Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

I heard pretty much nothing but good things about All-New Wolverine, the solo title where Laura Kinney (X-23) took over being Wolverine after Logan was dead for awhile. This was of course undercut by Marvel throwing as many other knockoff Wolverines out there at one time as possible, but that isn't this book's fault.

Volume 1 is kind of pricey (even with the new Omnibus available now), so I started with volume 2. Which is, naturally, a tie-in to Civil War II: Dumbass Boogaloo. Fortunately, only half of the six issues really deal with that, and those are, as you'd imagine, the crappier half.

That half follows the predictable pattern. The kid, Ulysses, sees a vision of something terrible happening. SHIELD tries to mobilize to stop it, and in turn, bring it about. The main characters yell at them for being dumbasses. 

In this case, Old Man Logan, the Wolverine from that shitty ripoff of Unforgiven Mark Millar wrote that one time that Marvel simply will not let die, is supposed to kill Gabby, the delightful clone of X-23 that Laura has adopted as her little sister. Captain America shows up (I assume this is HYDRA Cap, although Secret Empire is still several months away), Laura and Gabby object, and try to help the old man escape. He gets shot with a laser, then a bunch of tranq darts, and stabs Gabby when she tries to calm him down. Good thing she's a clone of someone with an actual healing factor and stabbing is a mild inconvenience. Granting Laura somehow hadn't figured that out, but what a waste of time.

The only interesting part of it is this Logan actually thinks he did a good job raising his Laura, and hates Gabby because the version from his timeline took Laura away. With that attitude, I'm guessing she didn't have to try very hard. No matter the timeline, Logan will fuck up his interpersonal relationships because he never learned sharing is caring. Laura tells him to stay the hell away, or else, because she's now dead certain he's not her Logan. Eh, closer than you think, kid. And I know he pops up again two stories later during a crisis.

Anyway, that's more time than that shit deserved.

 

The good half is the first three issues, kicking off with a team-up with the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Laura has committed crimes against the squirrels, and must make restitution. Which means helping to find a father squirrel she stuck a tracking device on, who has now vanished. Also, she made some people crash their car into the squirrels' tree home, knocking it down. 

Civil War III: Back For More Cash will be the squirrels deciding they're taking over our homes and exiling us to the trees, like the dolphins in that one Simpsons Halloween Special. I, for one, welcome our squirrel overlords. Get yourself a leader who eats nuts, instead of being nuts.

Doreen is cheerful and singing as always, except when she's serious, and she even brings a housewarming gift. An actual wolverine named Jonathan she rescued from a lab when she was rescuing squirrels. She's a little put out Laura can't speak to, sorry, understand wolverines, but Gabby loves him, so it's all good. Gabby's assessment: 'I will walk him and feed him and dress him up in fine suits and build little cities out of cardboard for him to tear through like some hairy, giant, formally attired monster.' 

Laura is fortunately new enough at being a big sister to think there's nothing wrong with having a wolverine for a pet.

After that, Laura is called in by SHIELD because an entire team went missing, and so did the person they first sent looking. Which would be Old Man Logan (hence him being around for the CW2 stuff). As it turns out, the SHIELD team was trying to interrupt a weapons buy, and the weapon is a pheromone. Not the one that sends Laura into a killing frenzy, but one that puts a certain dragon in the mood for love.

Yes, a Fin Fang Pheromone. I love how absolutely ridiculous that is. Gabby's assessment: 'So this is like when a giant rampaging lizard and a flying aircraft carrier love each other very much. . .' That kid is the best. 

Laura figures out Logan must be inside the dragon, which is how you get her diving inside. I'm not sure if we're meant to deduce he was swallowed because he's a klutz, or he got swallowed because that's where the trail led and he hoped some of them survived. The former probably, but he's an old man, he might have got confused and thought the giant dragon was a diner selling a Early Bird Special.

Iron Man and Captain Marvel show up, but since Civil War II hadn't officially started, there's no sniping at each other yet. The only awkward moment is when Tony states he has a lot of experience sterilizing rooms, and Carol and Laura are both disgusted. Which is totally understandable, so I stand corrected, Civil War III will be about Tony's tendency to overshare.

What I Bought 8/31/2019 - Part 1

The last week of August was the biggest of the month for me in terms of comics. Which, granted, means 4 books, but combined with 2 comics from earlier in the month, equals a decent haul. So let's get to business.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - So is that one of Peter's regular costumes, or did MJ have one specially made? I feel like one Peter's been wearing wouldn't fit her that well.

While Peter sleeps off fighting a damn troll, Mary Jane goes about her business of helping people out. Which means taking May shopping for wigs, I'm assuming her hair fell out from chemotherapy. Then the subway train she's riding crashes into another troll. One dressed like a refugee from an '80s aerobics video. OK, sure. One of the backup dancer, er, aerobics people in Volstagg's Sweatin' to the Oldies, no doubt.

That is not a pleasant image. Frickin' brain.

MJ remains calm, helps people evacuate, keeps the troll occupied until Miles Morales Spider-Man shows up, distracts it long enough he can deck it, and then brings Peter some pizza for when he wakes up. A simple done-in-one, which is why I picked it up, since that was what I enjoyed most in the first six issues. And I liked this. I like Mary Jane being calm under fire, because she's had to deal with a lot of crap, and that she encourages May to buy lots of wigs, rather than just one. Although I agree with peter, why does someone need more than one hairstyle? At this point, I'd be content having enough hair to consider having more than one.

Cabal gives MJ some interesting expressions, in a good way. Really good at capturing that way people will hold their mouth in an odd position while they're concentrating on something. I feel like he overplays her cheekbones about half the time. Like you could scrape cheese on those things. Still not a huge fan of his fight scenes, not that he has much of a chance to do anything for this one. It's really more about what she's doing while Miles is dodging around the troll, but I find the action kind of flat until the knockout punch. That was a decent full-page splash.

Dial H for Hero #6, by Sam Humphries (writer), Joe Quinones (artist), Scott Hanna (inker), Jordan Gibson (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer) - I've never received a "new phone, who dis?" text message.

Lots of people in Metropolis dialed "H" for hero and now there are tons of people with superpowers just running around like headless chickens. Summer transformed into LoLo Kick You again - looking more Mike Allred-ish most of the time - trying to keep things under control, but is hopelessly outnumbered. Also, there's a plane full of superpeople about to crash. There's always a plane about to crash in Metropolis.

Meanwhile, in the Heroverse, Miguel won't dial H on a damn blue - sorry cyan - dial to become an inspirational hero who can show those others how it's done. Because he thinks he can't inspire. But he can and does, and the plane is saved. But Mr. Thunderbolt's still on the loose with the red (magenta?) H-dial, and there are three more in total he needs to do something to the multiverse. Goddamnit, this is the fucking power ring emotional spectrum rainbow all over again.

Yes, I know, yellow, cyan, and magenta are the three real primary colors used in printing, but man, I did not need this story getting even more meta.

Miguel's arc gets a bit of resolution here, in that he stops worrying so much about whether the dial or other people think he can be a hero, or if it's even worth trying, and just does it. Of course, there's still the part where Mr. Thunderbolt tricked him and got the dial, but he's hopefully begun to address the underlying problem Thunderbolt exploited in the first place. Summer, I'm less sure about. She seems to be looking for a place where she can figure out what she wants, instead of carrying the weight of other's failures and disappointments. Not sure that's been resolved, other than Miguel doesn't seem to do that.

Quinones is playing at a lot of different styles, as basically every hero is done in a different one. I can't even begin to recognize them all, or even most. It works so that the characters feel like they're sharing the same space and interacting, rather than feeling posed around each other. And the part where the pages of Miguel's internal struggle are overlaid on what Summer's dealing with, so that we only get hints of the insanity she's facing, was a nice touch. Even if watching Miguel angst is not the most fascinating experience.

What I Bought 5/8/2019 - Part 3

We'll discuss the baseball outing with dad tomorrow. Spoiler alert: the lost. Booo. For now, two Marvel comics. One book's time is up with me, and it is not the one in the middle of a Big Event crossover, remarkably.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #44, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - The store didn't have any with the regular cover, so I wound up with the variant. Which is OK, but I liked the Erica Henderson cover a lot more.

Squirrel Girl and Ratatoskr defeat the two frost giants while Ratatoskr explains why she's willing to work together. Answer being, because Malekith is going to enforce a singular vision - his - over everything, and that's boring to a being that thrives on chaos. Better to help those fighting him. In an attempt to figure out where the main Frost Giant base is, the two visit the town they just saved to try and question the locals. Ratatoskr's attempt to pretend to be a regular human is even worse than Doreen's attempts to protect her secret identity, so things go downhill quickly.

I got a few laughs out of this issue, which is the most you can hope for with event tie-ins. Doreen's cover i.d. being a dowager when she had no idea what that meant, or the backstory "Rachel" made for herself, which Doreen nixed, but I think Rachel used it anyway. Plus, Rachel being confused about various aspects of English. It is a confusing muddle of a language. I didn't realize that Squirrel Girl makes the "Chrrrtt" sound when she whistles. I thought it was a vocalization she used to call squirrels.

I still really like the Arctic Gear alternate costume for Doreen. It's pretty nifty. I need to go back and compare, but I feel like Charm's version of Ratatoskr looks a little more goofy than Henderson's did. Having the big, bulging eyes looking in entirely different directions reminds me of early Daffy Duck, when he was more crazy than angry. Like I'd expect Ratatoskr to plant a wet one on someone then, laughing crazily before running off. Probably necessary softening of the edges so the two can have a team-up. Like when the Punisher agrees to use rubber bullets or whatever.

It took two readthroughs to realize that the first panel on page six is an Action Comics #1 homage, only with Jane Thor hefting Mangog's foot instead of a car, and the Freaking Out Guy commenting on how Mangog won't stop talking about how he has the power of a billion billion beings. Which is true. I think I own two comics that guy is in, and he never shuts up about that.

Still, our heroes are not making much progress towards repelling the invaders. Maybe next issue.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Nolan Woodward and Federico Blee (color artists), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Not sure why there's Kirby Crackle floating around on the cover, unless Spider-Bite is an imp from the 6th Dimension.

OK, Spider-Bite is not actually a new kid sidekick, or an imp from another dimension that just wants to be pals. Spidey is trying to do a nice thing for a sick kid, and so they set up a kind of play thing where they fight a bunch of Spidey's foes and protect the city from Spider-Man's greatest adversary. I recognized most of the members of the "Sinister Sixty", although there were a couple I have no clue about. There's a guy to the right of the Green Goblin's leg, in some kind of suit with a big emblem on it. The guy with their face in shadow of a purple cloak to the upper left, and the colorless guy to his right. Wait, the guy in the purple is The Swarm. Still no clue who the other two are. Eh, doesn't matter.

It's a nice issue, decent little one-off. The little bits and pieces are still my favorite stuff. Spidey's commentary on the mastermind, or how has one of his action figures, but won't take it out of the box. I agree with that kid, that's a waste. Play with the damn thing, or at least put it someplace you can look at it happily.

The fight scene doesn't look terribly dynamic, but that makes perfect sense once you understand exactly what's happening. There's a bit where the boy doesn't want to take a nap, which he shouts. The next panel is silent, and Cabal draws Spidey in the same position he was in two panels earlier, with his arms crossed over his chest and having a relaxed conversation. Except now the fingers of one hand have come up off the opposite arm. A little thing that suggests he was startled, and everyone is on edge now, because they aren't sure what to do.

It's the issue I enjoyed most so far, but I still don't think I'm sticking with it. We're going back to longer plotlines next month, and those haven't worked so well so far.

What I Bought 4/13/2019 - Part 1

The comics, they just keep coming. Which is good, gives us something to chat about. Otherwise, we might have to discuss the current state of our respective lives and nobody wants that, right? Right. Here's two Marvel comics from last week.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5, Tom Taylor (writer), Yildiray Cinar (artist), Nolan Woodward (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - This week, Spider-Man tries to pay the rent by taking Pym Particles and selling himself as a drive-in movie screen.

Aunt May is going in for chemo. Peter handles this by going out to swing around the city and not think about it. He finds a young kid stealing a car to escape his mom's abusive boyfriend, and then helps the kid escape the police (after losing control and breaking the kid's wrist). Takes kid to Dr. Strange for some medical help, gets the picture that Strange will not be helping with May's issue, and makes sure to be waiting for her at the hospital.

I actually really liked this issue. The Aunt May health crisis thing is old hat, but hell, she's been through a lot of shit, she should have all kinds of health issues by now. Her blood pressure is probably ridiculous. And the previous arc made a big deal about the underground city, but I didn't feel like it did much with it to justify it. It felt like it threw in a lot of elements that weren't really necessary. This issue is a little more focused, bad news, Peter trying to work through it by ultimately helping someone else. The story feels like it has only as many elements as it needs.

New artist, Yildiray Cinar. His style is closer to a more conventional superhero look. Peter's face is a little more square-jawed than with Juann Cabal, who drew him with a rounder face. More muscular build also, closer to a John Romita Sr. body type, where as Cabal was somewhere between Ditko's stringbean and Bagley's skinny but cut style. Woodward also toned down the brightness on his colors compared to the first four issues. There weren't any giant lava oceans in this issue, or even any parts where the spider-sense went off to see if Woodward was going to keep using that intense blue, but even Strange's ghost dog was a more muted shade of green. I'm curious whether that was a one-time thing, given the somber tone of the issue, or if that's something that will continue as long as Cinar is artist on the book.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #43, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Thor carrying two hammers still looks silly to me. I guess he is the God of Hammers.

Doreen's visit to the Negative Zone is interrupted by someone teleporting her back to Earth and Loki. Loki tells her the War of the Realms is on and Earth is going to fall. I assume the rest of the universe will be fine. Until Thanos pops up again, but whatever. If Doreen goes to Canada and destroys the Frost Giants' secret base, then maybe the counterattack can begin. Doreen goes to Canada, has some trouble with some Frost Giants, but after some help from special surprise vegetation and a chat with the parents, evil Norse squirrel Ratatoskr shows up with a bone to pick.

Loki insists the heroes don't realize they've already lost. I would argue that, as a former (current?) villain who has often thought he had triumphed, Loki is not the best judge of when the heroes have actually been defeated. How many times has Loki cackled, "Mine accursed brother will ne'er escape this trap!" only for Thor to, you know, escape the trap and cave Loki's head in? A lot, that's how many times.

The winter weather alternate costume is pretty cool, although that looks like a holster on the hip and I can't see Squirrel Girl carrying a firearm. Unless it's some sort of grappling line gun. Could come in handy for dealing with Frost Giants, if you want to do the old snowspeeders on Planet Hoth maneuver. Otherwise I'd expect a lot of belt pouches, full of acorns for squirrel friends, and maybe a handkerchief, or some lip balm. Practical, everyday stuff, spare cellphone or whatever.

What I Bought 4/8/2019

I ordered the last two books I wanted from last month before I went on the road trip. Because I was confident that UPS and USPS would flub the handoff long enough I'd return before the books got here. And I was right. They showed up last Monday, so here we are.

Also, the NBA playoffs have started! I'm so happy! The Nets beating Philly in Game 1 was highly enjoyable, and I don't dislike Philly. It was just funny watching the Sixers' fans turn on their team halfway through the second quarter.

Coda #10, by Si Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist/colorist), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - If she tells you she has balloons down there, Hum, don't believe her.

Hum narrates from a cell. The giant is tearing apart Ridgetown to retrieve the ylf. The Murkrone has promised to make it an eternal power source for the giant if he breaks the wall separating her babies from the ocean. The giant is honorable, up to a point. The Murkrone is not. Hum still seems at loose ends, but Serka has decided on her next course of action, so we'll see how that goes.

Not sure why the Murkrone thinks gloating to Serka long distance is a good plan. You gloat if she actually drinks the poisoned thing you cooked up, as she's dying. Not when you just missed your shot. I guess she figures she's got the power from the ylf backing her up so she can be as cocky as she wants, but I'm pretty sure that's a bet that'll end badly for her. Well, she said she was going to restore things to the way they were, when people had specific roles to fill. I'm sure she expects hers to be "God", but it's looking like she's "Monologuing Dumbass Villain".

The images of the giant without his armor are pretty impressive. Convey the size and power he still has, while making it clear he's not too far off from ending up like that poor dragon out in the desert, begging passerbys to scratch his non-existent bum for him. More non-existent than ever after that explosion. Excellent work on the sound effect on the explosion, too. The center of it is where the explosion is, and part of it travels along the ground while the rest arches up and to the left corner, tearing through the mountain as it goes. Really well done. Bergara and Doig have made this book really enjoyable to just look at some times.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #4, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Douglas Franchin (finishes, pgs. 18-20), Nolan Woodward (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Well, I would certainly retreat from a horde of New Yorkers whether they were angry or not.

The Under Yorkers (ugh) come to the surface for the children and their mother. Spidey faces off against them, but when things look bad, everyone else in the neighborhood shows up as well. Then Mayor Fisk (jesus, really?) shows up, and basically gets public pressured into telling the guys to go back to their underground city. The day is saved, and now Peter gets to have an awkward conversation with Aunt May about whatever is wrong with her. I'm sure that'll be fun.

This is me repeating myself, but I continue to enjoy the small touches Taylor brings to his writing, while giving basically zero fucks about the larger plot. The bit where he coerces Fisk into doing what he wants by announcing to everyone that he knows the MAYOR OF NEW YORK will be there for his people. Or the bit where he says he got one of his many superhero friends to send the children far away, to another world or dimension perhaps, because some of them will do him favors just to make him go away.

But, I don't really care about this whole thing about kids trying to escape an underground empire. Or the old lady hero or any of that. It's not badly written, it just doesn't do anything for me. And yet another story about Aunt May being sick isn't likely to improve matters. So it's a matter of whether Taylor can create enough landmarks and distractions to keep me going on a trip I'm not really into. Jury's out on that one for the moment.

The double-page spread of Spidey dodging the gunfire, disarming the goons and saving a cat was a little confusing to me the first time I tried to follow what was happening. All the little panels with "Dodge the bullet." were making it hard to decipher what route I'm supposed to travel. The placement of the sound effects is clever, the BLAMs eventually stopping and the THWIPs starting. Although I notice when Spidey hits the one guy with the megaphone, there's a small "TNK" in the panel itself, but directly up and to the right there's a CLUNK! as well. Maybe the CLUNK is the guy hitting the ground?

I'm starting to think Cabal draws people with small feet, though. Spidey's in particular look off-proportion to the rest of him to me. They're at least consistent, Cabal doesn't have that issue, and maybe they aren't out of proportion. But they sure look like they are.

What I Bought 3/2/2019

We had snow again over the weekend. Not as much as they predicted, a couple of inches, but this feels like the snowiest winter we've had in a while. Every weekend it's at least a little something.

I went to town for comics from the last two weeks, but only managed to find two of the five I was looking for. Bit of a disappointment, but work with what we've got.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Nolan Woodward (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Welp, he missed the title logo with his webline, he's doomed. Sorry everyone, no more Peter Parker Spider-Man comics, he's dead.

OK, there's a city beneath New York called Under York, which looks like New York and had some sort of contact with the surface until the '40s, when they went isolationist. Leilani was either from there and escaped to the surface, or someone came to the surface from there and met her, and they had kids. I think it's the former. Pete and Marnie find her, take out two guards, but Pete takes a bullet for Marnie. Then, when the elevator is shut down, he climbs three miles straight up with the two of them on his back. So they reach the surface, but there will likely be people after them soon.

I liked this issue more than the previous one, since they got into the story a little more. Plot advancement actually helps, what a bizarre concept. Cabal and Woodward do some lovely work in this issue. The full-page splash of Under York, even though it's really just New York with magma around it instead of water. The page of Peter and Marnie descending a spiral staircase where Cabal lays the page out so the panels descend in a spiral, the support pillar in the center also forming a line through the center of the page. Woodward still does that thing for Spider-Sense with the very bright blue outline against a magenta background from the first issue, but it's less weird when Peter has his mask on, since we can't see his eyes glowing.

I enjoy some of the quips and comments Peter makes, the one in response to Marnie's rhetorical question about who among us hasn't dated an underground despot in particular. Although I feel like some of the comments would serve better as internal monologue. The one where he apologizes to Marnie for yelling 'Get Down!' instead of 'Noooooooo!' when he took a bullet for her. That feels more like a thought that would run through his head than one he'd actually say out loud.

Smooth Criminals #4, by Kurt Lustgarten and Kirsten Smith (writers), Leisha Riddel (artist), Brittany Peer (colorist), Ed Dukeshire (letterer) - I suspect Mia's not going to have much luck getting Brenda to wear a skintight leather outfit during the actual heist.

There are three scenes running through the issue. One is the FBI questioning Mia's mother about why Mia suddenly appeared again, and what she's after. The elder Ms. Corsair was quite the thief herself back in the day, and I don't know yet if she told the feds anything they'll be able to figure out how to use. Mia and Brenda are using the storage space where Brenda found her to practice getting through the security systems. Mia's struggling a bit with adapting to motion sensors, especially under a time limit. And Hatch is still fuming about how Mia could be back after all this time. The answer to how he hasn't aged seems to be a sort of blue drug he gets injected periodically. Tsk, tsk, performance enhancing drugs. The Thief Hall of Fame will not be happy when they hear of this.

The theme of the day seems to be time. How it continues to pass and how characters lose track of it. Which means, when they have things that need doing, there's less time to get done than they think. Hatch thought he had a free and clear shot at the Net of Indra with no Mia around, enough so he could wait 30 years to get around to stealing it. But here Mia is, so perhaps not. But his attempt to examine her cryogenic tube leads him to her and Brenda's training ground, which means he's more onto them than they know. Their window is closing faster than they think. And Ms. Corsair is 30 years older, left wondering what's going on with her daughter, but not in any position to do anything about it.

Now watch, she'll break out of prison next issue.

Riddel's artwork maintains its level from last issue, so I'm really lost as to what happened in issue 2. I like the variety of clothing styles. Brenda tends to stick to t-shirts and a sweater wrapped around the waist, but Mia's going with the t-shirt and overalls look, which is a big change from what's she been in so far. Ms. Corsair has this absolutely perfect expression in one panel after one of the feds loses his temper and starts yelling about how Mia could appear looking no different than she used to. One of those 'picture of innocence' looks where the smile is a little too big to actually be innocent. What I'd describe as almost feline.

What I Bought 1/26/2019 - Part 4

I hate when they say a game is going to start at a given time, and then it takes another 15-20 minutes before the game actually begins. I don't want to listen to the TV people yammer on or interview someone. Just play the game! OK, last book from two weekends ago. Although by the time this posts, hopefully the two books I hadn't found from January have arrived in the mail.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #2, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Nolan Woodward (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I don't know if it's going to be a trend of my reviewing this book all by its lonesome, but it sure seems like I'm going to struggle to find things to say about the covers for it.

Spidey calls the Torch to stay with the orange. The orange kids know the Human Torch, but not Spider-Man. Yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that. Moving on, one of the odd strong guys from last issue was watching the apartment building, and Spidey tries to question him, but the guys escape by bringing a building down. But he gets help finding the license plate from a cop who is married to the guy who drove off the bridge last issue. Spider-Man visits a deserted consulate, starts to fight the same guy from earlier, only to have his old lady neighbor Marnie (the way Cabal draws her face reminds me of Frank Quietly's work) step in and reveal a) she's a costumed person, and b) she knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

I continue to enjoy the small parts. Spidey feeding the pigeons on the roof of the police station while he waits for Detective Sebbens. Spidey casually pulling on his webline to bring that bumper over so he can show her the plate he'd like run. And the just lightly surprised look the detective has. She's not goggle-eyed or anything, because it isn't that strange, but it does come out of nowhere for her. The little bit of dust or smoke in the panel where he backflips over the consulate gate to set up an attack, because it's just a little visual cue of his movement. Helping to track his course over the panels. I should probably enjoy the discussion of the lack of pockets on Spidey's costume, but he had this discussion with himself before, in the JMS run. Zippers and velcro were concluded to be impractical.

As for the larger story, I mean it could be interesting. Taylor hasn't really gotten far enough into it, other than telling us there's a bunch of "secret" history that Spider-Man doesn't know anything about.  The Next Issue box is literally, "You don't know anything". Yeah, no shit, because someone hasn't told us anything yet. So when it actually starts to come together, maybe it'll be cool. Or, Spider-Man can point out he doesn't care why Leilani was kidnapped, only where he needs to go to rescue her. That would be appropriate for him.

What I Bought 1/9/2019

There were six comics I wanted that came out the first two weeks of January. Since I haven't left town since New Year's Eve, I only managed to find one. So here we are, the first time I'm trying to buy a Spider-Man title regularly in, 9 years? Those five months in 2010 Amazing Spider-Man strung together a bunch of stories that sounded interesting by creative teams I liked? Geez, no pressure fellas.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1, by Tom Taylor (writer), Juann Cabal (artist), Nolan Woodward (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Spidey looks like he needs to build up his lower legs.

Peter has a neighbor who is in trouble with some strange, very strong people. Strong enough to punch Peter through a wall and knock him cold. You know, I thought his spider-sense buzzed stronger for bigger threats, so you'd think he'd have known to dodge, instead of playing at being hapless Peter. Anyway, strange orange children are involved.

Other than that, the issue is mostly Peter or Spider-Man being a nice person and helping people in various ways. That's nice. There's also a backup story where Aunt May might have cancer now. That's less nice. I assume Stark gave her an artificial heart after the 27th heart attack and the radiation is to blame.

It's not bad as a first issue goes, although I'm not sure how forcefully it makes the case for someone to keep buying it. It feels as though the book is trying to sell itself on the little things, Peter's interactions with his neighborhood, which might be a hard sell. Taylor gets you caught up on as much of Peter's current status as is relevant at the moment. His roommates are Randy Robertson and Boomerang. That whole thing about him being guilty of plagiarism because Octavius stole some of his own work when he was busy stealing Peter's body. Taylor didn't overload it, though, which is smart. Lets the book focus on its own stuff. Bring out whatever is necessary from what Spencer and Zdarsky are doing as you need to.

Cabal has a clean art style, not much in the way of unnecessary lines. There are enough talking scenes he can show off his range of expressions. We'll see how it goes during extended action scenes. Although I doubt the stairwells in Peter's apartment building would be that clean and free of garbage and graffiti. At minimum there must be kids running around tearing shit up, but OK, whatever. I thought Woodward overdid it on the coloring for the spider-sense. He's not just doing the wavy blue lines above Peter's head, he gave him blue glowy eyes like he's astral projecting. It's a little much. Otherwise, the color work is fine. There's not much costumed stuff going on, so most of it is more understated tones. Colors aren't dull, but they don't really pop off the page.

What I Bought 11/10/2015 - Part 1

Relatively new comics have arrived, as I did not end up waiting a month to buy some really expensive first issues. Yeah, well, I'm kind of in a hurry. Patience is not one of my virtues.

Secret Wars: Agents of Atlas #1, by Tom Taylor (writer), Steve Pugh (artist), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Looking at the cover, it's interesting Zemo has multiple different WANTED posters for Jimmy Woo. It makes me think he (or someone who works for him) had lots of photos of Jimmy, and just wanted to plaster them all over the city.

So it is a one-shot set on Battleworld, in a section controlled by a Zemo - is there more than one of those? - where the Atlas Foundation is an underground resistance movement. SHIELD only works to serve Zemo's interests, but Phil Coulson is tired of that, and wants to help Atlas find their missing leader Jimmy Woo. The team agrees to let him come along, and Gorilla Man finds Jimmy, but doesn't realize the one doing it is Zemo's young son, who kills him. What the kid didn't realize is that whole curse aspect of Gorilla Man's existence, so now he's the talking gorilla. As it turns out, Zemo's whole goal was to lure Venus in, because a transmission of her singing during a raid, made him fall in love with her. And as Venus points out, given her history, that's a bad move for the old man. So now a talking gorilla runs that city. Still better than Mr. Sinister, the Maestro, or any version of Tony Stark.

early in the story, Coulson keeps mentioning his assistant has other talents when Ken complains the kid is too stupid to realize a talking Gorilla (with a visitor badge that says "Gorilla Man" on it) is a gorilla, not a monkey. "Other talents", is the exact phrasing. Does that mean Coulson promoted the guy because they're having sex? Like corporate guys having an attractive secretary who can't type or take dictation kind of thing? Or did he mean the guy is good at busting skulls, but kind of an idiot? I'm inclined towards the latter, if only because there was never any indication of what other skills the guy has.

What Venus does to Zemo is interesting in light of a story I remember Jeff Parker writing during Secret Invasion, where Venus wasn't willing to make some Skrulls march to their deaths in the ocean (Jimmy said he understood, then ordered M-11 to death ray them, because dudes from the '50s don't fuck around when little green men invade Earth). Here, she lures Zemo in and literally walks his stupid ass off a ledge. Steve Pugh helps because he purposefully gives her this neutral look all through the exchange. She doesn't seem angry, but she isn't smiling. She lets Heinrich project whatever he wants so he'll follow her, completely ignoring what she's saying. I guess we could be meant to read she's singing all this to him, so he's enthralled, but I don't think so. There's nothing in Jimmy or anyone else's reactions that suggests that. Zemo's just That Dude, sure he's found a way to her heart.

It was a pretty solid book. The plot was fairly engaging. Though had the team never had Venus sing before? Shouldn't they have known it was a risk before now? That keeps hanging me up. There were some good character bits, although they all rely on you caring about the characters beforehand. I don't think Taylor did enough to where I would have necessarily felt bad about Ken's death if I didn't already like the character coming in. Frankly, I though Gorilla-Man's voice was a little off, and most of the other characters didn't get enough dialogue to tell one way or the other. Except M-11, which I think they did get right. You could chalk the differences up to alternate universe easily enough, though that brings us back to the same point. The story is banking on past stories to provide the emotional connection for the reader, but these aren't those characters, not exactly. It's the New 52 problem all over again, but as one-off, this works pretty well.

There are times I though Pugh might be photo-referencing actual pictures of gorillas for Ken's facial expressions, but I can't be sure of that, and otherwise I was fine with his art. Everything was clear, at least some of the Weapon X subjects had bizarre enough anatomy to suggest Zemo's experiments, and Helmut's transformation looked suitably terrifying to him. Might have been worth dragging out a few more panels, really let the horror sink in..

Astonishing Ant-Man #1, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer), Idette Winecoor (designer) - Here we see Scott after he just promised to provide non dairy creamer in the break room. Although, between the way he has his hand placed, and the position of Beetle's wing, I thought he was carrying a dagger or something. Like Scott was literally going to stab these super-crooks in the back. Also, is Porcupine standing slightly hunched because he knows Beetle's wings are going to obscure his face otherwise, or is he drunk? Or injured? Is Scott skimping on health insurance, too?

Scott's still trying to make his business work, and hasn't entirely pissed off his primary investor yet. He has pissed off his daughter, by continuing to publicly stay out of her life, while secretly watching over her. And Darren Cross is still trying to take revenge on him, though he wasn't prepared for the world of today. He's right, though, paying 1.2 billion dollars just to be on the board of the company. It can't possibly be worth that much just to avoid having to directly converse with super-powered hitmen you want to hire. At any rate, it kept Scott from getting his head lopped off by Whirlwind, but it cost him a security contract at a big art museum, and may have succeeded in pissing off the primary investor. No idea if any of that is why he's in prison.

So, Miami P.D. sent a cop to act as liaison for the possible security gig, and it's the guy currently married to Scott's ex, and what the hell look was he going for? He had the Caruso dark glasses, but with a white suit coat. Just laughable. And they've taken the Pym Particles out of Cassie's system entirely now, so no more Young Avengering for her. That seems more than a little stupid and pointless, but I guess if she could get herself into danger then Scott's excuse for staying out of her life would seem even more obviously stupid. Like a super-villain, assuming they know Lang is Ant-Man and Cassie is his daughter, is going to care than Scott doesn't seem to be spending time with her? No, they're still going to figure she's his daughter, and if they attack her, he will show up eventually. It's just such an obviously bad decision.

The Power Broker - I'm assuming he's new - is a nice design. Little understated with the suit, but the lavender skin and jaw-thing make him stand out a bit. I'm sure he reminds me of someone, but I can't place it. I'm curious how much of an ongoing threat he'd be in this book, or if he and Cross end up against each other, given their differing views on things. Cross is very much about creating or innovating in what he sees as concrete ways, while the Broker is working with what's already there, ostensibly to make it more efficiently utilized, but really just making sure he gets a cut of all the transactions. Beyond the Broker, though, I'm still cold on the art. The colors all seem very calm and subdued, which blunts the effect of important scenes, and the fight scene didn't do much for me, brief as it was.

There's something about it all that doesn't connect, which is true of the book in general. It was on the border with me before the relaunch, and this hasn't changed my opinion. I'm curious to see what Spencer has planned with all the other villains he's going to bring in, but I'm not sure I'll be sticking around long enough to find out.