Track of the Cat (1954)

A cattle ranch comes under attack by a mountain lion during a blizzard. While two of the brothers, Curt and Arthur (Robert Mitchum and William Hopper) head out to hunt it, the remainder of the family stews in their various issues in the house. The matriarch (Belulah Bondi) is a severe, gloomy woman, always talking about God or accusing people of blaspheming or immorality. The father is a loud, useless drunk. The youngest son (Tab Hunter) is a spineless milksop, unwilling or unable to speak up about what he wants, including his love for Gwen (Diana Lynn.)

(There's also an ancient-looking Native American who works there, that Curt abuses of course, who is supposed to be scared of the "black panther." But at the end, he says the black panther is the "whole world", whatever that means. It's the things inside yourself that you can't face? The most interesting thing is he was played by the guy who played Alfalfa on The Little Rascals.) 

Arthur dies to the cat fairly early, and Curt sends the body back on the horse and continues on, confident he'll find and kill the cat soon. But the blizzard only gets worse, and Curt either runs out of food (because he was confident enough he'd handle this he didn't pack much) or he lost the food at some point. At which time, he breaks. 

The movie poster describes it as a love story of  'real, raw, runaway emotions,' which is a load of tripe. The closest thing to a love story would be between Lynn and Hunter, and their emotions never get out of control, because Hunter is basically a lump. That's the whole dynamic between them, Hunter refusing to man up and do anything to seize control of his life.

Arthur is the one who tries to make their mother back off, who tells Curt to let their little brother have part of the herd to start his own ranch with Gwen. Hunter can't muster the nerve ask Gwen to marry him when Curt taunts him about it, or stand up to his mother when she insults Gwen. Hunter's sister-in-law (played by Teresa Wright) at one point implores him to take Gwen and just leave, get out of this miserable place, but he won't do that, either. He always bows to his mother's wishes. Except when it comes to keeping his dad away from the whiskey. It wouldn't be hard to take away these bottles that are apparently stashed everywhere, but he doesn't do that, either.

Hunter is ultimately the one who kills the panther, which is supposed to symbolize his becoming the man on the ranch, since Curt ran himself off a ravine in a panic. It would have worked better if we'd seen him actually stand up for himself sometime earlier. Like finally asserting himself gives him the wherewithal to confront the animal. But the kill is anticlimactic, as the cat snarls from a stand of trees, Hunter marches in, there are a couple of gunshots and that's it.

As far as Curt, Mitchum plays a very good sneering "big" man, but the break in his demeanor is too abrupt. The point is Arthur was right when he said that if Curt were given total control of the ranch, he'd run everyone off and be left with no one, and that inside, Curt can't stand that idea. He doesn't want to show what he perceives as weakness, but once he's alone, with no one to bully or place himself above, he crumbles. But it happens so fast, and gets him killed so fast (in terms of how much time the movie spends on him), it lacks dramatic impact.

Since Arthur dies because he forgets to chamber a round in his rifle, and we see Hunter resolutely do just that before marching into the trees, I guess he's supposed to be a combination of Curt's strength and Arthur's compassion, but the movie doesn't establish that properly

I kept hoping it would take a horror turn, have the panther double-back and start picking off people in the house. Kill the old lady, kill the drunk, and everything would have been a lot better. Failing that, since Hunter never lives up to his promise to take Gwen back to her home, have Gwen and the sister-in-law leave together. In the early part of the movie, when everyone is showing no particular urgency in getting outside and hunting the big cat killing their cattle, we hear the two girls laughing together in their room, so they get along, at least.

A miserable viewing experience from start-to-finish.

A Rough Launch Cycle

I wonder how many times someone in the Marvel Universe has said that?

"Change of Decay" is the second tpb for All-New X-Factor. We looked at the first just before Christmas. The cast roster of Polaris, Gambit, Quicksilver, Danger, Cypher, and Warlock now in the same place - if not all on the same page - Peter David (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Lee Loughridge (color artist), and Cory Petit (letterer) can get down to the brass tacks of what a corporation's superhero team actually does.

As far as these 6 issues, the answer would appear to be, "create messes for their CEO boss to clean up." David introduces a new character, Georgia Dakei, whose father owns several newspapers and a conservative news network, and is extremely anti-mutant. Georgia is essentially confined to their (very large, very well-defended) house, and got in trouble for live-streaming against Dad's wishes. Cypher watched the video and, because the girl talked wistfully about being able to get out of her house and see the world, convinces the rest of the team (not that Pietro or Gambit require much convincing) they should kidnap, I mean rescue, Georgia.

Except by the time they get there, Georgia's over it. Dad was just being dramatic having his goon shoot her computer, and he already replaced it. Doug steamrolls right over that, and it turns out Georgia has some power over water, in that she desiccates Doug's body in seconds. Harrison Snow has to sort a situation that devolves to the point of Polaris threatening to kill a lot of cops with their own weapons, and convinces Dakei - somehow - to send Georgia off with X-Factor.

At which point it turns out Dakei wasn't her biological parent. And while her mother was a frightened young woman who gave her up for adoption as a baby, her father is a supervillain. A new one, Memento Mori, who has a costume (and, with the way either Di Goandomenico or Loughridge shades things, sometimes muttonchop sideburns) but also legitimate businesses. Like a mall, because it means lots of civilians around to act as potential human shields against superheroes. Except it turns out, that isn't as it seems, either, and there's a possibility Georgia loses both parents as fast as she finds them.

It's a weird choice, bring in Georgia and all these elements around her, then wipe most of said elements off the board immediately. Maybe David felt he had to have some big punch up fight, though I'm not sure fights are Di Giandomenico's strong suit. They often boil down to, "panel of one character posing dramatically, followed by panel of different character gesturing." 

Action? Di Giandomenico can do that. There's a nice sequence of Mori's goons first chasing Georgia on Segways, then chasing Georgia and Doug using Warlock as a motorcycle on hover sleds (the sleds remind me a bit of the Public Eye flying cycles in Spider-Man 2099, but that may just be convergent design between Leonardi and Di Giandomenico.) The panels of Quicksilver running convey a sense of speed and fluidity. But fights often lack flow or connection between what's happening in given panels.

The focus remains on interpersonal relationships and everybody's problems. Lorna's moods still seem to swing wildly, which may be the stress of trying to listen to her team's viewpoints, while still being a strong leader who follows her own instincts, but also is a good employee. Gambit can't keep it in his pants. Warlock's trying to flirt, badly, with Danger. Pietro decides to stick around even after Havok says he doesn't need to act as mole for the Avengers. He gets the most personal growth, since he cops to the crap he pulled with the Terrigen Mists, and admits he lied when he blamed it on a Skrull. All during the team's introductory press conference which caps this tpb.

It's still hard to see why most of these characters are here. Lorna probably believes she can do some good, and Pietro seems to want to support his sister. Warlock seems to be hanging around for Doug and Danger, not necessarily in that order. But Doug is pissed off most of the volume - especially because Georgia is friendly towards Gambit and Quicksilver, but cold towards Doug, who pushed for them to rescue her in the first place - so I'm not sure why he doesn't just return to his plan to chuck himself off a cliff to avoid the villain turn he was worried about in volume 1.

Gambit doesn't think the team cares about him, and expects it'll end up like most teams, worried about mandates and punching villains instead of helping people. He's still going to bars to get soused and flirt with women like he was when the series began, so clearly the job is not personally fulfilling. I have no idea what Danger is getting out of all this, other than maybe she finds everyone else's behavior interesting to observe.

Sunday Splash Page #412

"Skyrocket's in Fight," in The Power Company #10, by Kurt Busiek (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Prentis Rollins (inker), Wildstorm FX (colorists), Comicraft (letterer)

Power Company was a bit Heroes for Hire, but with more focus on the business side of superheroics for hire. The economics of it, the boardroom politics that cause friction, how other heroes might react to this, especially given the number of really sketchy companies in the DCU, stuff like that.

Co-creators Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett put together a team of almost entirely new characters. They did use Bork from the Brave and the Bold story, "But Bork Can Hurt YOU!", and a clone of the Paul Kirk Manhunter that chose not to die fighting the "good" one. Otherwise, I think everybody was new, even if some of their origins involved established characters. Homeless runaway Sapphire happened to swipe a weird gem that was prized by Kobra (as seen in Random Back Issues #29), and the head of the company, Josiah Power, was an attorney who had his career ruined when that metagene bomb from Invasion! activated superpowers.

(There were a series of one-shots introducing each of the characters, each with a different artist, but I'm not going through all those.)

The set-up is half the cast - Bork, Sapphire, teched-up former stuntman Striker Z - are "associates", which seems to translate roughly to employees, the others - Josiah, Manhunter, pop star/sorceress Witchfire, and Skyrocket up there - are partners, who bought shares in the company and therefore get more of a say in how it's run, clients they accept, things like that. Manhunter is a merc, looking to diversify his holdings. Witchfire thought it'd be good for her public profile. Skyrocket's the only real hero of the bunch, but helping people because it's, "the right thing" don't keep the balance sheet in the black.

It's still, in some ways, a traditional superhero team book. Grummett's art runs to that style. Clean lines, smooth art. The colors are bright, the action is big. Other than Josiah - who mostly wears a suit - and Bork - who rocks jeans and a tank top - everybody has very "superhero" looks. And Busiek's writes to have subplots for most every character, which can be shifted from the background to the focus at any moment. There's a lot going on in the casts' individual lives, and in their relationships with each other. Manhunter and Witchfire against Skyrocket, Josiah trying to keep everyone going the same direction because he does believe there's value in this. Bork and Sapphire as sort of a mutual support group, the homeless teenager and the mutated ex-con. Skyrocket trying to make friends (or allies?) of the associates. Manhunter's past coming after him.

Unfortunately, the book ended after 18 issues, so a lot of things were never resolved. Bork felt a little bad about trashing some armed robbers he used to know from his criminal days, and worried about backsliding. Sapphire was probably going to be targeted by Kobra eventually. Witchfire learned something about herself that was never explained or delved into in any particular way. Josiah spends the about 8 issues in a coma, coming out of it just in time to help rescue the group from another dimension. His sidelining does allow more friction and backstabbing between the other 3 partners, letting them make moves they might not otherwise, but he felt like he was going to be a more central character, so the extended absence is notable.

(Busiek and Grummett don't really get to anything with Striker Z, unless we count the story where he and Manhunter run into trouble on what was supposed to be a publicity stunt, and Striker learns not to make assumptions about how easy or hard a job is going to be. He was present when Witchfire learned that thing about herself, so I wonder if there'd have been something there. She's a big star, with the ego to match, he's a stuntman, one of the guys who makes big stars look good.) 

While Busiek and Grummett introduce some new threats - at least, I think Dr. Cyber and the Dragoneer were new - they don't mind using what's already available. Third-rate super-powered goon squad The Cadre are hitting a lot of scientific research facilities and companies, which Skyrocket is trying to figure out how to protect when they won't sign contracts hiring the company to do it (because her sales pitch needs work), and Manhunter and Witchfire veto her using company resources for pro bono work. Dr. Polaris shows up as the man behind the Cadre, amped to new levels of power thanks to an alien (a Controller? I don't know DC aliens) he'd taken prisoner. 

(Coincidental, but Nicieza did something vaguely similar with Graviton in Thunderbolts around this time, ramping up the villain to new levels, taking all the other heroes out of play except for the book's cast. Except Graviton was being used by the alien, rather than using it. Which just proves he's more of a goober than Dr. Polaris, I guess.)

They can't have other heroes popping up all the time, but there are a few. Green Arrow, as much an antagonist as anything. Issue #15, drawn by Gary Chaloner (the only issue Grummett doesn't pencil), has Batman hounding Manhunter across Gotham. Firestorm pops in for a few issues, needing gainful employment. I read somewhere years ago, can't verify the accuracy, there was a poll about who the fans wanted to have join the book, and the Haunted Tank won. But it ended up as some experimental hover tank, piloted by Jeb Stuart's granddaughter and haunted by Jeb. Not sure that's what folks were looking for.

The book did not end with the company closing its doors, but other than Josiah Power appearing in a reboot of the Power Company last year, I'm not sure any of the others have shown up anywhere since. Which at least means they weren't fed into the Event Woodchipper by Johns, Meltzer, or some other writer. It's too bad. I tracked it down in back issues several years ago, and wish it would have gone longer. At least to see how some of those other threads played out.

Saturday Splash Page #214

"Delusions of Grandeur," in Revenge of the Living Monolith, by David Michelinie (writer), Marc Silvestri (penciler), Geof Isherwood (inker), Bob Sharen (colorist), Joe Rosen (letterer)

Real talk, I don't know if Sharen and Rosen were colorist and letterer for this specific page, but the credits list 9 different colorists and 5 letterers (plus 6 people credited with 'additional background inks'), with no breakdown of who did what. I'm not listing all that. Sharen and Rosen are listed first, so it seems a safe bet they handled the very first page.

Anyway, part of the same Marvel Graphic Novel series as Starlin's Death of Captain Marvel, or The Aladdin Effect, Revenge of the Living Monolith apparently came out because Jim Owsley wanted to do something like a '50s, giant monster movie. He and Michelinie hammered out this plot about Ahmet Abdol, the old X-Men foe The Living Pharaoh, regaining access to the cosmic rays that make him the Living Monolith and rampaging through New York.

(Although he gets the cosmic rays by trapping three-quarters of the FF, because they constantly absorb cosmic radiation, so he has machines draw it off and feed it to him. Which is not a way I've ever heard the FF's powers described. I thought they got hit once and that was it. If they still absorb cosmic rays constantly while on Earth, why can't Abdol?) 

The conflict is basically an outer expression of all the crap in Abdol's heart, where he's always been convinced he was descended from royalty or divinity, then got pissy when people didn't bow and scrape and kiss his ass. Which causes him to lash out, then blame everyone else for it, that people are awful and so they deserve it. This is not a guy I'm inclined to pity. One of his prison guards is an old childhood bully. When Abdol escapes, he brings the bully along, essentially to go, "neener-neener, bet you feel stupid for doubting me now." The bully is unimpressed, and later goads Abdol in killing his own daughter, though we never see Hassan after that scene. No idea what happened to him.

(Abdol's daughter chose to be the one who sets the trap for the FF, but finds herself cornered when it turns out you can't break a window in the Baxter Building just by chucking a chair at it. It's almost funny, except, you know, the part where Abdol allows his own fear of betrayal or looking weak to make him him remote-electrocute his own kid. But he won't just kill Hassan to shut the guy up.)

The three heroes opposing the Monolith end up being She-Hulk, Captain America, and Spider-Man. She-Hulk was excluded from Abdol's trap because her power isn't cosmic ray based, and she calls Cap. Since the other Avengers are on the West Coast, he uses a computer program to pull up someone with a science background to help, and gets Spidey. The way it's framed feels less like Cap searched a database for an answer, and more like he typed requirements and the computer just spat a random name at him.

And Spidey ends up feeling useless against the Monolith (who somehow travels to NYC in a Concorde, despite being ginormous enough his head looks taller than the jet, let alone the rest of him), leaving most of the fighting to Cap and Shulkie. Spider-Man does free the FF, but by then the Monolith is so large he's again able to absorb the rays on his own. Freeing the FF isn't crucial to finding a solution to the issue of the Monolith, so Spider-Man is basically irrelevant. They could have picked Hank Pym, or Curt Conners, or any comic book scientist and it would have made about as much difference.

Random Back Issues #167 - Our Army at War #229

That is pretty much the only way I would end up in a leadership position, too.

Not quite an 80-page giant, because it's only 64 pages, this comic reprints 5 stories from the first half of the 1960s. Including one we saw an image from a few months ago, but we'll get to that.

Leading off, "Battle of the Sergeants," contrasts Sgt. Rock with Sergeant Krupp. The differences in their training - at one point Rock comments that they both went to "school", but learned different lessons. Krupp is hearing a speech about their superiority and how they will rule the world, Rock and the other GIs see a picture of people in concentration camps, and are told not to play big hero with them, because they already fought the Nazis - and how they look when they're done. Rock says Krupp looks like he just stepped out on parade, while Rock looks like the parade stepped out on him.

Krupp earns his stripes by playing to win, whatever it takes. Like pretending to be a wounded motorcycle courier, then blowing up an Allied tank that stops to help. Rock, well, see image at the top. Krupp loves his stripes, Rock just feels the weight of obligation. On his first patrol as a sergeant, they find a camouflaged base, but Krupp shows up in a weapons carrier before they can leave. Rock's unit gets steadily picked off until it's just him and Ice Cream Soldier, who gets shot by a pursuing fighter. So Rock starts carrying him, determined to get at least one guy back alive.

But Krupp's still on their tail, telling the halftrack to lay mortar fire in front of Rock, driving him back to them. Krupp wants to have fun, to the point he's mad when he thinks his prey were blown up. Doesn't seem to jibe with his "anything to win" attitude. Rock's not dead, and takes out the halftrack, but Krupp uses the smoke for cover. Out of ammo, Rock tries to lead him away, and gets his gun smashed, then shot. Which brings Krupp in close - he wants to gloat - where Rock can pull him down and handle things hand-to-hand. As he staggers away from the late Sergeant Krupp (now likely sporting a broken neck) and towards Ice Cream Soldier, Rock notes his stripes feel lighter with every step. Well, yeah, your sleeves are gone. 

Second, we have "The Mouse and the Tiger," where an Allied pilot is shot down in a snowstorm. He has intel about a Nazi surprise attack, and a broken leg that says he's not going anywhere under his own power. It's a race to reach him, a Nazi Tiger on one side, and what's probably a U.S. Stuart (the basis for the original Haunted Tank) on the other.

Both tanks come under fire from enemy aircraft, but in keeping with the title, the Stuka that attacks the mouse is called a "hawk", while the Mustang is dismissed by the Tiger as a "pigeon". The mouse survives because the Stuka's cannonfire sets the forest ablaze, and the pilot doesn't see some treetops through the smoke. The Tiger shrugs off the Mustang's machine guns and blasts it from the sky. Both arrive at the downed pilot, but the "mouse" can't get anywhere near close enough to actually hit the "tiger", let alone hurt it. Especially with its treads leaving a perfect trail in the snow. . .

Third is "The Fighting Blip", where an American "daylight" ace gets lost on a photo recon mission. At least he's got a belly tank of extra fuel. Too bad he's out after dark and comes under fire from a Nazi night fighter. The night fighter has radar, so the American can't get away no matter what he does. Unless he can give the enemy something else to shoot at. 

In "Two Men - One Hill!" Nazi and American paratroopers try to take a hill. Someone forgot to check the forecast, because high winds blow everyone far away, except one soldier from each side. The story plays up the gap in experience, as we're told Corporal Karl Schmid has 'planted his big boots on 20 battlefields - and never lost yet,' while PFC Andy Allen's boots, 'had only touched training fields.'

They land at the same time, the wind catching their parachutes and flinging them around until Schmid hits Allen's gun, breaking it so it hits Allen in the chin. Allen picks himself up and follows the trail, right to a narrow passage where Schmid is waiting. Allen takes one to the jaw and rolls over the edge. Schmid seems confident that's that, but still holes up in a tank they tried to unsuccessfully air-drop on the mountain. So when Allen, who caught a tree growing from a seam in the rock, hauls himself up and resumes the ascent, Schmid chucks a potato masher at him. Third time is the charm?

You know that's not how it works. Allen somehow dove for cover behind the tank - even though he's nowhere near it - they fight, and Allen's the one who crawls out of the tank. Good thing his buddies are just as tough. Woulda been awkward, him holding the hill and all those Nazis show up. 20 battlefields' of experience right there.

Finally, "Surrender Ticket!" Colonel von Kritz decides it will be a big propaganda win if they can subject some of these green GIs to such pressure they surrender without a shot. But he picked Easy Company as his target (the air recon photos are detailed enough you can see the stripes on Rock's helmet), so he's shit outta luck.

Kanigher keeps introducing some Easy Joe, then immediately kills them, then the airdrop of the "surrender tickets." So "Prince Charmin'" and his hair care routine interrupted permanently by Stuka dive bombers. As the temp rises and water runs low, the C.O. advises everyone save their canteens. Then an artillery barrage. The C.O. leads them out (at an oddly slow walk, isn't that a time to run?), then collapses because he was mortally wounded. Which leaves Rock in charge, as von Kritz insists they 'tighten the nutcracker on these G.I. peanuts!' Now really low on water, a couple of guys aren't willing to wait when two Tiger tanks perched on a ridge overlooking an oasis open fire. Rock catches the second (and threatens to shoot anyone else who tries), but one guy runs out there and gets killed. 

Alas, the Nazis filled in the oasis. Can't drink sand, and this time, some of the Joes don't toss their tickets. There's another waterhole ahead, one Rock assures the guys can't be filled up (doesn't say anything about whether it could be poisoned, though) while worrying about their morale. But good old Beanpole is always willing to lend a hand. Help a tired guy walk. Shoulder his rifle. Act as a human shield. Uh, about that last one. . .

Easy reaches the waterhole, but all of them, except presumably, Sgt. Rock, kept their surrender tickets last time. Which is what von Kritz was counting on, and the reason why the soldiers and tanks barring the path to the water aren't firing. Fed up, Rock grabs the bazooka and fires it at a tank, while running. (Probably the least accurate part is an American bazooka doing that to a Nazi tank in one shot.) He hits some quicksand, but that seems to spur everyone into action. Bulldozer runs up to act as loader, and some of the guys climb into the burning tanks to provide cover fire for the ones climbing the hill. Von Kritz's insistence the G.I.s must break is met with a punch in the mouth.

The kicker is Rock hands von Kritz a surrender ticket, admitting him to any American POW camp for the rest of the war. Boom! Roasted.

{8th longbox, 15th comic, Our Army at War #229. "The Battle of the Sergeants," by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist), Gaspar Saldino (letterer), colorist unknown. "The Mouse and the Tiger", by Ed Herron (writer), Ross Andru (penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), colorist and letterer unknown. "The Fighting Blip," by Bob Haney (writer), Jack Abel (artist), Saldino (letterer), colorist unknown. "Two Men, One Hill," by Haney (writer), Mort Drucker (artist), colorist and letterer unknown. "Surrender Ticket!" by Kanigher (writer) and Kubert (artist), colorist and letterer unknown.}

If Chins Could Kill - Bruce Campbell

Campbell's first autobiography, following his interest in acting from making Super 8 movies with his buddies in Michigan, up to appearing in the first Spider-Man movie. He spends a little time on his personal life, mostly in his childhood and school years. After that, it's mostly to the extent his career intersects with his personal life (like how all the traveling helped bring about the end of his first marriage.)

I didn't realize how much other stuff related to movies he'd done, in terms of being a producer, helping with editing or filming second shots for movies, even directing several episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. The nice thing is, these aren't treated as simply parts of his resume. Campbell spends time describing the process and the work behind the different roles.

There are multiple chapters about he, Sam Raimi, and others' efforts to raise money to film Evil Dead. He details the process, breaking up paragraphs about who you ask with brief examples of phone calls he might have with old acquaintances, or how he asked his dad if he could put the family farm up as collateral to get a bank loan. Once the film is made, all the work that goes into preparing it for release, all the things you have to put together to convince a distributor they should want to sell your movie, the trailers and translated titles for release in other countries. In the chapters about Adventures of Brisco County Jr., he talks about the process of being selected for a role, the number of times you may have to audition, and how many different people you have to sell yourself to.

Kind of amazing to me that anyone gets anywhere in show business at all. 

The book has a lot of visuals. Photographs of him as a kid (still easily recognizable, although it was the brow line more than the chin), stills from the various films he and his friends put together - with names like Bogus Monkey Pignut Swindle - or a "Kiwi Primer", translating various American words to their New Zealand equivalent. "Body Shop" becomes "Panelbeater", apparently.

My favorites were the diagrams of the different rigs they came up with to capture some of the shots Sam Raimi wanted on the Evil Dead films. The "Vas-O-Cam" in particular, where the camera sat on a U-shaped bracket that could slide over over tape coated with Vaseline and stretched across two sawhorses. It's a poor man's dolly, as Campbell notes, but has the benefit of being portable, light, and cheap.

It's a quick read. Most of the chapters are short; some read more like a collection of brief anecdotes that a true narrative. This paragraph details something funny that happened, the next paragraph details something else funny, without any particular connective tissue or overarching theme other than this is stuff you may deal with in acting. But the anecdotes are funny, or failing that, informative. I went in expecting a standard autobiography, and learned a lot of things about acting I didn't expect, so I'd consider that a win. 

'Raising money for the Man with the Screaming Brain was a little like being trapped in a slow-moving elevator after someone farted - the ride took too long and the atmosphere was foul.'

Steady State in Spring

April looks to be a pretty neutral month in the solicits. Not much new that caught the eye, just a lot of things that I figure I'll be buying going into the month, and I'll continue to do so in April. I did notice Marvel seems to be double-shipping some of their X-books. I hope they're not going to get back in the habit of doing that.

What's new? Marvel gets their turn at the Spider-Man/Superman crossover. Setting aside the cost being prohibitive to my cheap ass, the list of creators was not encouraging. Geoff Johns? Bendis? Brad goddamn Meltzer?! Fuck outta here.

The other thing I noticed was from Abrams Comics Art, Soviet Land by Pierre-Henry Gomant. Set after the fall of the USSR, but following a character who gathers things, remnants of the state, that other people might pay money for. I assume as curios, and that we're not talking about codes to nukes, but who knows. 

What's ending? So far as I can tell, nothing I'm buying is wrapping up in April.

And the rest: Batgirl has Cassandra still dealing with her strange new powers, Fantastic Four is going to wrap up this "Invincible Woman" arc. You know, I've seen the first issue and still have no idea what that's supposed to be. Nova: Centurion, there's an odd comment in the solicit about Rich 'skipping town whenever it all comes down.' Not sure what that's about.

Babs and Spirit of the Shadows are on issue 4, so nearing conclusions for both. It's a May release, but the 4th and apparently final issue of Touched by a Demon was solicited this last week as well. In the question of Is Ted OK?, issue 3 would suggest he is not. D'Orc has the lead being pursued by some dwarf looking to erase him from existence. Not just kill him, erase him entirely. This feels like it's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. All these people try to kill D'Orc because he's going to do bad stuff, and that makes the bad stuff happen.

Marc Spector #3 suggests Moon Knight's going off the deep end. What, again? Everyone hold tight to your faces! Generation X-23 makes it look like things are going bad for Laura, while Moonstar is trying to stop a god(?) from removing the pain of existence from everybody. By killing them.

Hey, catch me on the right day, I might not object to that plan. . .