Monday, August 06, 2012

What I Bought 8/3/2012 - Part 1

I had business in town, so I went ahead and picked up comics. They were out of Hawkeye, though. Dang. And no Atomic Robo stuff had shown up. Double dang. Might as well press on with what was there.
Angel & Faith #12 by, Christos Gage (script), Rebekah Isaacs (art), Dan Jackson (colors), Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (letters) - GCD didn't have an image of the Isaacs cover, which is what I got, and I'm on too tight a schedule to hunt it down. On another note, does anyone know the breakdown on what Starkings and Betancourt do as co-letterers? Is one handling dialogue, the other sound effects? That's all I could figure.

Having reached Quor'toth, Willow does eventually get her magic up and running again. While they waited for that to ahppen, the quartet had to survive all sorts of dangers, and learned that while most residents of this dimension regard Conner as the devil, he does have a few worshippers, considered heretics because they embrace the idea the Great Destroyer's power came from love (based on a conversation he was overheard having with Holtz). Now most of the followers are set to be executed, and Conner can't bring himself to abandon them. And Angel won't abandon Conner, so I guess everyone is staying. No chance at all this ends well, especially if Quor'toth does bring out a person's darker nature. Plenty of that to go around with this crew.

So we'll see how this goes. I have two theories about why Faith is dealing with the darker nature issue fairly well, one foe each end of the spectrum. We'll see if either is right. I feel bad for Isaacs, though, because Quor'toth is one of those places that has been built up as such a horrible place for so long in the audience's mind, there's no way the artist can match each person's imagination. And that's the case here, though I also pictured Qour'toth as being in a sort of perpetual blood haze, which is really more a coloring issue, and not one I'm sure would have been practical for an extended story. Probably get pretty nauseating after awhile. Still, those eyeless flying things were really creepy looking. Like a naked mole rat with bat wings. *shudders*

Batman Beyond Unlimited #6 by, J.T. Krul (writer), Howard Porter (pencils), John Livesay (inks), Randy Mayor (color), Saida Temofonte (letters) "Falling Star"; Derek Fridolfs (writer and inks), Dustin Nguyen (writer and pencils), Randy Mayor (colors), Saida Temofonte (letters) "Konstriction: Prophets of Ophidia"; Adam Beechen (writer), Norm Breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) "10,000 Clowns: Crooked Parallel Lines" - Sigh, another Porter cover.

Superman's up against it, as Smart Grundy comes out to play just as Lex and Lucinda get all those Kryptonite asteroids in place around Earth. Not so good for Supes, as the super-cops aren't much use, but look, it's Batman! Old Man Batman, is what looks like a Nite-Owl costume? And he's missing his pupils? I know Bats frequently doesn't have pupils because of the mask, but these are like clear plastic because you can see the skin under his eyes, and so I'm pretty sure his eyes are blank. Which is odd. Oh, and Supes argued with one of the cops about the use of lethal force. If they survive, I suppose that'll be a problem.

Superman got the 20 pages, so the other two get 10 each. Turns out Darkseid lost his sight from seeing the Anti-Life, so he turned over control of Apokolips to Orion. So everyone agrees to work together, and Terry almost makes out with Orion's wife, and Nguyen and Fridolfs were the two who wrote the story where Bruce had a rendezvous with her, weren't they? I know Nguyen was the artist, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing a callback. As for the Bats story, the Jokerz are in full swing, and Terry ahs enough time to avert a hostage crisis at an elementary school, but not to save a water treatment plant. Which means the plan is probably working. The authorities are being overhwlemed gradually, though the Jokerz have to run out eventually. Anyway, both those two are very well drawn, even if Nguyen just draws people standing around talking. Breyfogle gets to draw Terry leaping and kicking, and does it quite well as usual.

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