Avengers Undercover #4, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Kids, kids, kids, don't dress up like the adults. It just makes you look silly.So, Arcade's dead. And as everyone celebrates, Cammi astutely notes that Arcade was no doubt recording and broadcasting everything that was happening worldwide. Which means everyone saw them infiltrate Arcade's place, likely heard their conversations about killing him, and then saw Hazmat actually kill him. So yeah, on the hook for premeditated murder now. The attempt to flee is short-circuited by SHIELD, who show up and capture all the kids. Great, where were you five months ago? If Marvel's current line is to convince us government-run superheroes are a good thing, they're doing a really shitty job of it. So incompetent.
In the holding cells, there's one interesting scene where Molly and the other Runaways have come to visit Chase and Nico, and Molly lays the blame squarely on Nico, which is true enough (excepting Bloodstone). The meat of it goes to Cammi and her mother, as Cammi urges her to cut her daughter out of her life, because she doesn't need this while trying to stay sober. Cammi's mother refuses, claiming caring for her daughter is what keeps her sober. Then Hellstrom teleports all of them away to Zemo's hangout, where he makes his big sales pitch. Essentially, there is no reason they should be reprimanded for using their gifts for personal gain, and that's all he and his associates are doing, so why not throw in? Cammi is having none of it, and most of the others are expressing doubts, but we'll see.
Well, Cammi's getting to shine with her particular brand of abrasive common sense, so I'm happy. Sure, it's painting an enormous bullseye on her, not just with Zemo, but the others (Nico already expressed frustration with Cammi presuming to speak for everyone, even though all Cammi was doing was arguing Bloodstone should have given people the choice to accompany him on his murder mission, rather than whisking them along).
Kev Walker's back, and the book looks good as usual. The conversation between Cammi and her mom, he keeps it simple. Just a lot of short, wide panels stacked on top of each other. But that works, because the focus is supposed to be the two characters, what they're saying and how they react to each other, so flashy layouts would just distract from that. Also, the look he drew on Cammi when Zemo appears, beautiful. That was a wonderful "DROP DEAD" scowl. He did interrupt a touching family moment, though, so it's understandable. Beaulieu's colors are also excellent. I especially like the purple shadow that covers the kids as they first enter Zemo's dining chamber.
Captain Marvel #3, by Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), David Lopez (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Carol tries to chase after her stolen ship, even knowing she can't catch it. She doesn't. Fortunately, Tic decides it's more important to try killing Star-Lord - because she blames his dad for all the people getting sick and dying - than to escape. So she keeps attacking the Guardians' ship, which gives Carol the chance to grab hold of her ship and assume voice control. Then she berates Tic for behaving dishonorably until the kid bursts out crying. They end up going to this planet, where Carol tries to talk to the leader person. Well, less talk more, not mansplain, she isn't a man, Avengesplain, maybe? The leader shuts that crap down, pointing out Carol understands nothing of their situation and has brought nothing useful. No doctors, no medicines, food, no army of superhumans to help. Just herself. I guess next issue I'll see whether "just herself" is worth anything.You know, I read this issue initially after another comic (which I'll get to later in the week) which reminded me of some of her past actions I didn't like (think Civil War). After she made the kid cry, and especially after she accused the child of acting dishonorably, I was not well-pleased with Danvers. Lots of snarky comments being fired at the book. On the other hand, I give her credit for remaining calm as long as she did when that big guy kept punching her in the face. Also, pretty funny when Tic said Carol wasn't the one she went to Earth for, that was Spider-Woman, but Captain Marvel would be helpful, too. Mostly because Lopez did so well with the expressions, Tic's glee and Carol's dumbfounded shock. His best work might have been the scene where Tic started crying. He made sure to get her entire face into that, eyes, mouth, nostrils. No "few tears streaming down otherwise unchanged face" for David Lopez! Tic was gonna bawl, and that's what she did.
I'm not quite sure about this book. It's in that same sort of area as Harley Quinn, where I don't love it, but I feel like there's obvious skill on the part of the creative team, and it's good enough I don't want to bail yet. But it's in the back of my mind. Maybe if they get into this "Poison Planet" thing a little more?
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