Friday, February 01, 2019

What I Bought 1/26/2019 - Part 2

Did you see that thing about the lady in Alberta trying to sell her home essentially by lottery. You send in a letter explaining why you should get it, plus $19, and if enough people write in (68,000, I believe), one of them gets the house, and the money everybody sent in pays for the rest. It sounds tempting, except for the part where I'd be in Alberta. It didn't reach 10 degrees here on Wednesday, and I hated it. I can't imagine living in conditions worse than this all the time. Plus, I assume the taxes on a place that size are a nightmare.

Domino #10, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon, Michael Shelfer, Alberto Alburquerque, Anthony Piper (artists), Victor Olazaba, Ed Tadeo, Michael Shelfer (inkers), Carlos Lopez (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh boy, artist casserole.

Domino saves Longshot from falling to his death. Then defends him from the determined young woman who hired her. Then decides they're all going to the Mojoverse to try and save Longshot and avert his being used to destroy the world. Which they do, with some punching and shooting of goon squads until they can get him to a doctor, as apparently doctors are reserved for the wealthy in the Mojoverse. I'm surprised anyone even bothers with doctors. I thought the idea was to keep everyone glued to their TVs, so just let 'em die and plop someone else on the couch. Apparently not.

This all happens really fast, which makes it hard to have much impact. I'd rather had a couple of issues of Domino and Longshot fighting it out, probably because he's protecting someone she's been hired to abduct or kill. Longshot can even be a naive dupe hired by someone evil and disingenuous if you want. He gets mind-wiped enough that's a plausible state for him.

The artist hodgepodge goes about as well as those things usually do. I think maybe they try to break it up into distinct chunks for each artist, but I'm not sure. Since the characters go pretty much from one fight to another once they hit Mojoworld, it's hard to really mark where one scene is ending and another is starting. I may simply be acting more generous than I should be. none of the other artists' styles really appeal to me as much as Baldeon's does. And Baldeon makes Longshot look particularly sick and lost when he draws him in the first few pages. Most of the other artists seem to land on "sweaty" or "tired", at best. Fortunately the cast each look distinct enough there isn't any trouble with telling people apart.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #40, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Doreen, sweetie, you're in Murderworld, obviously. The damaged Statue of Liberty with the Skrull chin is going to come to life and try stomping you any second now.

G'illian is a mutant Skrull who decided to stay on Earth after Secret Invasion. She was a squirrel for a while, then a human girl, wasn't going great. The Skrulls noticed she's MIA and are on their way back. To get their asses whipped. You'd think they would have learned by now to avoid Earth. When has messing with Earth ever ended well for the Skrulls?

G'illian pretended to be Squirrel Girl and die expecting that Squirrel Girl would announce she was actually alive, the Skrulls would assume G'illian was the dead imposter and go home. That didn't happen, so now she needs help. Tony Stark is, understandably, not on board with this, but is swayed by a heart-warming speech about judging people as individuals, rather than by bad experiences with other individuals who share a common origin.

Which is great in theory, and generally in practice as well. Except for the part where G'illian did abduct and imprison Tony. That's a thing that happened, in this comic, that she admits to. He's got a perfectly valid reason, unrelated to all his other bad past experiences with Skrulls who aren't G'illian, to not trust this particular young Skrull. The metaphor falls apart there, but it's still a good idea in general.

I really enjoyed the astounded squirrel during G'illian's flashback, so maybe I'm getting more accustomed to how Charm draws squirrels. The scowling floral arrangement during the funeral was a nice touch. Otherwise, there's not a lot I can say about Charm's work. It's pleasant and expressive, and it tells the story, but nothing really jumps out or makes a strong impression on me.

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