What I Bought 4/20/2019

I was out of town all week, again, for work this time. People in Evansville apparently treat red lights as optional. Tomorrow I'm going to Cape-Con. I really hope May is a quieter month. I was going to wait on reviews until I tried to pick some of this week's books, but the other reason I had to go to town fell through, so screw it.

Magnificent Ms. Marvel #2, by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Minkyu Jung (penciler), Juan Vlasco (inker), Ian Herring (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I gotta say, I think Eduard Petrovich's style as cover artist better fits what I got used to from the previous Ms. Marvel book.

Bruno and Kamala try to find some clue to explain Kamala's parents dissolving into puddles of goo like all those strange monsters. In the middle of all this, their ex-classmate Josh shows up in his Discord outfit talking about wanting payback. But he has nothing to do with all this. It's the result of three aliens who are testing her. They think she's the prophesied one to save their world, and live on that world as their protector. . . forever.

Pretty easy call, you say "No" to the parent-kidnappers, then go find Josh and beat his whiny fascist butt. Oh, Kamala made you a fugitive, ruined your life? She should have kicked your tail and thrown you in jail. Or the cops could have arrested you. You were able to escape by literally walking down the middle of the street in broad daylight in your bad guy costume. Lucky you. But then he's worried about Kamala's parents (or just eager to clear up his innocence because he doesn't want to fight Kamala when she's seriously pissed at him). I'm not sure if we should hate him, or pity him as some dumb kid who doesn't even know what he is angry about, or what he should be angry about.

He should still be in jail, though.

Jung's artwork brings a different feel to the book, in that it seems more suited for a conventional superhero comic. It's not bad, everything is very clear and easy to follow, action and emotion handled well. There aren't those odd quirks and strange background details, some of things that made characters look more unique have fallen by the wayside. Adrian Alphona and Nico Leon tended to give Kamala a more prominent nose, where it looked a bit large for her face, but that's not really the case here. Bruno's bulked out a bit for some reason. Every artist has to find their own approach, but the book certainly feels less distinctive. That panel of Kamala holding the dissolved goo-face of her mother was pretty creepy, though.