What I Bought 12/18/2020 - Part 3

It's Christmas. I'm at my dad's, since it'll be just us and his dogs in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully you're able to be with someone you'd like to be around.

For today, we got a couple of first issues. That's good. They're both King in Black tie-ins. That's probably not good.

The Union #1, by Paul Grist (writer/penciler/inker), Andrea DeVito (penciler), Drew Geraci and Le Beau Underwood (inkers), Nolan Woodward (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - What' Union Jack doing with Atomic Robo's revolver?

I would say it's an introduction to the team issue, but it's barely that. Most of it focuses on Union Jack trying to get some regular joe soldier guys through some sort of training exercise, except the team has taken most of them down already. There's a little bit of discussion after, some tension between the costumed types and the soldiers, some tension between Britannia and some stupid tech bro guy that's sponsoring/funding them, and then a symbiote dragon shows up, and Britannia gets impaled on its tail the same time she cut its head off.

I get the impression she'll be back shortly. Probably has a life-force tied to England and can't remain dead or something. But at this point I know Kelpie has some kind of water manipulation power, The Choir has something voice-based, and Snakes talks in diamond-shaped speech balloons. That's pretty much it. Why these characters, or anything else about them really, I don't know. I think there's a Paul Grist variant cover that provides a tiny bit more information, but you should probably try and do a little more in the first issue.

 

DeVito gets two different inkers, which I assume is because this was originally supposed to tie-in to Empyre, and they had to take out pages of invading plant-people and replace them with pages of invading symbiotes. There's a couple of spots where DeVito's work looks more like Tom Grummett's, especially in the faces, than I'm used to. I think Geraci and Underwood were lighter inkers than what I'm used to seeing on DeVito's work. Which would mostly be Annihilation and the Abnett/Lanning Nova series, where DeVito inked his own work.

It's pretty standard superhero comic art. Nothing really flashy about layouts or designs, very straightforward in that sense. But clean, easy to follow art. Gives you all the information it's supposed to (as far as I can tell). The dragon could probably stand to look weirder. It mostly just looks like it has really wrinkly skin from being in the tub too long. You'd think a symbiote-wearing dragon would look more monstrous.

Black Cat #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - The Villa variant cover was the only I could find that wasn't King in Black related, and actually emphasized what I'm buying the book for, Felicia stealing stuff.

Cat was going to rip off some guys who heisted an old SHIELD laundered cash location, but the symbiotes came crashing through the ceiling and ruined that. She reluctantly jumps in to help Captain America, and is feeling pretty good about their chances until she watches Dr. Strange get captured. Cap tells her to bail and get Strange back, and so that's what she's going to do. Steal him back from Knull with the help of her crew and some scientist guy I assume was part of Venom's supporting cast recently.

I wouldn't say much more happens in this issue than in The Union, but I think MacKay does a better job at least explaining who the doctor guy is and why Felicia is bothering to recruit him. And makes sure to make a nod towards the plotline left over from the last volume about her plan to rob the Thieves' Guild vault. Plus, this is at least a sort of tie-in that makes sense. The Black Cat isn't going to be on the front lines, she's going to be working behind the lines.

 

Like with DeVito, Villa doesn't do anything really outside the box or wildly creative. Again, though, the art is solid, clear, easy to follow. You can understand the story, and it looks nice enough. The expressions on Felicia's guys to her mission on the last page are pretty good. Villa's dragons are possibly even less distinctive than DeVito's. Basically just dragons that are all black, except the membrane for their wings, which is red. Occasionally in a close-up, you see tendrils and threads of the symbiote flicking around the dragons' mouths, but that's about it. It makes more sense, given the symbiotes usually are presented as becoming skin-tight outer coverings, with maybe a few tendrils, but it still feels like a letdown.

But I'd just as soon be done with the tie-ins as soon as possible, so as long as they get through them on time, that's fine with me.