Monday, February 14, 2022

What I Bought 2/10/2022 - Part 1

Major League Baseball announced they're going to implement the designated hitter in the National League permanently next season. Assuming the labor strife gets sorted, of course. The DH sucks, and I will brook no argument on this fact. You want to hit? You need to play an actual position? You want to pitch? You need to hit.

Oh well, with the time I used to waste caring about baseball freed up, maybe I can get some sketching done. Or play video games, if I ever buy that PS4!

The Thing #4, by Walter Mosley (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jordie Bellaire (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Dear God, Ben's falling through a 1960s overhead projection of a presentation on the Solar System!

Alicia has a bad dream, but worse, her boyfriend is somehow connected to the weird, spectral entity that's going to bring doom. Bad for her. Back at the FF's headquarters, the Silver Surfer shows up to help with the Champion. He takes him somewhere, but agrees to leave his matter transmitting belt behind. It gets triggered during breakfast, and Ben, Amaryllis and Bobby end up on the Blue Area of the Moon. Ben fights an insect robot, just one of thousands and wins (maybe), but gets mangled pretty badly. Some food Bobby finds fixes him up, but the rest of the bug-bots activate, and then Terrax and two other guys show up, so Ben gets ready to fight them.

Champion makes reference to Bobby's lineage, but still not being able to grasp the power the serves an Elder of the Universe. Which still strongly suggests Bobby's much more than a simple kid, but what? The personification of Curiosity? Even the Surfer got momentarily googly-eyed over Amaryllis, then shook it off in the next panel. 

The Amaryllis in Greek mythology became infatuated with a beautiful but cold-hearted man and shot him with a gold arrow. Is she trying to pull Ben away from Alicia for some reason? Are she and the cloaked Decay/Death whatever on the same side, rather than opposed? She and Bobby argue briefly over Death during breakfast (complete with Black Wheat-os! Natasha got her own cereal?). She describes Death as an ideal where perfection can exist. Bobby counters death is a 'negative ideal', and she argues that's only if you see Death as a negative. The old, "no life without Death" chestnut.

I still feel as though Ben is somehow messing up by continuing to press on, by always being ready to fight. Because each fight seems to just bring on another fight. Or maybe he's not being "perfect", and that's the important thing. It isn't perfect, because, contrary to what Bobby says, life isn't perfect, ideal or no.

Moon Knight #8, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) -  Everybody loves to perch on that gargoyle. The owner ought to start charging them.

Moon Knight's in jail because of Devil's Reign, so Hunter's Moon has taken over the Midnight Mission. An old cop friend of Marc's brings word that people are marking a "S" on walls to call out Stained Glass Scarlet, who kills the ones those people request. Except she's supposed to be dead. Hunter's Moon heads to a church and gets attacked by Stained Glass Scarlet, who has become a sort of living story or urban legend. That's not something a mortal can punch, but it is something his god, even in a reduced state, can fight.

So Stained Glass Scarlet became something like Bloody Mary? You follow the ritual, summon her, she does your bidding for this one thing? And she grows stronger because that's another person to spread word of her around. Interesting, and I guess it's good Dr. Badr was there, because Marc sure as heck can't call on Khonshu. It's a temporary solution, as Khonshu mentions. You can't kill a legend, although legends can probably be forgotten, or changed so significantly they no longer resemble their original form. Either way, I like Cappuccio's design for Stained Glass Scarlet. The red robe with the faceted yellow body and face, the multiple arms, each with some way to harm.

The other bit in the issue is, right at the end, Badr apologizes to Reese for trying to kill her for being a vampire, even though she didn't ask to be turned and never fed on anyone. Stained Glass Scarlet brings it up as a reason she can take his life without anyone asking her to, because he harmed the innocent. And Reese doesn't immediately forgive him just because he's being helpful, which I always appreciate.

2 comments:

thekelvingreen said...

You'd better hurry up on getting that PS4. Sony are ceasing production of them because of the chip shortage caused by cryptocurrency idiots.

That Thing cover looks to be a homage to Kirby's old photo collages. An interesting choice, as I never thought they looked like anything more than a bunch of badly coloured black-and-white photos stuck to the page. Clearly Marvel disagrees.

CalvinPitt said...

I keep holding out hope Alex will get that PS5 he's talked about and just give me his PS4, but yeah, I need to just bite the bullet.

And yeah, the Thing cover's definitely doing a Kirby homage. I don't get the big deal about it, either.