Sunday Splash Page #435

"Norse God of Annihilation," in Ant-Man (2022) #3, by Al Ewing (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

Released in 2022, this 4-issue mini-series centered around a mysterious future Ant-Man, who kept traveling back in time and briefly interacting with the previous holders of that title. His purpose, other than it has something to do with the ants they control, is kept a mystery until the final issue. By which time there are really much bigger problems to worry about (see above.)

Pym's story is set either prior to the formation of the Avengers, or very close to it, and involves him being targeted by a group of enemies from his solo book. No, the Scarlet Beetle wasn't invited. It also involves Pym and Jan's date at the movies being interrupted by a young Eric O'Grady, who throws popcorn at Pym. So Pym follows him into the lobby and sets ants on him. When Pym is captured, the Wasp finds him because Scott Lang is trying to break into the apartment and opens the soundproof window, letting out Pym's agonized screams.

Lang's presence is apparently to set up Jan letting him use Hank's old Manhattan lab whenever he wants as a favor, though Scott has no idea what she's talking about. How, exactly, he forgot meeting a diminutive flying woman while trying to break into an apartment, the occurrence of which apparently convinced him to move back to Florida, I don't know, but it certainly makes the whole thing feel needlessly convoluted.

Reilly and Bellaire try to modify their styles or approaches to mimic the eras the stories are set in. In this case, Bellaire uses mostly solid, basic colors, what would be bright colors, but the shades give the impression of being a little faded, or maybe yellowed? Reilly, meanwhile, has a sort of stiff, solid line to his figures - although his O'Grady has a wicked smirk straight out of Ditko's style - and straightforward layouts of 5-6 panels per page.

O'Grady gets the second issue, shortly after he stole the experimental suit, as he doesn't know it can generate Pym Particles (thanks to Skrull tech Skrull-Pym built into it), so he tries digging up Scott Lang's Avengers Disassembled-corpse. Because he's an idiot. Lang's is set in roughly the present day, and involves he and his daughter trying to shrink Ultron (at this point partially Hank Pym) into the Microverse inside some Asgardian-rune inscribed Vibranium coffin.

In the second issue, Reilly and Bellaire try to mimic Irredeemable Ant-Man. Reilly does a pretty good Phil Hester impression, with more heavy blacks and a stronger, more squared-off look to the characters. Some occasional pages of characters just sitting in one place for a bunch of panels in the same position, thinking over things. Bellaire uses a lot of a muddy orange-red that I definitely feel I saw regularly in Marvel comics of the mid-2000s. It's giving me New Avengers flashbacks, and I don't like it!

Third issue is closer to what I think of as Reilly's art style, at least based on Walter Mosley's The Thing mini-series. Much lighter line than Hester, busier than the Pym story, and Bellaire uses more variety in the shading here than the prior two issues. Softer shades if Cassie is a little embarrassed by her dad, or bright, sharp shades for explosions or lightning. The layouts are more dynamic and varied in panel count, there are more elements that jump across the page or through panels.

This is still the era of Lang being regarded a joke by most other heroes, so Stark and Thor are pretty disrespectful. No surprise from Stark, but I'm disappointed with Thor. Where's your humility, hammer-boy? Did you trade it to get back your arm? At least Cassie tells her dad to stop sucking up to them, and references Scott saving the world in World Hive, though he shares credit with her. Because he's a good dad.

They get interrupted by Black Ant (the robot duplicate of O'Grady from Remender's Secret Avengers) and the coffin gets flung somewhere in time. Ewing ties things into Age of Ultron, which I could do without remembering exists, but I can't tell what parts of the explanation were actually from that, and what are things Ewing bolts on for his own purposes. Either way, the four Ant-Men deal with an Ultron hopped up on Odin-sauce, and that's that.

This time around, Bellaire's color work really dominates. It's a lot of solid blocks of color, bright blocks, and Reilly's lines almost vanish under it. Which might be something about the mythic nature the heroes of the past have achieved in the future, that leaves them blurrily defined because there's so much that got lost over the centuries. (Future Ant-Man definitely wasn't expecting O'Grady to be like he was.) 

But what, exactly is Ewing driving at? There's a bit at the end, as they get ready to try their plan to stop Ultron, where Pym says all the World's Smallest Hero can do is 'think big.' The Ant-Man of 2549 found his "nano-swarm" couldn't fix an ecologically devastated Earth, so he cloned a bunch of extinct ant species. They lacked any natural instincts. So he fucked around in the timestream to measure how past Ant-Men controlled insects as part of some plan to install the instincts. His time traveling provided a guide for Ultron to find his way back into the timestream. Big plan, big fuck-up, big problem. Pym's own examples of overreaching are well-known, but after that, it feels stretched.

O'Grady is just trying to stay alive, and going about it in the dumbest way possible. Maybe the over-reaching is that the suit exists. Skrull Pym internal monologues that it was only Pym's need to prove himself that made the Skrull build such a suit (which contains Skrull technology that might give him away) in the first place. Lang, though, is trying to be careful. The Avengers don't like that he's bringing the coffin to New York, but he argues it's got the most precise equipment, and this is the sort of thing - shrinking a hybrid of a genocidal artificial intelligence and its creator into a micro-universe - you want to be precise about. As it turns out, Ultron-Pym figured out how to communicate on the ant-helmet's frequency and was subtly guiding Scott there, but it still doesn't feel like taking unjustifiable risks for uncertain gain.

So is it the inferiority complex thing? Pym, well, again, the history of his attempts to prove himself that end disastrously are well-established. I don't feel like Ewing accounts for '60s Pym meeting both an endpoint of an artificial intelligence he created and seeing what happened to himself. Although maybe '60s Pym's bold statement that if he ever does create and AI, it'll be a lot better, is the over-reaching thing again. Lang is constantly scrabbling for respect and to try and look cool so his daughter will look up to him. Zayn Asghar apparently wasn't content with a "nano-swarm" that could at least rebuild homes and stuff. No, he has to bring back ants to fix the planet's ecosystem, by himself.

But then there's O'Grady. A petty, selfish, small-minded, dim-witted putz. He's entirely realistic about just how likely he is to survive if he can't shrink to escape danger. It's not an inferiority complex if you are, in fact, inferior. He doesn't care enough about anyone but himself to bother trying to do something big to prove himself. There's Black Ant, who is planning on being a henchman for Ultron, and really wants to do a good job on this escape attempt, but still kind of half-asses it. He's boasting Lang won't be able to call ants for help because he bribed them with really good sugar, for Pete's sake. This is not a serious person.

Saturday Splash Page #209

"Chessboard," in Rocket #5, by Al Ewing (writer), Adam Gorham (artist), Michael Garland (colorist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer)

After Skottie Young's Rocket Raccoon, there was Rocket Raccoon and Groot, also written by Young, but drawn by Filipe Andrade, whose art ensured I didn't last past issue #1. Post-Secret Wars, there was a brief Rocket series when the Guardians were stuck on Earth for some reason. And in late 2017, we get this, ultimately 6-issue mini-series, about Rocket being duped into pulling a heist, then trying to pull another heist to balance all debts.

Most of it feels like Ewing using Rocket to write a noir/heist story. You've got Rocket getting fooled by a lady otter from his past into stealing land deeds for a corporation. He ends up working with another dangerous, amoral woman and her crew (Gatecrasher and Technet.) There's a prison break, one much quieter and less chaotic than Skottie Young's, although the freak out Rocket fakes to kick off his plan feels like a play off Young's feral, hyper-violent version.

The art mirrors the tone. Gorham's Rocket is similar to Young's in proportions and stance, but this isn't a book for exaggerated reactions, so there's none of that. A lot of the people involved are wearing nice suits or dresses like you'd see on Earth, rather than anything alien. The prison Rocket's stuck in is (with the exception of its version of solitary) much like an Earth prison.

Ewing's Rocket has some charm and plenty of self-confidence, but mostly accepts double-crosses and bad outcomes with muttered curses and weary resignation. He's not shooting wildly or hamming things up for the hell of it. If the book isn't necessarily drenched in shadows like a noir, Garland keeps the colors dulled. The setting being outer space may be strange to us, but it's old hat to Rocket. There's nothing bright or whiz-bang about it these days.

Even a group of oddballs like Technet is treated as something that isn't noteworthy or odd. Not that they're played as a joke, just that, with the exception of Joyboy (who's more malevolent in Ewing's hands than I remember from Alan Davis' Excalibur), their powers and their shtick are not considered strange. They aren't adversaries, even when they cook up a scheme to keep busting Rocket out of prison so they can turn him in again for the bounty. They're businesspeople, who can be negotiated and bargained with, if you speak the language. So they aren't (again, excepting Joyboy), drawn as particularly menacing.

In the last issue, Ewing's tries to make most of the past Rocket Raccoon stuff fit. The events of the Mantlo/Mignola mini-series did happen, no longer just some stuff in a book Rocket scoffs at. Rocket was the protector of the Keystone Quadrant. He fought killer clowns and lethal clouds to protect the Loonies, alongside his pal Wal, and his lady love Lylla. They left their home, and in the wider galaxy, Rocket stopped being so heroic, fell in with Otta, got arrested, met Star-Lord. "Blam! Murdered you!" gets referenced, though this Rocket is more cerebral, playing with him being an innate tactical genius. Never busting out any ludicrously large guns, and mostly trying to avoid killing.

(The series doesn't address the back-up story in Annihilators where Halfworld is still a psychiatric planet, and only Rocket actually left, and that because there's a dangerous bit of info stored in his mind, although Ewing does have Lylla and Blackjack O'Hare end up married, which was a part of that.)

Ewing doesn't really explain how Rocket ended up like this beyond "people change." Stuff keeps happening, time keeps passing, and one day, you aren't the person you used to be. At least, that's what Rocket tells himself. It's apparent at least part of the guy he used to be is still in there. Otta manipulates him by making him think they're helping the little guy, and even after all that, he still tries to reason with her. So if that guy is still in there somewhere, was it the rift with Lylla that caused Rocket to try and bury that part of himself, or did the shift cause the rift? Or are they simply unrelated outcomes of being thrown into a much wider, more dangerous universe?

I want to add the book isn't all misery and betrayal. There's a gag with Rocket's attorneys in issue 2, and there's a Deadpool team-up in issue 4. Granted, Deadpool is running from his fuck-ups during Secret Empire, but Ewing gets some mileage out of 'Pool trying to pretend to be a gangster, and Rocket getting absolutely none of his references. Well, why would he? All of Star-Lord's are from the '80s, and Deadpool's are even more dated than that!

Sunday Splash Page #381

"King of Space," in New Avengers (vol. 4) #3, by Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (artist), Dono Sanchez-Almara (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

New Avengers. At times, there's been precious little "new" about the books that carry that title. Ewing's version, starting post-Hickman's Secret Wars, at least had a different concept. Sunspot, through some mechanism I don't know, came into possession of at least part of AIM, which he turned into a radical science international peacekeeping force. Complete with its own island, pocket dimensions to house secondary bases, giant robots, and sleeper agents within SHIELD.

The team is a hodgepodge. Besides Sunspot and the 2 Young Avengers up there, you've got Squirrel Girl, the Power Man Fred van Lente created in the 2000s, a White Tiger, Clint Barton Hawkeye (although this is the era where Marvel was trying really hard via caption boxes to convince us Kate Bishop was cooler than Clint Barton), Songbird and a couple of other characters I think were new, including the daughter of Dr. Yinsen (the guy who saved Stark's life in that cave), herself a genius scientist.

Though the Master (the Reed Richards of the Ultimate Universe, now crazy and evil and somehow spread across the new multiverse) is the overarching bad guy, the team spends as much time dealing with attacks by SHIELD. Once, because Rick Jones exposed one of Maria Hill's stupid plans and Sunspot gave him asylum, and after that, because they acted on U.S. soil, and that was apparently something Sunspot promised not to do.

The book manages 5 different pencilers in 18 issues. Gerardo Sandoval draws the first arc, involving Hulking learning he's some pre-destined child meant to unite the Kree and Skrulls. Sandoval's stuff is sharp and angular as always, but the heavy blacks he favors work well once Wiccan starts showing outward signs of being possessed.

Marcus To draws the 3 issues tying in to Avengers: Standoff  (the story where it turns out Maria Hill was sending super-villains to some fake community and messing with their heads so they thought they were just regular people), except this books' issue involve a patriotic kaiju and Songbird turning on Hawkeye when he tries to defend Rick Jones from SHIELD agents. To's work is solid superhero stuff. He draws a decent giant robot/giant lizard fight.

Paco Medina handles the final arc, when the Master unleashes his group of weirdos (set up as sort of a twisted reflection of Sunspot's bunch) at the same time SHIELD attacks again. Medina's art is, also, pretty standard superhero-style art. Faces are rounded and softer than in To's work, physiques a bit more exaggerated. But, in general, all the artists do a solid job conveying emotion and action as needed.

Ewing comes up with a lot of neat ideas - threats from an earlier cosmos, a U.S. project to turn a hyper-patriotic soldier into a Godzilla - but I stumble at his portrayal of Sunspot as this brilliant mastermind, always 10 steps ahead of everybody. SHIELD asks Sunspot to let Hawkeye be on the team, acknowledging he's there to leak info to SHIELD. Hawkeye sells it by introducing himself as being there to spy on them.

In reality, Songbird's the real double-agent, except Da Costa anticipated that, so she's actually working for him by pretending to work for SHIELD. He fakes his death to draw out the heads of rival AIM factions, who he's certain will use a device to freeze time during his funeral to confirm his death, and lining the coffin with secondary adamantium will block the device they'll definitely use, so he's totally prepared.

Now, this is mostly an issue with me. I don't buy "I perfectly anticipated your every move," in stories. Not in movies where regular human serial killers stalk other regular people, and certainly not in a world with as much weird shit as the Marvel Universe. Not when Tony Stark says he's a futurist and so the heroes need to embrace fascism, with him as Chief Muck-a-Muck. Not when Reed Richards says he made psychohistory a reality, and MATH told him Negative Zone prisons were the best way to go. Hell, the Mad Thinker's whole shtick was thinking he'd perfectly mapped out all the variables, then getting tripped up by something he couldn't measure or account for.

If I can't buy it with them, I certainly can't buy it with Sunspot. Might as well tell me Speedball or Molly Hayes are masters of intrigue and counter-espionage. Especially when Ewing keeps going to the well of "things look bad, but actually is going perfectly according to Sunspot's plan." The first arc is probably the best precisely because Ewing doesn't try that. The team thinks they've dealt with the problem of a powerful sorcerer from a previous iteration of the multiverse, but he's actually hidden away inside Wiccan, who has to pull out victory at the last second on his own.

What I Bought 6/2/2025 - Part 3

My boss went on vacation middle of last week, through the end of this week. I have been tapped as interim boss, which has largely meant more data entry and dealing with e-mails and phone calls. If it wasn't on top of all the usual madness (or if I was better at delegating, assuming there was anyone available to delegate to) it wouldn't be too bad. As it is, it sucks. Somebody else can take this on the next time he goes on vacation. There's gotta be someone stupid enough to want to actually pursue a leadership role.

Metamorpho: The Element Man #6, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - For some people, the sun truly does smile upon them. May those people all burn in its unrelenting heat.

Metamorpho's on his way to the Sun! Solaris, the Rogue Sun, that is, who plans to unleash a storm to push humanity back to the Stone Age! If that means I never have to hear about crypto or "AI" ever again, it might just be worth it. But Rex doesn't agree, so he's going to fly into Solaris, convert his body to Staggium, a superdense element Stagg created that will cause a chain reaction in the core and blow Solaris up. Leaving the Solar System minus the "solar", but small potatoes.

The plan doesn't work, and Metamorpho is narrowly saved from disintegration by Prince Ra-Man's sun, who is willing to give a Rex another chance to win. Because Solaris cheated by fighting a Metamorpho 1 million years in his past. Cue a, flashback, a vision, something of how the fight would have gone in the 853rd Century, which Lieber draws in a parody style of some Golden Age hero I remember being on the cover of a book about bizarre Golden Age heroes.

Why you do that when drawing a fight set way in the future, I don't know. Also, Lieber is incredibly inconsistent about where Solaris is. Why do you need a spaceship if he's hanging out right above your building? Point is, Rex gets one more chance to challenge Solaris, with the power of DC 1 Million Metamorpho, but minus the knowledge of how to best use it. And he only gets the power long enough to change into something once. Rex figures it out, becomes a new Sun, absorbs Solaris, and that's that. Unless the readers write in demanding more Metamorpho!

Eh, I could take it or leave it. It was fun, but Ewing may have started a few too many threads. Which did have the effect of making this last issue feel really stuffed, as he and Lieber try to cover a lot of ground in 20 pages. It's hard for me to picture Solaris running a secret criminal organization, though. That felt out of left field in that sense, even if its inclusion fit nicely with all the "solar champion" stuff. 

The Surgeon #5, by John Pence (writer), Omar Zaldivar (artist), Hedwin Zaldivar and Trisha Mariscal (colorists), Taylor Esposito (letterer) - What, they haven't figured out how to rebuild umbrellas in your post-apocalypse?

Hanover wakes up a prisoner of Chief Long, who turns out not to be interested in her spiking opium, but in the fact that someone is actually producing new supplies of pre-apocalypse medicine. The Hot Animal Machines have a line on it, but they deal in children they abduct to get it. So Chief Long would as soon wipe them out. Hanover agrees to help, and also to treat the guy that came to the fort to warn them of the Hot Animal Machines a few issues ago.

Then she treats the guy (Little Bird), and the two of them bail on everyone else. Then he seduces her, or they fuck, whichever, and he steals her sword and her horse. The whole thing was proving himself as a warrior ("touch an enemy without killing them"). Which leaves her sans transportation, sans weapon, possibly sans pants (or she was in too much a hurry to futilely chase him.) And she ditched a lot of people.

Where that leaves the book with one issue to go, I have no idea. I guess she could go back to the fort, hat in hand (if she still has a hat.) The scientist guy seemed kind of pissed, but the blacksmith pointed out she fulfilled her end of the deal. But I think she's got too much pride for that. Little Bird seemed to prove his point, don't envision him coming back to kill her. The Hot Animal Machines (whatever is left of them) are gonna have problems with Chief Long's group, and vice versa. So what's left for Hanover to do? Find some pants?

What I Bought 5/5/2025 - Part 1

I saw a list yesterday of alleged Millenial things that Gen Z find cringe. Based on the age range the article provided, I'm a Millenial, but there was not one thing on the list I do or was ever interested in. Taking pictures of my food? Harry Potter? The phrase "adulting"? The fuck outta here with that nonsense.

Anyway, here's two 5th issues to kick off our run through the remainder of April's books.

Dust to Dust #5, by JG Jones (writer/artist), Phil Bram (writer), Jackie Marzan (letterer) - I feel like the report really looks based on Cate Blanchett on the cover. Which is not necessarily true inside the book. Maybe it's just the eyes and brow ridge.

The sheriff visits the moonshiners to accuse them of killing that family. His evidence is that they have the family's mule. His attempt to collect the evidence gets him beat down, and he's only saved because the mysterious gas mask wearer (or a gas mask wearer, I suppose there could be more than one) blew up the still. Then kills the moonshiners and lugs the sheriff's unconscious body to the rainmaker's truck and leaves him there.

Meanwhile, the reporter agrees to take photos for the mayor's daughter's bridal shower (unlikely to happen since I suspect her ballplayer boyfriend is dead now), and in payment, she wants to do a feature on the town. Not on people abandoning it, oh no, on the resilience of the town under difficult circumstances. Whether that's bullshit or not, taking the photos gets her access to a darkroom, where she can develop the photos she took when out with the sheriff, confirming there was a gas can alongside the burned up car. Sure hope the sheriff is in any condition to make use of this information! 

Jones mostly only breaks the sepia tone for blood, or the fire of the still blowing up. The lone exception is the panel of Sarah in the darkroom, done entirely in shades of red. It's also the panel where she sees the sheriff was right about the gas can, which makes it significant in at least one sense.

It's hard to tell whether the sheriff's little dust-up and the reporter's chat with the mayor happened concurrently or not. I'm guessing they did, which would alibi him for the murders out at the still. Which seems to point the finger back around at his brother, the PTSD-afflicted veteran. I'm still wondering about the drugs the mayor gave his brother, though. Were they to help him sleep, or wind him up? The mayor's clearly still in image control mode.

Metamorpho the Element Man #5, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Nice of Metamorpho to let his guest stars have the more dynamic poses.

The (artificial) Thunderer helpfully explains that stars used to fight for dominance, but the eventual winner of their great contest decreed it was too dangerous to their worlds. So each star would have proxies who could fight in their stead. Of course, the losing star gets destroyed, so I'm not sure how that's an improvement, but the point is, the Orb of Ra is how Earth's Sun empowers its champions.

Metamorpho shows up about then, but even with Urania's help, he seems outclassed, so he retreats. To recruit Element Woman(?) and the dog that got Metamorpho powers in The Terrifics, and then his old enemy Algol shows up. Metamorpho's enemy I mean, not the dog's. Although maybe Muttamorpho's been having super-cool adventures all his own, and we just haven't seen them. It could happen! Of course, the first two aren't happy about being sidelined all this time - the gag about Element Woman not knowing how to turn into lead when the Justice League fought Red Kryptonite Man got a chuckle - but at least Algol understands what's going on. Apparently the instruction manual for being a Solar Champion got thrown out at some point.

Which is too bad, because it would have kept Metamorpho from goofing. Battles between proxies are 1-on-1, so the Thunderer can defeat any of them and claim victory. While this raises the question of why there can be more than one proxy at a time if only one can fight at a time, the important thing is the Thunderer disintegrates Algol's head. At least he didn't hurt the dog.

But now Rex will never have the chance to make things right with Sapphire! I mean, the Sun is doomed! Doomed to be overtaken by the leader of C.Y.C.L.O.P.S., Solaris, the Tyrant Sun. I'm not sure how it was running an evil organization when it needed the Sun to collapse to exist, but I guess intelligent, evil stars can multi-task more efficiently than humans.

What I Bought 4/1/2025 - Part 2

This is apparently the biggest week of April for new comics I wanted, and 4 of them are either Marvel or DC, so I swung by the local shop Wednesday. Nothing. This is why I've taken to stopping on the drive home, where before I would walk there from home and back. Why waste the 30+ minutes each way to come back empty-handed?

Here's two fourth issues from last month.

Dust to Dust #4, by J.G. Jones (writer/artist), Phil Bram (writer), Jackie Marzan (letterer) - I don't think enormous busts of plague doctors are going to bring the tourist dollars to a Dust Bowl-afflicted Oklahoma town.

We learn what's the deal with the little girl the sheriff supposedly got killed. Or a version of that story. The sheriff was too drunk to get the APB about a girl abducted by a drifter, so when said girl runs into his office, he sends her off with her "uncle" when the man catches up. There's no pretense by Bram or Jones that the mayor is giving the reporter the real dope, as we're told the sheriff claims someone cracked him in the skull with a broom, as we're shown a panel of him being cracked in the skull with a broom.

Also, someone hung the drifter. I'm clear on whether off a water tower or the underside of a bridge above a dry creek, the art being somewhat unclear.

Amid all that, a fireworks display goes off, but it's really a couple of guys with their rainmaker device trying to draw eyeballs, but mostly drawing the ire of the local snake-charmer preacher. Then the moonshiners drive by, with the murdered farmers' mule in the back of their truck. So now the sheriff is eyeballing them. Meanwhile, Bobby the local hotshot ballplayer (who is engaged to the mayor's daughter) is doing a little fooling around with the preacher's daughter in the old hay loft. And that's when the weirdo in the gas mask shows up.

As regular readers of this blog know, I'm bad at solving mysteries, but what the hell. I think it's the mayor. Got a brother that came back from the war (could have brought a gas mask), and he dopes the brother up on a heck of a cocktail of drugs to get him to sleep. His brother was also sweeping the street in the panel before the sheriff got conked on the head. The dead included a family that was bailing on their mortgage (and the town the mayor's so determined to save), and now Gas Mask is catching the mayor's future son-in-law fooling around.

I guess it could be the brother; I don't know what all those drugs would actually do him. But that feels like it would still require someone to aim him at targets. Unless there's going to be some reveal that the guy's only sometimes completely freaked out and nervous about everything, and other times he's a calculating killer.

Metamorpho #4, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Attack the Block (of sterile, monotone, corporate hegemony.)

The first half of the issue is spent explaining how Stagg's building came to life. Namely, in a fit of pique to show Metamorpho how lucky he was to be cleaning up Stagg's messes, Stagg asks his A.I. to make him something better than Metamorpho. Which apparently triggered some fail-safe that Mad Mod initially put into the computer, and which Mister 3 awoke during his break-in. All of this triggered some "Doom Protocol" Stagg created, where the building would evacuate from danger, along with everyone inside.

Which actually isn't the worst idea, except for all the buildings getting stomped in the process. Ah, well, they're probably empty, and now the land can be bought up by Stagg and repurposed into a statue garden of himself. I mean, used to build affordable housing to revitalize the downtown!

Element Girl and Java break into the tower and manage to shut the computer down. Metamorpho's contribution is to make himself rubber and inflate into a giant punch-clown to keep the building busy. Eh, it's a living. But maybe not for much longer, because the computer finished creating something better than Metamorpho, and that's a recreation of the tiny world-destroyer he fought long ago, The Thunderer!

I'm not surprised Ewing's bringing back the old foes, but I didn't except him to pick the biggest (in a figurative sense) baddie of all. Still, most of this issue is Stagg being a vainglorious dumbass. Ewing and Lieber are teetering right on the line between it being funny and infuriating. When Stagg has a 2-page fantasy of being saved by "Metamorpho II" from some 'lurking ne'er-do-well' who addresses him in a disrespectful manner, that's funny. Less so when the imaginary groveling Java promises to stop whining about Stagg having the femur of Java's wife on display. There's buffoonery, cartoonish super-villainy, and just being a dickhead, and that falls into the third category.

Can Stagg's son come back from Gotham and kill the bastard properly this time?

What I Bought 2/26/2025

Beautiful 70-degree day, but I spent it all inside for a safety training. Interminable, not helped by the fact I usually take off early on Fridays. I don't think I've worked a full Friday in at least 18 months, and that was spent driving (back from a different training). Last full Friday in the office was probably 6.5 years ago.

February: always finding new ways to mess with me.

Fantastic Four #29, by Ryan North (writer), Cory Smith (penciler), Oren Junior (inker), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Whose bright idea was it to shrink down to fight Doom? Hank Pym's? Well, that tracks.

Doom's running the world. Bummer. Sue is bummed, so Ben takes her to New York to hang out with She-Hulk. Talk inevitably turns to Doom, and so I learn that Doom's gotten popular support by inciting hatred against the people turned into vampires during Blood Hunt. Also that whatever is letting vampires go out in daylight was reducing the need for blood, but that's wearing off.

The heroes utterly fail to protect a couple of parents from a wannabe vampire slayer, which leaves them with two vamped, and increasingly hungry, kids to protect. Reed discovers a plant-based substitute for blood that you can make in your own kitchen! I'm disappointed Ryan North didn't include a recipe. Now what am I supposed to do the next time I lose too much blood throwing myself off cliffs? Seek professional medical treatment?

Sue feels a little better about being able to help people in at least some way, and that with vampires not needing blood, Doom won't be able to use them as a scapegoat. Which is wildly optimistic, given human nature. Now it'll be how nobody else can afford whatever the ingredients are because the damn vamps are buying it all up! Assuming people even bother to adjust the particular bullshit they base their stupidity on. And, indeed, the FF's neighbors are now rocking a yard full of Doom flags (although the symbol looks more like something I expect from the Covenant in Halo.)

Metamorpho the Element Man #3, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I feel like Lara Croft would have fit the vibe Java and Rex are rocking better than the Bride. Lara's British, she toes the archaeology/grave robbing line.

Rex is making a big production of leaving Sapphire, complete with packing his sailor suit(?) and Crocs (really, Rex?), only to get instantly sidetracked when Urania shows up looking for Java to take on a mission. Urania's got a line on Mad Mod (thanks to his lack of respect for clearly labeled food in the fridge), and it's a temple built by Vandal Savage. hence Java.

Anyway, Rex sneaks along, and after Java gets separated from them, has to find a way for he and Urania to get inside. Which Lieber draws as a giant maze, with a few larger chambers to showcase traps and sight gags and whatnot. Meanwhile, Java's having a conversation with Vandal Savage, which Ewing uses at first to highlight differences in their perspective. Java remains focused on the future, Savage, seems more beholden to his past.

Then it turns into a discussion of all the stuff that went on in The Terrifics - Stagg dying, Java being Doc Dread - and the fact Java apparently remembers none of this. I really hope Ewing's not planning to get really meta about this. The Orb of Ra as some representation of characters constantly being melted back down to their base elements and built back up in vaguely familiar forms. Or something.

Savage turns out to be an exploding robot, everybody escapes together, but now Stagg's gone and done something stupid again.

What I Bought 2/1/2025 - Part 1

I was at my dad's over the weekend, so as usual, we were going to watch some older movies. Pity the DVDs didn't want to cooperate. His copy of Black Moon Rising had a crack in it. The copy of Brass Target I bought him for Christmas - a new copy mind you, still in the plastic wrapping - locked up about halfway through.

Oh well, at least his truck is running again - finally, meaning he has two vehicles old enough to drink to rely on instead of one - and we got the fencing up  in the back yard like he wanted.

Metamorpho: The Element Man #2, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Metamorpho's turned his torso into a glow rod, if you were wondering. Seems like having it actually glow would have sold that a little better.

Sapphire's music career is dwindling because of new singer, Sugar Sweet. Who turns out to be a robot Mad Mod made for Simon Stagg by using AI to combine whatever is trending on social media. Yet Sugar doesn't seem to be spouting a lot of Nazi crap. Strange. It's a dual move by Stagg to both make money and tank his daughter's dreams so she has to run the company some day.

The plan falls apart when Sapphire, in a dual move to get her name of people's lips and make Urania look bad, leaks some security footage of she and Urania arguing earlier in the issue. Unfortunately, this means Mod's algorithm picks up the interest in superheroes and in destroying them, so Sugar becomes a warbot (with a dorky hat, but it's all nostalgia for something we never knew, baby) and tries to kill the Element Team. The attempt fails, thanks to the explosive power of glucose, but when Rex learns the warbot was the result of Stagg's greed and Sapphire's ambition, he decides he's leaving.

On the run, Mad Mod calls Vandal Savage for help hiding out. Which seems random, but I guess it's all to set up Savage and Java being old acquaintances and meeting up next issue. Which I guess makes sense. Why shouldn't the two cave-guys know each other? Though it seems irrelevant if Metamorpho's taken a powder.

Calavera P.I. #3, by Marco Finnegan (writer/artist/colorist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - Shooting religious icons has to be some sort of sin. Or is it exempt under the no graven images rule? Or maybe it's exempt under the, "I'm trying to shoot the skeleton detective, but my aim sucks," rule.

My concerns that everyone was being cavalier about the ticking clock are apparently unnecessary. The clown in the van (as in, a guy dressed as a clown is in the van) is driving away slowly enough for Calavera, Maria and her cop husband Mike to argue in the middle of the street until Maria makes a random car stop and commandeers it for her and the skeleton.

They're smart enough to not just drive right into the trap, but their attempt to sneak in the back through the woods fails. Maria escapes, but apparently shooting a skeleton with a machine gun is more effective than stabbing him. I guess if you shatter enough bones he can't move. Maria returns to her office, but Mike failed to round-up any officers for back-up. Because they're all busy hounding and arresting Mexicans right now. Well, you know, priorities and all. Brutalize and intimidate, that's the motto.

OK, so here's the odd part of the issue. The person behind all this is the woman who killed Calavera. She wears a red dress that seems brighter when she gets less human, and a veil across her face that sometimes makes it look like her face has cracks and fractures running across it. She's not engineered this to bring Calavera back out of guilt. No, she wanted to die and be reunited with her son and he stopped her. But she met a scientist who thought he could give her what she wanted, and he'd accomplish his dream of. . .bridging the divide between the worlds of living and dead. It hasn't worked so far, but having a walking dead man is somehow the missing piece.

So, the whole plan hinged on the notion Calavera could, in fact, rise from the dead for one night? In that case, why have they just been watching and trying to lure him into this trap instead of jumping him the moment he stepped out of his grave? And how is the rich bastard Calavera busted for human trafficking in issue 1 - who turns out to be the clown - involved in this? He wanted revenge badly enough to buy into a cockamamie plan like this? It's all so odd, I'm not sure the final issue can pull this thing together.

What I Bought 12/28/2024

On my way home from my dad's, I managed to find two of the three comics from last week I wanted. It'll probably be early next week before I get the other one (plus the other two books from the last month I want), so we're probably looking at mid-January for the Year in Review posts.

Metamorpho: The Element Man #1, by Al Ewing (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I was going to make a comment about whether there's significance in Rex's seemingly having burned silver on the periodic table, but instead I'll note when I typed into google to confirm what element is between palladium and cadmium, their "AI Overview" nonsense - which was, of course, the first result - told me there was no such element. Fucking useless.

Metamorpho fights Mister 3, who can switch between 3 states of matter, including replicating the Orb of Ra, which is bad news for Metamorpho and the Element Girl, who shows up to help out. I've never understood why the Orb, which gave them their powers, also cancels those same powers. I suspect Bob Haney didn't have an answer to that question either.

Mr. 3's defeated, but he's working for some group with unknown goals that involve Metamorpho, so that's the problem the cast will have to face. And it's somehow related to Prince Ra-Man defeating some guy named Helio in a world with two suns. Well, it had two suns until the fight ended, then one of them blew up. I'm assuming a piece of it landed on Earth as the Orb of Ra.

Ewing and Lieber are definitely trying to mirror the style of the original, '60s Metamorpho series. The opening splash page has the little cast of character scroll down the side, Metamorpho says things like, "Maybe 'cause he's a gas, gas, gas," and Mister 3 calls him "Fab Freak." Java's constantly, openly pining for both Sapphire's love and Metamorpho's death.

Lieber's art doesn't have the fluidity of Ramona Fradon's, Metamorpho certainly doesn't get as creative with his transformations, although Lieber does work the element's symbol into the transformation a couple of times. One of the graphite skates Rex creates being in the shape of "Gr", for example. He does make the effects of the Orb more horrible-looking however, as Metamorpho's outer covering melts away until you can see his skull underneath. Feels a little at odds with the "groovy" aesthetic Ewing's going for, but maybe they're doing '60s style adventures through a body horror lens.

Dust to Dust #1, by JG Jones (writer/artist), Phil Bram (writer), Jackie Marzan (letterer) - Damn, that truck's transmission fluid is contaminating the town's aquifer!

This issue is basically establishing setting. It's the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma in 1935, which means it's also the Great Depression. Farmers are pulling up stakes and heading for California, leaving behind places where things won't grow and there's no water to be found. There's a sheriff, who likes to read, and also likes to drink moonshine. The moonshine's made by a particular family of assholes, who like to pick on a WWI vet with PTSD. There's a photographer from Chicago in town, looking for anything that might work as a newspaper feature. There is, of course, one guy who owns most of the town and expects to get everything he wants.

The child of one of the departing families found a part of a human jawbone and gave it to the sheriff, but the sheriff's not made any move towards figuring that out yet. The sheriff is reading a book on Irish fairy tales by Yeats. The photographer keeps a rifle in her car. The local big shot isn't happy about these farmers leaving when they still owe him mortgages damn it. I assume any or all of that will become relevant at some point, but how and when, no clue.

Jones keeps the book in washed out color. Really highlights the desolate nature of the place, makes the ribs on the farmer's mule stick out. Without much color - there's a little, in a couple of panels - the eye isn't necessarily pulled anywhere. So you just kind of drift over the panel, taking in the faces of these people. The few smiles - mostly the photographer - the scowls, the desperation. Although it mostly made me notice the extent of the sheriff's stubble varies widely from one panel to the next. From a beard to appearing almost clean-shaven. We'll see if Jones adds more color as things accelerate, drawing attention to certain things (or maybe away from other things.)

Escape Company Events Via Space Travel

In any other fictional universe, that might seem strange.

Cannonball Run is the volume collecting the second half of Al Ewing's U.S.Avengers, where Sunspot agrees to make A.I.M. an officially sanctioned entity for the government.

Unfortunately, the first 3 issues of the tpb are Secret Empire tie-ins, as the group is brought down from within as HYDRA Cap uses all the intel Sunspot so helpfully provided to take the team down. The current Red Hulk - a deliberate dollar store version of Thunderbolt Ross - is being controlled by nanites injected under the promise they'd help him use his "Hulk plug-in" for more than an hour at a pop. The current Iron Patriot - Dr. Toni Ho, genius daughter of the doctor who saved Stark's life all those years ago - ends up in a holding cell with Sunspot, who's barely coherent after being shot in the head. Turns out people who work for AIM don't want to work for the government. Go figure. He activated his mutant power to survive, but he's got that "M-pox" from the Terrigen cloud, so using his powers is killing him.

Those three issues are split between Toni's attempts to MacGuyver a way to get herself and Sunspot out of prison, and Squirrel Girl and Enigma working with a hodgepodge of other heroes in Paris to fight the HYDRA forces stationed there. It puts a spotlight on Toni's reasons for what she does and why, and her deciding that making weaponry, even non-lethal weaponry, isn't a good use of her talents, or a healthy one.

The Squirrel Girl and Enigma thread is the pretty standard, "fascists aren't as strong as they think, their efforts to crush resistance only breeds more, and when push comes to shove, they're gutless cowards." Which is fine, Ewing and Paco Medina bring in a hodgepodge of Euro-heroes - actually, they may have created a few of these, I'm not sure about Outlaw, the non-lethal Punisher, or Guillotine, the lady with a bloodthirsty cursed sword - but there's nothing to it that says much of significance about the core cast members.

Medina's work is pretty much how I remember it from Daniel Way's Deadpool run, allowing for some honing of his style over the subsequent 6+ years. The lines are steadier, and everything's less busy. He toned down some of the excess in character proportions, but to be fair, he was drawing a Deadpool book. Unrealistic proportions were to be expected, especially when factoring in the "hallucination" shtick Way used. That's not an issue here, so Medina keeps it straightforward and easy to follow.

The other three issues - drawn by Paco Diaz - see the team dealing with the fallout from Secret Empire, but mostly rescuing Cannonball, who ended up floating in space at some point. He was sold into slavery, and ended up on that Skrull planet from the Lee/Kirby FF where everyone looked and talked like gangsters. Except now they all mimic "Richie Redwood" and his pals. Meaning Sam Guthrie's hanging out with a bunch of Archie cosplayers.

The HYDRA prison sounds preferable.

This whole thing really seems to be Ewing talking about the people whose concept of being a fan of something locks it into a particular state, and only that state, forever. The Skrull playing Richie only wants to act out the status quo of the earliest transmissions they received. When his brother (playing the Jughead knockoff, Bugface Brown) came back from an outer space jaunt with decades of new stuff, introducing all sorts of new characters and updated ideas, Richie threw everyone in favor of that into prison.

The sheer goofiness of the whole thing is almost enough to carry it, but issue 10 also has a conversation between Sunspot and a senator who says he'll be the new liaison for Roberto's group. The Senator insists Sunspot throw out all the people he currently has as being not good enough or "diversity hires." OK, yeah, we get it, thank you. The time for beating horses to death was when half the team was in France, where they might serve as sustenance.

Diaz, like Medina, is a pretty solid artist. Able to draw make-believe Americana, alien super-tech and gangsters and make it all look like it belongs on the same page. He makes all the Archie knock-offs similar enough you can tell who they're meant to be (assuming you know Archie characters), but different enough to not just be palette swaps.

He does, however, have a little trouble with faces. Not so much if they're glaring or neutral, but shock or surprised characters kind of fall in the uncanny valley. Toni's face looks more like someone badly playacting at surprise than actual surprise, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intent. It seemed more noticeable with Tony, Squirrel Girl or Enigma, but I'm not sure why. The shape of their faces, maybe.

What I Bought 1/20/2022 - Part 3

Got confirmation of a bit of bad work-related news this week. I was expecting it, but there was always a chance it wouldn't happen. As Red once noted, hope is a dangerous thing. But there's about 6 weeks until it comes to a head, so in the meanwhile, comics! Today, Calvin takes precisely the opposite lesson from comics from what the writers likely intended!

Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #1, by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Israel Silva (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Each time I look at the cover, I think it's Mayday Parker in the costume at first glance.

Set during the stretch of the Clone Saga where Peter and MJ moved to the Pacific Northwest, Ben's struggling with being back in a place that holds plenty of memories, but where he can't fit. Because those are Parker's memories, and whether Ben's the real deal or a clone, he doesn't get to be Peter Parker. He does get to be Spider-Man, though, and heads out to capture Carrion, who is lashing out because he got some bad news and can't cope. Ben extends a helping hand, Carrion goes back to Ravencroft. 

Ben has a conversation with Dr. Kafka, but rejects the offer of therapy or friendship. Also, Peter apparently explained the whole clone thing to Kafka at some point. The issue ends with Scorpion in Ben's apartment, calling him Spider-Man. Jeez, he let Scorpion dope out his secret identity? At least Peter had the excuse the symbiote snitched to Brock and the Puma used his super-senses.

Hard for me to believe Ben would unmask to her just like that. Unless DeMatteis' point is Ben's in denial. He's simultaneously building walls and tearing them down. I'm surprised DeMatteis isn't showing Ben trying to build a real life for himself in New York. He still thinks this is going to be transitory, that he'll lose it at some point, so why bother? Or he's scared. I identify with it either way, part of why I always liked Ben.

Baldeon's more restrained on the facial expressions than he was with Domino, but this book isn't as over-the-top as that was. There's still variety and nuance, but not as many people looking psychotically angry or screaming. Although Ben was wearing his mask when he briefly lost control, so we could only see one eye during that scene. That's also the one page he goes away from the basic square and rectangle panels going across and then down. He opts for five panels slanting diagonally across the page, zooming in on Ben's face across the middle three and letting the top and bottom panels bookend the thing. The first is from behind Ben, looking down at Carrion before he unloads on him, and the last is from beside Carrion, looking up at Ben after said unloading.

Defenders #5, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The terrifying truth is the Masked Raider has a tribal tattoo like Mike Tyson. It looks ridiculous.

OK, somehow the Third Cosmos is the first of the multiversal cycle. What were the First and Second then? Anyway, the Defenders show up during a fight between Existence and Non-Existence. Zota's already there, and even if it's been an eternity for him, he's not willing to die without a fight. Unfortunately, anything anybody uses to fight draws upon Existence, so they're about to help Non-Existence win. Masked Raider steps in, opts not to shoot Zota, ends up being shot and, yeah, he's Zota. 

Not that it was difficult, but I got a prediction right. Mark it down next to that time I correctly predicted Ryan North was using Mojo II: The Sequel in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

Zota puts on the mask and jumps in to help Existence, a mask made from the stuff of a universe that won't exist for five more cosmoses somehow still working. But the Defenders are able to draw on the nature's of the other ones they've visited to give Existence a boost and help it win, Seemingly at the cost of Zota's life, but probably not. Taaia gives Strange a device he can use to contact her, while Harpy tells him to leave her alone as they fade into an A-Ha music video. Everyone's home, Strange has the mask, story over.

So Masked Raider was Zota from one point of his life, running around trying to stop a version of himself from earlier in life all this time? Only to die because that earlier version couldn't make a selfless decision until he'd killed himself? And that had to happen, so Raider couldn't stop his earlier self any sooner? Feels a bit like that ending to The Dark Tower, the one Stephen King advises you not to read, but if you really must, OK. Where Roland is stuck redoing his whole story until he makes a "better" choice, or whatever King was going for. Except there are two Rolands and the one who needs to make a better choice doesn't realize it.

The page where "Lifebringer One" triumphs, Rodriguez lays it out like a descending arc. Panel of Lifebringer's sword growing as they're powered up aligned vertically. The deathblow at maybe 60 degrees, the initial disintegration at maybe 45. All drawing the eye to a big explosion in a panel along the bottom of the page. A lovely comic to look at, right to the end.

What I Bought 12/17/2021 - Part 1

Turns out there has been a comics store about 2 miles from my apartment for about a year. I was going to try it last week, and it was closed because the owner has COVID. Well, maybe this week. So I went to one of my fallbacks the next town over. Got three of the four books I wanted.

The Rush #2, by Si Spurrier (writer), Nathan Gooden (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Not that I'd recommend making a habit of shooting at ravens - they got long memories - but a derringer's probably not the best option.

Things pick up shortly after the first issue ended, with Nettie waking up in the Mountie's cabin. Lapointe not only accepts her story of seeing a man in black with a giant spider, but explains the man is called "The Pale", though his motives are unknown. He never steals possessions, just the bodies of his victims. Including Nettie's son, Caleb. Nettie's dreams that night convince her Caleb isn't dead, so she and M.P. go to investigate the claim her son supposedly made, despite not being of legal age.

They find three other men there - or is it four? - including one Nettie's sure she's seen before. There's violence, but brief. Then Nettie encounters a giant demon moose. It doesn't hurt her, and she finds Caleb's Bible. Returning to town, she hires a lawyer who's getting out of there to go investigate who filed the claim in her son's name. The guy makes it about one step, before he's killed by something.

Spurrier's both explaining a few more things, and setting up more mysteries. There's more than just the Pale and it's giant spider out there now. And this is the second issue we've seen a man cut open his arm and pull out a piece of gold. As though it just appeared there. The first time was at the very beginning, and the Pale arrived seconds later to kill him. This time, Nettie takes it after the man runs off, and uses it to pay the lawyer. Who dies as soon as she turns her back. Lapointe mentioned those who aren't seized with gold fever seem to be allowed to leave, but that raises the question of the lawyer. Of course, it could just be Lapointe and everyone else is fumbling for an explanation, and there is no rhyme or reason to who dies. Or that logic only applies to one creature. M.P. says he seeks gold to raise his social station for a woman he loves. Curious to see if that protects him, assuming it's true (or remains true.)

Nettie's having strange dreams and visions, and Gooden gives those wavy or irregular panel borders, like puzzle pieces that fit, but oddly. Duke also shifts the color scheme for those to more of a sepia tone. They also gave the moose and whatever the thing on the last page is blank circles for eyes. Either white voids against their dark bodies, or like bizarre lights shining out. Duke otherwise keeps the colors sort of dingy and washed out. Nobody looks bright and shiny in this place. The skies are always overcast. The brightest panels come with violence, when Duke puts a lot of relatively bright yellow and red across the background. Makes for a nice contrast, the abrupt change from one panel to the next.

Defenders #4, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Doesn't look like Stephen can sit out of Civil War this time.

The Fourth Cosmos is a bunch of archetypes. Cloud, who gets to narrate this issue, describes them as living ideas, but trapped in an unending cycle. They fight, over different things, but always they fight. They change, until it resets and they start over. Zota's shuffling the deck, though, bringing the archetype of Galactus, the devourer, death, whatever, to end all this so Zota can be God-King of a new universe. Cloud evolves themselves into a new, non-binary form, and is able to convince the archetypes to fight together, sending Zota running for the Third Cosmos. 

I know this is all deliberate, Masked Raider leading the Defenders by the nose to bring about what he needs to happen to Zota (namely, Zota undergoing whatever change will make him into the Raider), but it's getting fucking exhausting. It reminds me of the game Metro: Last Light, when I really wanted to kill that one guy, and the game kept stringing me along. "Nope, he got away. Maybe next time!" Let me have my vengeance already!

Yeah, it's the journey. Zota needs to go through all of this or he can't undergo whatever perspective shift he needs. And in the process, maybe the Defenders are making a difference. The Surfer giving baby Galen an impression of the lives he will take to carry with him into his next life as Galactus. Cloud, staying behind as an archetype in the Fourth Cosmos, who will hopefully carry over into subsequent cosmoses.

Should I trust Word Hippo that the plural of cosmos is "cosmoses"? Feels like "cosmosi" would be better, but my spellcheck balks at that, and not the former.

Fortunately, there's Rodriguez' artwork to look at. The various archetypes being recognizable, but still their own thing. Like the Hawkeye one having a bow, but a bullseye for a head. Goes with a very pointillist coloring style for this issue, which fits with earlier superhero comics. Although his "What-Must-Be" has strong elements of Sienkiewicz' Magus in it. Mostly in the face. Making the argument his work was so far away from the standard, the Buscema/Kirby/Kane/Curt Swan/whoever style typical to superhero comics prior, that it represents something totally new to the form and the universe. 

But taken to the conclusion of what it's supposed to represent, wouldn't that mean Sienkiewicz' art was going to be the death of superhero comics, or at least an end to the endless cycle, the constant "middle of the story" serial approach? That doesn't seem right.

What I Bought 10/08/2021

So the search for issue 3 of Locust was a bust, but the other store in town did have issue 3 of Defenders. Although I saw online issue 4 isn't coming out until early December. I assume Javier Rodriguez needs more time to make it look beautiful, so I'll allow it.

Defenders #3, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Cloud hasn't quite got the "Master of the Mystic Arts" hand gestures down yet.

The Defenders, minus the Surfer but plus Galactus' mom, land in the Fifth Cosmos. Where science doesn't exist, but magic is everywhere. Zota's already there, the slave of some C'thulu looking mage named Mor-I-Dun. Strange is leery to use his magic, Cloud's powers don't seem to work well, and seemingly neither does Masked Raider's mask. Not sure why Harpy's doing so well, I thought she was also a product of science.

Anyway, cue the Bad Mage attacking. He's at a bit of a disadvantage because, something about the way Strange summoned this team. Makes them like all the different parts of a spell. Rodriguez colors them in a hodge-podge of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black when they're struck by the spell to reveal them. I'm like Zota, I don't get why that makes a difference against the guy who created the rules of magic, but Strange insists it does and sends the magic he's not trying to control which is therefore not bound by rules, through Harpy instead of himself. Sending Mor-I-Dun to his fate at the end of this universe - I guess he was Omni-Max in the previous issue? Zota's role as herald there would make sense, then - and the team is sucked through a giant green door to the Fourth Cosmos. 

Which is going to be very comic-booky by the looks of it. Or maybe "archetypical" is the better term, since the first character they see is "talking" in colors. The old comic printing colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. It looks sorta like a Hulk, so there's that, too.

I'm not sure what this is leading to. I have a suspicion the Masked Raider is actually Zota from further down his own timeline. Looking back at issue 1, the way he tells Strange he knew where Zota would be, or how he knew what Zota was going to do, and that it was what he was 'always going to do.' Suggests a man who's lived it all before. Or he could be Adam-IV, who seemed to know things and have his own plans. Maybe those involved eventually coming back around to this point. They obscured most of the guy's face for a reason.

Anyway, it continues to be a very pretty book to look at. The panels of Mor-I-Dun emerging through a pool of magenta blood were especially nice, and the shift to more archaic look on the last two pages (replicating the printing process with all the little dots like in older comics) was a nice touch. Only two months until the next issue!

What I Bought 9/8/2021

I joke at work my allergies are a psychosomatic response to being at work, but I really wonder. My allergies are fine at home, and as soon as I get to work, nose starts running. It's clearly a sign for me to run away from that place, but I want to save my vacation days for a better time.

In more relevant, but probably no more interesting news, I went to the store hoping for four comics. Five, if I was really lucky. I found two. Oh well.

Defenders #2, by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez (storytellers), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - They only had the Quinones variant with Strange and Masked Raider looking at the tarot deck. Man, we could have had Valkyrie or Beast on this team instead of the Surfer and friggin' Cloud? Well, OK, Beast is a morally compromised trashfire at this point, but if he dies while they're in another timeline, we might get a non-fucked up version back in Krakoa's resurrection protocol. And Valkyrie is still good.

6th Universe's version Galactus is a problem, especially since Strange can't trust his magic to do what he wants. I feel as though I did not understand the whole "letting magic do as it will" thing from the first issue. 7th Universe Galactus' mom has a Mother-Cube (slams head repeatedly against desk) that will help Omnimax feel things, and hopefully make him stop eating their planet. If the Surfer can keep his herald occupied. That herald being the evil scientist guy they're after. The Surfer tricks him and steals his power, but gets sent home in the process. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, plus Galactus' mom, is sent back to the 5th Universe, which appears to be a Lovecraftian horror show. I thought that was the Cancerverse. Everything old is new again is old again, or something.

Interesting the Surfer's the one not coming along, since he apparently knows who the Masked Raider is, and knows the Raider has somehow anticipated everything Strange has done. Ugh, I hope the Surfer is wrong about that. I hate those, "I knew you would do exactly that thing, no matter how risky or imbecilic," type characters. And unlike the Surfer, I have no idea who the Raider is, so I don't have any particular reason to give him benefit of the doubt, or not hate him on principle.

Not ecstatic Taaia is going to be tagging along either, since that means more of the "Kirby Speak". It still just feels so forced and needlessly meta-referential. But what the hell, they're going to throw her into a universe dominated by magic, so we'll see how she takes to that. Plus, her baby boy is alone back at her place now. I hope he doesn't get hungry.

At least the book looks gorgeous. The color work Rodriguez is doing looks fantastic. The battle between the Surfer and Carlo Zota is particularly nice, but also the way Omnimax' face is always in shadow, matching the Surfer's musings that this Devourer lacks the reluctance and regret in his feeding that marks Galactus' feeding. Granted, I've never cared much for Galactus' excuses that he only does what he must, or he is of cosmic consonance or whatever bullshit writers handwave for why characters shouldn't kill Big G when they have the chance, but I suppose him feeling bad about all those lives he snuffs out counts for a tiny bit of something.

Deadbox #1, by Mark Russell (writer), Benjamin Tiesma (artist), Vladimir Popov (colorist), Andworld (letterer) - Where are the custodial staff? How am I supposed to check to spinner rack with all that warm, blood-flavored corn syrup on the floor?

Penny is running her father's convenience store because he's taken ill, and she can't afford to go back to college. So she spends her evenings at home, watching movies out of the mysterious "Deadbox", with films no one has ever heard of. In this issue, the movie is about the humans sending a perfect representative to an alien world we've befriended through long-range communication. But it's a long voyage alone for the human, and by the time he arrives, he's not what his hosts expected.

Considering her father appears to be wasting away, and we see a DVD called "The Vanishing Man" in the panel just before, I'm assuming the two are related. Which means the film Penny watched is related to her fate somehow. The person who stays behind in a community she doesn't have a lot of love for, the whole God n' guns thing, but maybe she can't get back, either. Whatever she had in college, she's not getting back to it, and it's already forgotten about her. On to the next person hoping they can get a degree that will get them a useful job without falling too deep into the debt hole.

Tiesma's art has a scratchy, rough edge to it. Makes everyone look a little threadbare and weathered, while Popov's coloring is mostly a muted, muddy tone. It's a dying community most likely, at least economically. Hard to say about it socially, so far. It's not changing, it just settled at a certain point and began to decay. Although even the coloring for the movie is kind of odd. The representative (or "volunteer", as the movie keeps calling him) looks a greenish-grey even before his physical and mental state begin to decay, and while Earth is comparatively brighter than everything else, it's not blindingly so.