Sunday Splash Page #320

 

"Vicissitudes," in Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe #1, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Jacopo Camagni (artist), Matt Milla (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Released across two months in December 2013 and January 2014, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe is probably one of the few stories since the original Nocenti/Adams mini-series that actually explores the ramifications of Longshot's powers, and the tightrope he would have to walk to use them.

In this case, Longshot finds himself targeted by the In-Betweener - who Camagni draws in a nifty suit and a face like a harlequin mask, black on one side, white on the other - because his incredible luck is a threat to the universe. But, Longshot happens to be mixed up in trying to stop a robbery of a super-scientist (which went awry the moment Longshot wished he had some money to buy tacos, because that constitutes a selfish desire to use his powers) at that moment, and Reed Richards and Tony Stark are cruising past with a Cosmic Cube, and well, things go wonky.

Now SHIELD's run by a mysterious guy with a white theater mask, who is hunting all magic users as a threat to Order. Also a child's teddy bear, which has a peculiar reflection. Longshot ends up briefly teamed up with Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool. Sure, Deadpool's not technically magic, but he's certainly a threat to Order. Plus, the 4th wall breaking probably registers as weird. Dazzler, working for SHIELD(?) gets involved, because of course Longshot doesn't remember they dated. Superior Spider-Man shows up, too. Well, they can't all be winners.

Things get weirder and weirder as Chaos manifests and Longshot's powers are stretched further and further to pull his butt from the fire. He's under attack by vampire Wolverine and Cyborg Dracula! A taxi crashes and Blade somehow flies out of the trunk. That sort of thing. It gives Camagni the chance to draw a lot of goofy stuff. Iron Hulk. Giant Doombots. But that much improbability is kind of a bad thing.

Hastings writes Longshot initially as sort of breezily confident. He takes good things in stride, he takes weird things in stride. The cable guys turned out to be criminals, and the scientist has a hot daughter? Yeah, that'll happen to Longshot. He does recognize the risk of his powers, but sometimes all it takes is a momentary slip. He hadn't even fully committed to wanting some money so he could buy tacos and suddenly a wall is exploding and money is falling from the sky.

The longer the series goes, and the more Chaos and Order openly war against each other - with Order being very precise in their speaking, while Chaos is a total shit, saying things like, "On behalf of my butt, I order you to smooch my butt," -  the further the ramifications of Longshot's powers stretch.

Sure, it's wonderful that after those nice hairdressers gave Longshot a new look for free (because they thought he was hot, Hastings really plays up the idea that Longshot's hotness is an actual superpower) some big movie star just suddenly appeared outside their store and loved the look they gave him. What a lucky turn of events!

But it completely fucks the haircut place across the street, a couple who struggled for years to find some measure of success and now are going to have to sell their shop because all their business switched to the trendy place the movie star touted. Causality stretches a long way, and it's hard to avoid harming one person while helping another, unless you're really thoughtful about it. Which doesn't really seem like a strong point of Longshot's, thoughtfulness. What with all the memory wipes and whatnot. But maybe that's the only way it can work for him, he can't think about it, he just has to act. Thinking about what he's doing brings motives into it.

Saturday Splash Page #57

 

"Eleventh Commandment," in Unbelievable Gwenpool #20, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

Gwenpool wasn't the first Marvel costumed character to be presented as a huge fan of superheroes. That feature was part of Kamala Khan's backstory, for one, and there was the "Spectacular Spider-Kid" from the '80s Amazing Spider-Man comics (although he turned angry in the '90s, because of course he did.)

Gwen Poole was, however, the first Marvel character I can think of who fell into the universe from a stand-in for our universe. Where all the heroes only exist in comics, movies, posters and whatnot. Which means, at least at first, Gwen's superpowers consistent of being a fangirl. She knows everyone's names, powers, and abilities. More important, she's genre-savvy enough to know the only way to survive is to make yourself important enough The Powers That Be won't kill you off (or won't let you stay dead.)

So she finds a woman who makes costumes, gets one in pink - because there's a lot of pink fabric available, though not enough for pants - and starts taking gun-for-hire jobs. This is how she's presented in her earliest appearances, in the Zdarsky/Quinones Howard the Duck series. Although viewed from Howard's perspective, Gwen just seems insane. In her own book, we see Gwen treating it as a game, or a vivid dream. These are fictional characters to her, which means none of it is real, so nothing she does really matters. It's OK to shoot nameless henchmen, or steal a terrible virus for AIM.

What Chris Hastings does is play up the difference between Gwen's expectations and the reality of them. Gwen thinks she's the star, so when MODOK appears, insisting she work for him, Gwen laughs it off. It's MODOK, she's not scared of him. So he disintegrates her new hacker friend Cecil. She's not able to simply instantly learn combat skills. The heroes, like Miles Morales Spider-Man, don't find her willingness to kill people charming. The friends she makes working for MODOK, most of whom are new characters, plus Batroc, get mad when she tries to do the right thing and costs them their jobs.

The final six months of so of the book are Gwen struggling with how to continue existing. Even as she starts to learn how to manipulate being in comics, by stepping outside the panels or dumping villains into the gutters, she may be running out of time. And if the choice is between becoming a villain and staying important, or trying to stick it out as a hero and fading to obscurity, what's she gonna pick?

Hastings fills the book with a lot of humor, whether it's Gwen drawing dollar signs on her eyepieces when she sees how much a job pays, or how other characters react to her unusual behavior. But you also have Gwen's desperate struggles to make herself more relevant by beating Dr. Doom, or trying to help Cecil get some sort of a physical body. Batroc gets written as a honorable rogue who grudgingly acts as a mentor to this crazy girl and the rest of her cast.

The Gurihiru art team does make Gwen look a little young for someone meant to be at least out of high school, if not in her early 20s, but their style is great for the humor parts and the violence parts. Especially when Gwen is still operating under the thought that nothing really matters. It's (mostly) bloodless violence, nobody's getting hurt! Except that guy that HYDRA guy she pushed in the furnace. But whatever, he didn't have a name, and he works for HYDRA!

The book ended in early 2018. In 2019, Gwenpool got a mini-series about trying to remain relevant, which ended with her being retconned into a mutant and shipped to Krakoa, where nobody ever does anything with her. Beats being brutally murdered on-panel (or off-panel) by some hack going for a cheap pop, I guess.

Sunday Splash Page #138

 

"Everyone Asks Wade that Eventually," in Deadpool Annual (2014), by Christopher Hastings (writer), Jacopo Camagni (artist), Matt Milla (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) 

Deadpool and Cable: Split-Second didn't have any splash pages, and honestly wasn't worth breaking format for, so we move on. One of Marvel's sporadic returns to the Annual format. I wonder if these sell better than if you just released them as a randomly titled Deadpool one-shot? This one came out during the Duggan/Posehn run, but as it references none of Deadpool's status quo, could probably have taken place any time since the Gail Simone run.

The gist of this one is the Chameleon is somehow tracking Spidey's every move, enacting a form of slow psychological torture on an increasingly exhausted and freaked out webslinger. He can't be sure anyone is who they say they are, and the threat never goes away entirely. On the plus side, no one can be like Deadpool but himself, so that's one bit of certainty. 

When Chameleon manages to tag Spidey with a sedative, Deadpool hides him in a broom closet and switches costumes, putting himself in the open to try and lure out Chameleon. And kill him. He does intend to remove Spidey's mask first, so everyone will know it wasn't Spider-Man who did it.

So most of the issue is Wade trying to be Spider-Man. Stopping a mugger, dealing with rude New Yorkers (who are more sour on Spidey than usual because we're just past the whole Superior Spider-Man fiasco), and stopping an animal-themed villain with a stupid plan. This is the comic where Deadpool, dressed as Spidey, declares Spider-Man a 'champion against dumb!'

This comic is entirely inessential to either character, but it knows that and is just funny.

What I Bought 2/28/2018

Everybody out of the 'Pools! Or something to that effect. Gwenpool's coming to an end, and this Deadpool storyline is almost there, too. So let's check in.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #25, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - So that's what happens to all the characters whose books get canceled: they get to hang out at the pool. I'd expect it to be more crowded, given the rate Marvel gives books the ax these days.

Gwen encounters an older, good version of herself that tells her the story isn't done just because the series is canceled. That people will be buying and reading the stories again for years after they were initially published. And there'll be fan art, cosplay, maybe someday another writer that loved Gwenpool when they were younger and gets to write her into their book. While this conversation is going on, Gwen is also hopping through a bunch of snippets of adventures that clean up (or at least nod in the direction of) various plot threads that hadn't been resolved yet.

It reminds me of the last issue of Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl series, where the last few pages were dedicated to showing all the future adventures Stephanie might have had if the series had continued on. I'm still sad we never got to see her fight the Royal Flush Gang at her college graduation. Those weren't unresolved points, but it has that same feel. The creative team at least getting to hint at what might have been.

The back-and-forth nature of it feels a little jagged, and the long-winded explanation of why this isn't really the end drags things to a halt, but I appreciate the attempt. Of course, the back-and-forth at least serves to break up the long-winded exposition. The stories we only get hints of looked like they would have been pretty fun (team-up with Squirrel Girl to rescue Gwen's brother from Mephisto!), and it lets the Guruhiru team illustrate a whole mess of other Marvel characters (including Fin Fang Foom!) Can't complain about that. It ends on fairly upbeat note, which is better than the alternative.

I'm surprised the book lasted this long, but I'm glad it did.

Despicable Deadpool #295, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Matteo Lolli (artist), Ruth Redmond (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - The first page says Koblish is the artist, but that's definitely not the case, and the cover agrees.

Deadpool chases Evan and shoots him, despite some well-meaning bystanders. But he actually shot him with a bullet that suppresses his X-gene, so Stryfe just thinks Evan is gone. Unfortunately, the X-Men aren't impressed by this so Shadowcat and Colossus whoop the shit out of Deadpool, with Kitty criticizing Rogue for making out with Deadpool. You know, Kitty, you did it with Pete Wisdom and Peter Quill. A chain-smoking, cynical, antisocial asshole, and an idiot man-child. You combine the two and you basically have Deadpool. Basically, she slept with half of Deadpool, twice. So there. Also, Kitty telling Wade he's a wanted murder and can't just 'walk away from this,' rings hollow given all the times the X-Men looked the other way for their hairy Canadian murderer.

Hmm, I seem unusually hostile towards Shadowcat today. Just kick his ass and throw him in jail Kitty, spare us the cheap moralizing.

Wade escapes with the power of endangering innocents, and kills the last person Stryfe had on his list. But he's sad about it! Then Captain America shows up, day late and a dollar short, as usual.

Marietta Nelson took Deadpool appearing in her bedroom to murder her better than I would. I wouldn't expect her to believe him about his daughter, either, or else not care. Which would be fair, since she could assume (correctly) that Eleanor was in trouble because of Deadpool's fuck-ups, and why should she die to fix that? Maybe she was resigned from the moment she saw him, or maybe it was his demeanor. Lolli draws Wade with slumped shoulders and narrow, downcast eyes for most of the issue. The only time that drops is when the X-Men show up, and I assume Wade is playing at being a loon for their benefit. Just crazy old, amoral Deadpool! Killin' people for shits and grins! Tacos! Play down to their expectations.

Or maybe he's nostalgic for the old days when the heroes just beat him up for being a creep.

I have to think Deadpool is running out of explosives to use as cover for these narrow escapes, so I don't know how he's going to manage to elude Cap. Shooting at bystanders is only going to make Cap angry.

What I Bought 1/10/2018 - Part 2

A friend gave me a TV their parents didn't need back at Christmas, and last night I hooked my N64 up to it. In the 20+ years I've had that console, I've never played it on a screen bigger than about ~21 inches. Between being a broke-ass college kid to a broke-ass wildlife biology guy who bounced from temp job to temp job, there was no point in getting a bigger TV. Also, I'm cheap on non-essentials.

Anyway, point being, it was wonderful to play Starfox 64 on a big-screen. This must be why people buy big televisions!

Ms. Marvel #26, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Giant monster needs a name. Chameleio? Chamero, The Thing That Should Not Exist? Extemporo? Skreechy? I'm bad at this.

The Red Dagger, with some help from Zoe, destroys the giant robo-monster. Afterward, Zoe starts to put things together, and returns to the seniors' home to talk to Harold. The two investigate the secret basement, where several of the other seniors are in chairs hooked up to some sort of machine, but are discovered by the Inventor, or someone dressing up like him. And since Zoe didn't tell anyone ahead of time, Red Dagger, Nakia, Mike, and Gabe will have to track her down the hard way. There's also the continuing adventures of Naftali trying to find Kamala, and I still don't remember this guy, and I'm getting more suspicious by the minute.

I got a good laugh from Zoe's attempt to use her crossfit to fight a, well she calls it a dinosaur but that's incorrect. The whole page is laid out well. A big panel across the top of her charging forward boldly, fist cocked, and then the next panel goes vertically down the page and she's this tiny figure ineffectually punching the creature's tail while it stares at her. The tiny "POOMF!" sound effect is a nice touch, Caramagna's work or Nico Leon's? Although she had the right fist cocked and threw the left. No wonder it had no effect. Then it contrasts with the next page, which starts with Red Dagger and his determined look pulling some wires, and then a big explosion takes up the rest of the page and he's flung into the sky, Team Rocket style.

I'm sure I should be more concerned about the elderly folks, but the humor in this storyline has been a welcome respite from the whole "HYDRA takes over the city" story. Leon seems to have a knack for funny stuff, or maybe it's Wilson's writing. Or both. She did the "Loki spoils prom" story when Leon was the artist, maybe she's working to his strengths, and writing something a little goofier.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #24, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I really hope there's a roof somewhere below them or that's going to be an awful mess on the pavement.

Gwen attempts to stave off cancelation by embracing villainy. Cool villainy, which means pulling a heist with Batroc. The heist goes mostly well, as Batroc uses Gwen's powers to good effect, and they escape. It's afterward Batroc reveals it wasn't really a villainous act, because the casino they robbed was run by the old Spider-Man antagonist Chance. Batroc was trying to be supportive of Gwen's attempt to be a hero, and set up a "rob the bad guy" gig to help her pay bills. Aw. Which means Gwen is out of options, or is she?

I like that if, even if Batroc doesn't buy that his life is a comic book, he accepts that Gwen has powers that operate that way, and uses them to pull off the heist. And while, as Gwen notes, Batroc probably won't act like this in any upcoming appearances outside this book, I do like this version of Batroc. He's kind of cheesy and arrogant, but also classy and witty and not a horrible guy.

Also, credit to Hastings for using Chance, even if I'd liked to see him in action a little more. I have a soft spot for that guy.

The coloring on this book for the shots of the city skyline is outstanding. Especially the lighting effects around the skyscraper. Just gorgeous. The page after they complete their escape had so much I enjoyed. Gwen's version of a tuck and roll landing, plus her various startled and stressed expressions, and the punchline to her method of escaping with the loot. A bunch of different silly things I liked. I hope the Gurihiru team work on another book I want to read in the future.

Sunday Splash Page #1

Kaiju Ghost Battle, from Timefist, by Christopher Hastings (writer/artist), Anthony Clark (colorist)

I bought the first Adventures of Dr. McNinja collection at a store in Rolla a few years ago on a "Why not?" urge, and then grabbed the others over the next couple of years. It has a wonderful combination of crazy stuff thrown together and a lot of humor. Hastings' strengths run more towards his pacing on jokes and visual gags in his stories, but he knows when to go widescreen.

Sadly, they haven't released a collection of the final storyline yet, because there haven't been enough sales of the earlier volumes. Which means the rest of you need to hop to it buying Night Powers, Timefist, and King Radical, so they will release a print addition, which I can purchase a physical copy of in exchange for money.

What I Bought 12/8/2017

Now that it's actually occurred to me to use the scanner for these posts, I find myself with a difficult choice. Do I select a panel or panels I think were funny/cool, or one that illustrates some point I was fumbling to make when I was discussed the art? The second option seems like the best, but the first one is awful tempting.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #23, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - In an attempt to really make her win impressive, Gwen has opted to fight Dr. Doom after shrinking herself with Pym Particles! Or maybe she enlarged Doom with Pym Particles!

Gwen's attempt to defeat the "real" Dr. Doom fails. Because Doom is not going to lose by being tossed into a weird dimension. Gwen eventually realizes she is entirely outclassed and tries to run, which doesn't work either. The current, "nice" Doom shows up and bails her out, leaving Gwen depressed at how little impact she's allowed to have, and her rapidly approaching mortality. Doom tries to give her some advice, but Gwen doesn't seem to have taken it the way he hoped.

So Gwen has to figure out how she fits in the Marvel Universe. Her early attempts at being a hero were not at all heroic. Her future self told her she was meant to be a villain, which Gwen rejected. She isn't succeeding at making herself important by trying to disappear villains, either. Which leaves what? Gwen doesn't want to be the person in the back of crowd scenes, who dies unceremoniously in some Big Event just because (fair enough). What's her solution? I doubt she wants to be some updated version of Forbush Man or Howard the Duck, popping up every 5-10 years to issue silly commentary on whatever's going on at the moment. It looks like she might be trying for the "rogue with a grey mortality", kind of a Black Cat/Gambit thing. Neither one sustains an ongoing for any extended period of time, but neither one gets killed or vanishes for too long, either.

I appreciated Hastings' writing for Evil Doom. 'You would open a dam because it is not satisfying enough to drown in a puddle,' is a pretty good putdown. 'But let us see how long you hold under a gaze as fierce and hateful as the Sun!' isn't bad, either. And Gwen telling Doom he's got a long fall coming, and a page later, he's been dumped into the void, with only his thought balloon still on the page (Strychalski gave Gwen a pretty good hardass glare on that page as well. Frank Castle would be impressed). After rereading Volume 1 earlier this week, it was funny to see Gwen trying the leg sweeps Batroc regretted teaching her against Doom.

Strychalski mostly works with 3-6 panels per page, and mostly straightforward squares or rectangles. Nothing too out there in terms of layouts (which would be worth exploring in whether that says anything about Gwen. Can she impact the design of the pages she's in?) But there's one 9-panel page, 8 of those panels as narrow vertical shots of Vic the Doombot struggling to process Doom's defeat, while Gwen moves through the same process much more quickly. Everything had been zipping along through the first 5 pages, but at that moment, it looks as though Gwen has actually beaten Dr. Doom. Two of him, no less. So the story pauses to let that sink in for the characters, even though we know it won't take (and Gwen realizes it as well a page later).

Also, I like Strychalski using what little is available in the Gutters to form panel borders when possible. She uses Doom's cape once, the outline of the pages Gwen is sitting on a couple of times. It's tricky, because how could there be panels in a place that exists outside the panels, but it still helps to have something to guide the flow of the conversation as it moves across the page (although for most of those pages, they go with a 3-panel layout most often, so things can just proceed vertically straight down the page).

I don't know if the book is actually dead two issues from now or not, but I hope not. It's got a good mix of funny and intriguing.

A Stranger Even In A Strange Land

I'll probably pick up this week's issue of Gwenpool tomorrow, and review it middle of next week. In the meantime, I haven't reviewed any trades in a while, so let's look at Gwen's entry to the Marvel Universe.

Gwenpool Vol. 1 - Believe It collects the back-up stories from Howard the Duck where she first appeared, and then the first four issues of her ongoing series. At this point, Gwen is basically jumping at whatever crazy opportunity crosses her path, which eventually gets her dragged into M.O.D.O.K.'s employ. Until she defeats him, in what was equal parts self-preservation and revenge.

It feels as though Hastings was still trying to get a handle on how to play her. In the initial stories, Gwen acts almost like she's a cartoon character, leaping off tall buildings or out of helicopters with no plan on how to avoid going splat. This despite Gwen knowing she has no powers or training. Maybe she's meant to think that trying crazy stuff will make her more interesting and keep her story going. She figured getting a costume and being "someone" was the only way to survive, so maybe that's part of it.

And things do keep conspiring to work out in her favor, to the extent I wonder if Hastings is setting something up with that. Maybe her Evil Future Self has been manipulating things all along!

Danilo Beyruth and Tamra Bonvillain are the art team for the back-up stories (and a first issue prologue), while Gurihiru handle everything else from her series. Beyruth's Gwen (and style in general) is much more angular, kind of jagged. Gwen herself looks older when out of costume (maybe because Gurihiru's Gwen looks barely out of junior high), and a bit crazier when in costume.

I prefer Gurihiru's style myself, but the Beyruth/Bonvillain team works very well if the story is meant to be from Howard's point of view, where Gwen's actions have dragged him into working for and against the Black Cat, and against HYDRA. And he has to try and keep this costumed girl under control when she has no regard for anyone else's life, and possibly none for her own (or she's an idiot). It would be terrifying.

Whereas Gurihiru are illustrating the story as told from Gwen's perspective, where she's treating the whole thing like a game. It's bright and colorful, she gets money for killing people she can justify as being bad. The art and colors make me think of one of those "magical girl" animes. Has her bright costume, and hair color matches it. Has cool weapons, including a sort of familiar (her ghost friend Cecil). Since things keep ultimately working out for her, she maintains that perspective, even as other people are getting hurt and killed around her. The words of the cop who lets her go roll away like water off a duck's back.

The first arc feels a bit clunky, like Hastings is having to really work to get all the pieces in place the way he wants them, but there are still some good laughs, and he knows how to write an interesting fight (and Gurihiru especially know how to illustrate it).

What I Bought 11/9/2017 - Part 1

There were no comics out this week I was interested in. Here's a couple of books from last week I was interested in. There were five comics from Marvel last week I wanted, I found four of them so far. Only two or three other books for the remaining weeks of the month.

Despicable Deadpool #289, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - How is Cable missing at that range? Wade at least has the excuse he's missing an arm (and holding his gun sideways). Cable's aim must rival an Uzi-toting bad guy from an '80s movie.

Deadpool confesses to Cable surprisingly quickly, so the two try going back to kill Stryfe right after he gave Wade the cure for the plague weapon Madcap used. Stryfe anticipated this and unleashes dinosaurs. Cable anticipated that and has a neurotoxin ready. So Stryfe unleashes a bunch of vampires, who bite the dinosaurs, who then bite Deadpool. Before the vampire dinosaurs can spread, the military decides they're sick of leaving everything to the Avengers and nuke the city. Before his death, Cable opens a time portal and warns Wade and Cable not to try ambushing Stryfe like that.

So the entire issue is to explain why they don't just solve the problem with time travel. I feel that could have been solved by Cable simply handwaving some explanation for why it wouldn't work. Wouldn't have needed 20 pages for that, unless Bendis was writing it. I do kind of like Cable and Stryfe essentially being a couple of kids playing together. Each one comes up with some bullshit counter to whatever the other imagines. Even so, my enthusiasm for this arc is dropping fast.

Koblish tries a version of the end three-way faceoff from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Just doesn't work as well without music. Also, he doesn't move the camera view in, or intersperse any panels of fingers on triggers. Points for effort I guess. On the other hand, he's very good at drawing a hideously ugly Wade, and he shows a good attention to detail. Wade's left arm being smaller than the right because it's still regenerating, the bullet holes in the back of Wade's mask where someone shot him earlier. And I think he tries to make his art style more similar to Matteo Lolli's on the page showing Stryfe giving the cure to Wade (which Lolli drew originally). His lines are a little smoother and thinner than normal. And four wide panels stacked on top of each other is a page layout Lolli uses pretty frequently.

Still waiting for Cable to get killed, though.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #22, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Gwen, you're supposed to write on the back of the postcard, not the front.

Vincent the Doombot brings Gwen to some underground castle so she can try to kill Doom away from Vincent's community. Doom has engineered all this and drops her in a cell. Which pushes Gwen to learn she can now move backwards in time through the gutters, so she escapes and confronts Doom, who is chatting mostly pleasantly with Vincent. Gwen realizes she's dealing with a Doom trying to reform, but is so desperate to be an Avenger, she pulls a stupid. Her powers somehow release an earlier (later?) version of Classic-Talking, Evil Doom from within Current Good Doom. Hastings really just wanted to write a Doom who talks like Dr. Doom, didn't he?

So Gwen really hasn't learned anything? She's still doing dumb, morally questionable things in an effort to "matter". Before she was trying to be important enough to not be killed off, now she's allegedly trying to be a hero, but it boils down to the same thing: She's recklessly endangering the lives of everyone around her because she never stops to think about what she's doing. Probably because she doesn't want to.

Which is fine! I was curious how her newfound commitment to not becoming a villain would play out, and here's the beginning of the answer. Having seen a future outcome she didn't like doesn't mean she'd become aware of all her weaknesses. And it isn't as though wanting things a particular way is unique to her, or comic book fans. Nostalgia's still a thing.

I think of the non-Guruhiru art teams on this book, Strychalski/Rosenberg are my favorite. There's nothing flashy in their style, but they can handle actions scenes or humor pretty well, which are the major components of this book. The castle has that imposing look to it where you could believe what Vincent said about it having many previous users. And I liked the panel where we see how Doom perceives Gwen stepping between the panels, where part of her has simply vanished. Just as a way to show how odd that might appear even to someone like Doom, who has seen (and done) some shit over the years.

Rosenberg's colors never get too dark, which keeps things easy to follow, but also keeps the book feeling more light. This story could be pretty dire, Gwen either dumping people into some empty void for all eternity, or her and a lot of other people getting killed because she brought back DOOM. But the book probably won't go that route, and so it stays brighter.

What I Bought 10/12/2017 - Part 1

Got four of the five comics that came out this week. Maybe I'll find the other and Giant Days from last week over the weekend. As it is, this constitutes almost all of the Marvel comics I'm getting this month. So let's start with two characters setting off on dubious new paths.

Despicable Deadpool #287, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Scott Koblish (artist), Nick Filardi (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Wade, that is no way to treat your action figures.

Deadpool is trying to kill Cable, with a chainsaw. Little low-tech, but OK, still a solid old-school murder weapon. The fight progresses to a hospital, and Wade isn't doing so good until Cable mentions Captain America. At which point Wade immobilizes Cable with an MRI, and cuts off his bionic arm. Before he can finish things, the Time Variance Authority arrives to arrest Cable for eventually becoming Stryfe. Leaving Wade with no recourse but to cut off his own arm, attach Cable's in its place, and use the time machine in it to chase after them.

I mean, I'm sure there were other ways to accomplish that, but the removing limbs approach was what Wade opted for. Pretty effective way to show he's not messing around. I mean, he cut his husband's arm off, that's severe.

I thought there'd be a little more reluctance on both sides, but Duggan plays them as less close friends than I was used to when Nicieza wrote them. Like they've both just been waiting for a chance to resume hostilities. Still, the moment where Cable wants to know why was telling. Once again, Deadpool has managed to surprise him, this time by deciding to try and kill him. That Cable even cares, that he doesn't just assume it's for money, has to mean something.

Filardi needs to brighten the colors up. Everything is murky, and combined with Koblish's tendency to get creative in how he transitions from panel to panel (or differentiates one panel from another), there were a few times I got lost halfway through a page. Had to stop, back up, figure out what was happening. I like the transitions, the ways Koblish leads the eye - he uses the chainsaw to point to the next panel as it's swatted from Wade's grasp at one point - but sometimes, it's a little much.

Anyway, I am still entirely on board with this arc, even if I figure it will go about as well as Deadpool's attempt to kill Sabretooth 25 issues ago went.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #21, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - That is an incredibly horrible costume for Trapster, I don't care how intentional it is.

Gwen wants to be an Avenger, and is out fighting villains. Who she then takes into that space between the panels, and dumps them into the void. Which seems a lot like killing them, which should not get you a place on the Avengers, but after Wolverine, Deadpool, Cable, whoever the fuck else these days, sure why not? But Gwen's after big game. She wants to take down Doom, ignoring the fact that a) she should understand that in the pecking order of the Marvel Universe, they ain't letting her kill Doom, and more importantly b) he's not a villain right now. Because things have kept happening in the Marvel Universe since Gwen arrived, and her knowledge is getting increasingly out of date.

I can't believe she did that to Paste-Pot Pete. We need villains who just come up with weird inventions to rob armored cars, Gwen! They're a vital break from all the mass murderers and world conquerors.

Sooner or later, Hastings was going to have to address that Gwen's knowledge of the Marvel U. is going to be less and less relevant the longer she's out of the loop. Which is perhaps why she's gained this new power to move through the gutters, the spaces between panels. Her old power was knowing everyone's secrets, but that's going to be less accurate going forward. This is her new thing, though she's still kinda of using it like a villain. Making people disappear into Limbo is not the action of a hero Gwen. Knives did that to people in Trigun, because he was a genocidal lunatic asshole. Don't be like Knives.

I was certain I'd seen Strychalski's art somewhere before, but I can't figure out where. So perhaps it's Rosenberg's coloring that makes it feel similar to some of the other artists that have worked on the book? There's not a lot of fighting to judge her action sequences by, but she has a knack for some expressive faces. The Doombot's barely contained eyeroll at her "incredible new moves" went really well with the dialogue in that panel. The look of terror on poor Pete's face. Farewell Pete. Now who will Deadpool trick/coerce into helping him?

What I Bought 9/13/2017 - Part 2

Decided to group the two books from last week that were wrapping up storylines, so here they are.

Ms. Marvel #22, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Marco Failla (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Oh that's adorable Marvel's putting ads for their Inhumans TV show that is apparently complete garbage. When will they learn?

Josh lets Kamala escape and may be realizing he's actually a bad guy. Congratulations Josh, you're only about three times slower on the uptake than Deadpool, a man whose brain has had to literally regrow holes punched in it by bullets, multiple times. While Tyesha and Nakia confront Lockdown's goons with the combined force of a court order and the cops, Lockjaw reappears (about damn time) and helps Kamala refuel for the big fight, which ends with Lockdown in cuffs and Josh. . . I'm not sure. Lockdown says he snuck away to avoid arrest, but in the last panel he's standing in the middle of the street, watching Kamala and Lockjaw walk away. Presumably someone will notice and arrest him? Hopefully? Pretty please.

That wasn't a bad ending. I doubt this is the end of HYDRA's efforts in Jersey City. They'll try again; Lockdown's too stupid to quit, and the people who blame Ms. Marvel for the stuff happening in town aren't going to get any less convinced of that. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully Lockjaw is going to stick around. He's wasted on all those Inhumans titles no one reads.

I'm not so sure about Josh's sorta face turn once he learns Kamala is Ms. Marvel. Like he goes from mocking her when he's hurting her to talking about how he's not gonna shoot the hero who never kills in the back? But once I thought about it, it's just the, 'I didn't care until it affected ME' attitude. I encounter it all the time, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Herring continues to use yellow to represent resistance, or things turning in favor of the heroes. There's almost no yellow in the first several pages, right up to the point Tyesha point outs the cops are on her side, not K.I.N.D.'s. But after that, it starts to pop up more and more. The Mayor comes rushing from her office, hustling to get down there, and she's emerging from a room colored bright yellow. When Lockjaw appears, he's backlit by yellow. Most of the moments of Lockdown and her schmoes get punched are set against solid yellow backgrounds. It's a nice visual cue that Herring uses. At the end, it's more of an orange, which is a little gentler, the fight is over for the moment.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #20, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - C'mon denizens of the Marvel Universe, a girl with a gun and a sword leaping from a void in the sky is hardly cause for alarm. At least it isn't the Hulk, or Iron Man on a bender.

Evil Future Gwen tries to teach Gwen how to use her powers, while realizing her own past is being retconned by the interference of the other time travelers. The time travelers gradually realize trying to kill Present Gwen is only making her more aligned with Future Gwen but then they get killed, by Future Gwen, as a point she's trying to make. That Gwen is no longer a tourist, she is a character in the Marvel Universe, and she's subject to some of its laws. One of which Future Gwen has interpreted as trying to push Gwen to be evil. So she went with it. Present Gwen decides that is Not Cool, and resolves to not break bad. Which will probably get her killed in the background of a throwaway panel in a Big Event in a year or two, but kudos, anyway.

Well, this explains those solicitations for the next few issues a little better. And it was an interesting story. It addressed the fact Gwen has been gleefully committing a lot of murders since she got here, and hopefully she'll cut back on that going ahead. Which ought to be enough to go hero. Wolverine didn't even cut down on the number of people he killed, and he got to be an Avenger (still one of only two characters I will not accept as an Avenger, and they were both put on there by Bendis). Hastings brought her brother into the picture, as someone for Gwen to try and seek out and it'll be interesting to see what steps he takes going forward. There's the question of whether Gwen could even get back to her universe if she wanted to at this point. The question of if, assuming there is an editorial force that shoves her in the direction of villainy, she can actually resist that? Or at least get it retconned away later as mind control so she can go back to being good?

I love the visual representation of editorial diktat. "Gwenpool Can't Kill Spider-Man," indeed. A cyclone is about right for Marvel Editorial. Some shit gets destroyed, some escapes unscathed. How is it determined which is which? Who the fuck knows. Also, Evil Gwen diving outside the panels to reappear at the bottom of the cliff to save Present Gwen. Gurihiru just did an excellent job with showing Gwen using this power to hop outside the pages. It was very enjoyable and it makes for a memorable visual. Hopefully future artists can do as well with it.

Kind of a strange arc, but not a bad one.

What I Bought 8/25/2017

A couple of books from the last two weeks. I might not have bought one of them if I had looked at the cover more closely, but I was running out of time on the parking meter.

Ben Reilly, The Scarlet Spider #6, by Peter David (writer), Will Sliney (artist), Jason Keith (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - So the key to being really flexible is for people to punch you through walls. I've been going about things entirely wrong.

Ben tries a possible cure on the little girl, then steps out for some air, where he runs into Marlo from Peter David's Hulk run, who seems able to manipulate people and wants Ben to stop two guys driving around town shooting people. He does, but refrains from killing them, to Marlo's annoyance. Kaine shows up, because the little girl died, and Marlo kills him, and I don't know what's going on with this. I assume something to do with David's Captain Marvel run from like 15 years ago?

Is this meant to make Ben actually consider his actions? He mentioned while fighting Kaine that his advantage was he acted on instinct and relied on his spider-sense. Is that all he's doing, bluffing and jumping into things without considering why or towards what end? That could be interesting, depending on the reasons? Is he trusting the Peter Parkerness to guide him, or just trying to avoid thinking about what matters to him and what his goal is?

So there's something there, but I can't handle the art. It reminds me of a comic trying hard to match actors on a TV show it's based on. Very computer-generated feel to it, but like an attempt an early 2000s attempt. Jason Keith is still the colorist, and the colors seem a lot flatter, less varied. Sliney inks himself much heavier than John Dell did to Bagley's pencils, so the shadows are a lot deeper on faces. Maybe that has something to do with Keith's approach. The expressions of the mother who nearly dies at the hands of the two guys driving around shooting people are. Like Sliney's trying for really realistic, but falling in the uncanny valley. It looks awkward, fake, fails utterly to convey the emotion to me.

My hunch Bagley leaving would be a good time to jump ship was right; I just needed to put more money in the parking meter that day so I could read the cover more closely. To be fair, I was also in a hurry to reach my dad's so we could tow his car to his repair guy. So really, it's his fault this happened. If he'd gotten his car moved months ago like he should have, this wouldn't have happened.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #19, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Unless you are the Punisher, trying to shoot Spider-people with guns doesn't work.

Gwen confronts the time-travelers out to stop her future self, even though by showing up, they've taught her how to move between panels. Whoops. The team considers trying to erase her memory, but Miles' instead swings off with her to tell her the way she ruined everyone's life by revealing all the heroes' secrets so she could be entertained by the fallout. By doing so, Gwen's giant, evil future self knows what they're up to and appears, probably swatting Future Miles to do his death.

I'm suspicious this story is a criticism of fans. Gwen is one of us, supposedly, and we're told she revealed secret identities, aired characters dirty laundry, and did this to kick off the biggest hero vs. hero war yet. To be entertained. Which makes me think of secret identities becoming passe, because it would be unrealistic to maintain one. Or the constant escalation of conflicts, and heroes constantly being at each others' throats. And that's all, if you listen to the people in comics, because it's what sells. Which is a neat way to blame the audience for what they produce. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but comic writers surely do like to blame the stories they write on the fans. Or Alan Moore, they also like blaming Alan Moore. Or is Hastings jabbing at the other writers who think that's what they have to do? Someone is being jabbed, that's for sure.

Setting aside my paranoia, I still don't know how Hastings plans to resolve this. Teddy being a sort of blind spot in Gwen's perceptions could play in, but now Gwen's in the classic situation of meeting her evil older self. Given what we've learned, she has to reject her older self, and I'm not sure what her older self could do (presumably Evil Gwen is still genre savvy enough to know threats aren't going to work). Is Gwen going to have to learn to think more carefully about her actions? Is she going to try and really be a hero, rather than run around being crazy and say she's a hero?

I like the Gurihiru art team's work, but it doesn't quite feel right for the story. Or certain parts of the story, at least. Miles' depressing flashback of how Gwen ruins his life kind of lacked impact. Although the panel of Miles stating he's going to kill her, said plainly and against the backdrop of a bright blue sky is effective, the more I look at it. They nail the humor parts; Gwen trying to slide through a panel border and whiffing was funny. I'd still much rather have Gurihiru handling the art than most other art teams out there, just not sure they entirely fit the grim direction things have trended. But we'll see, one more issue to go in the story.

What I Bought 7/27/2017 - Part 2

I hate grabby drunk people. The ones who lose all respect for personal space - assuming they had any to begin with - once they get a few drinks in them.

Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #5, by Peter David (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), John Dell (inker), Jason Keith (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That is the opposite of how I would expect that fight to go, but the actual comic taught there are many things different about Kaine from what I remembered.

Kaine and Ben fight for the entire issue. Ben keeps trying to stall, so he can get Kaine to listen to him, Kaine just keeps trying to kill him. Ben, after failing with the, "let's play with swords" tactic, and the, "You want to shoot me? Fine, shoot me," tactic, eventually plays the "Uncle Ben" card, which does convince Kaine to listen, and Kaine agrees to let him live until he saves the little girl. At which point Kaine will kill him. Also, the mysterious "Thorne" causing Ms. Mercury trouble is her brother, who runs a rival casino.

I wasn't aware Kaine doesn't have a spider-sense, but I also thought he was still far stronger than Ben or Peter, which apparently isn't the case. How things change with a character I've barely paid attention to in 20 years.

Watching Ben's various attempts to get Kaine to lighten up was mildly amusing. It added something to the fight between them, kept adding new elements to the fight. Though it's hard for me to take Ben's arguments seriously. It all feels like an attempt to manipulate Kaine, rather than genuinely reason with him. Of course, Kaine's hellbent on killing him, so trying to honestly debate with him would probably be stupid.

I would have preferred Bagley not skimp on the backgrounds as much as he did in certain panels, but he did a good job laying things out so an element in one panel guides the eye naturally to the next. Like Kaine throwing a sword at Ben, and it's point guides us to the end of Ben's sword in the next panel as he deflects it, and Ben's sword guides us down to the dialogue and also the deflected sword, which brings us to the next panel (Kaine webbing Ben's sword). The webline draws us back to the next dialogue balloon, and that and the angle of the sword point us down to the last panel on the page, where Kaine's pulling Ben off balance. It's basic stuff I assume, but it's also important stuff to making the story work.

Also, Bagley's remembers to establish where characters are in relation to each other at the beginning of a scene, and then making sure the action works from that. So if he shows there are knights to Ben's left, and Kaine tries to web him, Ben's going to jump right, and sends a couple of weblines left to snag their swords. Just basic panel-to-panel continuity, but I feel like there are a lot of artists who either don't get that stuff, or just don't give a shit.

Still, enjoyment of the fight scene aside, I don't know about this book. I still don't really care about this thing between Cassandra and Thorne, siblings or not. It's two casino owners in a pissing match. It's probably setting something up that will present Ben with some important character moment down the line, but I don't know if I'm going to care to stick around until then. I've gone back and forth just in the time since I started working on this post about whether I'm even going to give the book a chance once Bagley leaves. I say no, then talk myself back into it, then out of it again.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #18, Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I'm most disappointed in Howard. After all the times angry mobs have chased him, and he turns around and partakes in the chasing himself. Tsk, tsk.

Teddy, Gwen's brother, wound up in the Marvel Universe when she did, but didn't adapt as well, and struggled to get by. Which is how he wound up working for Mr. Orto, the demon Gwen killed in one of her first jobs. Which means Teddy watched his sister calmly murder a bunch of dudes, then cheerfully run off to She-Hulk's Christmas party. At which time a future Miles Morales appeared and warned him of all Gwen was going to do. Gwen's still in the weird space outside the universe (but still in the story) so she learns all this, and jumps back in to confront Teddy with the fact his plan didn't work, and they're still in the comic.

Hastings may have completely lost me here. They're still in the Marvel Universe, but in some halfway dimension? Or is it an astral projection, an elaborate illusion, they borrow one of Mongul's Black Mercys?

I'm not sure whose side I'm meant to be on here. Teddy is messing with Gwen's life, not cool. On the other hand, Gwen does kill people with pretty no remorse or hesitation whatsoever. Her machine-gunning a bunch of goons in an alley was not an isolated incident. Her argument would doubtlessly be that they're fictional, and nameless unimportant characters, they're put there to die. But their lives are real to them. Gwen is mad because, essentially, Teddy is interrupting her treating the world like her private Grand Theft Auto. The fact that Teddy's time in the Marvel Universe has placed him as one of those nameless unimportant characters plays into his perspective as well. It's difficult to be on her side, given that.

But the issue felt pretty thin. I got to the end and was surprised that was it. Because it spent so much time on a flashback, there wasn't much forward momentum. Two steps backwards, one step forward.

The two panels of Teddy sitting horrified on the fire escape and then silent one of the bleeding corpses was effective. This is not something I say often, but I didn't like how Gurihiru version of a character, specifically The Thing. Because they gave him a neck. Normally he's drawn like his head sits directly on his shoulders (or else his lower jaw extends down far enough that it blocks his neck). Anyway, he just looks odd.

Outside that, though, they're doing their usual excellent work on the art. The panels of Gwen in that white void, where she's observing everything and slowly gearing up are kind of terrifying. She's casually stepping on pages of her past adventures, reaching in and helping herself to items from them. She's not raging or outwardly furious, but she's not geeking out over what seems like would be a cool experience. She's kind of miffed, in that way cosmic entities are shown to be when they see a mortal preparing to confront them and aren't worried, but are still offended someone would try to challenge them. Gwen having reached that level is not a good thing. She's going to break everything worse than Thanos usually does before he learns his latest Important Lesson.

What I Bought 6/16/2017 - Part 1

I did manage to find most of last week's books on Friday, but too late to post anything then. These are the first two books I read, so the ones I was most interested in, then.

Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #3, by Peter David (writer), Mark Bagley (penciler), John Dell (inker), Jason Keith and Jay David Ramos (color artists), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Well, he's back in his classic duds. Not a perfect costume, but fairly simple, and when in doubt, simple is probably better.

Kaine is not killed by the people with guns, who were sicced on him by Ben, after Rita warned him. Ben has more immediate problems, as Mr. Slate jams a tracer in his neck, and Cassandra lies and says it's also a bomb. Doesn't Ben have a spider-sense? While Ben mulls that problem over, a trio of guys dressed in various Spider-costumes barge into the casino, and right into Mr. Slate, who promptly kills one. Ben, in costume, saves them, and warns them to stop this nonsense. When the one dressed in Ben's old costume criticizes the current one, Ben takes his costume.

One of the reasons I picked up this book was because I figured, with a veteran writer like Peter David, we'd get more subplots involving supporting characters. I'm still not clear if that's going to happen. Ben ran into Mandy, the redhead he rescued in the first issue, trying to get a job as a dancer at the casino. "Aunt June" is still around, shoveling quarters into the slot machines. We learned Mr. Slate has a son.

I have no idea if any of that is going anywhere. I'm still trying to get a bead on Ben. He didn't hesitate to jump and fight Slate to protect remaining two do-gooders. But he was not-so-subtly reminding Mandy she had better get him his money just prior to that. And he tried to have gunmen kill Kaine, who is, admittedly, a multiple murderer himself, albeit a somewhat reformed one. Is this going to end up being about Ben futilely trying to assemble a family around him, because he's trying to do it through threats and conniving?

I liked the coloring most in the scene in the firefight between Kaine and the hired guns. The lighting from the firearms and the bullets was shown as reflecting off Kaine's outfit, and it just looked nice. Not that the colors are muted in the other scenes. There are a lot of panels with dark or muted backgrounds, mostly in the parts involving Cassandra, since she's opted for an atmospheric darkened office.

There's a couple of quick fights scenes, lets Bagley do a little something besides draw people talking. Nothing spectacular in page layout, but some solid work, things flow well. There's a nice contrast between the panel of Ben getting backhanded, which seems almost casual, and the next panel where's he's sent flying through a row of machines. You only see Slate's hand, which means you can't judge his expression or level or exertion, which makes it seem like a very casual slap. Which makes the effect it has all the more impressive. They've established Slate as a pretty formidable physical threat, I'm curious to see how Ben's going to handle that.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #17, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - The impish Gwen who filled in the artists' names on the cover might be my favorite of the lot.

Gwen has stayed in her world, even gotten a job working the counter at a movie theater. But she can see her internal narration boxes, and the title. Gwen tries to figure out how to confirm her suspicions, and settles on thinking a lot so her caption box grows large enough she can reach it. Unfortunately she overdoes it and the box forces her out the window. So everyone thinks she tried to kill herself. Given a few moments alone, Gwen is able to breach the panels, and steps outside something. She didn't exactly break the fourth wall so much as the third wall, the border to the next panel, so I'm not sure where she is at the moment. Suffice it to say, I'm extremely curious where Hastings is going with this.

Also, her experiences working at the theater make me extremely grateful I have never worked in customer service, but I'm grateful for that every day.

So Gwen lives in New York, correct? When she reaches out to touch the panel border, and briefly succeeds before finding herself touching another person's face, everyone on the subway is gawking at her. Would people on the subway actually do that? I was given to understand from other fiction people on New York subways try to ignore everything going on around them. Don't make eye contact and all that. Perhaps not. Or perhaps it's the narrative twisting things to produce a reaction from Gwen. her father has mysteriously become much "cooler".

The various effects are illustrated well, Gwen seeing through the break in the panel she created, into the next several panels yet to occur for example. Or the page of her being launched out the window by her bloated thought caption. I'm a little surprised that in the third panel of the page prior to that, she didn't notice her head was being forced outside the panel borders by the caption, but her mind was kind of running on its own train. It's a nice visual representation of the way your thoughts can get going and prove hard to stop sometimes. Usually don't see it like that in comics, but people aren't usually trying to do that on purpose.

What I Bought 5/31/2017 - Part 2

I don't think Warriors/Cavaliers III can be good enough to make up for how dismal of an NBA playoffs this was. Some suspense in both conferences would have been nice. Although the East hasn't challenged Lebron in the last 4 seasons, so it was longshot hoping that would change now.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #16, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Gurihiru (artists), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Are we far enough removed from roller skates for them to have become retro cool? or did we skip directly to roller blades being the thing out of style that's now popular again? I don't see many people using either, but I'm hardly in a cultural hub, even by Missouri's standards.

Gwen's brother pulls her through a portal seemingly back to her world, before she came to the Marvel Universe. When she was lazing about the house, trying to avoid looking for work, talking about stories she had ideas for that just "weren't right yet", to her parents' increasing frustration. This leads to a big fight, which sends Gwen into the night to the once-per-week sleep study/information transference thing she does. Which seems to be how she got to the MU in the first place, and which her brother is keen to prevent. He succeeded, but it looks as though Gwen isn't really back in her world.

The things Hastings is working with here are the kind I'm interested in, so I'm pretty excited for this story. Putting yourself in a story, but finding the rules of stories can now govern your life? Gwen got nostalgic for home, and it turned into a whole thing where The Hero May Be Going Crazy, or has to question their sense of reality. You know, the kind of thing Moon Knight writers do every couple of years. I'm wondering if this was what I expected to happen a few months ago, that Gwen may recognize the tropes and patterns of superhero comics, but the longer she's in a superhero universe, the more she can be controlled by them. We'll see, now that she has a sense something is wrong, how she finds her way out.

There's a quartet of Fantastic Four statues in the background of Gwen's conversation with her comic guy, and I'd swear the Mr. Fantastic one is about to give his own butt a smack. That's Reed Richards for ya Not really, since Reed would only do that if it turned out to produce a subharmonic to would disrupt so other-dimensional incursion blah, blah, blah, whatever Stretcho, just lemme hit tha things!

At times, Gwen's brother has this upwards swoop to his hair in the back, that reminds me of Quicksilver. Which makes him seem kind of sinister. That's probably projecting based on the beginning and end of the book, where he's clearly working to keep Gwen in their world. Gotta say, the streets of New York look pretty empty. I was given to understand they were filled to the brim with loud, rude creatures called Mets' fans. Also, I notice even back in her world, Gwen has this band between her eyes which is colored darker than the rest of her face. The same place the slight pink tint is on her mask. I thought in this case it might be meant as a shadow caused by her hair, but maybe Gwen's unconscious through all this, and her mask is still on. Like the lack of people, it's a deliberate choice to signal Things Aren't Right?

I going to assume it was Clayton Cowles that did the voice balloon for Gwen's dad that is just some dark scribble thing, as shorthand for a grumble. I like it as a visual shorthand, more creative than just writing *grumble* in there, even if I can't stop trying to decide what it looks like. Some sort of airship? No, no, it's a cherry sundae in a glass with a very narrow stem! No. . .

What I Bought 5/17/2017

Well I found two books from last week, at least. Nothing from this week, though. I might go to Columbia this weekend to seek more comics, but it's going to storm a lot, so I might not. Also, I don't really want to drive anywhere this weekend after last weekend.

Ms. Marvel #18, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Francesco Gaston (artist), Ian herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Well that's sweet and depressing at the same time. Depressweet. Depreet? Swepressing? This combining words to make combo words is harder than the Germans make it look.

Bruno is struggling to adjust to his new situation as a student in Wakanda, and his injuries. His roomie drags him along on a highly illegal jaunt to acquire some Vibranium, ostensibly to impress a young woman, but really as part of a plan Kwezi has to build Bruno an exo-suit of sorts to give him some greater mobility. And Kwezi is distantly related to T'Challa, so nobody needs to go to jail.

Not sure what I was expecting, some sort of resolution to the emotional distance between Bruno and Kamala. Which I don't think was ever on the table. The character is still trying to figure out what he's going to do going forward, if he's going to go forward at all. That needed to get sorted on some level before he could worry about patching things up with someone else. I especially liked that moment where Bruno thinks about how much he hates when people tell him to stop saying he "can't" do something, and to instead think positively, and also how much he wishes they were right. I've had those moments before, although it feels like I'm on the other side more often, trying to find something good to say, but worried it's all going to seem trite and feel as though I'm dismissing their problems lightly. A really genuine moment there.

It's amazing to me how much Ian Herring's color work keeps this book feeling the same through all the different artists it's had. There's nothing bad about Gaston's art. He can do exaggerated expression when he needs to, he gives the surroundings a distinct look so you can tell this is a much different place than Jersey City or even New York. His art feels like it's somewhere between Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa's, not quite as exaggerated as the former, not quite as slick as the latter. But there were times reading it I expected the art to look like Miyazawa's because the color work makes it still feel like those earlier issues. The particular blue for the field surrounding the Vibranium, the colors of the flames from the hovercar, the yellow of the screens in the classroom (or as the background of that one panel of Bruno and Kwezi seeing the Vibranium), it's all in line with Herring's work on earlier issues, and so the issue still feels like it fits, even with a different pencil artist.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #15, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Myisha Haynes (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Gwen, Kate, those bullets and arrows are eventually going to fall, you know. You're probably going to kill some rich kid's parents as they exit the theater and turn him into a grumpy asshole of a costumed vigilante.

The magic gem will collect a person's soul, and if you put the gem in another body it takes it over. The dwarves want the gem to take control of some giant mindless monster. Gwen uses her knowledge of the current Ghost Rider to track him down in his civilian i.d., while not letting Kate learn it, so they can all team-up to stop the dwarves. They do, Cecil takes control of the monster, the dwarves flee back to whichever realm dwarves are from, and that's another friend sort of helped after Gwen screwed his life up in the first place. And now Gwen is going to go look up the versions of her family that exist in the Marvel Universe. What I want to know is did they always exist, or did Dr. Strange create them when he did his hoodoo to give Gwen a past in this universe?

This was not one of the stronger stories. Maybe because I came in after Cecil was dead, so I missed all the stuff that would make me care. I don't know, being a ghost seems somewhat preferable to being a shaggy purple monster. The latter seems like a good way to have Elsa Bloodstone blow your head off. Everything just felt perfunctory. Here's Kate Bishop, let's have them team-up. Oh, throw Ghost Rider in too. Other than some brief drama about whether the spirit in G.R.'s car would convince Cecil to possess Gwen instead, there wasn't any point to it. And I don't care about either of those characters enough to be like, "oooooh, Kate Bishop! Sooooo excited!"

Haynes' art seemed stronger in the flashback sequence. Maybe it's easier for her to draw guys in robes and boots and armored helmets versus trucks and Ghost Riders. Although she did pretty well with the floating skull spirit that was trying to tempt Cecil. And when the monster is first released from the crate. The linework was a little busier, more shading than on a lot of the other panels. Gave it some heft, made it feel a little different from all the other characters. But the rest of the book just feels flat. The action sequences don't have much impact. Rosenberg seems to be going with a pretty basic color range, and I'm not sure it's doing the art any favors.

What I Bought 4/12/2017

Only able to get one out of three books this week. Make do with what we've got.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #14, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Myisha Haynes (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Can't decide if Gwen actually paid for that stuff or not. Although I'm also not sure who Kate is aiming at. The angle of the arrow doesn't really line up with Gwen, but that seems to be who Kate is looking at.

Gwen asks Sarah if she can at least give Gwen's dead friend Cecil the ability to interact with the physical realm again, if not bring him back to life. Sarah can't, but she can detect a possible solution, and provides a portal to it. The solution is a gem, held by a bunch of dwarves in Los Angeles, being tracked by Kate Bishop. Unfortunately, Sarah's portal leaves Gwen and Cecil trapped in the trunk of a car. How can an incorporeal spirit be trapped in a car? It's the Ghost Rider's car, as he's also after the dwarves. The whole thing turns into a mess, and Cecil winds up trapped in the gem, which Ghost Rider takes off with. So Kate and Gwen will try tracking him down, and hopefully Cecil doesn't listen to the Spirit of Vengeance talking to him inside the gem.

Gwen seems to be trying to make amends for her poor and hasty decisions at the start of the series, but at the precise moment some of her other decisions are about to come back to haunt her. Not just what happened to Cecil, but also what she had Dr. Strange do to give herself a history in that world. Is it a case of how sometimes you make the best choice you can under a deadline, and have to deal with the consequences, or is it that Gwen failed to even consider the possibility of consequences? She thinks it's all a fiction, a gave she can manipulate because she thinks she knows the rules. And I think what Hastings is doing is showing there are rules in play Gwen either didn't realize existed, or didn't stop to factor in.

Haynes' art seems more simplified than it was in issue 11. That might be the thicker lines that are getting used at least part of the time. The pages with those definitely have a rougher look to them than some of the others. I thought the page where Gwen leaps into the bathtub portal looked really good, but the shading and level of detail just doesn't look as good on most other pages. The action sequences are kind of stiff. Ghost Rider seems unable to bend any of his joints in a more than minimal amount. he's swinging around these chains, but there's no sense of any exertion or movement. Ghost Rider seems like the biggest problem, and I wonder if Haynes just struggles with the character. And I have a similar feeling about Rosenberg's colors, which makes me think one of the two is affecting the other, and I can't tell which way it's going. Again though, the colors seem flatter in the second half of the book, so maybe the whole thing was rushed.

Taken on its own, not a good issue. As the starting point in a larger story, it puts a couple of interesting pieces in place. I wasn't really dying to see Gwen interact with Kate Bishop or Robbie Reyes.

What I Bought 3/8/2017

Was only able to find half the books I was looking for this week. Also overheard the guy who runs one of the comic shops in town say there are only three Marvel titles selling more than 10 issues at his store currently. I suspect the fans want more books with certain characters and aren't getting them, but I wonder if the sheer number of books Marvel's putting out is dragging things down. Diluting sales, sort of. Probably not.

The Unbelievable Gwenpool #13, by Christopher Hastings (writer), Alti Firmansyah (artist), Gurihiru (artist/colorist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Batroc, when she asks for help, she doesn't mean rooting her on.

Gwen and her team battle Deadpool, and initially win because Gwen employs boss battle tactics against Deadpool. But then she makes the mistake of gloating about him being a guest star in her book, and Wade figures out what he's dealing with, turning the tables. But they realize how stupid it is to play Arcade's game, team-up, quickly dispatch Arcade, and the story moves on to other things. Gwen wants to try and make things up to her friends, but most of them are doing OK. Except Cecil, who is a ghost. So time to bring him back to life.

Firmansyah draws most of the issue. Gurihiru draw the part where Wade takes control of the situation. Firmansyah's style is a little looser than Gurihiru's exaggerates expressions more for comedic effect. It works fine, fits with the established tone of the book. Although at times Gwen's skull seems abnormally large. A bit of a mushroom head thing going. But I like the mental chessboard that appears as she devises her strategy, and that Wade's also able to see it when he grasps what he's up against.

So there's a surprise reveal in this issue which I will not spoil here. You can ask in the comments, or find the post about this issue on Scans daily if you care. But it was effectively surprising, so good on Hastings there. I would never have expected it. Beyond that, the different ways in which Gwen and Wade approach being in a fictional universe was very interesting. It made me reconsider some things about Deadpool, and also has me wondering about Gwen's continued presence. Wade knows he's in a story, knows there are genre conventions governing certain aspects, but mostly accepts these. He goes with it, Gwen is more inclined to exploit the loopholes or gaps. But I wonder how long she can exist in a fictional universe before her actions are controlled by outside forces as well, assuming it isn't already happening.

Nova #4, by Jeff Loveness (writer), Ramon Perez (writer/artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Albert Deschesne (letterer) - Something about that cover looks strange. Maybe just because they're paused as they move in to kiss, or something about the shading. Not sure.

While Rich and Gamora spend some time together, and Rich keeps putting off explaining what's happened to him, Sam goes on a date with Lina. He's awkward, but it could have gone worse. But his little sister tried messing with one of those Nova helmets he has in the garage, the ones the thing from the Cancerverse was hiding in. So that's bad.

I have to admit, this armor plates look Gamora is sporting the last few years isn't bad, though her past costumes set the bar pretty low. Keeping the cloak and hood was a nice touch, though I am a mark for costumes with a cloak and hood. The two page spread contrasting the two couples' evenings was nice. The pair just getting to know each other, not really understanding how this works, versus the pair that have some history, but it isn't Sam learning the difficulties of maintaining the secret identity on a date, but also bringing some of the experience he's picked up along the way. It also feels like Herring is using different background colors for the two threads. More reds, purples, oranges for Sam and Lina, more blues and a tan for Rich and Gamora. It's not a perfect split, there's overlap but the colors when Sam confronts the punks attacking the homeless man are very different from the ones used during Rich and Gamora's fight. Of course, those two are mostly having fun, defending themselves from schmucks, while Sam's trying to protect someone. The stakes are a little greater in his case.

I would really like for Perez and Loveness to get to the point of this Cancerverse resurrection. Deal with that mystery, and establish where the series goes from there. But you know, I didn't realize Rich had a safe house under the monument from the World's Fair. Is that left over from his original ongoing, or one of the ones Erik Larsen did for him in the '90s?