Sunday Splash Page #181

 

"If Anyone's Earned the Right. . .," in Empowered: Pew Pew Pew, by Adam Warren

As I understand the story, Empowered started from somebody commissioning Adam Warren to make-up a superheroine and basically draw her in a lot of bondage stuff. Said person never coughed up the cash, Warren was left with this character he created who gets their costume strategically torn up and winds up captured a lot, and went from there.

The title character has an extremely powerful, but also extremely fragile, skin-tight supersuit. The more it gets damaged, the less powerful it gets, and flying glass can be enough to damage it. And super-battles are full of flying glass. So even though Emp is actually an intelligent, careful superhero, she tends to get captured a lot and has a reputation as a joke, even when she routinely bails out her more popular, dumbshit teammates on the Super-Homeys. She does end up with a small crew of good friends, mainly an alcoholic lady ninja and a former henchman called "Thugboy", so that keeps it from being too much of a downer.

Warren released, I think, 10 manga-sized volumes, although I think now he's moved to publishing it a page at a time online. Probably will collect that work eventually, too. Besides that, there were a lot of one-shots (like the comic above) and a few mini-series. Those were nice, because you usually didn't have to be reading the main story to follow along. Anything you did need to know, Warren would fill you in on. He understands the need for a little exposition and flashback on occasion. Most of those were drawn by other artists, like Takeshi Miyazawa, Carla Speed McNeil, or Brandon Graham, among others. I don't know why Warren decided to draw this one himself, although it might be the last of the one-shot issues he released.

For me, Empowered is one of those books where you can see the skill and craft put into the book, but it doesn't quite connect somehow. I like Warren's art, it's got manga influence, but it's still it's own thing. Heavier lines and more frenetic energy than most manga I've seen, but also more clarity than some of the mangas that come close. The difference in trying to follow a fight scene in Empowered versus Trigun Maximum is night and day. The writing can be funny or touching as needed. Warren plays up the notion that a lot (but not all) of the heroes are really just dumbass high schoolers that got older but no wiser or mature. Which makes them predictably idiotic in ways that can be entertaining or infuriating.

Yet, it doesn't click. I enjoy the one-shot stories, and the two mini-series were fine, but even having bought the first volume of the series, I never felt compelled to keep going. I imagine if I came across it in a library I might read through it if I had the time, but I don't have to know what happens next.

Just the way it goes sometimes.

What I Bought 11/13/2018 - Part 1

Something I learned last Friday is, if you go out running when it's still dark, it's very difficult to see ice. It was actually funny, because I had hit some snow and was just thinking, "Boy, I hope there's no ice," and my foot landed and immediately started sliding. At which point it's like, "Well, shit." I'm fine, minus some cuts and bruises. Was even able to keep running for another hour. It was about 30 degrees so my legs were too cold to feel pain until I got home and warmed up.

Let's get to these books from last month! We're going to start with two mini-series that are wrapping up. One has been a confusing disappointment, the other is 5 months late.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #6, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist and letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - The combination of murder weapons taken from Clue with all the mundane items makes for one heck of a party.

It's Spooky and Emp against Queen Bee Ashley and her henchlady Ashlee, both ramped up on most of the magic Spooky also draws from. Except it's quickly just Ashlee after she stabs the Queen Bee in the back, taking the power for herself. Emp is left trying to protect Spooky until Spooky can get herself together, at which point she figures out a truth about Ashlee. Confronting Ashlee with that causes her self-destruction, the ladies leave Hell, Spooky now more powerful than ever since there's no one left to split the power with.

That was an interesting reveal about Ashlee. Makes sense, considering Spooky was offered the same deal. Wonder how many of the other girls were in the same boat. The series probably could have stood to be an issue shorter and gotten to the same point. You can definitely do something with the gauntlet concept, but it's neutralized, by the fact the Infernal Service Provider was healing them up after each fight. At that point, it's more a matter of whether Spooky can handle revisiting the site of so much old emotional trauma. Except the story established fairly quickly that what she went through in school wasn't her weak point, it was her feelings of failure and loss over the death of her girlfriend. All her old tormentors were still stuck on the same old bullshit, while Spooky had moved on to newer and more awful traumas! Which she has apparently learned to manage. Whether she's been doing so in a safe manner is another matter I'm not qualified to assess.

Carla Speed McNeil and Jenn Manley Lee's artwork is and has been the selling point for the series. How Ashlee, once she's the last one standing, is drawn with increasingly heavy linework, making her look more jagged, meaner, uglier, as she just unleashes everything she kept under wraps for years playing second fiddle to Ashley on Spooky and Emp. Spooky for the choice she made when she took the deal, and Emp for the fact she won't lash out against Spooky for all the abuse that was dumped on her, the way Spooky took out her high school grudges on Emp. Or the bit at the end when Spooky's hand is reaching up from one panel towards the Infernal Service Provider in the panel above. Then in the next panel, she's crushing him and I think the panel he was in. Or maybe it's the weird "fake school" space that he'd dumped them in.

Multiple Man #5, by Matthew Rosenberg (writer), Andy MacDonald (artist), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - If you can tell us how many multiple men make up Jamie Madrox, you can win an all-expenses paid trip to Albuquerque, where anyone on the street will shave your back for a nickel, and the Shriners play their kazoos all day! Note: there is no prize. Don't do the math then contact me looking for your trip.

OK, I dunno what's happening. The thing Bishop gave Jamie a few issues ago is actually a bomb, which Bishop uses to blow up as many of the time-traveling Jamies as he can. Somehow one version of the bomb looks like it blew up a city block, and yet another version of it failed to blow up General Madrox who was standing three fucking feet away from it. One version of Jamie and his mutated dupes return to the present, where Hank has finished the serum so a duplicate can be Jamie Prime, which general Madrox takes. Fighting and merging ensues, things get worse, Hulk Madrox kills the combined Jamies Prime, all Madroxes die. Except the one who wound up on Swimsuit Issue Earth, who returns from years of being a bartender, borrows what's left of the serum, and goes to find Layla and her son.

So, all that confusing mess to get us basically the Jamie we had before Inhumans vs. X-Men killed him. This Jamie is a little goofy, kind of mellow, has the "M" tattoo over his eye, the serum will let him create duplicates, and he's going to live with Layla and their kid. He's Jamie Madrox, full-stop. What I don't understand is, if all the duplicates died when Hulk Madrox killed the Jamie Prime, how did the duplicate in the bunker survive for as long as he did after the Terrigen Mists killed his Jamie Prime? How did the Madrox at the end of this series survive with his Jamie Prime (whichever one it was) dying somewhere in the midst of all this nonsense? Shouldn't he have just keeled over during his shift at the bar?

I find it strange a bunch of X-Men couldn't beat an army of Madrox armed only with swords. Or big knives. What MacDonald drew varied from one panel to the next. Not sure if that was intentional or not. It didn't seem like the duplicates were particularly skilled fighters, and considering this mini-series takes the approach that seemingly none of the X-Men like Jamie, you'd think they'd just stomp hell out of him.

I'm fine having Jamie back, let he and Layla go off into the sunset. Inhumans vs. X-Men was dumb as all hell, undo anything you want from it (yes, you can even bring Cyclops back). This is too convoluted of a way to do it, not nearly as clever or funny as it thinks it is. I do chuckle at Hulk Madrox simply saying "roar" when he is supposed to be getting angry, but most of the story misses the mark with me. I probably would have smiled at 'So I've become the proverbial Grinch. I've come to take your present,' if I hadn't been so bored by General Madrox' bullshit speech by the time her got to that.

It didn't dawn on me until the weekend that the last panel, which I have included above, is a Fall of the Mutants homage/riff with all the corpses on the ground. On the plus side, if the mutants have already fallen, then there's no harm Madrox can do. Everything is gonna be OK?

It has not been a good year for me and mini-series from Marvel. Come back Wednesday when one of the books I review will be the first issue of another mini-series from Marvel! Sooner or later I've got to land on one I enjoy, right?

What I Bought 8/1/2018 - Part 1

Kind of mad at myself for not making a joke in Wednesday's post about how the outfit Jack was wearing on Rann looked like he stole it from Captain Obvious. Oh well, missed opportunities. Here's a couple of books from last month.

Multiple Man #2, by Matt Rosenberg (writer), Andy McDonald (artist), Tamra Bonvillain (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Thumbs up? Damnit Jamie, this is what happens when you don't come to practice!

Time-traveling Jamie returns to the future with all those weird, hybrid Jamies. A future ruled by a tyrannical Jamie Madrox, which is a concept I find difficult to take seriously, but OK. The Jamies meet a young boy, who takes them to the resistance. Which is that boy, Layla Miller, her and Jamie's son, and the hybrid Madroxes before they were hybrid Madroxes. Oh, and Forge's head in what looks like a walking trash compactor. Jamie is trying to explain some plan he wants to implement involving more time travel, but I don't think Forge followed it any better than I did. So they try taking to the streets, and that goes badly. Madrox Hulk is not like regular Hulk.

I dunno, beyond the idea Jamie's going to solve a problem created by a time traveling duplicate with more time-traveling duplicates, I'm not really sure about this. This Jamie doesn't seem to have his stuff together even as much as Jamie Prime did when I stopped reading X-Factor, and that is a low bar to clear. I would expect Jamie to have plenty of ideas on how to approach dealing with Despot Jamie, but not be able to decide on one. This Jamie seems able to pick a path, but lacks any sort of resolve to follow-through on it. He starts his time-travel thing with Forge, then decides to go challenge the Madrox army with the hybrid Jamies, and as soon as one dies, orders a full retreat. I guess he's a duplicate Jamie that lacks any resolve or confidence. I'm not sure if that's deliberate yet or not.

Despot Jamie doesn't seem to have invested much in housing or infrastructure in the future, but he has turned the skies a perpetual, entirely evenly-distributed shade of red. Impressive, if perhaps a poor allocation of the state budget. That giant statue of himself sitting on a throne of skulls is hard to take seriously, too. Maybe if he wasn't wearing the same outfit as the goober Jamie the book is following. Or maybe it's the sloppy hair and the thoughtful look. If he's supposed to look thoughtful. he could be chewing gum. Which would be a very silly Jamie thing to do, but not really on-point for a world conquering mass-murderer.

I read a comment that Rosenberg seems like he wanted to use Peter David's idea of the dupes representing different aspects of Jamie's personality, but didn't want to have to acknowledge any of the character growth PAD put Jamie through in the course of that. Thus, a duplicate split off from a duplicate that's been split off from Jamie since before any of that happened. The book is funny in spots, but I'm certain it's supposed to be. Jamie Madrox destroys world trying to save himself, then makes things worse trying to fix it does seem like a bit of a farce. Hell, it isn't the worst mini-series I've bought from Marvel this summer. Not yet, still three issues to go.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #5, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist/letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - Huh, "Frank Cho" is actually the name of an art studio consisting of four evil teenage girls. Who knew?

We're into the Lightning Round now, as Spooky and Emp run through a series of attacks by different groups of Spooky's old tormentors. Spooky is not feeling good at repeatedly outmaneuvering these jerks, because she's feeling bad about all the cruel things she used to say about Emp, how she took out her anger over old cruelties on someone who hadn't done anything to her. Or she got an offer to seel Emp out to resurrect her girlfriend and she's feeling worse and worse about agreeing. That would have happened off-panel, and I doubt that's what's going on, but this is a Hell dimension. They are going to try and get her to do something horrible by offering her something she badly wants.

Anyway, with all the scrubs failing, the top boss Ashley and her right-hand lackey lure all the others into the gym, then kill them so that it will be just the two of them sharing the power against our heroes, rather than dividing it between dozens of people. I expect Ashlee (the right-hand lady) to betray Ashley (the Queen Bee) and make a stab at glory. I also expect it'll fail, but it seems appropriate. Spooky's a convenient target they can agree on, but none of these girls actually like each other, either. Given the power disparity, that might be the only chance Spooky and Emp have.

Still an impressive variety of different attempts by the Blonde Horde. Ashlee 2 with the "piercing gaze" was clever, and I would have expect the "trapped in a locker" move to work. Who the heck remembers their high school locker combination? I'm pretty sure I forgot mine five minutes after each school year was over. I especially like the visual of the Infernal Service Provider. The hideous suit, the charred skull, the flames. I was working on a Ghost Rider sketch a couple weeks ago, and now I wish I'd gone with a charred skull look instead of a white skull with flames. (Although that would be an awful lot of black in the picture, given the Rider's normal taste in clothes.)

One more issue to go, which might actually come out this month. Hopefully. All these delays on these mini-series are starting to get on my nerves.

What I Bought 5/1/2018 - Part 1

That Dr. Strange Favorite Characters post is getting a lot of views, by my standards. At least I haven't been attacked by rabid Strange fans in the comments. Must not have done too badly on it.

The Demon: Hell is Earth #6, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Would have been a bit more Biblical for Belial to use the jawbone of an ass, rather than the rib of a giant wolf. Also, he would have had no shortage of options between Etrigan, Merlin, and Blood, if he could get Jason to be corporeal for long enough to remove it.

Yes, I ended up buying it. I was curious to see how Blood being a spectral being would contribute to Belial's downfall. The answer is, "very little". Etrigan does most of the fighting, with a magic buff from Merlin, and Blood's role is to taunt Etrigan into getting angry enough to overcome his father's magic. The spell is undone, cosmic reset button, bingo bango, everything is back as it was. Except Etrigan is now ruler of Hell.

I suppose if someone did something with that, it might be interesting. What's Etrigan going to do as King of Hell? How is that going to impact life for people on Earth or other worlds? Seriously, send Etrigan to Mogo and let him cause trouble there. Merlin was hiding Excalibur and gave that to Etrigan? Can he claim rule over England now (I'm not clear on Arthurian legends, obviously). I guess there are possibilities, but I don't know that any of them are going to take place. Otherwise, it's an, "OK, so?" A status quo change to no effect. The part that caught my attention the most is Belial paraphrased Kung Fu Panda at one point on page 2 and 3. Which feels like something Etrigan would mock him for if, you know, he hadn't decapitated Belial.

Brad Walker's art is still good, although the fight suffers for Belial being so large. He'd been something similar with Etrigan throughout the series, but more in quieter moments, conversations or the preludes to violence. Belial takes up so much space in the panels things feel cluttered. I wanted Walker to back the view up so we could have a better sense of what's happening. But he was keeping it focused on the two demons, who were the important ones in all this, so it makes sense.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #4, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist/letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - Glad I ate dinner before I started this review, or I'd have lost my appetite.

The heroes survive a tussle with the food elemental on the cover in the cafeteria, and then are attacked by the 3 J's and their deadly hair in the gymnasium. Bit of a close call both times, but they survive.

I like the flashback to lunchtime at Spooky's school, drawn within a lunch tray. That's just a clever layout. Also, in the flashback to a conversation between Hannah and Theresa, we're seeing part of the conversation as a reflection from a mirror. And when Theresa and Emp were under attack in the girl's room, Spooky saw Hannah in the mirror's reflection as well. I don't know a lot of the backstory of the relationship, but I'm guessing that, while all the popular girls are trying to make Theresa relive the humiliation they put her through in high school, she's really looking back over the ways she feels she screwed up what she had with Hannah. And how the torment these girls put her through contributed to that, the same way it contributed to her hating Emp when they first met (because she assumed Emp was just like all those girls from high school).

And I wonder if any of the evil girls are paying attention to how things are going. They know their classmates are dying obviously, but bringing up Hannah is consistently taking the fight out of Theresa. She was still struggling against Julia - even without being able to muster a spell - until Julia mentioned that Hannah also had blonde hair, which dredged up painful memories. I've mentioned that all these girls are stuck on their high school years, and are making the mistake of thinking Spooky is still that same girl, too. So the taunts and attacks that were so effective then, aren't cutting it now. But there's another, more recent wound that's still open, and they mostly ignore it.

I have to figure that one of the Ashlee's is going to deliberately exploit it sooner or later, and I guess we'll see how that plays out.

What I Bought 3/7/2018 - Part 1

They build vending machines now to recognize if your selection didn't actually drop. When it senses that, it makes the little coil spin again, and then you can get two bags of Skittles for the price of one. It's a nice bonus that happens every once in a while. Some days at work, I take what I can get.

Tick 2017 #3, by Cullen Bunn and JimmyZ (writers), Duane Redhead (artist) - Welcome to the X-Men, Tick and Arthur, hope you brought enough pie for everyone.

Spotted Fever saves Arthur from the clowns and ninjas, and smacks some sense back into the Tick. She takes them to La Chambre Rouge where they find the newest batch of prospective heroes being twisted by Dr. Daedalus. Their attempt to escape runs them smack into an army of ninjas and clowns.

I feel this was a play on Larry Hama's Wolverine run, when Logan finds the Weapon X facility they staged a lot of his and the other victims' memories at. Mostly it was the scene when Tick wanders into a room he swears is Arthur's living room (although Arthur doesn't see it). I don't know if that's what Bunn and JimmyZ are going for, but given the Tick originally played a lot with spoofing Miller's Daredevil, it wouldn't surprise me. They've given the Tick a backstory of a nefarious doctor trying to turn him into a weapon, plus a lost love he didn't remember, plus speaking French all of the sudden. OK, that last one isn't a perfect comp to Logan's connections to Japan, but you get my point.

Redhead's artwork fits the story. It's still, at this point, a fairly straightforward superhero story, and Redhead has a clean, straightforward style. He can make the evil Doctor look sinister when he needs to, and the Tick is very expressive, and it seems like all the information that is supposed to be on the page is there, presented clearly. I would like a better look at the designs on those other heroes that showed up, especially The Gesture. I feel like his costume ought to evoke the era his moves supposedly come from, but the little bit we see of it doesn't suggest that.

I'm not sure if I'm planning to stick with the book going forward, though. Still not convinced we really needed the Tick's origin, assuming this doesn't wind up being some sort of fakeout or a false memory. Also, they write the Tick as very stream of consciousness. Was he always like that? Maybe it's all the buried memories. I guess we'll see.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #3, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist/letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - I'm glad my high school bathroom experiences were not like that.

After surviving a sing-off against in the music room, Spooky and Emp wind up in the ladies' room, where Emp finds herself stuck in a stall that is filled rapidly by her own tears, and Spooky's being torn apart by cutting words from another girl as it cracks her reflection. But Emp has dealt with enough cruel taunts that she's able to bust out and kill both their tormentors. That's six more down, total.

Last issue, I wondered why no one was trying to backstab the Queen Bee, Ashley. I guess it's because she's more powerful than the others, with her Absolute Solipsism Field, and they're just terrified of her. It's seeming more and more likely she expects our heroes to kill all the others so she gets all of Spooky's power, and it might be interesting if that didn't go as planned. I can't shake that feeling Spooky's going to be offered a chance to rescue Hannah if she'll just betray Emp, and I'm not sure how that's going to play out.

The other part that's come up again is how for the most part, these girls are stuck in the same patterns they had in high school. They haven't changed their tactics, and think their targets haven't either. Spooky was nervous about singing, but the shit the girls hurled her way only irritated her. The insults Olivia whispered to Emp might have worked when the series started, but she's come far enough to know it's not true and not surrender. Brooke's insults didn't start to have the maximum impact until she attacked who Spooky is now, as opposed to how she looked back then. Attacking her survivor's guilt, her regrets, that seemed to take Spooky's will to fight.

McNeil and Lee did a heck of a job on that bit with Spooky trapped in front of the mirror. The way the cracks show in her reflection as these red voids, and then appear as cuts on the real her. The way the red that saturates those panels contrasts the blue that's threatening to drown Emp. Hannah's image appearing in the mirror, but mostly not showing the red hue, even though it's supposed to be part of Spooky's torment. The panels that have Spooky in them keep moving in closer as her situation goes downhill, even as Emp's move back as she takes control of hers. And the number of panels per page goes up a little near the end of it. Not a lot, from five to seven over the course five pages, but it works. Time is running out, the tension goes up. Surprise, Carla Speed McNeil is good at this drawing thing.

What I Bought 2/7/2018 - Part 1

These aren't from this week, they're actually from last month. I'm saving the third book for Monday, because it's the end of a story arc. In the meantime, one of these two is still ramping up, and the other is preparing for the conclusion. In other news, Bruce Willis is doing a remake of Death Wish, the Charles Bronson 1970s, "what is society coming to?", or maybe, "minorities are scary" movie. Kee-rist, that is not a thing anyone needed, ever.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #2, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist and letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - Being attacked by emojis? Yeah, that sounds like Hell.

Spooky is able to get her and Emp out of the biology lab of horror by playing on Bethany's fear of the preserved specimens. If I though the dissected frog assistants last issue were creepy, the formaldehyde, whatever those were, hog fetuses? Yeah, those are more disturbing. Then they're forced to fight a pair of students using their phones to physically harm people, rather than emotionally. Although if Emp or Spooky had time to read the texts, it would probably hurt emotionally as well. They get out of that situation, so only three dozen more crazy, entitled high school girls to go. So I have to assume they're going to pick up the pace big time on defeating these girls, if there's only four issues left.

Although it's curious to me that there's still a "Queen Bee" girl, given the stakes. The Infernal Service Provider has said the fewer of them there are, the more of Spooky's magic each will get. Rushing out to fight them on the orders of some other girl seems a poor choice. Given there are supposed to be the stereotypical entitled mean girls, I would expect someone to try and backstab or coup against Ashley.

McNeil is giving Spooky a tired air throughout this whole thing. Not that she isn't in danger, or the attacks aren't hurting, but she's already been through a wringer, and beaten herself up about it. And she already survived these girls once. Their attacks may have a little more power behind them, but it's the same stuff they used to do. They haven't grown or evolved, and she has. She can think circles around them. I'm more worried about Emp, who has always struggled a bit in the face of scorn from others, including Spooky. It looks like the fight in the library took more of a toll on her. So that'll be something to monitor.

Atomic Robo: The Spectre of Tomorrow #4, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Anthony Clark (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer, designer) - I went with the variant cover because that thing is freaking boss. Just now I've had a vision: Atomic Robo/Haunted Tank team-up! It's glorious, I tell you.

Back in the actual story, Helsingard wants to team up with Robo. The robots that attacked were some of his, that were overtaken by ALAN's programming when he came looking to loot all those nukes. As it turns out, all the people falling apart because they're cyborgs are also his soldiers, an even more advanced design, that are also being controlled by the rogue programming. Sooooo, awkward, uneasy team-up! Yeah! And before the end of the issue, Helsingard has allowed himself to be pulled into the network, and overtaken it by force of will. That's either a very bad thing, or a good thing. Good because it means Robo can try killing two of his enemies at once. Saves time.

In other developments, Vik and Lang have found a way to get construction going again, by extorting Elon Musk to call an emergency meeting of the community members, and vote in Telsadyne's favor. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Was part of that because I'm side-eyeing Elon shooting a goddamn car into outer space this week, and I enjoyed a fictional version of him having to eat shit? Maybe!

Man, I don't know if Wegener's rushed, or just disinterested, or Clark's colors are overwhelming the linework, or what, but damn the art has looked sloppy in this story. There are some panels where Robo is a vaguely defined grey blob. I went back and looked at the third volume, Shadow from Beyond Time, and the difference in how crisp the art looks is night and day. And some of it is definitely the colors (that series was colored by Ronda Pattison), because the colors were a lot brighter in that mini-series than they are here. It drove home how muddy things look now. But there are times where it looks as though Wegener didn't even bother to draw some lines, and is letting the coloring suggest their existence. It's too bad, because this is a pretty cool story, but the art's not carrying its share of the load.

What I Bought 1/3/2018 - Part 1

The books I ordered last week arrived today. Good thing, as none of the books I wanted this week were on the shelves. In an effort to keep to the schedule I had planned for next week, we are going old-school. Reviewing comics the day I bought them, whoo! Who needs time for more careful reflection and thought? Today we're looking at two books dealing with Hell, because a boiling lake of fire sounds pretty appealing given recent weather difficulties.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #1, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist and letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - What's the worst part for our heroes, the flames, the vengeance-fueled blondes, or the school outfits they're stuck in?

Sistah Spooky (aka Theresa) gained her looks and incredible magical powers by making a deal with a devil, the same deal as made with all her snobby classmates (except they didn't get any magic). She was cruel to Emp for a long time because Emp reminded her of those classmates, but now they're friends. Which means Emp gets dragged into Hell with Spooky when the demon she made the deal with decides to give all those old classmates a chance to kill her and take her magic for themselves.

Warren is able to fill in any potential new readers on the backstory between the two, and Spooky's history in general. I knew some of it, but there was quite a bit I was unfamiliar with, so that helped. But it seems likely that a lot of what gets laid out here is going to factor into the story. The ugly history between Emp and Spooky, Spooky's girlfriend Hannah having died not too long ago, and the rescue attempt having failed.

And it seems relevant that for at least the first half of Spooky and Emp's chat in the coffee shop, Spooky doesn't really make eye contact. Emp is looking at her, listening and attentive almost constantly. Spooky is mostly looking around at other people, or at the ground. Which could be a sign of her not really caring, but then she does start making eye contact when Emp lays out exactly how shitty Spooky was to her and how much it hurt. It shifts the reading of it to where Theresa is still caught up in her own issues, but she was maybe honestly oblivious to her hypocrisy. It's telling that once called on it, she starts making eye contact more regularly and doesn't let Emp start in with self-deprecating talk.

I especially like how Carla Speed McNeil laid out Page 6, with the litany of cruelties running diagonally across the page, Emp in a panel in the upper corner, and Theresa in the opposite corner in the bottom, where it feels like all her past digs are toppling over on her. The demon's suit having the same coloring and pattern as the skirts in the school uniforms. And that office he was in, with the shadowy husks typing away endlessly was pretty creepy too. The color Lee used for them works well, because it isn't a simply black, like they were just shadows. It's a grey like ashes, with a few darker shadows to give a vague distinguishing to some facial features. It makes them almost insubstantial, like they'd blow away if you breathed on them.

The Demon: Hell is Earth #2, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciller), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Yeah, I'd pay money to see Etrigan fight giant, burning minotaurs. I just did, in fact.

The bubble of Hell caused by the missile is expanding slowly, and corrupting anyone who touches it. Inside, Etrigan wants to kill the little girl from Blood's dreams, and is stopped by Blood threatening to talk endlessly about things of beauty and kindness. Like butterflies. The girl mentions Madame Xanadu, the three set out and find her fighting off the people from the bar she was at, who are quickly dispatched by Etrigan. Some talking ensues, until the Demon gets bored and incinerates the little girl. Oh well, that's that.

Most interesting thing to me is it referenced the Demon Knights series that was part of the New 52. Where Xanadu was in a relationship with Etrigan and Jason, apparently. I guess there's no reason that can't still be in continuity if they want it to be. But as a potential emotional lever on Etrigan, that past relationship could be a fun piece to have in play. I don't know which direction it will push him, but that's part of the fun. He might surprise us.

I would guess a lot of the credit for all the lovely fire in this issue goes to Sotomayor's colors. You would think in a scorched hellscape it would blend in, but they go with vague, featureless backgrounds, or against creatures that are very dark, that it's able to pop. Also, Etrigan seems to leak a little fire from his mouth whenever he's annoyed. Like someone who spits when they get agitated, or talks with their hands a lot. Not a bad touch, although this Etrigan doesn't seem very clever. I tend to think of him as being cunning, up to a point, and that's lacking here. Maybe that's deliberate, an effect of where they are, or it's just how Constant writes him. He lets Etrigan rhyme when he wants to, which is mostly when he's fighting and feeling good.

Walker's artwork is solid. Combined with Sotomayor's colors, the people altered by what's going on look a bit like the X-Man Sunspot when he powers up. Etrigan being extremely big and muscular is a deliberate choice related to the story. Walker still has a tendency to exaggerate faces, especially lips, to an extent that can be distracting. The little girl makes a face in one panel like she's posing for one of those duckface selfies, but that doesn't seem situation appropriate. It doesn't happen much, fortunately.

What I Bought 5/31/2017 - Part 1

I was remiss in my duties on Wednesday, as I didn't point out it was the most important holiday here at the blog, Clint Eastwood's Birthday Day. Which is celebrated by the ceremonial consuming of greasy foods and watching the Dollars Trilogy (plus maybe Unforgiven and High Plains Drifter if I'm up for it).

Real Science Adventures #2, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Lo Baker (art and letters, Flying She-Devils), Wook Jin Clark (artist, The Sparrow), Anthony Clark (colorist), Tessa Stone (letterer, Flying She-Devils), Jeff Powell (letterer, The Sparrow) - I took the subscription cover because it seemed a little more interesting to me. It's hard to imagine someone being that happy about bailing out of a plane, but if the alternative was not getting out of the plane, being happy about being in a functioning parachute makes sense.

The squad of She-Devils reach Marauder Island, and while they prepare some explosive distractions to cover their escape with the seaplane, discover the Marauders have enslaved several women from Tonga to make some vaguely fuel-like substance. So the theft of the plane is now also a liberation, neither of which Mad Jack can tolerate, so they're about to have his entire squadron of planes coming down on their heads. In the back-up story, Sparrow is undaunted by the lack of a farmhouse with supplies and infiltrates the weapon and begins killin' Nazis.

Now that things are happening, I'm much more interested in the main story. I'm especially curious about two things. One is if there will be a big surprise late with the concoction the prisoners were being used to make (Chekov's Moonshine). the other is what the air battle is going to look like. Mad Jack is determined to retake the Sutherland, so they can't simply shoot it down. Which means trying to board and retake the thing in mid-air. Which has the potential to be very cool, though I haven't seen Baker draw a battle scene yet, so it's unclear how that will go.

As with the previous issue, there are times Baker seems to need more room than the panels allow, and so faces are extremely simplified or overwhelmed by thick lines and shadows. But when there's enough room, the expressions and body language are still good. Mad Jack is all wild looks and teeth-gritted frustration. Val is slightly irritated as things start to go off-plan, but otherwise very under control. She doesn't get wide-eyed much, isn't gesturing or demonstrative, just focused on the task at hand.

Clark's work on the back-up seems like it shouldn't fit in this story about an agent trying to kill a bunch of Nazis and their super-weapon. A little too cute, but the tone of the story is light enough it mostly works. Sparrow is barely annoyed by the various complications, the Nazis aren't incompetent, but are just a little slow in grasping what's going on. There's no sense things are at all out of Sparrow's control, so there isn't a sense of danger to work against the art. Although everyone's hands still look too small for the rest of their bodies.

Empowered: Soldier of Love #3, by Adam Warren (writer), Karla Diaz (artist, color artist), Ryan Kinnaird (color artist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - I would criticize Emp for hair-pulling, but the lady is sporting a .50 cal or something so sure, pull all the hair you want.

With everyone else incapacitated with the love claymores the Soldato set, it's down to Emp to try and stop her from destroying love in the city. Which doesn't go very well, so it's fortunate Ninjette sees through the illusion and gets involved. It's sad because seeing through it involves realizing her father doesn't love her and never did. What's that line from "The Man Who Has Everything"? 'I made a trap you could only escape by giving up your heart's desire' or something like that? 'It must have been like cutting off your own arm'? The Soldato is very nearly sliced in two, but Emp steps in, there's tearful hugging, the villain escapes during all thise, but the machine was wrecked so love is saved.

The whole bit about Ninjette was effective, especially to have the Soldato mocking her for "daddy issues" the whole time Ninjette is having this wonderful experience of life with a father who isn't an abusive drunk. It's pretty disturbing that the Soldato did this to someone, and then thinks it's funny. Because she originally used her powers to her benefit, only to find it's no good making people love you, and deciding the whole idea of love was bogus. It's the same when she shoots Emp with "broken-heart hollow-points", the laughs about how Emp is probably reliving losing her father, that she can always smell dead daddy on a girl. That's the kind of shit I'd expect from the Joker, which is why I didn't feel particularly bad when she watched her magic pangolin get decapitated right in front of her. Found something she still cared about after all.

Actually, I'm still trying to figure out why the pangolin would go along with her plans to eradicate love in this city. It would seem contrary to being a soldier of love. Perhaps there was an explanation in the copious amounts of Spanish I couldn't decipher in this issue.

I'm not sure what would have happened inside the illusion if Soldato's plan had been completed, since Ninjette wouldn't have been able to feel love any longer. Would the illusion have faded, would she have been stuck in it, but bored or disinterested by it? Her father's affection wouldn't mean anything to her at that point.

There an angle that's reused in a couple of panels with Ninjette on the ground in the foreground, and Emp in the middle ground, looking upwards towards the Soldato in the distance. The first has Emp trying to reason but ready to fight, in the latter she's lost the fight but can still try to argue. But in the first, 'Jette out like a light, and in the latter, her eyes are open and she's crying as she' working out of the illusion/fugue state. And Diaz uses that ground level perspective on 'Jette a few times in between, charting her progress as she figures out what's happening. Point being, Karla Diaz did a good job drawing this. The sneering disdain she gives the Soldato in particular, puffing away on the stupid e-cig.

What I Bought 3/25/2017 and 4/4/2017

A couple of books from outside Marvel and DC. One is midway through a miniseries, and the other is an ongoing returning after a long hiatus.

Copperhead #11, by Jay Faerber (writer), Drew Moss (artist), Ron Riley (colorist), Thomas Mauer (letterer) - Some don't greet unwanted guests with pies to the face, they just shoot them.

At the end of the previous issue, Sheriff Clara Bronson had entered the Mayor's office and found him dead. So now comes the attempt to determine the killer. His last appointment was with a local bigwig, and he doesn't particularly like the sheriff, so she lets her deputy, whose name is Budroxifinicus (generally called "Boo") go first. And he quickly gets installed as the new Mayor. Whether he's trying to sucker the bigwig, or this is his way of getting one over on the sheriff remains to be seen. The sheriff also has an old ex show up, and there's a dangerous escaped convict who probably has an unhealthy fixation on her somewhere in space.

In retrospect, I should have reread the first two trades, because I can't recall who "Ford" is in his day job. I do recall the bigwig calling someone looking for dirt on Bronson, and that someone implying the sheriff kills people who try that shit, which I guess was Ford. Besides that, Faerber did a good job at least outlining all the basic connections. The coroner's also the doctor, and a drunk. The bigwig doesn't like the sheriff, she and this convict have history, the guy named Ishmael looking after the kid is an "Artie" (artificial human), but manages to work most of that in smoothly over the course of the issue. It's not exposition that grinds the book to a halt.

Moss is new to the book, as cover artist Scott Godlewski was the original series artist. Moss does well, nothing too flashy. I think Ron Riley's colors help the book maintain a largely similar feel to the earlier issues. A lot of very dark nights, and day scenes with a pale pink tint to the sky. At certain points the colors feel slightly washed out, like there's just a bit too much sun. I think Moss needs to draw Boo larger, though. Until the last page, he doesn't really dominate panels or pages the way I recall him doing. Could be that's the point, that as Mayor he has some power over Clara and that lets him assert dominance. He and Riley also like to portray Mr. Hickory (the bigwig) with the brim of his hat shadowing his eyes, so that they appear as empty white circles. At least, they like it enough to use it twice in two pages. There's a good contrast between those pages and how he's drawn on the final page, in his more solicitous public persona as he meets Clara. He's facing us more fully, no hat or anything shading his face, no devious grin, just more open in appearance, even if it's a false impression.

Empowered: Soldier of Love #2, by Adam Warren (writer), Karla Diaz (artist), Ryan Kinnaird (co-colorist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - Well, they may be tangled in the plots and hair of a resentful magical princess, but at least Ninjette still has her beer.

Emp has been pulling together a theory about what's with all the cape-types hooking up, and it involves a strange event where a bunch of teenage girls got magic powers, and one of them hates her job and is on the loose. Which is exactly correct, and the Soldato del Amor intends to mess around with some sort of Super Shield thing designed to protect the city from catastrophe, and instead use it to trap the inhabitants of the city and eradicate all love forever and ever. And most of the heroes are too busy making out or texting each other to do anything.

It's that middle chapter where all the pieces get moved into position for the big finish, and there's a lot more explanation of what's going on and why. Which is not the most fun to read, especially with the various Superhomeys incessantly texting each other constantly. If this is what life is like for the Soldato, no wonder she hates love so much. And I'm in complete agreement with Ninjette, that calling someone "Daddy" as sexy talk is nauseating. Like when guys call their wives "Mother". Colonel Potter always did that on MASH, and it just seemed weird. She's not your mom, don't call her that!

I did enjoy the sequence contrasting Soldato's original glee at learning she's a secret magical princess, with her utter disgust at the role she's trapped in 10 years later. The top half of the page, with bright pink background lighting and literal sparkles around her face as she cheers. Then bottom half, with a dull beige, off-white background of hotel walls, as she sits on the bed with her e-cig of Amor and sullenly stares into space. The constant scowl (except when she's sneering) she carries as she goes about her business is a nice touch too. And having her voice balloons change color when she's in costume and speaking the Language of Love rather than her typical Spanish, of which I can piece together maybe 40%.

Look, if she was speaking German I'd have a chance, but she's not. It's not my fault I'm not the right bilingual.

OK, it is my fault because I didn't take Spanish, but I didn't know in high school I'd someday need to translate a magical floating pangolin's speech bubbles.

What I Bought 2/18/2017 - Part 2

I'm excited to see DeMarcus Cousins in New Orleans. It's always been a question of whether he'd be less of a dysfunctional presence if he were in a competently-run franchise, rather than the clown car crashing into the radioactive waste dump that is the Sacramento Kings. The Pelicans aren't a huge step up, still a team that seems to run around like the proverbial headless chicken, but they are a step up. Anyway, you probably aren't here for my lukewarm basketball takes, so comics!

Empowered and the Soldier of Love #1, by Adam Warren (writer), Karla Diaz (artist), Nate Piekos (letterer) - That is quite the outfit, with the beret, the e-cig, and the floating pangolin. She reminds me a little of the cover to GrimJack #1, except even less happy.

Empowered figures out there's a sudden rash of various superheroes hooking up with each other, which is cutting into their effectiveness at dealing with threats. On the other hand, it also seems to be cutting down on the amount of hero against hero violence, so maybe a net positive. Though Emp hasn't figured out the cause yet, which would be the "Soldato del Amor" on the cover, said character has noticed Emp is investigating, and also has some bigger plans.

The Soldato del Amor is kind of interesting. I don't know if Diaz or Warren are responsible for the design, but I like it. It's the anime magical girl look crossed with a Stallone movie or something. And she's so bitter and disgusted with her work. Of course, being responsible for making everyone else feel lovey-dovey all the time could get nauseating pretty fast. I gotta wonder if there's going to be an explanation for her power like it only convinces the targets to act on feelings they already had, because otherwise there's some consent issues. I feel as though Dan Slott tried treading over this same issue with Starfox in his She-Hulk, with mixed results at best. I could see Warren deciding to broach that topic, and I'd trust him more than Slott, but still not sure how it's going to play out.

Diaz handles penciling, inking, and coloring of the art, and it works pretty well. Although it's always a little strange to me seeing Empowered in color, since Warren works in black and white. Everything is very bright, shiny, and slick, but that seems appropriate, and like I said above, I really like the design for Soldato. Diaz' style has enough manga influence that Magical Girl look doesn't seem out of place, and points for using a pangolin. I wonder how grammatically correct the Spanish is, though. There's not always translations offered, but it's pretty clear what's being driven at.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Chris Schweizer (artist, Vulture and Sandman panels), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I actually really like that costume, and her being a gliding squirrel does make sense.

Doreen attends a non-mandatory guest lecture for some reason, and meets with a highly successful older woman who just so happens to be able to speak with all animals, and also has a designed a flying squirrel suit for Doreen. Who uses it in corralling the Rhino (who must be having an off day if Squirrel Girl can shove him hard enough to break his grip). But Melissa is actually up to no good, hoping to isolate Squirrel Girl and gain an ally, or destroy a threat. Dunh, Dunh, Duuuuun!

I can't believe Doreen ragged on Spider-Man twitter feed on the recap page. That line about blocking wealth and fame was fantastic. And she follows the Hulk! His grammar is appalling! On other notes, Nancy changed her hairstyle again, which is one of her traits I like. I don't know many people who do that, but I know there are people like that, and it's nice to see a character who does. Have to question what they convinced Doreen to wear to "high tea", though. Just awful. Nice to see Mary remaining a member of the supporting cast. Her flexible morality adds a nice friction to the book. In a humorous way, although I guess we can't rule out her becoming a villain some day. maybe Melissa should have targeted her as an ally/protege.

"Everyone is mean to Rhino. Rhino is mean to everyone. Law of the jungle. Rhinos live in grassland, not the jungle. You know my intent.' That was pretty funny. North continues to have a knack for clever exchanges. Also, the idea of siccing a chicken on poor Sandman is both clever, and awful. You'd consign him to being stuck in the crop of a chicken, used to grind up food? That's as awful as that time Absorbing Man snorted coke, turned into coke, then was dispersed with giant fans, gathered up, and sold to people as super-special drugs. And I really wish I didn't remember that story existed. When I'm 80, if I live that long, and don't even remember my name, I'll probably still remember Reggie Hudlin wrote that comic.

As always, there are a lot of bits and pieces here and there that I enjoy. But I'm intrigued as to how this story is going to play out. Can Doreen talk down a dedicated, intelligent career woman Doreen is probably going to look up to? Will she keep the flying squirrel suit? Will Mary have Catthor and DogHulk make up and be friends?

What I Bought 12/1/2015 - Part 2

Both of today's books were impulse buys of a sort. One because I didn't even know it was coming out until the weekend before, the other because the title just sounded interesting when I saw it in Previews.

Empowered Special #7, by Adam Warren (story and art) - Alright, ridiculously huge firearms!

There are two threads in this issue. In one, Emp keeps fighting these normally calmer villains, who are now toting around major ordinance and acting completely kill-happy over various slights. Emp had a similar encounter some time earlier and realizes the weaponry has been designed to take over the user's mind and unleash their pent-up hostility. The other thread is Emp talking about how she really doesn't mind that even though she's been the Big Damn Hero saving the world for a while now, the villains, her teammates, and the public at large all still treat her like she's just a screw-up who is constantly getting captured. As you might guess, she isn't really as OK with all that as she lets on, which nearly has disastrous consequences when one of the weapons attaches itself to her.

Originally, Empowered was a series of sketches someone commissioned from Warren for a heroine in a skintight outfit that got tied up a lot. The buyer didn't pay up, so Warren turned it into a series about a heroine everyone perceives as being that, but then explores who she is really. In the earlier issues, she tended to get sad and depressed when people who make fun of her, so it's interesting to see that produce a different emotion. And I like how Warren uses it, where we know Emp is right, she's a much better hero than anyone gives her credit for, because they only look at the surface. So we sympathize with her, and depending on how you're inclined, you might have even rooted for her to take out her frustration a bit. No? Just me? Fine, whatever. But as it turns out, she's in control of things. Even if the disrespect bugs her, she's made a certain amount of peace with it, and doesn't let it ruin her life.

Warren's work is pretty much how I remember it from the last one of these I bought. He really makes the black-and-white work for him, especially when it comes to explosions. He draws excellent unfeasibly large weapons, too. I like the touch that the large ones appear to have maneuvering jets, or little turboprops to help the user keep them level. Not everybody can be Cable, thank goodness.

Henchgirl #1, by Kristen Gudsnuk - I couldn't find a credits page anywhere, so I'm going with what was on the front cover. I could probably check its website, since it's an online comic, but I'm lazy. Anyway, as long as she doesn't let them look inside the bag of mon - er, laundry, she'll be fine. There's not even a dollar sign on it, so they may not even ask.

Mary's a henchgirl in the Butterfly Gang, but isn't totally committed to it. She likes the money, seems to like acting cool at weapons buys. But she's pretty excited when her roommate gets her an interview for a job waiting tables at a family restaurant (which is one of the levels of my personal hell). She's not the only one in the gang, and the boss has a favorite assistant, who's kind of a suck-up, that Mary has to contend with. Mary did think she'd succeeded in diverting them from Coco's plan to rob an orphanage of renovation funds, by suggesting they rob a notable billionaire during his costume party, but instead they're going to do both.

I'm guessing Mary's going to try and figure out how to rob the rich guy, and thwart Coco's plan. Although the plan involves blocking the construction efforts, which is going to take place over weeks, so that might not work. Unless she can use her share of the cash from the robbery.

I liked it. It's charming, probably because the villainy is sort of old school. Not a lot of casualties or revenge plots. Instead we get themed gangs that pull heists and weird science monsters like a living road. There's a fair amount of humor from Mary's sort of awkward placement in society, where she's a villain, and she knows it's bad, and kind of hates it, but needs the money. Or maybe it's just being a henchperson and getting blown up for other people's schemes that bothers her.

I think the thing I laughed at hardest was when she went back to the bank they robbed at the start of the issue to deposit her share, and when the teller mentions they were robbed, she gives this incredibly fake, "Oh, that's terrible!" The combination of how Gudsnuk letters the "terrible" (all in caps, bold, slightly curved inside the speech balloon), combined with the pose she gives Mary, with one hand to her cheek in mock surprise, tickled me. Also, it contrasts nicely with how innocent she looks as she approaches the tell we, and how happy she is as she departs. There's a lot of good work with expressions on display. I've been trying to think of who Gudsnuk's art reminds me of, and I keep coming back to Faith Erin Hicks, but that doesn't seem right. Gudsnuk's is more rounded, her characters look, the word "squishier" comes to mind. Either way, it works for me, so we'll see when the second issue gets released.

What I Bought 4/25/2014 - Part 8

Last two comics. Such a sad occurrence. Whatever shall I do for the next two weeks before more comics arrive (hopefully)? Seriously, I'm asking. I have plans through Sunday, but after that, we may be winging it.

Nightcrawler #1, by Chris Claremont (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - I notice in the upper right corner of that cover that Colossus has gotten some lady to pose for his painting, with at the least no shirt on. Have to wonder who that is. Also, I thought Colossus was on the run with some X-Force bunch.

Kurt's back, and readjusting to life among the living. Reconnecting with friends, adjusting to things that have changed, and being Mr. Charming with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Amanda Sefton. Who is also his adopted sister, if you care. I don't particularly, but I know a few other people that have noted it with some squeamishness, so just throwing it out there. Their conversation is fairly brief, as some big guy in a suit of power armor attacks and tries to abduct Amanda. Kurt manages to fend him off, but the guy escapes, and Kurt is whisked off with Amanda as she seeks out the person responsible.

I like Nightcrawler to be largely cheerful and swashbuckling, and Claremont is thankfully doing that. Perhaps other comic writers should take note: NOBODY LIKES MOPEY NIGHTCRAWLER! There is a certain melancholy to it, though, that I can't quite place. Mostly, I think it's meant to be Kurt struggling a bit with all that's changed in his absence. Wolverine minus his healing factor, all the new kids at the school, the fact that it really is more of a school than it was when he died, mutants being on the rise again. Plus, having people ask if you remember them, and if you're OK all the time, has to get exhausting. Though you'd think the X-Men would have a seminar for people recently back from the dead. Anyway, I had some concerns about Claremont's writing going in. I picked up both X-Men Forever series out of the back issue bins last year, and they were solid, but I still remember how disjointed and confused his work on Exiles and New Excalibur seemed to me. It's only one issue, but so far, so good. Perhaps being able to concentrate on one character helps him focus. We'll see.

I run hot and cold on Todd Nauck, generally. He's pretty solid on action sequences, the Young Justice I've read suggests he's fair at comedy stuff, but the anatomy can be a little off sometimes. Characters have strangely long necks, or their upper bodies are much too wide for the rest of them. Again, one issue, but this is the strongest work of his I remember seeing. It's less busy than his older work, maybe that's him inking himself, but it makes it look more simplified, with is a look I happen to approve of. Rosenberg's coloring helps, too. It's bright for the most part, but the bit in the Danger Room is cloudy (literally) in a way that lends that feeling of foreboding to things, without muddying the art.

Empowered Special #6, by Adam Warren (writer, black-and-white art, lettering), Brandon Graham (color art, lettering) - What I mean by the art stuff is that Warren drew the pages that are black and white, and Graham drew and colored the ones that are in color. Or so I assume. I couldn't find any other credits.

Empowered and Ninjette are called to a special superhuman hospital. There is a large, living ship hovering over, which has a babyship inside stricken with a parasite. Our heroines have been asked to take a laser scalpel, go inside the babyship (which is much larger inside than out), and kill the parasite before it gives birth, and kills the babyship in the process. If they fail, mamaship destroys the entire city. The two make their way through, Emp distracts the defenses the parasite releases, but ultimately stop Ninjette from killing the parasite, having devised a way to maybe let it survive. Warren drew the two sequences that flank this main story, which involve Emp wandering through the hospital in a scene of carnage, only to come upon an elevator which opens to reveal . . . Emp and Ninjette, fresh off saving the babyship's life. None of which bodes well for our heroines' futures.

This one's a little less serious than the last Empowered Special, even if the fate of an entire city was at stake this time. Weird how that works out, but this one is a little absurd, with the alien parasite hitting a nerve by unwittingly attacking Emp's body issues. More focused on exploring another little corner of the world, rather than an in-depth study of one of the main characters, who just so happens to have had a fairly shitty childhood, and whose attempt to survive and escape that has informed quite a bit about who she is, for better and for worse.

Graham's art is very different from Warren's. His work is less detailed in the characters, but he puts a lot into their surroundings, so you get a good sense of place. And his characters still tell you quite a bit, he gets a lot of information out there with relatively few lines. The colors are kind of muted, not like things are muddied, it's all quite clear, no gauze over the lens, more someone turned down the brightness a bit. It does keep his work from popping off the page as much as I might like, but just going off this, maybe that isn't his style. Warren tends to use fewer, larger panels, and puts the characters large and up close, so they dominate the panels. Graham does that occasionally, but here it's more common for him to place them in the middle distance or further away, so there's more room to show the surroundings. Perhaps to play up the oddity of said surroundings, or the enormity of the task.