What I Bought 12/17/2025

One of the floors at work had their holiday party on Tuesday, and I don't know what it was, but something I ate turned my stomach inside-out for about 18 hours. Didn't get more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep Tuesday night, because my stomach would keep informing me it was once again time to visit the bathroom. But it seemed to settle down by the time I went to the comic store Wednesday so you heard it here first: Comics cure gastrointestinal issues.

Black Cat #5, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - What are the units of measurement behind her? I'm guessing one is inches, but what's the other? Can't be centimeters, because 69 inches would be a lot more than 70-odd centimeters.

Not only does Felicia get caught by a bunch of cops in an empty house with a bunch of marked bills, Tombstone even has the house listed in her name. So it's a walk of shame past a bunch of reporters, with Felicia in vain trying to protest innocence. She ends up in jail until Mary Jane posts bail, they talk, Felicia is too wrapped up in her stuff to notice something is bugging MJ, and goes off to yell at Tombstone.

This turns into a fistfight between the two of them, and then he explains that money she was caught with will be booked as evidence until it vanishes and makes its way back to him. Then he just sort of, wanders off.

I mean, there's something to the idea Felicia wasn't just trying the hero thing so it would be easier for her to rob people once they were less fearful, that she liked the idea of being praised. But the way Wilson presents it, Felicia took such a half-assed approach. Once things didn't go how she anticipated, she starts charging into things. Especially weird after Wilson has Felicia talk about how everything about her, from the physique to the gear to the appearance, takes work.

Why is she being so much sloppier about heroing than she would be about thieving? Why is she trying to fistfight Tombstone, after throwing a bunch of half-assed insults into his face, rather than stealing something from him, or getting him busted doing something illegal? How did she give him a black eye? I thought he was supposed to have stone-hard skin. It's possible to write these situations as not going according to plan, and Black Cat having to wing it, without writing her like she took a page out of Homer's book and stuck a crayon too far up her nose.

Hate to say it, but I'm done with this book.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #15, by Jed MacKay (writer), Domenico Carbone (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Moonie's not had a good time of it on the covers for this series. Always getting stabbed or stomped into the ground.

Moon Knight manages to get the possessed Wrecker into the Midnight Mission, where he at least can't hurt anyone but Moon Knight, while Scarlet Scarab and Reese try to reason with the Executor to release the ghosts he's using against the Wrecker. Because Marc's brought out the enchanted sword, and it would be perfectly fine gobbling up all those spirits.

Still, it's not until the Executor buries his ax in Reese's chest, and believes he's killed her, that he releases the spirits. Which is a pretty nice image or this green ooze pouring out of the Wreckers mouth and over the side of the crescent emblem he's standing on. And you can see screaming faces in the ooze. Very nice work by Carbone and Rosenberg.

The Executor retreats, promising he won't fight back if Reese's ghost comes after him. Reese, of course, is not dead, because she's a vampire. Ax to the chest ain't nothing. The Wrecker's pretty happy it's all over, then he and Moonie argue about if Moon Knight's really any less blood-stained, with Marc arguing he isn't, but at least he's trying to be better. Then Clea shows up and drags Wrecker off to the Dark Dimension for, torture I guess. Marc and Layla make tentative plans to team-up again some time in the future, she leaves, and Marc gets tranq darted and hauled off.

It'd be an abrupt end if I didn't know we're getting another Moon Knight series in two months. I'm not sure I see a throughline in this book's run, though. Marc fights an Asgardian farm boy turned drug lord, and then protects the Wrecker from a guy who let his frustration push him into revenge.

Executor seems meant to contrast with Moon Knight. Moonie did bad things in his past, and tries to atone with better actions in the present and future, while Executor was a firefighter, someone who helped people, but has let the ugliness of others turn him into someone who focuses solely on revenge. I guess he was closer to Moon Knight once, but has drifted nearer to the Wrecker, someone who cares only about himself. I'm not sure what Fairchild was supposed to reveal about Marc.

What I Bought 11/26/2025

Back to work after most of a week off. Hooray. At least the snow they were calling for a week ago seems like it's mostly going to miss us. Especially since it's cold enough for it to hang around a while.

Black Cat #4, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The way things are going for her in this book, I suspect she got halfway through the room when a security guard wandered by and remembered he forgot to turn the security system on.

The Cat and Tombstone have a discussion about why she's playing hero, which Felicia describes as a desire to calm things down so she can get back to business, but also because sometimes even a crook would like a pat on the head. Tombstone allows for that, but still has her locked up by Sandman, who somehow found everything she had hidden on her. Then he and Tombstone have a discussion, right next to her cell, about how the fake Spider-Man is shaking them down, but they found where he hides the money.

The vampire Felicia confronted a couple issues ago arrives, looking for recompense for her interference, and Felicia convinces him to get Night Nurse to come see him, so she can escape and get him the money to pay back her debt. She even agrees she'll stand before this Court of Whatever he wants to bring he to at some point, which at least feels glib in a way that's sort of true to the character. The Nurse brings a lockpick set, Felicia escapes (after a particularly unconvincing act by Night Nurse of being overpowered), and runs to the address Tombstone mentioned. Where she finds a bunch of cash, right before a SWAT team finds her.

This is a particularly incompetent depiction of Felicia. She can't hide something where Sandman can't find it? Flint Marko was no genius even before he spent years getting punched by Spider-Man and the Thing. He was on the 10 Most Wanted List, but as an armed gunman type, not some brilliant thief. Tombstone has Sandman take her away, then follows along separately to have a conversation right outside her door, and she thinks nothing of it? It doesn't scream "TRICK!!!!!" in massive letters?

It would be one thing if it was written where she's too angry at Tombstone over past history to think clearly, or if he'd given her the address as part of a deal. Steal the "extortion" money back, and we're square, or I'll rip your face off. That kind of thing. This? This is just Felicia being the most gullible dope in her own book.

Sigh. Wilson needs a big turnaround in this book, or I'm going to have to memory hole it.

What I Bought 11/1/2025 - Part 2

I saw a book excerpt a couple months ago, how worldwide birth rates had fallen to the point that the world's population was going to peak. Not for another 40-60 years mind you, at somewhere over 10 billion people, but this was presented as a sad thing, that after that point, there would never be as many people again. I am never the person to try and sell on that idea, but certainly not now, given the current state of things in this world.

Here's one book from September and another from October.

Bronze Faces #5, by Shobo and Shof (writers), Alexandre Tefenkgi (artist), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou (letterer) - Can't tell if Sango's carrying flares or dynamite. Could go either way with her.

This issue revolves around a heist at a big estate in Croydon. Shobo and Shof alternate between the heist as it's getting going, and the planning six months earlier between Gbonka, Sango, and Timi, set up so that what they discuss is reflected in the present. Gbonka and Sango argue about whether a Nigerian cleaning lady can be trusted to help, or if she needs to be bought, and we see her going about her routine with the pass key that's only good for a certain amount of time, making a bit of a mess that grants her an extension, which she can use to help the thieves enter in disguise as a trash haulers.

The conflict comes in Timi's insistence they have to recover all the bronzes, and that's tricky. The ones in storage, no problem. The cleaning lady got them in there. The ones on display? Those are being watched, and there's no time. So Sango, as usual just does what she wants and takes them anyway, chucking around smoke grenades as a distraction. Or maybe a statement, because it sure didn't distract the cops.

I was, reading this issue, getting really confused on the timeline. Because Timi's supposed to distract all the museum staff by pretending to be a caterer bringing in tons of free food, but Timi died at the end of issue 3. So I started wondering if maybe he didn't die, or this heist was set before the ones in earlier issues, or if this was the heist that ended with them in a boat being chased. None of this confusion was helped by the issue ending with the crew visiting a Scotland Yard morgue to see Timi's body, and getting caught by that one determined cop. 

What I think is happening, Sango is dealing with her grief at Timi's death by pulling the heist, using the people she told Gbonka six months ago she could recruit. And that's why Sango goes for it all, because that's what Timi wanted. Although I suspect she might have done it anyway. The person the others keep calling "Chibuzo," that is taking Timi's role, is one of the new recruits, not just Timi with his hair in a mohawk.

(I was thinking Chibuzo was like, some new pet name one of the crew had given Timi. And some of the crew looked different because one guy left, and another guy was nearly dead of a gunshot, so they had to find replacements.)

Meanwhile, Gbonka's with the rest of what's left of the original crew, visiting Timi's body. Although, he was killed off the coast of Cape Verde. What is his body doing in a morgue in London? I know Scotland Yard was after them, because that's who Detective Lai works for, but he got killed committing a crime in another country. Can they just extradite the body to the UK?

Black Cat #3, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I actually bought the Gurihiru variant. The Hughes cover was good, even relevant to the subject matter inside, I just like the one of Felicia sitting on a pile of loot with a cat better.

Felicia doesn't love the coverage of her attempt to bust vampire smuggling last issue, but she has a chance to try again, with regular old hallucinogenic plants from another planet smuggling. Except the hideout is in Jersey, so Ms. Marvel shows up, because there was some larger law enforcement operation going around this smuggling operation.

Two attempts at do-gooding, with no criminals in her custody, Felicia. . .calls Jonah Jameson to complain?! And Jonah handles this far more calmly than I'd expect, basically explaining a recent do-gooder not successfully catching crooks isn't news. Catch some crooks, then he'll care. Then Sandman shows up, knocks out Felicia after a brief scuffle, and hauls her before Tombstone.

That fight with Sandman was odd to me. Not that Felicia lost; even if Wilson hadn't significantly lowered the Cat's competence, fighting Sandman solo in the middle of Jersey was a tall order. But when she's initially knocked down, Melnikov spends a panel on just the pistol she took off one of the smugglers, which Felicia had been twirling and fiddling with for a few pages. Maybe that's going to prove relevant next issue - she got it back when she dodged the next attack and the bullets help her escape somehow - but as it stands, kind of odd. A revolver isn't worth much against Sandman or Tombstone.

I do like that she apparently took it from the smuggler, named Jim, before he even realized she did it, and Wilson and Melnikov didn't feel the need to show us that. I don't like we had more occasions of the Black Cat breaking the 4th wall to address us directly. Not digging that aspect.

What I Bought 9/24/2024

I've been having a hard time all week keeping track of days. I wrote and submitted something Tuesday, and it was hours before I realized I intended to submit it Monday. Fortunately the schedule was self-imposed, so no harm, no foul beyond my disliking being late. Wednesday afternoon I kept catching myself thinking it was Thursday. Although I did leave a little early on Wednesday. Splitting headache, maybe that threw me.

At least the week is over now, and the local store had both the comics out this week I wanted. Haven't seen a copy of Bronze Faces #5 or last week's Runaways anywhere, but we'll get to them eventually, I imagine.

Black Cat #2, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - MJ's thinking, "Point those things somewhere else, Felicia." Also, when did Jonah go to a basic training haircut?

The Black Cat's first attempt at do-gooding (minus all those times she did hero stuff in the past) involves two young mafia guys who are essentially, fencing really old shit for vampires. I guess the actual crime is they're ripping off the vampires, since they describe themselves as, 'hustling the undead.' This seems like the sort of problem which inevitably solves itself, but Felicia warns/asks them to stop. 

When she sees them unloading another box from their van that night, she does the avenger of the night bit. Except the package is a coffin, with a very pale and hairless, but well-dressed and snotty, vampire inside. Daredevil shows up to help, though I can't see him being much use with a vampire. Unless he's going to win via the power of Catholicism. Or is one of those heroes who figures vampires don't count on a no killing vow and stakes him with the billy club.

It's irrelevant, because the vamp gets bothered by Felicia flirting with DD - me too, she should know better than to go anywhere near that romantic radioactive spill - and vanishes in a poof of smoke. Literally, the sound effect is POOF! Cops show up, Felicia makes a little speech about how New Yorkers have to work together to make their city safer, it gets viral, and that gets Jonah's attention.

It's definitely not noticeable when Melnikov draws Felicia, but there's a fair bit of Romita Jr. is both Jonah and Daredevil. Lines aren't as heavy, but the square jaw on DD and the nose on Jonah are definitely JRJR-style. I don't see it as much in the one page where Tombstone shows up, but maybe I was too distracted by him saying he has the, 'first little throb of a plan.' Throb? Plans are throbbing now? I didn't agree to that!

The Thing #5, by Tony Fleecs (writer), Justin Mason (artist), Alex Sinclair (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) -  There's Diamondback again, prominently featured among the defeated villains, when she never went anywhere near the Thing. Does Nick Bradshaw have something against Captain America's best girlfriend?

Ben gets Sara to her mother, after Sara's eruption apparently drove off Viper and her goons. Unfortunately, Marty's there, too. Unfortunate, because he's the one who handed Sara off to Hammerhead in the first place, trying to make some cash letting them "scrape" powers from kids. This seems like the sort of plan that would result in the X-Men blowing shit up, which seems like more smoke than the Kingpin wants, but oh well.

Hammerhead shows up, still having not figured out this is a plan better abandoned. Sara's power flares up again, this time directed at Marty, but Ben stops her from roasting the guy, telling her it's wrong what her uncle did, but strong people don't pick on weaker ones, and that it's about knowing when it's the right time to use your strength. That time? You guessed it. Clobberin' Time.

Hammerhead gets pummeled, which is good. Ben tells Sara's mom to call if she needs any help or has questions, and then he takes Marty to visit the Kingpin. Interestingly, Mason draws Ben as significantly smaller than Fisk. I know that's how it used to be, Ben was just a regular height guy (albeit shorter than Reed), who was made of rocks, but I've gotten used to him being drawn as a really big dude. After a little shouting and desk tossing, Ben leaves, telling Fisk to tell his stories to the cops. Which Fisk dismisses as he "owns the cops."

I dunno, the Thing isn't Daredevil or Spider-Man. He's actually, by Marvel Universe standards, pretty beloved and respected. I think if he goes to the cops, especially if he does it publicly, they'd have to actually dig into Fisk, because it's the Fantastic Four saying this. The group that saves the world from big purple planet-eating dudes twice a year. Fisk probably still has enough distance and clout to make Hammerhead take the fall, but I don't think this is something he'd dismiss lightly.

What I Bought 8/20/2025

Quiet week at work, which is a nice way to ease back in, even if it did occasionally make me wonder what the heck I was doing there. Then I remind myself of the answer: making money to exchange for goods and services. Like comics! And the cycle continues. . .

Black Cat #1, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Gleb Melnikov (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Her hair's not really moving the fringe on her arms and legs suggests it should, is it?

As a result of whatever's going on in Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man's not fighting crime, so things are getting out of control. All the added chaos seems to be making it harder for the Black Cat to operate, which, after a rough run-in with the Lizard outside a pet store, leads Felicia to the conclusion she must be the change she wants to see in the world. Meaning, she's got to bring order to the streets by fighting crime, so she can. . . get back to stealing from people? And maybe Tombstone doesn't dig this development.

Jeez, was Spidey holding New York together all by himself? Tell Daredevil or Night Thrasher or somebody like to get off their asses. The book's tone is, I dunno. Wilson has Felicia speaking to us directly, like she's Harley Quinn or Deadpool. Actually, the whole plan seems like something Harley would devise. "I'm gonna clean up the streets, so I can get back to robbing people in peace!" Plus, I haven't been paying close attention, but I was under the impression the Black Cat was already helping Spider-Man fight crime in his book, even before this.

Maybe it's supposed to be a comedy book, something akin to Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Watch the villain make big plans that fall apart to a hilarious degree? The book opening on Night Nurse's waiting room, before seguing into a flashback where Felicia is annoyed to see cops are doing better keeping up with her, and muses they're improving their cardio, would certainly suggest it.

And Melnikov's art seems more tilted towards exaggerated expressions than fight scenes. Even the openings in Felicia's mask are much bigger and rounder than they were under the various artist working with Jed MacKay, which provides more opportunity for Melnikov to make Felicia's actual eyes large with surprise or shock.

Initial impression? I'm not sure the tone of this book will be what I'm looking for in a Black Cat title. But Ms. Marvel earns Wilson a lot of rope, so I guess we'll see.

Sunday Splash Page #370

"Kamala Corps Unite," in Ms. Marvel (vol. 4) #28, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

So Secret Wars canceled everything, and then (before it had even ended, because delays and/or Hickman's inability to properly pace the mini-series meant it required an extra issue), Ms. Marvel was back. G. Willow Wilson uses the undefined timeskip to change a few things. Kamala is part of the Avengers now (with Jane Foster Thor, Sam Wilson Captain America, Sam Alexander Nova, and Miles Morales Spider-Man), and at some point in the intervening months, her best friend Bruno has begun dating Mike, a pleasant and intelligent young woman.

This volume ran 38 issues, and I tend to break it up into 3 broad, yearlong arcs. Year 1, Kamala learns the downsides of a reputation. Not just it makes her a target, that word's gotten around electricity neutralizes her powers. A reputation means people grow to rely on you, expect more of you, will view you through their beliefs. And Kamala, who is helpful, conscientious, and (in the case of dealing with the Avengers or Captain Marvel) starstruck, has a difficult time turning people down and a harder time feeling hated. Especially when the hatred is coming from her friends.

Dr. Faustus unleashes a mind control scheme under cover of a gentrification plan that co-opted Ms. Marvel's image for their campaign. Kamala's unaware of any of this until she sees the billboards. Just like she wasn't aware Bruno was dating Mike (or even who Mike was), because she's too caught up in being an Avenger. Trying to handle that, plus Avengers stuff, plus her brother's impending marriage leads to a disastrous plan to 3-D print (with a printer gifted to the school by Stark) extra Kamalas to handle the mundane, civilian stuff for her. Which does lead to a bizarre scene where an army of Kamalas (including a King Kong-sized one) rampage through Jersey City, fighting Loki and the storm guardians he left to protect the high school after he messed with the Valentine's Day dance in the previous volume. Nico Leon and Ian Herring really capture the farcical nature of that whole thing.

Then Kamala is too swept up in her hero worship of Carol Danvers entrusting her with a special squad to utilize "predictive justice" (Civil War II tie-in alert!) to recognize the dangers until it hits close to home. That ends with her on the outs with Captain Sparkle Fists, and Bruno badly injured and moving to Wakanda (because he might, technically, have committed domestic terrorism.) Kamala goes on a trip to visit family in Pakistan for an issue, where Wilson introduces the local hero Red Dagger, who becomes more prominent around the end of year 2.

At least Wilson and Takeshi Miyazawa give us a gang of Canadian ninjas, who roll through Jersey City in a tank at one point. I absolutely loved the random weird stuff in this book.

Year 2 doesn't start off great; the one-shot where Kamala gets out the vote to stop HYDRA from taking over the city government feels like being lectured, and the 4-parter about fighting a sentient program that's basically an internet troll falls flat.

After that, it picks up as HYDRA, plus a particular fascist that was part of Kamala's little special squad, illegally seize power in the city and start rounding up people with powers. Including Kamala's brother, marking the only time the weird powers he got in the previous volume are remarked upon.

The critical part here, Kamala's handling most of this on her own. Year 2 is the grind of dealing with everything with no support network, and how quickly people can turn on you. She and Danvers are on the outs. Bruno's gone. None of her other friends know her secret identity. Nakia in particular has been down on Ms. Marvel since Faustus used her image. Kamala can usually rally some help in a pinch, but it's mostly the people of Jersey City caring enough to get themselves involved. Red Dagger shows up late in Year 2, so he and Ms. Marvel renew acquaintances while trying to stop a runaway train. But even with that, Kamala finds everyone fawns over the new guy, while she starts getting the Spider-Man treatment of being mocked and unflatteringly portrayed by the news media.

(When it turns out Nakia knows Kamala is Ms. Marvel, her earlier attitude is not addressed or even commented on. Wilson has a tendency to set up potential interesting character conflicts and then just, not do anything with them. Likewise, Kamala's mother knowing she's a superhero, while her father doesn't, comes to nothing.)

Year 3 is Kamala finding balance, after initially going to the other extreme. The "Teenage Wasteland" arc, she's missing. Her friends try to step in as Ms. Marvel-lettes, but there's limits to what they can handle. Ms. Marvel eventually gets back in the game, having seen how people are trying to fill her shoes. She and Carol reconcile, Bruno returns, which creates some awkwardness with him and Mike and Red Dagger and Kamala, but she's got her support network back and she's willing to keep lines of communication open. Things find an equilibrium.

The artists vary a lot more on this volume. Most of the first year and a half (through the Doc.X story) is drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa, but Nico Leon, Adrian Alphona, and Mirka Andolfo draw issues as well. Miyazawa's art, with a greater manga influence, tends to look prettier than the other artists. Kamala doesn't look as distinctive as under Alphona's pencils (although none of the others artists give Kamala the same prominent nose as Alphona.)

Leon, who takes over as primary artist in Year 3, is closest to Alphona in terms of the sheer amount of silly details he'll add to the margins and backgrounds of panels. I don't know if he or Wilson came up with the idea of Kamala's friends doing Power Rangers-esque poses when they're acting as Ms. Marvel, but I love it.

But let's talk about Ian Herring. Herring is the color artist throughout volumes 3 and 4. Across something like 9 different artists (not counting the ones who drew a brief story in one of the couple of anthology-style issues), Herring is the one who gives the book it's consistent feel. Kamala's appearance may vary, the city itself may vary (Leon gives it skyscrapers, which I don't think any of the other artists do, and Diego Orlotegui's two issues are mostly spent viewing a sparsely populated countryside on the top of a train), but the feel of Ms. Marvel's world remains the same.

I think the aspect that always catches my eye is this particular shade of golden yellow he likes.The subtle variations in it, even within a single panel, make it look water-colored. Maybe it is. How he uses it varies with the story and artist. In the issue above, it's mostly a solid color he uses as a background when the focus is meant to be on the character. When Zoe and Mike are fighting some of the reptile-bots, it's just that color (and some speed lines) in the background. When Kamala's friend Naftali finally finds her in a snooty private academy on a hill, and makes the point that her friends need her, the background is a that color.

It other situations, he uses it differently. It's a sunset color a lot, either when the scene is actually near sunset, or when a confrontation is reaching its climax. When Kamala and Danvers are crossing the city during their team-up in the previous volume, all the rooftops they pass above have that shade. Whether Kamala knows it or not, things are coming to an end. With Miyazawa's art, Herring uses a slightly lighter shade of it to coat Kamala when she "embiggens," and it may almost suffuse the room she's in, a sign of power and her being the focus in the scene. It's a color I instantly associate with this book, and this character, so credit to Herring.

The book ended at 38 issues, in early 2019. Marvel started up Magnificent Ms. Marvel, written by Saladin Ahmed, but I dropped that after 6 issues. It's finally revealed Kamala's dad knows her secret identity, courtesy of her mother telling him at some point, but Ahmed then has helpful aliens wipe it from the minds. There was something with a sentient suit, and Minkyu Jung's art didn't fit what I was used to for the character, even with Herring handling the color art duties. Josh, who had seemingly reconsidered working with fascists after his one storyline being an embittered white boy, was back working with the redhead again, and bleh.

But maybe that was for lack of recurring villains. Kamala didn't get an extensive rogue's gallery. The Inventor (Edison-bird version) died. The Inventor (human who created Edison-bird) was still around, and maybe you could keep doing things with a guy whose shtick was sacrificing people society didn't value to "save the world", but it'd be hard to keep coming up with new approaches. Plus, you need Wilson and the various artists' aesthetics to keep his creations from looking generic. Kamran kind of failed once Kamala saw through the pretty boy facade, plus the Inhumans were on the outs again, so Kamala doesn't interact with them much (hardly at all) in volume 4.

Doc.X, the sentient, evolving, hate-filled computer virus/program? Maybe, though you almost have to make him stupid enough to keep creating physical bodies for Kamala to punch, because her powers don't really interact well with him otherwise. Lockdown, as an authoritarian tool of whoever will let her bully people. OK, always useful to have someone the hero can punch without qualms. One of the last stories involved the Shocker moving to jersey City, figuring with only one hero - a kid a that - he could be king of the mountain and indulge his inner mad scientist. I really enjoyed that story, especially after years of Nick Spencer and other writers treating him as a joke. You could do worse for an established villain to switch over to a newbie's foes. Not like Spider-Man is at a shortage.

Sunday Spash Page #369

"Internal Destruction Engine," in Ms. Marvel (vol. 3) #11, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alpona (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

The second volume of Ms. Marvel ended in 2010. Carol Danvers wouldn't get another series for a couple of years, and by then she was calling herself "Captain Marvel", with the new uniform and the new haircut (that only Ed McGuinness really drew her with.) Come 2014, we got a new Ms. Marvel, in the form of Kamala Khan.

Created by G. Willow Wilson, Kamala was unique in a lot of ways as a Marvel character. A Pakistani-American Muslim child of parents who immigrated to the States when Kamala was either very young or not yet born (I forget the specific timing). Living in Jersey City, where the bright lights, skyscrapers, and super-hero battles of NYC are visible, but at a remove from life there.

And while there had been several young heroes that were inspired by the Silver Age generation of Marvel heroes (I feel like half the guys on the New Warriors looked up to Spider-Man at one point or the other), Kamala was one of the few (certainly one of the few successful characters) that were explicitly positioned as a huge fan of superheroes. She writes fanfiction about Storm and Wolverine fighting an alien blob that farts wormholes, and checks up on superhero news sites, and has posters of Carol Danvers all over her walls. 

Like many Marvel teen characters before her, Kamala feels like she doesn't fit. But isn't from being a bookworm like Peter Parker, though she is a bit of a science geek, or a mutant like any number of kids that end up at Xavier's. Even when a weird fog causes her to feel sick, then burst out of a giant egg with powers and looking like Carol Danvers in the black swimsuit costume, that's not what makes her feel alone.

It's that her religion and culture make her stand out in a way she doesn't want. She can't eat foods the white kids in school eat, because the food is against her religion. Or she can't go to the parties the other kids do, because there'll be boys there, and she can't be around them without a chaperone. Or how people like Zoe treat her culture as some curiosity to gawk over, like a strange bird that happened to land in front of them. Lots of teenagers feel like the rules their parents impose, or their cultural norms, make them stand out, but it's always different when it's happening to you. Lots of people have older siblings that embarrass them, but not many do it by constantly quoting the Koran and refusing to get a job, because it wouldn't be holy.

Kamala comes to some kind of peace with that over the first six months of her first series, as she stops trying to look like some blonde white woman superhero, and just looks like herself, in a costume of her own. All this while fighting the creations of a Thomas Edison clone that got crossed with a cockatiel, that insists Kamala's generation is useless for anything except a power source for the works of a great mind like his. She has to adjust to the fact her powers were result of exposure to the Terrigen Mists, which means somewhere in her ancestry, there's Kree genetic tampering. Which, I guess is another connection to Carol Danvers besides the codename.

Honestly, she adapts to the Inhuman thing pretty quickly, but I don't know if that's a consequence of a) being so immersed in superhero stuff through her interests it doesn't seem so strange, b) being allowed to stay at a remove from "New Attilan" (Marvel at this time trying to make the Inhumans a big deal, gave them a city floating just off the shores of New York City) and keep living her life, or c) having her first introduction to Inhumans be Lockjaw, who Medusa sends to keep an eye on Kamala and becomes her sidekick. Well, one of her sidekicks, along with her best friend/pining love interest, Bruno.

Adrian Alphona draws most of the 19 issues the book ran before Hickman's Secret Wars got it canceled (see, damn it, there is that line again. Frickin' Hickman.) There is one issue drawn by Elmo Bondoc where Loki invades the homecoming dance, followed by a 3-parter drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa where Kamala is drawn into some factional in-fighting among the Inhumans, via the treachery of cute teenage boys. Dastardly!

But Alphona (and color artist Ian Herring, who I want to discuss more next week) set the visual tone and look of the book. Kamala is a short, kind of scrawny girl with hair that falls all over the place and a prominent nose. She wears a trapper or lumberjack hat a lot and loose coats or t-shirts with dorky logos and memes on them. Her initial attempts to cobble together a costume are slightly better than when Peter Parker puts a paper bag over his head, but only slightly. Even though her power lets her change shape and size, she doesn't get huge muscles. If her legs grow, they remain spindly things. Ditto her arms, even if her hands swell up to punch somebody. It honestly makes her look kind of goofy, but she mostly ignores it (the exception being when the dastardly cute boy remarks on it looking 'freaky', and she immediately gets worried he thinks it's gross.) 

Jersey City is no gleaming city of skyscrapers. It's mostly buildings 2-3 stories tall in the commercial areas, built joined together. No bright neon of the city, mostly muted streetlights There's a warehouse district with the typical maze of buildings in various states of use and disrepair, and residential neighbors hoods of houses that still have individual character. No cookie-cutter suburbs here! And it isn't difficult to get into some wilderness, abandoned factories or power plants surrounded by woods and steep cliffs. And Alphona fills the pages with little Easter eggs and odd tidbits that show how Jersey City has a weird and silly character of its own.

A lot of the fun of the book is in pausing to see what little details Alphona added into the background of a page. One of the Inventor's robots (which is equipped with brass knuckles that deliver an electro-magnetic charge to disrupt Kamala's powers) also wears a derby hat, which it doffs as it escapes with Lockjaw as a prisoner. Or Kamala finally gets a team-up with Captain Marvel - pity the world is about to end - and as they cross the city, there are two people on the roof below them, laying on a picnic blanket, with an entire fish laying beside them. One of the buildings below has a sign for 'Pets & Spices', and someone, somehow, crashed a car into the roof.

And Wilson gets in on the fun too, letting Kamala act silly sometimes or behave in a way where her friends and family have to stop and just sort of stare at her. Even her hallucination of Carol Danvers in issue 1, when Kamala says she would fight crime in the 'classic, politically incorrect costume and kick butt in giant wedge heels,' remarks Kamala must have a weird boot fetish.

Although my favorite bit is when Kamala has stopped an impromptu robbery of the Circle Q in her regular clothes and a sleeping mask she poked holes in. The cops arrive, and when she announces herself as Ms. Marvel, one cop responds, 'she's the blonde with big. . .powers,' while gesturing vaguely towards his chest. Kamala promptly grows until her head hits the ceiling and answers, 'I've got BIG powers.' I still laugh at that exchange, over 10 years later.

But, yeah, the book ran 19 issues. Kamala's brother got exposed to something other than Terrigen Mist (it was never explained what, only that Danvers insisted it wasn't the Mist) and developed powers he didn't want. Her mother revealed she'd known Kamala was Ms. Marvel for a while, and then Secret Wars mucked everything up. For about 3 months.

Random Back Issues #106 - Ms. Marvel #11

Right, sorry. "Avian-American," perhaps? "Genetically modified artificial resurrection"?

Last time we looked at Ms. Marvel, Kamala was still trying to figure out her powers and learning that swimsuit costumes ride up in uncomfortable places. She's got all that under control now, which is good, as it's the big confrontation with The Inventor. Who, as you see above, is Thomas Edison cloned into the body of a cockatiel. I don't understand the thought process behind it, but it's hard to argue with the results.

He's been abducting runaway kids and using them as an energy source, reasoning the youngest generation aren't good for anything else. But during an attack on Kamala's school, he grabbed a few students, including her best friend Nakia. Plus, he's got a big robot to fight Kamala and the kids that used to work for him until she convinced them to switch sides.

Recognizing there's too much for her to handle at once, Kamala calls her other best friend and sidekick Bruno and gets him to call the cops. Any port in a storm. Meanwhile, rather than "embiggen" and try to smash the robot, Kamala goes small, crawling in among the gears (and the capybaras? The tail is awful short for rats) until she finds a wire that lets her control the robot.

Great! Problem solved. Or not, because the Inventor figured out electromagnetic pulses disrupt her abilities and she starts to grow. Inside a confined metal box that is not going to grow with her. This is how you end up with the kind of claustrophobia where you create massive hurricanes when Doctor Doom makes you into a living metal statue.

Fortunately, one of the kids went and retrieved Lockjaw, offered to Kamala as an ally by Medusa (back when Marvel was still trying to make the Inhumans matter), and the big dog tears open part of the bot and hauls Kamala (and a bunch of wires, and a bunch of capybaras) out by her ankle.

The cops show up, the Inventor climbs his disabled weapon to pontificate, it collapses, and that's it for the cuckoo bird. Time for post-fight sandwiches! Also, the Inventor's creator is hauled off, vowing to show who the real genius is, and one of the cops advises Ms. Marvel to be careful, because now bigger threats than this will be aware of her. In Jersey? Bigger threats like what? Toxic waste? Traffic snarl-ups? Multiversal incursions the Avengers are powerless to prevent because Jonathan Hickman sez so? Pfft, what are the chances any of that stuff could happen?

[7th longbox, 110th comic, Ms. Marvel (vol. 3) #11, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #93 - Ms. Marvel #2

No, no, no, you have to clench your fists on either side of you and scream really loudly. Have you ever even seen Dragon Ball Z? Fake geek girls, I tell ya. *immediately beaten to death*

Having snuck out to a rowdy teen party, then been exposed to Terrigen Mists and breaking out of a weird egg, Kamala has also changed to look like Carol Danvers. Which does not produce the confidence and strength she hoped.

Wandering the fog, Kamala spies current Mean Girl Zoe and future fascist bootlicker Josh near a pier. While Kamala reflexively shrinks to bug size, Josh wants to sing, or dance, or drunkenly make-out. Zoe's not having it, and when Josh tries to dip her, drops her in the river instead. Kamala remembers something her father said about the importance of saving even one life, and is able to rescue Zoe while looking like Carol Danvers. 

Also, I love the little details Alphona adds for garbage that gets scooped up along with Zoe. I am very curious about "free-range maple syrup." Is this something Plant-Man is involved with? Trees that get up and move? Oh crap, it's not those plant-people that don't like K'un-Lun is it?

Zoe vows to never get wasted again while people thank "Captain Marvel" and compliment her return to her old costume. Kamala bails, thinking about how the boots pinch and the leotard gives her a wedgie. It occurs to me, is the costume Kamala's regular clothes, which she was able to change along with her body, or did her body actually grow over her clothes when she changed shape?

Still looking like a blonde Amazon, Kamala borrows a sweater from a guy with a shopping cart full of stuff and sneaks back into her room. Fails the stealth check though, as her brother hears her. Fortunately for Kamala, her body changed back to normal, so that's one less thing to explain, though she does try. Aamir takes this to mean some boy tried something at the party, which she assures him isn't the problem. Bad news, her parents know she snuck out. So she gets a lecture about how she's being willful and disobedient and her mother blames it on America. Then Kamala gets grounded. I guess no superheroing until that's lifted. Oh well.

{7th longbox, 140th comic. Ms. Marvel (vol. 3) #2, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Adrian Alphona (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)}

What I Bought 2/15/2019 - Part 2

One book is wrapping up, only to reappear next month with a new first issue and creative team. The other has a guest artist for a one-off issue.

Ms. Marvel #38, by G. Willow Wilson, Devin Grayson, Eve L. Ewing, Jim Zub, Saladin Ahmed (writers), Nico Leon, Takeshi Miyazawa, Joey Vazquez, Kevin Librana, Minkyu Jung and Juan Vlasco (artists), Ian Herring (color artist/artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I have no idea why they decided to bring in a bunch of other writers and artists to do a jam issue for Wilson and Leon's last issue on the book.

Kamala's in a bad mood, then she and all her friends in the convenience store get sucked into a weird video game simulation thing, where Kamala has to help them confront their various fears to help them remember who they are. Sort of. That's what she does with Zoe and Bruno, but with Nakia, it's more like Kamala needs to address the problem in their friendship that she kept the fact she was Ms. Marvel a secret from her for so long.

Which is perhaps the problem of having 5 different people write this issue. It's like not everybody was on the same page, or a game of Telephone. The message got turned around at some point.  For example, Bruno's brother is working at the Circle Q and appears to get sucked in along with the others. When Kamala, Nakia, Zoe, and Bruno have escaped at the end, he's nowhere to be seen. He didn't show up as a NPC during any of the video game levels, either, even though Gabe and Mike, who weren't there to be drawn in, did. Is that supposed to be the set-up for the starting point to Saladin Ahmed's run? Bruno's brother is missing, and aliens have something to do with all this? Considering no one notices, I'm doubtful.

It's fine if they felt he wasn't close enough to Kamala to be involved in the series of epiphanies. It's true, since he hasn't been around much since she rescued him in the very first story arc she had. But in that case, don't include him in the story, or make sure Leon doesn't draw him as one of the ones getting sucked in.

Of the three one-offs that have wrapped up this volume of the book, I liked this one better than the one about how Kamala might have gotten Inhuman genetics in her family line. But that's mostly because the video game reference stuff works better for me than stuff involving the Inhumans. Last month's issue was still a lot better. Not so much blunt force trying to drive some sort of message through.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #41, by Ryan North (writer), Naomi Franquiz (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist/trading card artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I would never have guessed that was Peter Parker tied up with Nancy if the cover didn't say so. I feel like I've seen that jacket on someone else, but I can't recall who. Maybe that parody of grown-up Johnny Quest on Venture Brothers? Action Johnny?

Nancy and Peter are trapped in a net in a room filling with water. This is when Peter was split into himself and Spider-Man a few months back in Amazing Spider-Man. I would have just guessed "clone" if Ryan North didn't explain that in the issue. Squirrel Girl, Thor, and (She-)Hulk get stuck trying to outsmart the Ms. Quizzler to free them. Unfortunately, they're bad a trivia quizzes. Fortunately, Tippy had rallied all the squirrels to form a search party and already rescued the hostages. Wait, the squirrels gnawed through a glass skylight. Can they do that? Would there be anything for their teeth to gain purchase against?

I don't know. My class schedules never lined up where I could take Mammalogy. Squirrel Girl advises the Ms. Quizzler to prove she's the smartest person alive by designing things that would help the world, rather than taking hostages to force people to pit their intellect against hers. Which is a solid plan, since Reed Richards clearly isn't going to get off his ass and do anything.

I kind of like the Ms. Quizzler's design. It took me a bit to realize the dots on the vest/onesie/thing are meant to be blanks like you fill in on a multiple choice test. Which explains the four balls with letters on her head, too. I feel like 4 is too many. Maybe she could just do 2, one "true" and one "false"? North didn't opt to introduce a villain obsessed with quizzes because his artist has the word "quiz" in her last name did he? Marvel has a dearth of those kinds of villains, don't they? The puzzles and trivia obsessed types. None are leaping to mind at the moment. So there's a niche Ms. Quizzler could fill! If she wasn't going to go straight, I mean.

Franquiz's style reminds me more of Erica Henderson's than Charm's. Her Doreen in particular, since she's back to having more of a round face and messy hair, where Charm smoothed things out a lot. I notice when Tippy is sitting on Doreen's shoulder, she matches Doreen's gestures and reactions. If Doreen makes a smug look and holds up one hand, so does Tippy. If she's startled and indignant, same thing. Which is not any approach I can remember the other artists taking, but isn't bad.

The bit where Nancy becomes convinced Peter is Spider-Man, then Peter becomes convinced Nancy is Squirrel Girl was amusing. I'd say Peter should be smarter than that, but if I remember right, when he got split into two people, the side that got the powers also got all the smarts. The Peter side only got the sense of responsibility. The inclusion of Thor and Hulk - I don't really like making Jen kind of a less articulate Hulk - was basically pointless. Unless this is a stealth warm-up tie-in to War of Realms. Thor does mention that he doesn't hold the fact Loki likes Nancy against her. I should hope not. Even Loki can get something right once in a while.

What I Bought 2/7/2019

I prefer running in cold weather to hot, although running outdoors beats a treadmill any day of the week. Still, might be a bit too cold when I notice there's frost on my eyebrows. The last two books from January. One is an ongoing series nearing its end, and the other is a mini-series going into the final third.

Coda #8, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Yeah, this issue will not be as placid as the cover suggests.

This issue is narrated by Serka, who has returned to the wastes where the Urken go when they feel the fury bubbling up from within. She was denied the opportunity to complete the quest she'd devoted her life to, and so she needs to blow off some steam. Hum, meanwhile has to get the hell out of Thundervale fast, because Notch, now ruler of the community, has to make a show of killing the ones responsible for the murder of the previous leader. He runs to Serka, and learns he understood nothing about her, while she understood him pretty well. Now he gets to live with that knowledge.

That did not go at all the way I expected. I knew his big plan to "save" Serka with his potion wasn't going to go as planned, that he was going to have misunderstood her curse. I didn't expect the issue was going to be that she doesn't see it at all the way he does, given how it was something she often tried to hide away from him.

The pages when Hum ventures into the Everstorm are gorgeous. It's mostly this swirling mass of dull browns and reds, which adds to the nightmarish aspect when he sees what's there. These giant bloated masses of shadows with gaping maws and dull red eyes. The first panel is small inset one of him trying to shield his face from the wind-driven grit, and the ring that glows in her presence is this simple red circle. Not flashing brightly like on the page before, but just a little bit of color that guides him to ruin. I'm getting maudlin, that's never good.

I'm a little torn, actually. The end of the issue feels like it should be heartbreaking, but I don't really want to feel bad for Hum, who could have avoided this disaster by trying to talk to her, to understand her point of view. I guess it's sad for Serka, to be so directly confronted with his weakness and lack of, trust maybe, in her. But I feel as though she'll hold up under this break-up better than he will. I really don't know what he's going to do going forward. March back and put his head in the noose, perhaps? Feels like the performance art a bard would favor.

Ms. Marvel #37, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I hadn't ever thought of Kamala having painted fingernails. Kind of assumed her mother would have objections to that.

Kamala and Gabe are supposed to be looking after their nephew, but are entirely incapable of it, and go running to the convenience store for help. Then the water mains burst and the town begins to flood, and they lose the baby. Fortunately their various friends are much calmer and more competent and take care of the baby until Kamala can stop the flooding. And her brother finally gets a job, one that will probably suit him well. Might make him insufferable, though.

Kind of a cute issue. I'm not much for babies, and the way Herring colored Malik's eyes in the last panel screams he's possessed by a demon, rather than just has superpowers. Maybe that was what he was going for. Maybe next month, Kamala and her friends must perform an exorcism on her nephew.

But watching all the different parts of the cast interact outside super-villain shenanigans is nice. I was a little surprised Harold - the retired veteran from the Legion of Substitute Ms. Marvels  story - knows the others by name, but isn't used to seeing them when they aren't cosplaying as superheroes. So they told him their names while superheroing?

It's kind of another breather issue, although it does conclude Aamir's long search for a job which doesn't offend his religious sensibilities. So Wilson is moving a few things forward before the end of her run. I wonder if she and the incoming creative team have been discussing things, trying to find a point to end her time as writer that will let things flow smoothly into the new team's run. It's nice to hope.

Leon gets in some funny visual gags of people adapting to the flooded streets. Bruno trying to use the sign for the "Smushee" machine as a sail. Harold giving his scooter amphibious capabilities with rocking chairs and some modified paddles on the rear tire. Random shark fins and pigeons calmly floating. I don't think pigeons do well in water, though. Maybe they're puffins in disguise! Those damn puffins. I kid, puffins are swell. Instead of CGI-ing them into some alien whatever in that last Star Wars movie, they should have just had Luke being a hermit on an island full of puffins. It's a big galaxy, far away. Something extremely similar to puffins could totally evolve there. Better listen to me, I'm a wildlife biologist.

(Note: You should not listen to me about this. I am probably talking out of my ass.)

What I Bought 12/6/2018 - Part 1

I haven't been able to track down all the books from last month I wanted. November's issue of Coda being the one I'm still on the hunt for. In the meantime, let's look at the books that I did find, starting with two from Marvel.

Spider-Girls #2, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Jim Charalampidis and Triona Farrell (colorists), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I don't think you need a spider-sense to warn you of a knife one inch from your nose.

Pete and MJ head off to join the fight against the Inheritors, while the Spider-Girls go to warn the only other spider-person in that universe, which is Normie Osborn, thanks to mad science, I think. Then Normie turns into a full-on giant spider, and while the girls try to deal with that, two of Morlun's siblings show up. That's it, that's the issue.

So, no real progress whatsoever on whatever Annie is supposed to figure out from the scroll things. Which, you know, were the whole reason Mayday and Anya came their in the first place, to find a solution to the problem. So either the solution is going to be rapidly crammed into the third issue along with the big fight, or it's being saved for the main mini-series. Which is really what I should expect.

There are a couple of moments of humor, mostly involving Anya being sarcastic about things, but the levity is nice. That one relative of Morlun's thinking the world is primitive because they poofed into the Cloisters or something when New York City is right there if he turns his head two inches to the left was a good chuckle. I appreciate that Houser didn't even bother naming the two villains. We don't care, not really, they're just something to punch and have act menacing. They barely have one dimension to their characters, forget about two.

Genolet does a good job conveying tone with body language, kind of important since most of the cast are wearing masks for the entire issue. There's a scene where they're heading to warn Normie, and their postures and positions while web-swinging are all different. But Mayday and Annie's are much more similar to each other than Anya's. Which makes sense if you figure they were raised by Pete and MJ, and their versions of their dad were probably fairly similar (except for Mayday's being a bit older and having one artificial leg). It's a little detail, but a nice touch.

Ms. Marvel #36, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Uh-oh, Kamala's doing the "grim avenger" posing bit. Everybody watch out.

The entire issue is about why that one guy Kamala and Singularity met a couple of issues ago thought he recognized Kamala. The answer being, he met an ancestor of hers who looked just like her 800 years ago while he was sword-fighting a damn Skrull. Or it's just a hypothesis, since there are also people who look just like Bruno, Zoey, and Josh there. You know, I had almost forgotten about good ol' Josh, the guy who was arrested because they thought he was gonna blow up the school, then decided to become a fascist tool. He just kind of wandered off without facing consequences for that.

Where's the Punisher when you need him?

Breather issues are fine before the next big disaster, but maybe use them as an opportunity to set up or advance subplots with the supporting cast? Maybe it's just that my eyes cross when the Inhumans get brought up.

The swordfight wasn't bad, although you'd think a skrull would be a little more creative about incorporating shapeshifting into his technique. Watch One Piece or something. There's like 500 swordsmen with weird powers in that series, and they use their powers in ways that compliment their styles. No wonder the Skrulls could never finish off the Kree. What a bunch of putzes.

What I Bought 10/12/2018 - Part 2

I'm on the road most of this week, so I'm trying to get all this stuff ready over the weekend. If I had stayed up those 42 consecutive hours, I might be doing better than I am. But here's two comics from last week!

Ms. Marvel #35, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm not sure the Shocker can look menacing, even when you're the size of a mouse.

Kamala turns the Shocker's experiment against him by taking him into the temporal vortex with her, while Bruno tries to figure out how to shut the whole thing down back in Jersey. Shocker is reluctant to go back, because that means go back to the same old, same old. It turns out worse than he expected, because he ends up back in Brooklyn in front Spider-Miles. Although as long as he doesn't attack Miles, the kid shouldn't attack him, right? Can't just assume Hermann is up to no good because he's in the old union suit. Back in Jersey, Kamala and Bruno get to have gyros! And possibly talk about feelings! But definitely sandwiches!

I feel a little bad for Shocker, but he just didn't know when to quit. Or I guess he made the mistake of assuming the grass on the other side had to be greener than where he came from. Otherwise he could have just gone back to Jersey with Kamala, and as soon as blue girl goes away, start the fight again. I'm not at all clear on why he assumes they'll get powers from this stunt, though. Especially when last issue he said he didn't know what his experiment was doing. Then again, in the Marvel Universe any experiment will give you super-powers.

The whole bit with Kamala, Shocker, and Singularity arguing in the void was funny, between the girls being intensely frustrated and Shocker alternating between being stubborn and completely freaking out. I still like how expressive Nico Leon makes Shocker even through the mask. And as always, it's some of the small details that make things fun. The goat being tossed through the air by the vortex when Bruno reaches Shocker's lair, as well as the old couple sitting there watching the show. Who are then up in a tree on the last page, still in their lawn chairs, just enjoying the show.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #37, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist and trading card artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Man, stuck with loki as a pallbearear? There's no way he doesn't get bored and drop the coffin halfway through.

Squirrel Girl is dead! Well, her book lasted 45 issues in total, that's not a bad run these days. But also, she's attending her own funeral in disguise as Bass Lass, so she can figure how exactly there is a dead Squirrel Girl. Which is how she gets to watch footage of the death, and eventually comes to a conclusion. But most of the issue is spent on the funeral, including two pages of various characters delivering eulogies. Some of which are good, some not so good. I am not as enamored with the idea of PG-13 Jean-Paul Sartre as the text at the bottom of the page was, but I don't need no French philosopher to tell me about how hard it is being around people, whether he uses swears or not.

The Octobliterator reminds me of how Beta Ray Bill's people perceive Galactus in the Stormbreaker mini-series. They saw him as the manifestation of their destroyer god Astra, which was apparently a big, multi-limbed thing. Funniest joke for me in this issue was Captain America thinking Iron Man is trying to start trouble up with Captain Marvel again when Tony tells everyone to attack her. It's a fair assumption to make, because Tony's kind of an ass like that. Derek Charm gets to draw Carol in her Binary form, and makes that look pretty cool. Rico Renzi's colors help a lot. That big red heat blast was pretty cool looking. I also appreciate that when the Black Panther's trying to slow himself down after being blown back by a big explosion, Charm and Renzi drew the marks from his claws doing that. Probably not strictly necessary, but it was a nice detail.

Skrulls are not really my favorite villains, but hopefully North and Charm get some decent jokes out of the cast trying to figure out who is the real (Insert Character Name) and who is a Skrull.

What I Bought 9/13/2018

Took two different comic stores in different towns on different days, but I did find all four books I was looking for from last week. Small victories. There's supposed to be another four comics out this week I want, but finding all of them might be harder to manage. in other news, I learned yesterday they are doing a new version of Magnum P.I., with some guy who looks like he stepped out of an Ax Body Spray commercial playing Magnum. Ugh.

Ms. Marvel #34, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm impressed Shocker can bend that far backwards and maintain his balance. You'd think he'd need to put one leg further back to brace himself.

Shocker has no idea what his machine does, other than it creates portals, which he boots Kamala into. She's lost outside time until Singularity shows up to eventually get her back home. Everything I know about Singularity I've learned from Googum using her in his Deadpool and Nightcrawler strips the last few weeks. Back in Jersey, Kamala has to resume fighting Shocker, except Bruno intervenes, having figured out how her powers work.

There are some interesting implications for Kamala's powers based on what Bruno found, depending on what Wilson decides to do with it. In other news, I'm so happy for The Shocker. He got to do an old-fashioned showdown in the middle of the street against a super-hero! So cool! You go Hermann! Actually, it just occurred to me that Shocker's costume is padded to protect him from the vibrations from his gauntlets, so punching him really shouldn't even work, should it? I feel as though Spidey's run into that problem before.

I notice Bruno is the only one whose name is listed on the Emergency Power Shutdown Log in the lab, which doesn't surprise me. We never see anyone else in there. You think there'd be at least one other science nerd in the school. I have no idea what that place was Kamala and Singularity wound up in initially. Is that something left over from that A-Force book that existed for five seconds a couple of years ago? Or is it something that's going to be relevant to this book going forward?

There's not a lot else I want to say. It's a middle chapter of a story, it's setting a few things up for next month, getting pieces in place.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #36, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Madeline McGrane (minicomic artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Yes, that is certainly a picture of a squirrel covering its mouth.

New York is menaced by a giant ghost lady that cancels out all sound. Or steals it all. Everything is silent now. All the various heroes fail to defeat the ghost which, come on. I know Dr. Strange isn't at the top of his game now, but it's a frickin' ghost. Peter Venkman was a damn charlatan and carrying on inappropriate liaisons with his students and he could handle ghosts! Iron Man can't build a dang nuclear accelerator? Certainly T'Challa has protocols for dealing with ghosts. Anyway, Doreen and Nancy figure out what the ghost's problem is, find common ground, and noise returns to New York City. Hooray?

As far as silent issues go, it's not bad. I was afraid North and Charm were going to resort to a lot of gags about people writing stuff out so it could be read, but they mostly restrained themselves. They even refrained from any of the text jokes at the bottom of the page. When this got solicited I wondered if they'd hold off on those for this issue. There are a few jokes about t-shirts, or books that thankfully use pictures, but not too many. And I liked the shirt gag. I would buy a "I was afraid this might happen so come on guys what the heck" shirt. I have that reaction to people all the time.

I'm disappointed Yankees Stadium didn't sustain more damage from having heroes repeatedly swatted into it. Although the Yankees would no doubt demand the city pay for repairs, so probably for the best. Plus, there's not anyone on the Yankees I would particularly want to see get squashed under Ant-Man's butt, now that Jeter's retired. That would have been a hilarious way for Jeter to end.