Sunday Splash Page #276

 

"Mascot Rodeo," in Jenny Zero II #2, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles (color artist)

Following directly from the first mini-series, Jenny Zero II has the title character embrace her role as the first line of defense against the kaiju, while retaining her, unique charm. Meaning she still curses a lot and gets shit-faced at public appearances, and sleeps with her extremely obnoxious alpha male stereotype coworker.

The creative team use a diary of her father's Jenny received at the end of the previous mini to delve a little into how Jennys father gained his powers, though it doesn't get much beyond when they manifest. We also get to see what exactly was the screw-up Jenny made that sent her into such a tailspin before her father even died. Robles does some lovely color work for the parts of that where Jenny's using some sort of kaiju-derived narcotic.

Magenta King smooths out her linework considerably from the first mini-series. Which has the effect of making Jenny look more stable, more in-control. And she mostly is, so that's fine. Even if she's joking around, she doesn't dismiss facing the threats that arise, she fights them. The figures aren't any busier, King still being restrained and keeping things straightforward with the shading. Not a lot of hatching or extra little lines allover. Everybody's in the bloom of youth and having fun, no such thing as stress lines!

The mini-series wraps up with the Director of the agency revealing herself as a worshipper of some kaiju death cult that revived the worst kaiju as a mixture of biology and science. The metal face under its flesh face looks a lot like Ultron, but maybe that's unavoidable if you want a silver-grey machine with an ominous glowing grin. Jenny manages to handle that, but may have lost every other member of her supporting cast she actually liked in the span of about ten pages.

That the (at present unconfirmed) deaths of her best friend and uncle would hurt makes sense; that she would seem be distraught enough over alpha dork seemed unlikely. She'd been giving him shit since he appeared in the first mini-series. They get drunk and fuck once, and now she really likes him? Plus, the comic goes to pains to highlight the Director has three assistants who are mentally linked, all with different telepathic specialties. Like removing memories or inserting them, or producing illusions. After the first issue, it doesn't really come up, which felt like a missed opportunity. Unless it's going to pay off in Jenny Zero III: The Search for the Good Tequila.

I'm joking. No such thing as good tequila.

The third mini-series has not been solicited at the time of this post going up, but I assume there'll be one since the Director's on the loose and Jenny's mother has apparently decided now is the time to get involved in her daughter's life. As opposed to, you know, those years Jenny was an alcoholic, pill-popping tabloid disaster.

Sunday Splash Page #275

 

"Big Reveal" in Jenny Zero #2, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Dam (color artist)

I was hoping volume 3 would be finished by now, so I could have hopefully the entire series to do in succession, but oh well. The first Jenny Zero mini-series finds the title character wallowing in unexamined grief and self-pity. She couldn't live up to the legacy of her father, legendary kaiju fighter Mega Commander Zero, and decided to stop trying. But some people can't leave well-enough alone, so she has to step up whether she wants to or not.

This mini-series is basically Jenny learning she has more in common with her father than she thought, and having to deal with it. There are a lot of flashbacks to her childhood, many of which highlight her friendship with Dana, who is the heir to a hotel chain and alternates between enabling Jenny and protecting her.

Jenny doesn't make peace with her father's memory, nor does she suddenly stop being a foul-mouthed impulsive party girl. If anything, learning she has superpowers makes her even more inclined to throw her weight around. It's only the word of an old friend of her father's that convinces her to actually go along with the government agency that came knocking (with thanks and giant robots).

King uses a thin, wobbly line most of the time, that makes Jenny look all the less composed. Jenny's usually drawn as slumped, awkwardly dressed, off-color or sickly. In contrast, the line work on Dana is steadier, and she's much more calm throughout this whole thing, even though it's outside her wheelhouse. Jenny looks better at giant-size, but she's also usually hammered drunk at giant-size, so maybe that's why.

What I Bought 10/29/2022 - Part 3

Let's wrap up October's books with a mini-series that's also wrapped up. It doesn't wrap up the actual story, however, which is not exactly a surprise, but still not a welcome outcome.

Jenny Zero II #4, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles and Geraldo Filho (colorists) - Go for the eyes! Or the intestines! At least, that's what I assume the dangly tubes are!

The creature that killed Jenny's father is on the loose, and judging by the Ultron face it's sporting underneath the purple monster face, it's gotten some upgrades. It's also considerably larger than Jenny, considering its hand is about the size of her torso. Meanwhile, the Director's stopped hiding that she's part of the death cult that worships the thing and taken over their flying battleship base King draws it a lot like the ship from that anime, Space Battleship Yamato, I think. Apparently the agency has another one that is actually called the Yamato, which was the name of an immense World War II Japanese battleship, I know, don't @ me. Just mentioning it.

Alpha rescues Jenny's uncle from the 3 sisters with psychic powers by. . .being immune to them and shooting one of them in the head, which also incapacitates the other two. Man, I really thought Dwonch and McKinney were building to something bigger with those three, after the introduction revealed they could mess with someone's memories and perception. At this point, it would appear that no, not really doing much with them at all.

Anyway, Alpha and Fujimoto escape the battleship and then Alpha gets decapitated in the middle of his speech about how he's gonna save Jenny. Jenny refuses to give up and kills the monster from the inside, prompting the Director to retreat. I was kind of waiting for Jenny to use some of that drunken master stuff she picked up in the first mini-series, but nothing I could see. Jenny struggles to deal with her emotions, and man, did the relationship with Alpha seem to progress quickly. 

The Director has placed a suicide bomber that is part monster on their jet. . .somehow. I wasn't clear from the art whether he was teleported on, or he was part of the flight crew who transformed on command. Also, King's art was looking a bit rushed in places, proportions looking a little off. Or maybe it's Filho's coloring, which seems to be stronger tones, but flatter, less gradations than Robles'. Jenny tries to save Dana and Fujimoto by transforming and catching them, but the art and Jenny's reaction certainly imply the impact, even held within Jenny's giant hands, killed both of them. And in the third mini-series, Jenny's mother will apparently be showing up, as head of yet another secret group.

I mean, I didn't expect this mini-series was going to be the end of it, but it seems bizarre to me that Miss Zero, or whatever her name is, didn't think Jenny had any need of her all those years Jenny was grieving over her father and past fuck-ups and getting wasted constantly. Even if you're determined not to be a helicopter parent, seems like a good time to step in!

I just feel like the pacing is off through these eight issues, the way certain things get a fair amount of set-up, then almost no pay off. I mentioned the speed of the Jenny/Alpha thing, and the three sisters unceremonious dispatch. The drunken fighting thing from the first mini-series. There's one reference to Master Aiko in this issue, but it's because Jenny wants her dog back. The stuff with Jenny's father's diary kind of vanished halfway through this mini-series, although I expect it to crop up again in the third one, probably explaining how Jenny's parents got together.

That said, the friendship between Dana and Jenny has been well-written, and Jenny's growth, especially across this mini-series. She's still cursing and talking trash, but she seems to be taking her fights seriously, in her own way. And watching King's art evolve from the first mini-series through this one is interesting.

What I Bought 7/30/2022 - Part 2

Got news last week we're going to have not one, but two hearings on a permit we issued. On back-to-back days. Because people really don't want us to have issued the permit. Which means I'm probably going to have to testify, twice. They aren't until the end of September, but the odds I can make it through both without hitting my limit and responding sarcastically are not good. Wonder if you can end up in contempt of court in an administrative hearing?

Here's some comics that, like me, are possibly near the end.

West of Sundown #4, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Deep shadows are definitely that guy's friend. The deeper, the better.

Miss der Abend and Dooley made their escape, but didn't reach her native soil. Instead, they crossed into some realm of dreams (or nightmares) Frankenstein's monster (because I guess it is him and not der Abend's racist, Bible-thumping grandad) and the creepy little doctor on their heels. Which is a mistake, because the things that lurk there nearly tear them apart. Dooley seems OK, and Constance is stronger than ever, able to command the elements somehow. Probably something there that bears further investigation.

Team-up of convenience commences and we learn a little more about the monster and the kid doctor before they happen upon the memory of the church where Constance was born. The spirits of her parents, or an illusion meant to resemble them, waiting inside. As well as the corpse of Dooley's horse, not inhabited by something that rules that realm.

Terry and Farrell do a pretty decent Bernie Wrightson on that monstrosity. It's easily the most horrifying, nastiest-looking thing in this series so far, Constance's comments about having seen Boss Tweed naked save a for a mask aside. The spirits, in contrast, are kind of bland. Basically just humans that are green and glowy. Not even indistinct at the edges or anything.

Anyway, the things want Constance and the others to stop the cult leader, who has captured whatever her father became and is trying to use it to ascend to a plane or position even greater than they are. Nice to know even other-dimensional monstrosities are as concerned about the social pecking order as high schoolers. Constance and the others make it back to the world, where the sky is the color of blood rather than raining it.

Herzog Jung? Do Seeley and Campbell expect me to do a bunch of reading on Jung to divine the significance of them choosing that name? Or should I be watching a bunch of Werner Herzog films? Either way, it feels like they're still introducing a lot of elements into this story. Dooley's diary landed in different hands again, but still hasn't really played a role. I wonder if there's going to be a second arc.

Jenny Zero II #4, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles and Geraldo Filho (color artists) - Jenny's mad Chad beat her to acting like an embarrassment.

Again, the issue is split between two threads. There's a tiny little bit from Jenny's dad's diary, which introduces the woman who might be Jenny's mother. Mostly, the time is split between Jenny's present and three years earlier. In the present, Jenny is introduced as the new big monster fighter to the public, going to parties, getting drunk, and sleeping with that moron Chad. 

Three years ago, we see Jenny screwing up a mission involving that Jagokai Death Cult because she was high on something called "Dragon's Ass". She cowboyed the situation, got people killed, got fired, spiraled into the wreck she was at the start of the previous mini-series. Robles colors the present day parts, Filho the 3 years ago parts.

Robles seems to be going with a softer set of hues. Lots of pastels and nothing too glaring. Which might jibe with my suspicion that this is all engineered by the Director's three telepaths. Chad seems unusually soft and deferential to Jenny, unlike his usual macho nonsense, and Jenny's scar over her eye is gone entirely. People are oddly willing to get along. Jenny says whatever she wants at her press conference, but somehow doesn't cause a disaster in the process. All the rough parts are being sanded over or eliminated.

Of course, Filho also gets to draw the part where Jenny is getting high, so maybe the more vivid colors tie to that. Or because this is a real screw-up she made that wrecked a lot of peoples' lives. The Director seems to be the daughter of the head of the cult, who got blowed up real good. Sure there's no lingering issues from that!

I'm almost positive there's going to be a third mini-series to this, because I don't see any way everything is getting resolved in one more issue. Jenny doesn't even seem to know she needs to watch out for the Director yet. Not sure how I feel about that. If this was going to be a 12-issue thing, just solicit it as a damn 12-issue thing. You tell me four issues, I kind of expect there will be a conclusion after 4 issues.

What I Bought 6/11/2022

A trip to two different stores looking for the four books that came out the first two weeks this month yielded. . . one comic? So we're back to that again. I guess that means the books I look are not popular with anyone else, so the stores don't stock more than are specifically requested. I don't have my finger on the pulse of the comic-buying audience. What else is new?

Jenny Zero II #2, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles (color artist) - The mascot is not pleased with these people leaving litter all over his burger joint.

The Jaogkai Death Cult animate the burger restaurant mascot, but have to wait until Jenny finishes her beer before she fights it. If she took it seriously it probably would have been quick, but she's drunk and/or fucking around and gets in a bit of trouble, which Dana helps her with. It's a decent enough fight scene. King's good at adding the details that show the progression of the action from one panel to the next. There's also a panel of Jenny running up the mascot's arm and growing larger with each step I thought was well done. The Director plays the gruff but reluctantly approving authority figure, but gives in to Jenny's demand that her father's friend Fujimoto (who got arrested after trying to help Jenny in the previous mini-series) be released to work with her. 

There are also more flashbacks to when Jenny's father first manifested his powers, which is tied to his first meeting with Fujimoto. Robles uses more blues and purples in coloring those scenes compared to the present day. Even the part where her father first woke up in some sci-fi med unit feels different from Jenny and Dana speaking with the director in the sci-fi HQ. The colors aren't as harsh or bright. A difference in Fujimoto's genuine concern for Kenji compared to the Director's lack of the same? Or something about the flashbacks being a second-hand experience, or that time smooths the edges off memories?

That the flashbacks prominently feature Fujimoto feels important beyond the fact Jenny demands his release. Jenny's been reading her father's diary, but the Director knows she has it (and it makes me wonder if Jenny's copy is the actual diary or something the Director modified). In theory Fujimoto offers another perspective on the events. He could see through any deceptions or alterations the Director has implanted. Or she could be using him to undermine what Jenny learns from the diary.

As frustrating as it is that I have no idea whether I can actually trust any of what I'm reading in this comic, it does at least give me something to think about. Otherwise, my primary takeaway would be that Dwonch and McKinney play up the smart-ass aspect of Jenny and Dana too much. They won't stop talking, which is admittedly part of Jenny's character, but Dana had been the more sensible one in the first series. The voice of reason. Now she's egging Jenny on. Which, again, makes me question whether any of this is real from a, Watsonian perspective, I guess.

What I Bought 5/28/2022 - Part 1

Going to start off the reviews of the rest of May's stuff with two books from a couple of weeks ago. One's a second issue, one the first issue of the second storyline. I try to pair these things by some sort of theme, and that was the best one I could come up with. That or both books have two writers. No, I'm not Two-Face. Don't say things like that, I'm not looking to have Batman punch my face in.

Jenny Zero II #1, by Dave Dwonch and Brockton McKinney (writers), Magenta King (artist), Arnaldo Robles (colorist), Dave Dwonch (letterer) - It was nice of them to bring the person they constrain like she's really dangerous out for a fun night of pachinko.

Set some time I'm assuming shortly after the end of last year's mini-series, Jenny seems to be getting treated like a dangerous criminal. of course, she beat the hell out of the guys transporting so maybe it's a valid concern. Or maybe not, because that was all an illusion created by the Director's three helper ladies, who have various mental manipulation powers. I'm sure the ability to erase or alter someone's memories won't get abused.

The Director gets Jenny on board by mentioning the threat of the Overking, aka the thing that killed Jenny's dad, and by bringing in her friend Dana to help her improve her image. Aka, make Jenny not behave like a drunken, pill-popping disaster all the time. Neither of them seems dumb enough to trust the Director about who is behind the Overking, or so it seems. 

Ugh, I appreciate Dwonch and McKinney establishing right off that those three ladies can mess with perceptions, but it means I can't trust anything I'm reading in this comic. If that whole escape Jenny pulled at the start was all in her head, then the conversation in the burger joint could be as well. Certainly the "Chunker Jr." mascot coming to life seems suspect. Or, I had to go back and check the end of the previous mini-series because I couldn't remember if Jenny had a scar over her left eye. She did, but if she didn't, that might have been a clue they'd been using her for missions and erasing her memories.

King's line seems more solid than it did on the first mini-series. It was also more jagged and wobbly then. This might just be a sign of progression as an artist, or maybe it's an intentional choice. Jenny's starting to embrace her past and her heritage (including by reading her father's journal, although the Director knows she's got it). She's more stable now, more, "mature" might not be the right word, but something like that. Combined with Robles using a less glaring color palette than Dam did on the previous mini-series, and the whole thing seems more stable. Jenny's got a plan, she's got a friend she trusts and will rely on, things are possibly under control.

Or it's all in her head. I am going to second guess every conclusion or interpretation I try draw about this mini-series, I can tell.

West of Sundown #2, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - I guess the cover captures a mood, but it's not exactly easy to distinguish what's going on at first glance. Still beats blase pin-up covers Marvel opts for a lot.

The issue starts in a flashback to how Constance became what she is. Her mother conceived Constance (then Rosa) with a young Native American man who had been taken from his tribe and forced into service as a soldier (and thus I learn the term "genizaro). Her father objected to them getting married, killed the priest too late. Domingo got the gun and tried to protect them from his father-in-law's dog. Bullet hit the dog, but also his wife. Domingo ate the dog's blood and flesh, becoming a werewolf(?) and ran off with little Rosa.

In the present, Constance and Dooley travel to the site of that church for the earth she needs. They better hurry because she's getting hungry and he's the only immediate source of food. But someone's built something there. A church of their own, where they whip themselves and proclaim the life is the sky. Seems concerning, though not as much as the weird creatures with long, paralyzing tongues that nearly kill Dooley. Constance gets enough earth for the time being and carries him to safety. But those people are set to investigate who intruded.

Also the man who has been hunting her is actually her grandfather, Frankensteined together by, well, Victor Frankenstein is the extremely pale young man with heterochromia is telling the truth.

Obviously it couldn't be that easy for Constance to get the earth she required, although I'm not clear how much she needs. Does it have to fill a coffin? Just grabbing a handful made her strong enough to tear that little creature in half, and she seemed confident she could handle another four of them. Either way, no we've got her and Dooley, Grandpa and Dr. Frankenstein, the creepy cult, possibly the sheriff (whose loyalties are uncertain). Might need to add the tavern owner after Constance bought his place and kicked him out for being rude earlier (because he's black and correctly intuits Dooley fought for the South.) Surely that won't come back to bite anyone! No pun intended, but accepted.

On some level, it might have been more interesting if the people living on the old church site weren't up to no good. If they were innocent farmers or sheep herders, how far would Constance go? How far would Dooley go to help her? He seized the escape when she offered, but Seeley and Campbell seem to be establishing there are limits to how far Constance's protection extends. Push comes to shove, Dooley may not be anything more than a useful instrument. Or maybe she's been a vampire so long she's forgotten the limits of humans. But Terry draws Dooley as looking weary and/or terrified basically the entire issue. The life is taking its toll.

What I Bought 8/27/2021 - Part 2

I'm ready for summer to be over. Pity it's probably only going to get longer in each successive year. For today, there's one comic wrapping up (for now), and another almost to the end.

Jenny Zero #4, by Brockton McKinney (writer), Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Magenta King (artist), Dam (color artist) - Don't do it Jenny! He has the high ground!

Jenny's doing pretty well against the rank and file. Helps when you're big enough you can toss a tank around like a Nerf football. So they send down the big mech on the cover, who proceeds to mess her face up until we find out the dog can also grow to kaiju-size and rips its arm off. Jenny finishes it by smashing the skull with its own metal fist. Which also kills the pilots, because she thought they'd be in the torso. 

I feel like there's a joke there I'm not getting. Is it referring to a difference in where American and Japanese fiction depict as the traditional cockpit location in giant mechs? Or was Jenny just shitfaced? She did ask the dog for his opinion, which could be taken any number of ways.

Jenny still loses to the old "we have a alien smart gun pointed at your friend's head, surrender or else," ploy. So she works for the corrupt security agency after all. Which is headed by a woman who is part of a hive mind with the thing Jenny's father died trying to stop. Since the comic ends on that reveal, I guess the follow-up will have to come in another mini-series.

That's a little frustrating, but I guess it makes sense. It didn't seem likely winning one big fight was going to get these people off Jenny's back for good. And while she's learned about her ability and maybe how to really use it, there's still the matter of her actually using it. She really does not want to be like her father, but it doesn't appear she's going to get that choice. I don't love that aspect of it, that's she ultimately going to be forced to do the world defender thing. I imagine she'll ultimately embrace it, but it feels like putting the best spin on a bad situation.

But I'm criticizing stories that haven't been written yet. What a foolish endeavor, especially given my piss-poor track record predicting what's going to happen in stories.

King's scratchy, loose lines work really well for people getting beat up. It easily translates into someone looking ragged or battered, like they've been knocked off-model a bit. The characters can get hurt, even if it doesn't seem to slow them down much. "Mayo Boy" was moving around pretty good after Jenny flicked him over the horizon. Jenny shakes off getting her face punched in once she's got a minute, too. They both probably have advanced healing, though. On a coloring note, there's one page where Dam gets Jenny's uniform entirely the wrong color scheme. Only for that one page, though, which makes me wonder how nobody caught that before it was too late.

Everfrost #3, by Sami Kivela (artist), Ryan K. Lindsay (writer), Lauren Affe (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Took me a couple of looks to notice the creepy smiley face.

Van does talk her way out of trouble, by showing the clone had a transmitter they can use to access the Ward's island. So they do, and the Ward are long gone, leaving only an immense computer brain (with a smiley face) and some clones. Who kills a bunch of the people in the Bloom, meaning they were clones of people other than Van's son (based on something Van says about how it not being able to kill her means she's not a clone.) 

The computer separates them and tries to bargain with Van for information on the giant alien thing she's been trying to resurrect. Van takes the opportunity to learn some things, though I'm not clear what good they do her. She continues to refuse to play ball. I feel like she keeps changing her mind about what her goal is, but the consistent theme is she doesn't want to let anyone else be the one who changes her mind. She works with the Bloom, but there's no real sense she cares about their goals, and if they interfere with hers, well too bad for the Bloom. 

One person's way to save the world is another's way of burning it down. Or, it may not bring someone much consolation you're going to save humanity, if you get them killed in the process. It's kind of funny that Van is the sort of person who will do something that affects you without consulting with you first, on the grounds she's sure she knows better, while simultaneously being the type of person who would never tolerate someone else doing that to her. I feel like I just described Tony Stark.

There's a two-page bit where the computer shows the surviving member of the Bloom this idyllic landscape, which is then subsequently destroyed by Van, as a way to set the two of them against each other. I'm curious why that would work, when I don't think that lady has ever seen the world look like that. Hasn't it been a mostly frozen wasteland for most of her life? But it does also show her friends and allies being killed by Van's path of. . . whatever you'd like to call it. Vengeance doesn't seem quite right. That part is certainly accurate. Van leaves a real trail of bodies in her wake, and since I can't see her letting this thing about her son's DNA go, I suspect there'll be a few more in the final issue.

What I Bought 7/10/2021 - Part 1

So, three books last week. The two for today are both in the penultimate issue of an arc. One of them does a lot more with that than the other.

Runaways #37, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm really not sure what everyone is so shocked about in the context of this issue. Although Nico only looks mildly concerned at best.

This issue is almost entirely silent for 16 pages. Then the last two pages have a bunch of dialogue. Yes, that only adds up to 18 pages, because that's how many pages there were in this comic. Swell, right? I think that's the second time this year they've stiffed us on pages with an issue. And Genolet is a good artist, the work is pretty and all. Emotions are clear, even if I'm not always clear on why exactly they're having that emotion. Still, it's not so great it demands to be seen sans any actual talking.

So what did happen? Nico is frustrated about her fight with Karolina about letting a genie steal part of her soul when she uses the staff. Which is, to be clear, a stupid thing to agree to, but they seem to make up. Although some of Karolina's people show up looking for her, whatever that means. Present Gert and Victor find Future Gert and Present Chase making out, and Present Gert is not happy and runs off. Is she not happy about how she turns out, or that she seems fated to end up pining over Chase?

Admittedly, that would be a rough realization to have, but I don't know for sure because nobody says anything. Oh, and Future Gert cries while hugging Victor, which probably doesn't bode well for him.

Gib found someone to offer him sacrifices. Relax, it's cats, who bring him mice. Mice which Doombot must then vacuum up, and why doesn't he build something to do housecleaning? Wouldn't that be beneath a Doom? Also, Alex Wilder is still around, which is probably bad news.

I don't see why this issue needed to go Silent Era, and if you're going to do that, then fucking commit. Don't half-ass it.

Jenny Zero #3, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Dam (color artist) - Seeing your emotionally distant and deceased father figure in cloud formations is a common coping mechanism.

The government agency is becoming increasingly evil, as they try to intimidate Jenny hotel heiress friend, to no effect. But, their telepath pokes through Jenny's uncle's mind and figures out where she went. And their evil leader orders them to either get Jenny to work for them, or bring her corpse back so they can incorporate her DNA into their stormtroopers. I feel as though that development happened extremely quickly, but to be fair, the comic has largely been focused on Jenny making an ass of herself for two issues as an avoidance technique, so there probably wasn't an opportunity.

Anyway, Jenny's busy tracking down an old associate of her father's, who tried to approach her about training years ago. It's a middle-aged lady who is the master of an entire temple, and she's gonna teach Jenny some drunken master stuff. Well, Jenny's a drunk, so she's halfway there! I think they get approximately one day of training in before the government dorks show up and there's a big fight. And once Jenny gets involved, it's really a "big" fight. I'd see myself out, but this is my blog, and my ass has fused with the chair.

Somewhat abrupt shift into cartoonish supervillainy by the mostly unseen Action Science Police aside, there's actually several bits in here that made me laugh. Ms. Sheratin deciding to call the terribly named Alpha Major "Chad". Aiko's ways of testing Jenny. First, knocking her flat on her ass. An oldy, but a goody. Then throwing a cup of tea at Jenny to catch, only for Jenny to punch it, and both of them being very confused by the other's actions. The dog is as amused by it as I am.

The best might be when "Chad" is trying intimidate Aiko and he snaps his fingers, and nothing happens. You turn the page and all his guys are still down the hill waiting because 'The snow is really giving us hell on the comms', so they couldn't tell if that was a signal. Idiots trying to look cool and failing miserably will always be funny. At least, I hope so. If not, this world may not be worth living in.

So, is the fin on the head for these Ultraman types always a natural growth like it is for Jenny, or is it usually a helmet, like the Rocketeer? I'd always assumed the latter, that it was something added to the costume to look cool, but Jenny actually has a headfin, because either her faces uniform didn't have his helmet, or she opted not to wear it. It looks fine as is, although it's kind of weird how much it seems to cause King to flatten out Jenny's nose when drawn from straight ahead, versus in profile. The bridge kind of disappears.

King does a really good job drawing "Chad" to look like a complete ass. Although I'm not sure I've seen a fictional guy with pink hair who wasn't. This doofus, Quentin Quire, there's probably some others I'm forgetting, but those two are strong date points in favor of my hypothesis. He's wearing a purple band-aid under one eye at the beginning of the comic for no apparent reason. He's not wearing it when they attack Aiko's temple, and there's no noticeable scar. So it's an affectation, and an incredibly dumb one at that.

What I Bought 6/4/2021

I went to my dad's over the weekend for his birthday, so expect reviews of older movies over the next couple of weeks. For now, here's two comics from last week. One I was expecting to find, the other I wasn't. It's really a toss-up between the two stores in the nearest town what I'll find at either one, and their schedules don't lend themselves to visiting both in one trip. So I pick the one I can get to that time, and take what I can get.

Jenny Zero #2, by Dave Dwonch and Brockton McKinney (writers), Magenta King (artist), Dam (color artist), Dave Dwonch (letterer) - Hopefully all those people were already dead when she started stomping around.

The issue switches between the time of Jenny's father's death and the present. In the past, he dies, and Jenny struggles to cope. Avoids his funeral, and comments he'd probably rather have his dog there than her. Gets introduced to all the neat weapons the A.S.P. make from the bodies of the monsters by her uncle. Which takes on a different light when we and Jenny know that he's always known she could do the size-changing thing like her dad, and kept it from her. All of those scenes have a soft lavender coloring to the surroundings. Not sure the specific significance of that color choice. I would say it's a matter of viewing things through rose-colored glasses, but most of the memories are not that great.

In the present, Jenny defeats the monsters, and confronts her uncle about lying to her. Then she and her friend Dana go hang out in a hotel until Jenny decides to seek out someone who can help her. I suspect we're going to find out Dana was assigned to her as sort of a handler when they first met. Given one flashback is with Jenny's uncle, who lied to her and guided her to fight, and the other is Jenny meeting Dana and basically sticking by her side ever since. Plus, not sure how a hotel heiress is able to get access to a secret monster-fighting agency, even if she is the big hero's friend. I'm sure Jenny won't see that as yet another shocking betrayal.

 

Jenny's personality seems to be the brash person who actually just runs from difficult stuff. Or she prefers to process in solitude. You could read it either way. The flashbacks show she really didn't want to be at the funeral services for her dad, and after the battle, she goes and hides out in a hotel with Dana. She says she hates hiding out, but it seems to be a default response. But if everyone always has a camera aimed at her, maybe that's the only response. Nobody does that to me, and I can still barely think on important stuff around others.

Black Cat #7, by Jed MacKay (writer), Michael Dowling (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Aw, Larraz even made sure her sack of loot has a big old dollar sign on it. That's a nice touch.

Felicia tracks down the Black Fox and tells him how she's undone his plan for immortality. So we see in flashback how she was sent into the Vault, requested her immortality be removed, and warned the Saint that Fox intends to renege on the deal. Which he doesn't, but the little explosive Felicia attached to the deed to Manhattan says differently. Rights to the city lost, the Saint emerges and drags the Fox back into the Vaults, just slowly enough for a tearful farewell.

It works. MacKay uses the tracking chip he established was on the deed in issue 4 to explain how Felicia can find it again in such an enormous space. Dowling makes the Vaults resemble Arizona, or maybe some early 20th Century artists' version of the surface of Venus or Titan. Some mountains, vast plains, red skies with no visible sun. Felicia reminds us that she has limits to what she's comfortable doing, and the Fox remains someone willing to do anything to survive. Just as he would betray others, or play on Spider-Man's sympathy for an old man, he'd sacrifice an entire city of people for immortality. But he can still respect the student outwitting the teacher.

Oh, and at the very end, Felicia and Odessa make out. Congratulations to those two crazy kids. I'm curious if MacKay will actually do something with it. I'm not talking about a date issue - although I'm not saying I'm opposed to that, we got one for Felicia and Batroc - but at least the occasional acknowledgement. One of them stopping by to see the other, or scenes of one of them waking up at the other's home. So it's more than just a one-time, "Yes, Felicia's bisexual. Diversity!" thing. Felicia says straight up she doesn't think this is something with a future, and Odessa says it can't possibly work, but that doesn't mean it ends immediately. Let them have some fun with each other.

 

Anyway, the next arc is Felicia getting tangled up in acquiring Infinity Stones, which are now people, apparently? Not promising, but MacKay and Villa made the King in Black tie-ins better than I had any hope of them being. They can make something out of this.

What I Bought 5/8/2021 - Part 1

Our governor, in his endless brilliance, announced out of the blue last week all state employees will return to the office on the 17th. No remote work options will be considered. This after six weeks of our bosses telling us maybe we'd be in the office by July, and that they're working on remote work options. Never mind a lot of people still won't be fully vaccinated. Tomorrow is 2 weeks since the second shot for me, and I got the first shot the second day I was eligible. To say nothing of all the people in this state who won't get vaccinated at all. But sure, business as usual.

Anyway, here's a couple of first issues.

Jenny Zero #1, by Dave Dwonch (writer/letterer), Brockton McKinney (writer), Magenta King (artist), Megan Huang (color artist) - That kaiju's gonna be lucky if it didn't step on a used needle.

Jenny was part of Japan's giant monster fighting agency, the daughter of the biggest (literally) hero, and she got discharged for currently unspecified reasons. She moved to California, has a publicist/hotel manager that looks after her, and spends her time drinking and taking all kinds of drugs. The giant monsters are moving beyond Japan's borders, so her uncle asks her to fight one headed her way. She's not happy, but does it (while drunk), and while in the process of being carried away by a giant remora, is shot and manifests the same "growing giant-sized" powers her dad apparently had.

I guess the idea is everyone always compared her to her dad, and minus his super-powers, she didn't measure up. That got old, so she decided to stop trying? Either living for herself as much as possible, or trying to rebel as obviously as possible. Her uncle, who King draws about as square-chinned and lantern-jawed as possible, says she's bringing shame to her family. Which, you know, always a good approach to take when asking for a favor.

Seriously, if you flipped the guy upside-down I'm pretty sure you could build scale-models of famous landmarks out of toothpicks and spit on the underside of his face. Overall, King's artwork varies as the situation requires. It seems to get looser, more blacks during the battle at the end, while it's busier, with thinner lines in the first half of the book where there's a lot of talking. Jenny looks ragged, sweaty and tired. Her clothes don't look like they fit terribly well. She's not taking care of herself and her friend's efforts are mostly for naught (boy, do I know what that's like), and the art reflect it.

 

I did raise an eyebrow at the notion that if left to our own devices, the U.S. will simply bomb the monster and cause a lot of collateral damage. Not that it's an inaccurate reading, I'm just not sure having a giant person fight the monster will be all that much less destructive. I'm seen a lot of animes. Fights between giant things break stuff.

You Promised Me Darkness #1, by Damian Connelly (writer/artist), Anabella Mazzaferri (letterer) - Not the cover I ended up with, but it's nice and foreboding.

The issue is narrated by someone called Sage. They're over a hundred, and one of the people who gained powers when Halley's Comet flew past in 1910. There's a lot in there, and Sage's thoughts seem a little scattered, but the most critical part seems to be there's a cataclysm coming in two weeks, and involves a pair of siblings. A boy who creates fire, and a girl who pulls you into your nightmares. 

I thought that's what alcohol was for. 

There's a son of a satanist who can steal other powers closing in on them, and he, plus the song "Gangam Style", are going to somehow destroy everything. Or maybe it's a coincidence that song debuts on the important day (July 15, 2012). Connelly draws PSY so that he reminds me of Kim Jong-Un. Maybe it's just the hair? 

Like I said, Sage doesn't seem an entirely reliable narrator. They've got people looking for the siblings, Son of a Satanist Preacher Man has a bunch of zombified lawyers after them, there's a giant Doberman in the city. I am unclear on whether Sage means it's large for a Doberman, or large like it's the size of a house. I guess if it was the latter it wouldn't be so difficult to find, but it apparently can talk, so maybe it can turn invisible, too.

 

I wonder if Connelly is going to stick with Sage as narrator, or switch between characters. I can only hope for the latter, because Sage is kind of annoying. They don't have the Bendis stammering tic, but there's a lot of random "Yikes!", or "Oops!" in there. Example: 'I don't know why sometimes I make promises I'm not sure I can keep, Yikes!' Sage is probably a good character to use for exposition in the sense they've been around a while and know a lot. Their thought process means they can jump from topic to topic without it seeming like the author is trying to info-dump. It's like talking to a grandparent where one story about the old days segues into the next and then the next.

The art is all black-and-white, and I'd say the black dominates. In some panels it works, where faces stand out sharply. The panel of the mushroom cloud, where it's in white, against a black backdrop and mostly black city? That works pretty well. In others, I can hardly tell what I'm supposed to be looking at. The first panel where we see Sage, they're on a balcony at the bottom of the page, and it's hard to tell it's supposed to be a person and not just a sculpture like the ones on either side of Sage. I can't figure out what's going on with Sebastian's (fire boy) hair at all. Is it long, is it standing up, is it constantly windblown? Does he have a white streak like Rogue, or is that smoke wafting from his head because he's always a little on fire?

Of the two books, You Promised Me Darkness is the one that intrigues more, but it's also the one that's more likely to put me off stylistically.