What I Bought 6/5/2026

The week is over. Finally. Blessedly. I've been ready for it to be over since at least Tuesday. Next week, I get to return to just caring about my usual responsibilities, and Bill can spend two days trying to get through all his e-mails. I picked this last book up while on the road last week.

It's Jeff! Brand New Week #1, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gurihiru (artists/color artists), Goodman Yamada, Jim Campbell (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I actually ended up with the Todd Nauck variant. He gives Jeff fingers and toes instead of flippers that can fold or bend in such a way as to form fingers. It's very disturbing.

The material that's actually new to me is a single story where Jeff visits a boardwalk amusement park and uses some magic rock that gives him a bunch of tentacles so he can earn enough tickets at whack-a-mole to win a gigantic lollipop. But once he wins, he finds a fuzzy pink octopus stuck to the lolly, and he can't get it to go away. Gwenpool seems to recognize it, or at least calls it "Ken", but otherwise takes no action.

Jeff and Ken roam around, get captured and thrown in a glass case by someone, all we ever see are their shoes and pants legs. But Ken, who had been grabbing stuff earlier, turns out to be a lot like Captain Marvel's cat, in that it can apparently store a bunch of stuff inside itself. Including a blowtorch, which Jeff uses to help them escape. Jeff notes Ken is starting to dry out being away from the water so long, but Ken refuses to leave his new pal, so Jeff steals a bunch of stuff from various stands to construct a mobile fish tank for Ken to ride in.

The rest of the pages are devoted to Ken's introductions to Elsa Bloodstone and Deadpool, but where I expected these to be humorous new encounters by Thompson and Gurihiru, they're actually reprints of earlier stories. The Bloodstone meeting is a single page from Marvel Comics #1000, and the Deadpool meeting is from the Deadpool series Thompson wrote and Chris Bachalo (briefly) drew. So those were kind of duds.

The art on the story with Ken switches over from Gurihiru to Yamada about the time Jeff finds that fleeing into the Ferris wheel didn't get him away from Ken. Yamada's art is very expressive, in a similar simplified vein to Gurihiru, though I notice Ken is less fuzzy and the red spots far more prominent in his version than theirs. Also, his Jeff is a lot chunkier. Looks about like he did after he ate that entire wheel of cheese in the previous one of these It's Jeff! books. Yeah, it's hell when the metabolism slows down, and you can't just eat whatever you want without repercussions. . .

What I Bought 2/18/2026 - Part 2

The anime re-watch wrapped up Gundam Wing over the weekend. That was fun, since I hadn't watched it in at least 15 years. I forgot how quickly things would change. Maybe one episode spent letting us think Heero died after self-destructing his Gundam, a half-dozen episodes on Relena trying to run a pacifist nation she only learned she was the inheritor of like 15 episodes earlier. She surrenders to avoid more deaths, an episode later she's a figurehead queen. An episode or two after that, she's running things for real, only to lose that one episode after. Gundam creators got no time for decompression, clearly (consecutive recap episodes in the middle of the series aside.)

It's Jeff! Meets Daredevil, by Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru - Those might be the most pronounced horns I've ever seen on Daredevil.

It's another collection of brief Jeff stories by Thompson and Gurihiru. Contrary to my expectations, they aren't focused on Jeff working with Daredevil. Their interactions are limited to the first comic, appropriately titled "Daredevil did it," where DD knocks over a statue while pursuing some thief (complete with a big sack with a $ symbol on it, so you know they respect tradition.) Jeff was sitting on a bench eating lunch in front of it, so the cop that comes along arrests Jeff.

Fortunately, Gwenpool and Kate Bishop hire Matt Murdock, and Jeff is acquitted, while Daredevil is sentenced to the community service of picking up all those pieces of statue that have just been lying scattered around the park ever since? So if you always wanted to see Daredevil doing in that a reflective vest. . .you'll have to by the comic because I scanned a different image. Hah!

The remainder of the comic is Jeff in his usual hijinks, most of which involve food. Although he does get mad when he keeps losing a fighting game and hurls the TV through the Hulk's kitchen window, which I can both relate to and think is an unwise choice. There are consecutive strips where Gwen is trying to make Jeff take medicine for some skin rash he's got, but Jeff proves extremely capable at not swallowing the pills. Although all that could have been avoided if Gurihiru simply drew a picture of Jeff's stomach, allowing Gwen to slip through the gutters to drop the pills in there.

It's cute fluff, but that's fine with me.

Generation X-23 #1, by Jody Houser (writer), Jacopo Camagni (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Ariana Maher (letterer) - Maybe it's the angle, but Gabby;s lower body looks majorly elongated relative to her upper body.

Laura and Gabby are protecting a random mutant girl from a bigoted mob. Bigoted, idiot mob, given at least one of them shouts, "Just little girls!" at two girls with very long, very sharp claws extending from the backs of their hands. I'm once again amazed every citizen of the Marvel Universe hasn't managed to accidentally kill themselves trying to gargle bleach instead of mouthwash.

In the middle of the fight, something weird starts happening. Something like stained glass pieces appear from thin air, and as they pass through people, they get switched to, I'm not sure. Gabby thinks she smelled a friend of hers from her days as a sex worker, Kiden, who had time manipulation powers. Except seeing Laura at one point as young girl in a frilly dress, while Gabby looked like some Rob Liefeld creation for a second (sleek, elongated helmet with glowing visor) seems like more of an "unlocking alternate realities," power.

But I never read NYX, so maybe this is how the power worked. Laura follows the scent, finds more of the stained glass, plus a machine with the same claw set-up and hair as her. Beyond that, someone who isn't Kiden, who was looking for Laura, because people are dying from experiments involving mutant DNA. The girl speaks in fragmented and cryptic sentences before aging like she drank from the wrong Grail. Laura tracks her scent to a too-normal looking building, she and Gabby break in, there are more of the robots, and then a bunch of teenagers who are very happy to see Laura.

It feels like Laura is going to assume the teens are victims, while I suspect they're the ones conducting the experiments in order to make themselves more powerful. Maybe Gabby will be more suspicious, maybe not. Houser keeps Gabby as very eager and chatty, while Laura looks after her but plays along in trading jabs occasionally. The way the relationship was written felt right, which is a good sign.

Camagni plays into the characters' personalities by having Gabby be very expressive with her body language and facial expressions, where Laura is more reserved. So Laura will study a "too-normal" building, and all we get are narrowed eyes, while Gabby will stand there with one finger tapping at her lip in a "thoughtful" posture. When Laura tracks the girl's scent back to said "too-normal" building, in a page of her riding a motorcycle through the city, Camagni layers on panels showing the girl's progress as Laura's following the trail to its source. 

What I Bought 5/8/2025 - Part 1

I've eased off recently on playing video games and reading books. To focus on other things, but also because I've got Thursday posts done out to July 17th. Let's hear it for short games and easy-reading books!

It's Jeff! Jeff Week, by Kelly Thompson, Gurihiru and Gustavo Duarte - Jeff has mastered mystic portals. No one's snacks are safe!

You know by now what the deal is with the It's Jeff stuff. Thompson and Gurihiru do a lot of 1-2 pages stories about Jeff getting into hijinks with various heroes. Jeff is disappointed Kate Bishop won't take him on a trip with her, but wait! He snuck inside her suitcase. That must have surprised the security people. Jeff struggles to ice skate, but saves a dog who falls through thin ice.

Jeff steals Hulk's portal technology (which looks kind of like my Roku TV remote) and uses it to rampage through the kitchen, stealing everyone's food, until Hulk gets the idea of hiding Captain America's shield within a pizza. Good thing sharks constantly grow new teeth. It is, as usual very adorable.

Duarte is the writer/artist for the Jeff Week story, which takes up the last 15 pages, and seems to involve Marvel characters playing hot potato taking care of Jeff while Kate's in Japan. Mostly because Jeff eats all their food (X-Men), wakes them up after a long night fighting crime (Spider-Man), or encourages their dinosaur friend to cause property damage (Moon Girl). Duarte's Jeff is longer (especially in the tail) than Gurihiru's, and on the whole, has a lot more cat energy. He doesn't get flustered or spooked so much as he demands everyone else adjust to his needs.

Duarte tends to use fewer panels, and likes the eschew panel borders entirely. Hulk may be in charge of looking after Jeff, until Jeff contacts Lockjaw and the 'port away, and then there's a couple shots of Hulk's face and then one of him walking away whistling with no borders between them, just white space. The Gurihiru team ditch the borders for the final, punchline panel, but all the ones around it have their own borders and gutter space helping to delineate it.

Deadpool #14, by Cody Ziglar (writer), Roge Antonio (artist), Guru-eFX (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Wade, you're supposed to be shielding your daughter from this brutal violence. The audience is already inured to it. 

Deadpool, Deadpool, Princess, and Taskmaster fight Death Grip and his resurrected minions. Who promptly blow themselves up at their master's command. Guess they didn't teach him anything useful about what exists beyond death. For all the talk about Wade's reduced healing factor, being thrown backfirst into a stone pillar by an explosion slows him down for approximately 5 panels.

A couple of Death grip's minions, plus the portal guy Deadpool was trying to kill in issue 1, attack DP's HQ (a rapidly decaying basement by the looks of it), and Doug only escapes because "Water Cooler Rat" helps him. So I'm guessing there's something up with the rat?

Deadpool finally busts out the mystic sword, but Death Grip seems to be increasingly losing it, given how he struggles to say every other word. Not that it's affecting whatever language he uses for his spells, or that the sword can actually kill him. Despite being slashed with it several times, Death Grip shrugs it off and. . .rips his own chest open, showing an oddly-colored heart in a void, while more spectral arms emerge from his torso?

Boy, I imagine Ziglar has one hell of an explanation for all this planned for next month. Too bad Marvel's gonna stick inside an oversized, more expensive issue I won't buy for months, if ever.

What I Bought 11/4/2023 - Part 2

It's actually almost light out when I go to work now, what with the clocks being set back. Of course, I get maybe 3 hours of sunlight to enjoy after I get off work, but I spend a lot of afternoons napping anyway, so that's not huge loss.

It's Jeff! The Jeff-verse #1, by Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru - I actually went with the variant of Jeff and the Black Cat. They were all the same cost, and Jeff gleefully eating jewels was an amusing image.

Much like the first It's Jeff from back in spring, this is a collection of short strips Thompson and the Gurihiru team did on Marvel's digital app first. And so it's mostly Jeff being adorable, or ravenous, or adorably ravenous. (Ravenously adorable?)

Gwen trying to find some way to make Jeff stop pulling at the bandages on his injured tail, and Jeff dealing with the indignity of Cone of Shame. Jeff encountering a toy store full of merchandise starring him. Unlicensed merchandise, no less. Remarkably, the guilty party is not Deadpool. Jeff being caught up in mad science where he's first shrunk and menaced by an ant, and then he and the ant become giant. Which leads to a funny gag of Jeff growing so large he wears part of Avengers' tower as a hat, which he then carefully replaces on the building after he climbs down.

Two of my favorites were when Jeff confronts a bully dog at the dog park, so that all the dogs can play with the ball and have fun, and the one where Gwenpool and Kate Bishop have him try on different Halloween costumes. The first demonstrating it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's that one of the dogs is a shark.

The second for how comically exaggerated Gurihiru depict Jeff's teeth when he smiles, and how dejected he looks when the girls react in horror. They don't have him full on sobbing or anything, just slumped shoulders to go with a single tear in the corner of his lifeless, black eyes. Like a doll's eyes, except not as creepy.

It's fluff, but as before, it's cute fluff.

A Haunting on Mars #1, by Zach Chapman (writer/letterer), Ruairi Coleman (illustrator), Steve Canon (colorist) - Maybe if Carpenter had gone harder on the body horror, Ghosts of Mars would have been a better movie.

A small team is sent to the failed colony on Mars by a big corporation for. . .something. The specifics are not revealed, because our viewpoint character is a hacker the corporation caught after she released a lot of their private information into the world. So the soldier in charge isn't being very forthcoming.

Their shuttle crashes for some reason, forcing them to hike to the destination, where they encounter hungry dogs with big red boils on their bodies. The squad psionic deals with them, but about wipes herself and everyone else out in the process. The empath is not doing well surrounded by all the death and horror, and considering what they find at the mansion, he's probably not going to be feeling better any time soon.

Chapman tries to give a little backstory or a hint of personality to each character, granting that Ryker (the other soldier) has a personality of "complains a lot". Paz, the psionic, seems to have an overachiever thing going, or maybe she doesn't like following orders. They're all in vaguely similar armor, if colored somewhat differently, but Coleman uses enough close-up panels to show their distinctive faces.

It feels like the real conflict is going to be not between the squad and whatever that was on the last page (some horrible melding of man and tubing), but between Cass the hacker and Morgan the leader. Because there's no explanation for what went wrong with the shuttle, or why it crashed, and Morgan admits to the empath he's hiding things, but couches it as relating to the patents they're trying to recover.

When Cass was injured and it damaged the control collar, Morgan injected her with controlling nanites under the cover of sealing the wound. Cass took steps to negate that, so it's a question of if Morgan has figured that out yet, and can Cass figure out what's going on and take measures first? it may just be genre familiarity, but it feels significant we don't know specifically what they're looking for, and that Morgan knows more than he's telling anyone, even the people who aren't criminals doing a Suicide Squad stint.

What I Bought 3/30/2023

I'm typing this on Friday afternoon, waiting to see if we're going to get a visit from the Tornado and Hail Fairy. Thus far, it's just been a bit of rain, but there's five hours on the tornado watch to go.

It's Jeff! #1, by Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru - Jeff looking so happy to be on the cover of his very own comic. No more scrambling for background space in other's books!

This is a collection of a bunch of short strips that were on Marvel Infinite first, and have been collected in this handy issue. Outside of characters occasionally shouting "Jeff!" when he does something exasperating, the strips are silent. Mostly Jeff roaming about, having fun doing things like sledding or getting stuck in the washing machine. Although Thompson seems to have designated Kate Bishop as Jeff's caretaker instead of Gwenpool or Deadpool. Man, Kate Bishop can't look after a pet.

The Gurihiru art team depict Jeff as something like a very toothy, oddly-shaped cat. Focused more on him being cute than kind of strange or frightening. A few of the strips play with Jeff being a shark. Jeff jumps in the pool in one strip and causes a panic when people see the fin. So when he decides to join some surfers in the ocean in a subsequent strip, he devises a way to put people at ease. Another one involves him getting a stomachache and the vet performing an X-ray on his stomach.

One that actually made me laugh out loud a bit involved Jeff trying to get cool during summer. He tries to drag over the hose to fill a kiddy pool, but is reminded of the dangers of using his mouth to do that. That was actually an unexpected twist in a 3-page story, so I appreciate the swerve by Thompson there.

Anyway, it's extremely inessential fluff, but it's also extremely cute and lighthearted inessential fluff, and I enjoy that from time-to-time.

Clobberin' Time #1, by Steve Skroce (writer/artist), Bryan Valenza (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - It's kind of weird seeing Ben's rocks depicted more like a leathery hide, without losing the "pebble" look of them.

Ben's having lunch with Bruce Banner and Reed (although Reed's got his neck stretched out looking at some gizmo), when a guy in what looks like mish-mash of Iron Man and Doom's armor shows up and dumps them through a gateway to some other world. Where they find a bunch of little aliens being menaced by a giant monster with a lot of teeth. Which is the sort of thing Skroce draws well, based on his Godzilla comic work. Lot of detail into the lamprey like mouth and the skin like spiny plates. The way the fingers are depicted make them look like a hydra, almost.

The monster is just one of many, the leader of which has captured the little guys' defender, their own Sorcerer Supreme. Hulk ignores Ben's attempt at a plan and just smashes the leader and grabs the sorcerer, but right as they're ready to leave, the army of monsters shows up. So they stay to fight, rather than abandon the aliens. Which leads to a double-page splash of Ben and Hulk clobberin' and smashing a bunch of weird monsters. More lamprey-looking things, vaguely crocodile-shaped things. Lots of teeth, lots of purple blood and big yellow eyes.

After the fight's over, a Celestial shows up, looking a bit more textured than usual. I mean, they normally have elaborate designs, but the Celestials also usually have smooth exteriors, whereas Skroce gives them more of a ridged or organic look. Either way, it declares them anomalies, and sends them home.

Skroce adds some humor in with the monster-punching. Hulk calls Ben "road lips" and "crack-face", which I don't think I've ever seen before. Ben makes a few cracks back at Hulk, although the one about Hulk's forehead, where he compares him to Timothee Chalamet, seemed forced. Maybe that's just because I had no idea who that was, but it's hard to see Ben making that reference. There's also a gag about Johnny taunting Ben for having a lot fewer followers on Twitter than Johnny does, and Ben brushing it off as Johnny using bots to inflate his total.

I'm guessing the mysterious armored figure will be the recurring antagonist, although the only hint here would be the fact they dumped Ben elsewhere so easily and we don't know their purpose. But that's fine. It was a good comic full of monster-punching.

What I Bought 1/30/2021 - Part 1

January is over, but there's still comics from January to discuss, so let's do that. Today we've got the last issue of one book, and a first issue that's really more of a teaser for a collection to be released later.

Deadpool #10, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I assume it's a coincidence that Deadpool does a cover of Wade sitting on a throne all casual, while Excalibur came out the same week with Betsy sitting on the throne, the very picture of regal dignity.

OK, series finale and King in Black tie-in. Even gave Thompson and Sandoval an extra 10 pages to work with. Which I'm not sure they needed, since they did two pages for a "getting the team together" gag, then did two separate full-page splashes for the team doing slow badass walks that were interrupted by late arrivals.

Wade's plan to stab and shoot symbiote dragons blows, and gets Jeffrey the Land Shark infected. Wade also gets infected, but just cuts his arm off. Then Jelby, the big purple mutant gummi person shows up and makes himself really big so Wade and the others can kind of pilot him like a mech in battle against the symbiote dragon, who Jelby eventually contains within himself. Wade frees Jeff through the power of Wu-Tang (Staten island residents!) and that's pretty much it. Until the next Deadpool ongoing, I guess.

What to say now that it's over? I'd actually like the "king of Monster Island" status quo to stick. That was by far the best part of this book, with the most potential. For all that he is seemingly entirely unsuited to any kind of responsibility, Deadpool can be surprisingly considerate and responsible sometimes. And he's been the one kicked around and used enough to not necessarily default to treating his subjects like garbage. It's just a matter of his having terrible judgment.

 

But other than that, which really didn't get enough play, things felt rushed even before this. The romantic subplot with Elsa Bloodstone, wasting four issues on the idea Deadpool has anything to fear from Kraven the Hunter. Give me a fucking break. Bachalo's curious choices with regards to page layouts and how to frame things within panels making the book hard to decipher, and Sandoval's art just being kind of too much in some ways. It doesn't really work for the moments that need to be quieter or more subtle, rare though they are. And whoever is calling for all these splash pages, whether it's Thompson or Sandoval, needed to ease the hell off. This is not some Geoff Johns Lantern War book.

Maybe it's every other Deadpool series I buy that ends up being a disappointment, instead of just every other Deadpool series?

Sweet Downfall #1, by Stefano Cardoselli (writer/artist), Panta Rea (colorist), Bram Meehan (letterer) - He got his heart in 1971? Is it Richard Nixon's? That's a joke, everyone knows Nixon had no heart to begin with. Or was that no soul?

Scout Comics is going to release the entirety of this comic as a GN soon, and this is to try and whet your appetite enough to want to buy it. Jonny there on the cover is an old crash test dummy that's become a hitman. He kills a couple of guys who stole from a mob boss with an unfortunate skin condition, but didn't return the money. Instead heading to the half-sunken ship he calls home off the coast of Santa Clara, to ponder the mysteries of humanity and whale watch. The mob boss sends a couple guys out there, Jonny immediately kills one, and we're left wondering if he'll kill the other.

So, is my appetite whetted? Eh, maybe? I'm curious to be sure, but I also remember feeling pretty let down by Cardoselli's Live Die Reload. Not sure I'd want to splurge on the entire story. On the other hand, the more science fiction setting of this story might make it work a little better for me than that did (LDR was more of a noir crossed with a revenge tale). 

I think having color helps, too, where Cardoselli can show off some more detailed work a little easier, instead of it all being lost in high contrast black-and-white art that drowns in heavy inks. His Santa Clara is this strange mixture of Blade Runner/Fifth Element style hi-rise buildings and narrow alleys, and this crumbling, patchwork infrastructure holding it all up that looks more suited to something post-apocalyptic like Road Warrior or Waterworld. 

 

And there are these little purple fish with big eyes and a lower jaw full of sharp teeth that show up everywhere. The Don has some in a fish tank, they hang out in the sea near Jonny's home. They're even painted as a logo on the side of his ship. I feel like they're supposed to be like piranhas, and they're going to be significant somehow, but maybe it's just a background detail.

What I Bought 12/18/2020 - Part 2

I will never understand sports fans bemoaning their team winning because it hurts their draft position. In this case, Jets' fans being angry they actually won a game. If your team is so incompetent they can't win a single game, why would you have any hope a high draft pick is going to improve anything? The idiots that built the shitty team are still there, so either they'll pick the wrong player, or coach, or fail to put good players around him. I never root for my team to lose. Take any win you can get.

Deadpool #9, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Well, it's not Wade's first relationship with someone who sucks the life out of him.

Wade's fighting the Bone creatures with the added power of the Bloodstone. But the infection in it is killing him, and it lets the Queen read his mind. You'd think that would be enough to incapacitate her right there, but no. Elsa's getting the kids and Jeff (who loves getting to carry a knife in his mouth and stab things, apparently) to safety, but can't quite bring herself to abandon Wade, who has let the Queen eat him. Then he blows himself up from the inside. And because he's dead, the Queen's infection is somehow burned out of the Bloodstone? So Elsa can put it back in her hand and fry the Queen. 

Despite being just a head, Wade is not dead, and says he still wants an apology from her. When Elsa points out her forgave her already, Wade counters she was dying at that time, of course he said that. Now that she's not, and he blew himself up to save her, he wants another apology. Instead, Elsa threatens to leave him there, but ultimately carries him in a baby bjorn. Which means he gets to rest next to her chest. I'd say getting to second base is as good an apology as he's likely to get.

And unfortunately, we don't get to see monster softball next issue because they have to do King in Black tie-ins. Or as the preview of next issue's cover describes it, 'Venom Nonsense.' Boo, boooooooooo.

 

So, that happened. It was OK. It makes me wonder if Elsa couldn't simply have pried the Bloodstone out of her hand and let it sit for a while to get rid of the infection. If the infection was in the stone, and using it infects the person, but taking it away removes the infection, like it did with Elsa, then that would seem like the obvious answer. I guess you could argue Elsa is too attached to it to surrender it willingly, since it's part of her legacy, and I'm not sure what Elsa's got in her life if she isn't killing monsters with the power of an ancient rock.

I'm really more interested by Deadpool trying to run a nation. Hard to see when we're going to get much of that, unless we see him rallying his people to fight symbiotes. Not that I want a lot of minutiae on bureaucracy, but just watching him try to be a leader. He's probably bad at it, but he can care deeply about people, and he'll go to the wall for them, which aren't the worst qualities to have. Certainly better than most of the elected officials here in the United States. 

(Really, could Deadpool be any worse at diplomacy than Trump? I guess if you consider killing foreign dictators bad, then yes, possibly.)

Taskmaster #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Guru-eFX (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - It's fine, I'm sure Taskmaster has copied how to do the superhero landing if Hyperion lets go.

Taskmaster goes to Coulson's favorite comic shop to copy his kinesics, but is uncovered by his love for Alpha Flight. He tries to bail, but Hyperion shows up, and Taskmaster trying to fight him goes about as well as you'd expect. Fortunately, Fury had himself some Krypto- sorry, Argonite, and Tasky attached it to a Boomerang arrow for the win. Kind of disappointed he didn't go ahead and slit Hyperion's throat. There's like 47 of them running around. Instead of the Captain Britain Corps, the Hyperion Corps. Anyway, that's one of the three down, but Black Widow found Fury's hidey-hole, so she knows who they're after. Oh no, that'd be really concerning if I wasn't still convinced this was all a trick to get Taskmaster to do their dirty work.

Fury and Taskmaster keep calling Coulson "Cheese". Like "Phil"ly Cheese slices? I don't know. Nobody explains it, and honestly, it doesn't matter, it was just weird. I was just grateful Taskmaster is apparently the one person who doesn't like Phil Coulson, and was happy to punch him in the face a couple of times. I knew there had to be someone. (Yeah, Deadpool killed Coulson, but that wasn't personal, he just figured Captain America had good reasons.)

 

I still think Vitti's artwork is a little too busy, too overdone. Too many little lines, everybody's way too muscular. Like, even Coulson looks kind of jacked, and Taskmaster's practically got Thor arms, which is a little much. I guess since this is supposed to be a sneaky spy thing, so people need to look squinty and weathered, but I feel like maybe don't apply that to Hyperion, who is probably supposed to act like your stereotypical superhero. If he wasn't, he'd had just punched Tasky's head off with the first swing, instead of holding back enough he still hadn't knocked him out after multiple punches. So let him look different.

So, did I like this enough to get issue 3? I don't know. I'm kind of debating skipping Deadpool's King in Black tie-ins at the moment, let alone whether I care enough to watch Taskmaster fight the White Fox. If either book had an artist I liked better, it would be an easier decision, but they don't.

What I Bought 11/6/2020 - Part 1

Between last week's books and one leftover book from October, I had four books to look for last weekend. Found three of them. Spy Island is still apparently very popular in central Missouri. Weird how that works sometimes.

Deadpool #8, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - And they say on that random November Wednesday, Deadpool's heart shrank three sizes. And collapsed into a neutron star, killing hundreds.

Wade, Elsa, and Jeff were captured. Great rescue attempt. 0 out of 10. Would not hire them to rescue me from monsters in another dimension. Elsa admits she was allowed to escape last time to return with another host for the Bone Beast Queen. The Bone Beasts underestimated how many weapons Wade carries, so he gets them loose, arms the children, and they try to escape. But Elsa's infection catches up with her, so Wade turns back and in an attempt to halt the infection, pulls out her Bloodstone and puts it in himself. Well, I guess his healing factor will compensate. it better, because now that she hasn't got the Bloodstone, Elsa is just food to the Queen. So Wade's got to hold the line.

I'm not really excited about the Bloodstone having an infection with it. I know this is the Marvel Universe, and everything is always shit, but wasn't being drawn into an endless war against the monsters curse enough? 

The pacing on this is. . . not great. There are two double-page splashes, one for Wade freeing everyone, and another for him trying to defend Elsa. But Sandoval doesn't really do anything with the pages that requires them to be double-page splashes. Could have done either one in a single page or less, and had more, you know, actual story progression.

I am curious to learn more about this Deo Monstri Cult that is possibly roaming the woods of Staten Island. So the sooner we can wrap this story up, the better. At this point, it's a book where I think Thompson nails the small character bits and some of the humor, and I like the "Monster King" as a starting point, but the larger plots aren't working. Not really loving Sandoval as an artist, either.

Runaways #32, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Natacha Bustos (artist), Dee Cunniffe (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Except for the freezing cold and the lack of oxygen, that would be a pretty awesome view.

So the group's latest attempt in trusting adults went horribly. I've only bought the first trade, so I'm about 20 issues away from fully grasping that. You know, the book says they should know to never trust adults in spandex, but Spider-Man did right by them. He bought Chase and Gert dinner, and then Nico just attacked him. And it wasn't Cloak and Dagger's fault they got mind-wiped by the Pride.

Anyway, they're feeling a bit adrift. No one is talking. A fantastically dressed Doombot is moving in because of their poor judgment. Gert wants to go to actual high school. Vic wants to go with her, and so does Gib, who can make himself into an extremely large, generally Caucasian-looking dude. So he's immediately popular with the football coach. Molly is looking at websites for Krakoa on her phone. Don't do it, Molly! You're too young for creepy sex cults, and even with two dead former team members, your survival rate is still a lot higher than the X-Men!

That's pretty much the issue. An issue for the characters to deal with the immediate fallout and set the next direction of the book. Whatever that's going to be. I like Bustos' art. It's expressive without being too exaggerated. I don't necessarily mind exaggerated, but it doesn't seem like it would fit in an issue that's got such a subdued tone. The body language is excellent, Gert's nervous, hunched over look in school, Gib's constantly straight-backed stance. He's just at ease, no reason to be defensive or aggressive.

I don't know if this is necessarily a great issue to jump on with, but it isn't a terrible issue, and I want to see where it goes.

What I Bought 10/7/2020 - Part 1

The only good thing Columbus ever did was trick people into giving me a paid holiday in his name. It's really helped this go-around. Having an extra day meant I felt nice and relaxed yesterday afternoon, instead of being frustrated about all the things I hadn't gotten done yet.

And one of those things was this post, which I did eventually get written.

Deadpool #7, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Kind of a weird (and late) Valentine's Day gift, but I think Wade would appreciate it.

Deadpool accompanies Elsa to Greenland to find a way into the realm of the Bone Beasts which have infected her. Their realm is also the weird place Elsa's magic bullet teleported Wade briefly back when Kraven was trying to kill him. Elsa says all they gotta do is kill the Queen and the other creatures (which look like inky voids with multiple jaws) die. Except, oops, she actually made a deal with the Queen to offer up Deadpool as a host body in exchange for being cured of the infection.

Hmm, for some reason, I thought the idea was Deadpool was going to be an endless food supply, since he can just regenerate whatever bones they eat, but no. That would have at least made a certain amount of sense. Gross and extremely shitty, backstabbing behavior, but logical. Elsa's in the lead for Deadpool's worst love interest ever, and considering Shiklah declared war on the surface world, and Cable is Cyclops' kid, that's saying something.

That's pretty much the issue. Elsa gets two pages to explain how she got to this point, before Wade interrupts her because this is his book. Sotomayor goes for a more simplified, bright color scheme on the flashback than in the rest of the book, and I think Sandoval inks himself less heavily than he does most of the time. Unless those are the pages Nava is inking. Overall, it looks like someone doing a kind of half-assed attempt at looking more like a '60s book. Like if someone in a '90s comic tried to do a flashback to the '60s and ape the coloring style and whatnot. 

Honestly, when I think of an art style for Elsa Bloodstone, I think of Immonen doing the Mignola impression for that alternate reality of hers in NextWave. Might be out of Sandoval's wheelhouse, though.

Locke and Key: In Pale Battalions Go #2, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (storytellers), Jay Fotos (colorist), Shawn Lee (letterer) - That one German looks really excited about attacking a lady and her daughter. Best not to consider the implications of that!

So Jack Locke's been using the keys and other assorted tools to wreak havoc on the Germans. A pair of brothers have been investigating his attacks, and concluded the soldiers are hallucinating from drinking cheap hooch. Until they get caught in an attack. One dies, Jack lets the other run, presumably to spread fear among the Boche. Things turns when the Germans unleash chlorine gas on the enemy trenches and storm the lines. Jack's wounded and tries using the Anywhere Key to run home. Except he doesn't take it out of the door so the Germans follow him through and his mother gets bayoneted.

Great hustle, you dumbass kid. It was all fun and games when you had the Germans running in terror from your shadow wolves

I wonder how accurate the depiction of the effects of the chlorine gas is. The inflamed areas around the eyes, the vomiting, the veins bulging in the forehead. Although that last bit might just be a side effect of the vomiting. But you could tell me this is actually toned down from reality and I wouldn't be surprised. Mostly because I don't feel like the get-ups the German soldiers are using - goggles and cloths wrapped across their mouths and noses - would actually do the trick.

The landscapes are this depressing swath of disgusting orangish mud and rock, where it's difficult to tell what they're walking over. During the attack, everything except the gas is grey and dingy. It makes that green gas drifting over everything stand out that much more, and it's like it killed everything in its path, not just soldiers, and the Germans are right on its heels. The trees are gnarled and mostly lifeless.

What I Bought 8/5/2020

There's this lady that lives in the next apartment building over from me, over half the time I walk past her building, she's done this terrible parking job where she's parked diagonally across two spots. Then, every once in awhile, I walk past and she's perfectly within the lines of one spot. I don't know if she's lazy, or just a dick. Maybe the good parking jobs are by someone else who drives her vehicle.

Anyway, there were actually two comics out this week I wanted, and I got both of them hooray!

Black Cat #12, by Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I feel like Campbell tried to channel Bruce Campbell for Stark there, and it's kind of weirding me out.

Iron Man chases Felicia across town in their respective suits of powered armor. Felicia flummoxes Stark, because he can't figuring out how she's stop and starting on a dime without blacking out from the g-forces. Honestly, I would have assumed Stark built some counter to that into his suits, but OK. She also frustrates him when she admits she made and stole the suit just to take it for a test drive. For fun. And also to use to try and send Odessa Drake a message. It doesn't quite work, since the sheer audacity of the entire plan just turns on, I mean, impresses, Odessa even more. Oh well, worth a shot. Felicia escapes, and help Firepower escape. I appreciated that touch.

There's not much progress made on the larger plotline, since the issue is mostly Felicia baiting Iron Man into chasing her so she can make a clean escape. I wasn't sure about Stark not realizing she was controlling the armor remotely, since that's something he has experience with. But MacKay makes a point of mentioning Felicia had the armor designed to focus on jamming all kinds of sensors or tracking. And Stark probably wouldn't give her credit for being smart enough to think of controlling it remotely. Especially when she's talking about how she just had to take one of his suits for a spin.

Villa handles all the air combat scenes pretty well. The main trick is trying to show how the Cat's armor's maneuverability is constantly throwing Iron Man off, and it manages that. A few panels with Stark coming to an awkward, almost stumbling mid-air halt. Or taking a swing at her and coming up with air because she changed course 180 degrees instantly. Little disappointed the neon pink pontytail thing wasn't some sort of energy weapon. I know whips are that other cat-themed amoral thief's shtick, but I kept expecting her to land a hit with that thing.

Anyway, now it's a waiting game for whenever the book comes back.

Deadpool #6, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Kevin Libranda (artist), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - None of the X-Men have pupils! They're all being possessed! In other words, it's Thursday.

Wade is convinced the X-Men have the cure for cancer on their little sex cult island. He finds out one of his subjects is a mutant who can carry anything inside. So Wade (and Jeff) wear the fellow like a suit and march through the gate into Krakoa. Of course, once Wade (and Jeff) climb out of Jelby, the X-Men know they're there, which leads to a fight. Then Wade actually talks with Emma Frost, who says there's no cancer cure, and no, he can't have all his other demands, either. So Wade tries to steal one of the flowers that turn into gates, which leads to another fight. One that involves Wade throwing Jeff at Storm, and then Jeff biting Polaris on the leg. Which is bad, because we don't want Polaris' lameness infecting the land shark.

It's no wonder Lorna was always in relationships with Havok, it was the only way to make her seem interesting. Rogue gets Wade to stop fighting, and offers him a flower as a sign of friendship, which Wade naturally rejects, seeing it as pity. He returns home, and bans mutants from his kingdom. Wow, Wade, have you really considered the kind of supporters you're going to get with that move? What am I saying, of course he hasn't considered that. He's Deadpool.

This was my favorite issue so far. It's funnier than any of the issues so far. Wade plays off the X-Men well. Even though he is invading their country, in the dumbest manner possible, I still figure he has some legit gripes, and I prefer watching Deadpool be angry at people who deserve some of it. Their hypocrisy about how much of a danger he poses is freaking laughable compared to some of the fucking lunatics they have there. Mr. Sinister is in charge of a goddamn cloning lab! They're sending Magneto out on diplomatic missions. Sure, Deadpool isn't any less violent, but he'll only kill a few people. Magneto will probably shut down fifteen hospitals with an EMP just to prove a point.

Ahem. Where was I? I am disappointed there were not more grievous injuries to Wolverine, though. It's not like he won't get better.

Kevin Libranda takes over as penciler from Gerardo Sandoval this month. Libranda's work is bent more towards comedy than violence, which works for this issue. The characters - Deadpool especially - aren't as large as when Sandoval drew them, and the linework is a lot softer. Less harsh, jagged lines. Shadows aren't as stark, everything is just softer looking. Even though there is a lot of fighting, it's not necessarily serious fighting. If you can call Polaris stabbing Wade with his own swords "not serious". I mean, Wade throws Jeff at Storm, the shark bites at her face, but she's OK. She should probably be more hilariously terrified in that panel up there, though. Maybe the enormity of her situation hasn't sunk. Jeff, for that matter, seems to have shrunk and become much more rounded and cuter than he was under Bachalo or Sandoval's pencils.

What I Bought 6/12/2020

Cape-Con got pushed back to the second weekend in July, and I'm debating whether it would be a massively stupid idea to go or not. I want to, but I don't exactly want to get sick in the process, you know? I found two of the three comics I was looking for from last week. None of the stores in the area still had Amethyst #3 by the time I swung by.

Black Cat #11, by Jed MacKay (writer), C.F. Villa (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - That's pretty tame, as J. Scott Campbell covers go.

The Randall Gate is built, they know where the vault is they're going to steal from, they just need a way to pick the lock. Making a key requires breaking into Tony Stark's company to use a nanoforge. Which involves Felicia passing herself off as a researcher into engineering critical of Stark, then Tony getting distracted by an attack from the guy who kicked his ass back during the original Armor Wars. Firepower doesn't last quite long enough, as Felicia had to stop to knock out Bethany Cabe along the way, so Iron Man's waiting for Felicia when she tries to leave. He's not ready for her to be rocking her own suit of armor, though. I have to question the wisdom of trying to beat Iron Man in a "powered armor suit" battle.

My favorite part of this was Felicia and her crew discussing the different strategies they could use to hoodwink Stark. Mostly just for the unexplained items they mentioned needing to make them work. The Wagering Vicar requires a badger. The Seventeen Stepbrothers means you gotta have a triplane. Maybe she could look up Turner D. Century for that? It's hard for me to picture any of them being less work than having Dr. Korpse write up a bunch of phony articles for this scientists calling Stark a coward. But maybe Korpse doesn't consider that work. Might just be a perk to shittalk Stark. Eh, Tony can always stand to have his ego dinged.

C.F. Villa's artwork has a bit of manga influence, and then reminds me of Oliver Coipel's at times. Certain things about the shading, some of the facial expressions. When characters get surprised, or otherwise exaggerated, the art seems to loosen up a bit. Villa's version of Firepower reminds me more than a little of the Asgardian Destroyer armor, but I haven't seen the character since Mark Bright created him for Armor Wars, so maybe that's how he's looked for a while. The art works, there's nothing incredibly flashy about it, but it tells you what you need to know, and it looks pretty.

Deadpool #5, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler/inker), Victor Nova (inker), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - All kaiju are secretly weak against rocks to the top of the skull. That's why they're so tall, so nothing can attack them there.

Jeff the Land Shark is playing with Smash Smash, the adolescent monster on the cover. Except Smash Squared decides to cross over to Manhattan and wreak havoc. Wade and Elsa (who won't stop hanging around and annoying Wade) chase after him. Wade keeps trying to reason with the monster, while Elsa keeps advising him how to kill it. They fight it briefly when it temporarily eats Jeff, but Wade makes one last attempt to talk it out. Two civilians die by nuclear/electric fire, and so Wade has to kill him.

It's funny to me Wade is worried his subjects aren't going to trust him as King if he kills one of them that's rampaging through the nearby city, but neither he nor Elsa think there's going to be any pushback against the legendary Monster Hunter hanging out with their king all the time. I'm pretty sure Elsa's killed more monsters than Kraven did. Oh well, not like Wade's judgment is ever worth a damn. From Elsa's perspective, if things do go wrong, she's on the scene to make them kick-splode, or whatever the appropriate Nextwaveism is.

Gerardo Sandoval takes a much more straightforward approach to panel layouts than Chris Bachalo. Mostly 4-7 panels per page, lot of short, wide panels that take up the width of the page. Easier to follow, if less unique. His Deadpool is more conventional also. Bachalo's Wade seemed kind of small in comparison to the people around, and his clothes seemed kind of loose-fitting, a little lumpy. Might have contributed to him seeming small, since it makes him look like he's wearing his dad's clothes. Sandoval's not drawing Wade as a giant, but he's got the conventional skintight spandex look going, and the usual broad-shouldered physique. If we left legibility out of the equation, I'd take Bachalo each time, but being able to tell what the hell is actually happening is kind of crucial to my enjoyment of comics.

What I Bought 3/19/2020

Both of the comic stores in town were open last week. One wasn't letting people inside, but you could call ahead. The other one was still letting people walk in. Anyway, I rolled the dice and entered a building with other human beings in it, and here's a comic.

Deadpool #4, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Wayne Faucher, Al Vey, Livesay, Jamie Mendoze, Tim Townsend, Derek Fridolfs (inkers), David Curiel (color artist), Irene Strychalski (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I think the Homeowner's Association will have some problems with that lawn display.

Wade fights Kraven. Wade loses an arm. Fight continues. Wade's knights show up to get involved - again. Fight continues. Wade maneuvers Kraven near the water. Kraven gets eaten by the giant tentacle monster. Wade has funeral for murdered bird chancellor guy, considers abdicating throne. Elsa talks him out of it. Kraven turns up not dead, somehow.

There's also a two-page story, drawn by Strychalski, where Wade tries to cheer up Jeff the Land Shark by dressing as Gwenpool. Yikes.

Not the most thrilling start to this run. I guess it's important that Deadpool make the decision to be king, since he basically fell ass-end into the job by killing the previous king via 40 grenades. But the fight against Kraven, which spanned 2.5 issues, was not terribly interesting. Maybe more time spent on Kraven killing Wade's citizens and Wade trying to catch the killer would have worked better. I don't buy Kraven, especially not a Kraven that's actually just his dumb kid, as being this big a threat to Deadpool.

Situation is not helped by the fact I still can't really figure out what Bachalo's shooting for with his layouts and whatnot, although it's not as noticeable in this issue as the previous two. The part where he captures all the parts of Kohlaab in a net, and then someone starts shooting arrows. The net panel is big, then the two where one arrow flies past and the next hits him in the chest are off to the side, maybe a quarter as large. It seems like conveying information is not a major concern for him. I don't know what it is he likes about those small panels almost entirely filled by a character.

What I Bought 2/21/2020 - Part 2

Another week in the books. Hooray! Hopefully I get more rest this weekend than I did last weekend. But first, two comics to review.

Deadpool #3, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Wayne Faucher, Livesay, Al Vey, Jaime Mendoza and Victor Olazaba (inkers), David Curiel (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Bachalo really likes to draw Wade with one pinky extended when he's holding swords. Is Wade trying to be classy? Because it just seems like a good way to lose a finger.

Elsa's bullet dumps Wade in another dimension for about three pages. Then he's back and angry at her, and Kraven's attacking again. Wade consults his trading cards to learn what his "knights" can actually do, then tricks them all into leaving so he can fight Kraven. They fight a bit, Wade is somehow slowed down more by a spear in the gut than Kraven is by a sword running through his torso. Not sure how that works. Then they keep fighting.

Which kind of makes the whole teleportation bullet pointless? We're right back where we were at the end of last issue, minus Wade's knights. I do appreciate they aren't protecting Wade because they particularly like him, since he spends a lot of time insulting them. They just know Kraven would become King if he kills Wade, and that would be bad for all the monsters. Sound reasoning.

There are still some panels where I scratch my head at Bachalo's choices on panel layout, although it definitely feels like he used more of the available page space than last issue. I did like the bit where Kraven is standing on a ledge looking down at Wade, and then later, it's reversed, with Wade looking down at Kraven. The fight between them was solid. The little lines on Kraven's cheek from the force of Wade's punch. Kraven telling Deadpool all that jumping around isn't effective, then immediately getting stabbed, then Wade complaining a page later that he had a joke he couldn't make because his throat was cut.

The overall concept behind the story isn't bad, but the pacing is not the best.

Sera and the Royal Stars #6, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Oh, look at these two, lording their twin-headed dragon over everyone. La-de-dah. It is pretty sweet though, I'm insanely jealous.

Sera returns home to rescue her surviving family, while the Stars go to ask the Pleiades for some guidance. The Seven Sisters have a few options to understand what's been done to the Stars, but it's pointed out that if they simply kill the two Dracos, their spell will be broken. They also know the Dracos are tracking Sera, so Antares goes to help her, while the other two continue on. The helping doesn't go well, as one of the Dracos attacks and does something to that gem that has replaced Sera's heart, causing a shockwave, that devastates her city and kills her father, while her sister is abducted. That's what you call losing on all counts.

I wonder if the Dracos are even behind the problem, or if they're just taking advantage of the situation. Or being taken advantage of by the real mastermind. If there is one. The Demon Star would seem a possible candidate, but I'm wondering if Mitra not up to something. Why place Regulus inside Sera, which limits his ability to act, rather than guiding her to him, so he could be fully awakened like the others? Seems to have backfired a bit if the goal was to give her power to rely on.

Kind of curious about the thought process behind the Pleiades' design. Other than the youngest looking of the seven, they're all basically naked ladies wearing masks with long pieces of fabric just kind of floating. I mean, fine, they aren't human - the conversation about eating between Alderbaran and Antares made that clear - so no reason they necessarily would wear clothes. But then, why the masks? You're not supposed to gaze upon an oracle's true face?

What I Bought 1/9/2020

I tried to pick up last week's books while I was visiting Alex. But the first store didn't have Deadpool, and the only copy of Black Cat was the ugly variant cover version. Like I give that much of a crap about Earth X (although I'm curious to read it someday, just to see what it's like). Then the second store had Deadpool, but not Black Cat. And I wasn't going back to the first store, so here we are.

Deadpool #2, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Wayne Faucher, Livesay, Al Vey, Jamie Mendoza, Victor Olazaba, and Tim Townsend (inkers), David Curiel (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I have no idea why Elsa and the tentacle monster are panted gold.

Wade's trying to shoot a video promoting how great Monster Island is, except some of the monsters keep eating people. Elsa Bloodstone's zeroing in on him with special bullets. Steve Rogers shows up asking Wade to lead the monsters somewhere else so no people get hurt. Because he doesn't care about the monsters.

Didn't I see this argument during Avengers vs. X-Men? And since I've mentioned that, time for the Public Service Announcement: Cyclops was wrong. Thank you.

(Look, someone has to push back against the surprising amount of pro-Cyclops propaganda and misinformation out here on the Internet.)

Also, Kraven (or his son? I dunno, Wade says that, but it sure looks like Original Recipe Kraven) has killed a dozen of Wade's subjects trying to lure him into a fight, but that hasn't worked, so he just attacks him directly. Which, surprisingly, does not end with Kraven being hacked to pieces. No, it's not because Squirrel Girl shows up with an inspiring speech about friendship and second (third, twenty-seventh) chances.

The Captain America cameo felt a little perfunctory, the obligatory Disapproving Authority Figure - I don't even know what his status is these days. Doesn't Tai-Neshi Coates have him as a fugitive right now? - Wade can stand up to and look good. Always fun. It is nice to see that Wade is, to a certain extent, taking the idea of protecting his subjects seriously. He's not doing a good job of it, constantly insulting his knights, letting Kraven kill a dozen people-monsters. But the commercial touting all the good things they have going on isn't a bad idea. He's trying, he's just not succeeding. It's a step up from "trying, but just burns everything to the ground" he normally manages. It's early days, though.

I still really like Wade's crown that he wears at a jaunty angle. Now he's got a scepter, and cape he attaches with an "X" buckle. Man I hope the X-Men don't come by griping about that. They probably will, they're dicks that way. There are some panels where I wonder what Bachalo's going for. The first page has one of the Snowman guy getting ready to eat Jeff the Land Shark, and it took me a minute to realize it was drawn so we were seeing the inside of the snowman's mouth from the side as he drops Jeff in there. It was this moment of, "OK, that's the shark, that's a limb, what the hell is going on here?" Those are few and far between, and Wade looks appropriately messed up under his mask (not in the same way he is on the cover, though).

I do wonder about the amount of white space he leaves on the pages. Almost every page, there's a significant amount that Bachalo is not using at all. I assume he has a reason, but I can't figure out what. If he's wanting to focus in on something specific - and the smaller panels typically are zoomed in - he could still do that, but enlarge the panel, right? Maybe it's about guiding the eye around the page.