Sunday Splash Page #336

 

"Tron's Revenge," in Marvel Premiere #18, by Doug Moench (writer), Larry Hama (penciler), Dick Giordano (inker), P. Goldberg (colorist), Artie Simek (letterer)

We looked at Danny Rand's first series last year during Iron Spring, but this is where he debuted. It starts with Danny's defeat of The One, the killer robot that, according to Kaare Andrews, was programmed to lose to Danny. His departure from K'un-Lun to find and kill Harold Meachum for his betrayal of Danny's mother and father. The string of killers and traps Meachum's prepared, all for a final confrontation with a man who essentially destroyed himself before Danny got the chance.

That takes four issues. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane handle the fight with The One and Danny's origin. Larry Hama takes over as penciler from there, first with Len Wein, then Doug Moench as writer. By the time Hama and Moench are replaced by Arvell Jones and Tony Isabella, Danny's being hunted on suspicion of killing Meachum (Meachum's daughter Joy making the accusation.) I think I mentioned last year Danny seems to spend a lot of time hunted by the authorities for murder, and here's the first occurrence.

(Also interesting to contrast how these writers describe Danny as obsessed in his training from the start, where Andrews depicted him as a scared, bullied child who wanted no part of fighting at first. Andrews' run really was just the entire character filtered through a funhouse mirror.)

Isabella also has Danny trying to find Colleen Wing and her father, who are under attack by a mysterious cult that wants a book the professor found. And through all that, this strange ninja keeps showing up. The ninja's the one who actually killed Harold Meachum, and they keep helping Danny, right up until they try to kill him.

It's only at this point, after 8 issues, that Danny finally removes the mask. But the way the issues were written, he really has just barreled from one crisis or battle to another ever since he defeated The One. The moment he reached New York, he was under attack, so he hasn't even had the chance to really accept that his hunt for revenge ended, bitterly, no less.

It's the last three issues, written by Claremont, that begin to have Danny trying to live in this world, very different from K'un-Lun. The first two, drawn by Pat Broderick, act as an interlude as Danny has to rescue Colleen from a nutjob soldier with metal skin called Warhawk, and then thwarts the attempted assassination of a princess of Halvan (a country I think subsequent Power Man and Iron Fist writers would use.) John Byrne joins the book for the last issue and Claremont dives into the story that would segue into the start of Iron Fist, with Angar the Screamer helping mind-warp Colleen as part of Master Khan's attempt to bring Danny to heel.

The thing I notice is every writer, in addition to giving Danny's various kicks and punches specific names - Dragon Stamp Kick, Ram's Head Blow, that sort of thing - writes in second person. It's "you" who is attempting the kick, or "you" that feel the jolt of electricity through your body. The writers still have their own quirks - Claremont writes in a recognizably Claremont style - but I was surprised they all stuck to that convention.

The artists are a mixed bag. Kane's work seems busier and heavier than normal. I'm not sure that isn't Giordano's inks, though it's not as noticeable when he inks Hama's pencils, so who knows. Arvell Jones has the loosest approach to anatomy and proportions, as arms and legs seem to stretch and joint oddly once the fights start. But his fight scenes are more often compressed into lots of small panels - they go with 16 panels for one page during his fight with Batroc in issue 20, and the fight only runs about 3 pages total.

There's been some discussion in Paul O'Brien's series of posts on Daredevil villains about Gene Colan always seeming to cram a lot in the last few pages because he was spreading the action out so much over the first 15 pages. So I don't know if it was Isabella's plotting or how Jones laid out pages, but he doesn't get a lot of room to let his art breathe. Either way, Kane, Hama, Broderick and Byrne all get (or use) a lot more space for the fight scenes when they're drawing, and it's too their advantage. If the writing is going to emphasize all these martial arts moves, give the artist room to show them off a bit.

I own one other issue of Marvel Premiere. The last one, which doubles as the last appearance of Star-Lord prior to the '90s mini-series we looked at last month (which wasn't even the same character.) But we'll be seeing plenty of Peter Quill over the next three weeks.

Random Back Issues #103 - Wolverine #51

Well, the graphics still beat what you'd get in the Metaverse, and Xavier's less morally compromised than Zuckerberg. Barely.

We are just past the big 50th issue showdown with Shiva, the killer robot, which is presumably trying to track down and kill Sabretooth. In the meantime, the X-Men are trying to get a handle on what the revelation that many of Logan's memories were faked on a bunch of movie sets had on him.

Results are either troubling, or totally rad, depending on your perspective. Wolverine hacks through the highest settings the Danger Room's got with barely any change in his vitals. Logan knows it, too, so Xavier offers him a new challenge, 'virtual reality visualizer and sensors.' Because putting Logan in a big metal helmet with a red eyescreen never ends badly.

Logan's confronted with, as he puts it, 'refugees from a Dire Straits video' forms of Ogun and Shigen, and the helmet supplies dialogue based on his own mind. The longer it goes, the more Kubert shifts from a cubic, 80s computer graphics look to his normal style, as Xavier and Forge add Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike to the mix.

Not that it matters, Logan takes the quartet out in 4.839 seconds. Forge notes his emotional pattern has regressed to that of a berserker, while retaining more sophisticated combat skills, using the comparison of doing a gold medal gymnast routine while beating four chess computers.

It's only after the "fight" is over and Logan's just howling that Storm and Cyclops decide this is something they don't want to be a part of and leave the control room. As though that would stop Charles Xavier when he's got a bad idea! But really, Xavier thinks this gruff, more hostile Logan, may be the real Logan, reasserting itself with the memory blocks removed.

Or maybe Logan's just an asshole. He gives Jubilee the brush-off to go to a nearby dive bar, where he meets a blonde woman in a tight mini-skirt. He correctly notes she's not there to shoot pool with, 'no hoi-polloi'. After some quick discussion of the selection on the jukebox (and the tendency of musicians to die in plane crashes), and some dancing, they retire to her motel.

Jubilee, meanwhile, can't sleep and goes rollerblading into town, finding Logan's motorcycle parked outside the Cloud 9 motel. Against her judgment, she investigates, and who emerges from a motel room but Jean Grey! Hey, timeline-wise, we're about 25 issues from Logan getting his Admantium torn out, which means we aren't too far ahead of that whole thing where Psylocke (for some reason) tried to seduce Cyclops. Jean's just getting pre-emptive revenge, for that or the messing around with Emma Frost thing.

Logan's motorcycle mysteriously falls over seconds later (and Logan refers to it as his, 'scoot', which is the same term Jubilee used when he brushed her off, but looks damn weird coming from Wolverine's voice bubble), by which time we know the blonde/Jean Grey is actually Mystique! Jubilee figures something's up about the time she reaches the Mansion and finds Jean Grey heading out on a morning jog.

As for Mystique, she's acting a little odd. Logan claims to have known it was her in the bar, due to her scent, and Mystique mocks the notion he accepted her offer strictly for business. It also turns out she impersonated Silver Fox at some point during their fucking, which is mostly confusing to me in terms of how Mystique knows about Logan's old girlfriend. Did he go to the trouble of describing her? "No, the hair needs to be silkier. The headband is darker red. Damn, Raven, are you even trying?"

Anyway, Logan claims he played along because he could smell fear and wanted to know what's happening. Mystique keeps speaking in vague terms about someone having gone off the deep end, and she can't use the person's name, because they'll know and track her down. Logan finds it unlikely the person in question could pick out their name among all the everyday uses. It's not that common a word, is it? Spiral?

Oh. Well. Never mind then.There's also a subplot about the Wolverine robot Albert and Elsie-Dee repairing their stealth ship and going to do. . .something, with a big white werewolf in tow. No clue what that was about.

[12th longbox, 160th comic. Wolverine (vol. 1) #51, by Larry Hama (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)]

Saturday Splash Page #27

 

"Looks Painful," in Wolverine (vol. 1) #75, by Larry Hama (writer), Adam Kubert (penciler), Mark Farmer, Dan Green, and Mark Pennington (inkers), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)

Ah, Wolverine. I liked this character so much when I was younger. He gave Cyclops a lot of grief, which is always a plus. He was OK with being violent, which was very appealing to me at certain agres. For someone who was also into Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and thought swords and weapons like that were cool, the character who came with his own set of swords, in his fists, was very cool.

I think the earliest issue of his book I owned was #29, because the cover looks familiar. I can't remember a thing about the story, other than I think there's a conversation around a campfire. Beyond that, I grabbed scattered issues here and there over the years. The one above, where we learn Logan had bone claws beneath the adamantium all along. Issue #50, with the cover that had the 3 jagged tears (actual tears, not ones that were drawn on there) so you could see part of what was supposed to be a personnel file underneath. Part of a story where Joe Fixit Hulk comes to Madripoor. The Acts of Vengeance tie-ins by the Archie Goodwin, John Byrne, Klaus Janson team.

I did buy Wolverine monthly for a long time, starting probably in late 2000. Roughly when Frank Tieri started writing it. That wasn't why, I didn't know Tieri's work, just coincidence. Sean Chen drew a lot of those issues, and some of them were OK stories. There's big throwdown with Sabretooth when Logan's healing factor is on the fritz that also answers his questions about what memories Weapon X took from him (the answer: none). A team-up with Alpha Flight that wasn't too bad. There was a knock-off Bloodsport arc that I enjoyed at the time, but looking back, pointlessly killed some minor villain types to no real purpose. Which would have been a waste if, you know, anyone at Marvel paid attention to who was dead or not.

Suffice it to say, none of it has retained a place in my collection.

I bought it all the way until that volume ended, and then continued on into the new volume that started almost immediately after. Through Greg Rucka's run with Darick Robertson, on into Millar and Romita Jr.'s stretch, and finally bailed out during Daniel Way's story that introduced the notion Logan had a son (who turned out to be Daken) he'd forgotten about, whose mother was killed by Winter Soldier. Way's run felt pointless. Millar's was his usually BIG ACTION, Michael Bayesque spectacle. Enjoyable on its own, but no weight to it. I know, would I expect different from Millar? Not now, but I didn't know any better then.

Rucka's run, at least the first 12 issues, hung on the longest. Ultimately I didn't care about the FBI agent he introduced as a temporary love interest (who seemed pretty much like every female character Rucka writes), or yet another story about Logan questioning his humanity because he just finished killing a shitload of people in another berserker fury. Especially since Logan doesn't stop killing shitloads of people, which kind of undercuts his concerns. Either make peace with it or stop doing it.

What I Bought 5/18/2022 - Part 1

Work yesterday was pretty lousy, which I knew was going to be the case for weeks, but yeah. Just not enjoyable, dealing with lots of anger and stupidity. So tired. Speaking of tired, here's two comics from this week on their last legs with me.

Iron Fist #3, by Alyssa Wong (writer), Michael Yg and Sean Chen (pencilers), Michael Yg, Victor Olazaba, Keith Champagne and Don Ho (inkers), Jay David Ramos (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Great, now he's got even more pieces of sword stuck in his arm.

Bishounen-looking guy from last issue is Lie's older brother, who gained power from the destroyer god at some point. The demons work for him, and the one impersonating Min's father tries to steal the pieces of Lie's sword. Lie and the others fight him, but he gains the upper hand and demands the shards. So Lie. . .jams them into his arms. Goddamn, kid, just buy some pouches. Cable and Deadpool can't possibly own all of them.

He tears through the demon, who delivers a message on where to meet his brother. But before they get there, Lie, Min, and the grumpy teen jerk from last issue are caught by Fat Cobra and the Bride of Nine Spiders. Nobody ever captures the Bride's look properly, compared to how Aja drew her. That reserved, creepy look. They always make her too expressive and loudly aggressive. There were other Immortal Weapons for that, except other writers keep killing them. She's carrying knives now. Why?

But with four inkers, things were going to be a little weird. Chen draws the middle section of the book, the part that encompasses all of the fight with the demon, and Yg handles the rest. I don't know which inkers are with which pages, although I'm very curious who drew the last couple, when they run into the Immortal Weapons. Yg's art looks much looser, and there's one panel (above, on the right) like a caricature or cartoon. It was a nice change of pace, although I don't think it was an intentional so much as a necessity to save time. Sometimes shortcuts are good!

Overall, though, I just don't really care. I feel like I should want to find out if Lie will remain Iron Fist, or repair his sword, or why Shou-Lao chose to do him a solid, or at least be excited Fat Cobra showed up, but I'm not. 

Wolverine: Patch #2, by Larry Hama (writer), Andrea Di Vito (penciler), Le Beau Underwood (inker), Sebastian Cheng (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I feel like landing on flat on his left foot is going to really jar his leg.

This issue is "Patch's Crappy Trek Through the Jungle." He's still trying to heal from the beating last issue. Then he gets shot with some poisoned arrows by the locals, who think he's out to hurt the two Russians. Logan convinces them he's not an enemy and they start guiding him to the Russians' hiding spot. Then he gets shot by some of General Coy's guys, who want the locals to lead them to the Russians. He kills them. Then he gets shot by some Yakuza working for the guy doing monkey experiments. He kills them. Then more of the general's guys show up and he kills them (off-panel). He reaches the Russians, the locals convince them to help, because there's a third one, a little girl with weird powers who goes inside Logan's brain and finds Jean.

I guess some of Logan's time as Patch did happen while Jean was "dead". Or it could just be Logan has her on his mind a lot. In which case, that kid should really get out of there. Not age-appropriate.

Hama uses SHIELD as an almost narrator. I was going to say omniscient, but there's a lot they don't know, so that wouldn't work. The Helicarrier is still just hovering there in the sky, in full view, wondering why they can't find these Russians. All the cigars must have clouded Fury's brain. I went back to check, because I thought I remembered Di Vito drawing Fury smoking, but my mind must have just autofilled that image. Anyway, SHIELD is somehow surveilling all over Madripoor at once and so as they discuss one place or the other, the story cuts to that location, then back, then off somewhere else. 

It's not a bad way, and it works to contrast Logan tromping through the woods, getting more tangled up in all this by fighting guys for reasons he doesn't even know, with everyone else doing reconnaissance or forming alliances to try and achieve their goals. Logan just takes the direct approach. But when all you've got are unbreakable adamantium claws, the whole world looks like something to cut through.

What I Bought 3/23/2022 - Part 1

Found all three books from this week, plus one from two weeks ago. So let's kick things off with the nostalgia titles from Marvel.

Wolverine: Patch #1, by Larry Hama (writer), Andrea Di Vito (penciler), Le Beau Underwood (inker), Sebastian Chang (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - That is an interesting dress Tyger Tyger's almost wearing.

Hama puts several pieces in motion right off. There is a Dr. Malheur who is performing some sort of experiments involving monkeys out in the jungle for some guy with a spider tattoo on his face. There's a General Coy roaming the general after a bounty. SHIELD is keeping an eye on things from a Helicarrier. There's a Soviet plane wrecked in the jungle, and two mutants who have also been "enhanced" who may be the subjects of the bounty.

And into all that drops Patch. Literally, because after Fury tells him to butt out, Logan jumps out of his buddy's plane - without a parachute. He runs into the two hiding and gets cut up and left for dead. I know it stretches credulity that a lot of people don't recognize Logan just because he puts on an eye patch, but he actually brings out the claws during the fight and Gimel and Beth still don't recognize him. I figured Logan did enough Cold War secret agent crap he'd be very well known to even fugitive Soviet agents/soldiers, just as someone they might have to kill.

But I should know better than to start trying to untangle the layers of Logan's backstory at this point. Anyway, my initial impression is the thread about Malheur and his experiments in unrelated to everything with General Coy and Nick Fury. I'm not sure which thing is the reason why The Prince asked Patch to go investigate. I'm unclear enough on the power structures of Madripoor to know whether Coy and Prince are rivals, associates or something else entirely. If rivals, then you figure Prince wants to know what the general's scouring the jungle for. But if the Prince is a crimeboss, then maybe it's the guy connected to the yakuza he's curious in.

Di Vito's art is his typical clean look. Underwood's inks add a little rough edge to what's kind of a pulp adventure, what with the spies and weird scientists and whatnot. The idea of Logan wandering a tropical jungle in a white tuxedo is a little silly, but the jacket's already being torn up, so it may not last long. I liked the full-page splash of Logan's descent to the forest floor, done as series of images of Logan falling and hitting tree limbs awkwardly. Cowles compliments it with Logan's scream stretched across a bunch of small speech balloons as he falls.

I'm sort of amused at placing the sound effect of Patch stabbing Beth's arm over the actual stabbing. I guess that is where the sound would emanate from, but it feels like they think they need to hide it. Although looking at the rest of the fight, Cowles seems to have other sound effects that also move on the arc of the attack. So maybe that's just the approach he (or Hama, or Di Vito) decided to go with it.

It's kind of weird, because I don't know that I'm interested in any of the characters so much as I am how Hama tries to tie all this together. Do the different threads even come together, or is it going to be a case of tying one off first, then moving to the next?

Ben Reilly: Spider-Man #3, by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Israel Silva (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The Strategically Torn Costume proves ineffective against Dr. Octopus.

Ben fights Dr. Trainer, who once again knows who is under the Spider-Man mask. She seems to be angry that her father cared more about Ben than her, though Ben argues that isn't true. Then she vanishes and a decaying Kraven shows up. Who turns into a bunch of spiders. Edward narrowly saves Ben from those. Ben heads to Ravencroft, figuring if it's no Chameleon it must be Mysterio. Again, Mysterio got put in an asylum? He's not nuts, he's just a crook with an ego. Send him to regular prison.

Either, way, he says it isn't him, so Ben starts trying every other foe he can think of, hoping it's not the Jackal. Well, it's not Jackal, but it might be worse. Yes, it's the return of the Spider-clone absolutely nobody requested, Spidercide! The one that could shapeshift and stuff. Yeah, I tried really hard to forget he existed, too. So much so I did not know his body releases toxins that produce emotional responses. Unless Ben is being metaphorical about toxins permeating his mind, digging into the darkest caverns of his psyche. It's DeMatteis, it's a possibility.

Spidercide being a shapeshifter would seem to make him the likely culprit behind the first date serial killer, but that feels too neat at this point. Especially since Spidercide seems to be fixated on Ben, and was so clingy in his "John Diaz" identity Ben basically stopped hanging out with him. The notion he was going out on dates and charming people seems before killing them seems unlikely. But there also hasn't been any forward momentum on that thread, so I'm not sure DeMatteis can deal with it in two issues. If he intends to. Maybe Ben not solving it because he's been caught up in these mind games is going to be a point.

I'm curious about Ben's notion that, unlike Peter, he isn't motivated by guilt. Even though he is supposed to be Peter Parker at this point. The point being Ben's life on the road, trying to carve out some sort of existence for himself has forced him to move past that. Which makes a certain amount of sense. If Ben spent five years believing he was the clone, then he would have told himself what happened to Uncle Ben had nothing to do with him. He didn't exist when that burglar escaped, and would have worked hard to reject what he saw as Parker's influence.

Baldeon tries some horror stuff with Spidercide's shapeshifting. The spiders pouring out of Kraven's mouth as his head decays, plus some multi-faced, multi-limbed howling monstrosity near the end of the issue. I'm not his work can quite carry it off. Maybe more shadows, more left to the reader's imagination, would work. There's a panel of Ben lifting the multi-faced thing where we can only see outlines of eyes and teeth and a few limbs that's kind of creepy. Baldeon does do a good job of drawing those panels so that Ben feels trapped. As the spiders swarm him, the panels are tilting so it's like he's falling or being pulled down and the multi-thing tends to dominate the shared panels. It's all around him so that even when he's attacking it, it looms over him.

What I Bought 6/12/2021

Well, it's been summer weather here for over a week now and I completely hate it. But what else is new? I knew I was going to hate the heat and humidity once it arrived, and I do. In other news, this month is all over the map on comics. Four I wanted the first week, one last week, nothing this week. Which should mean 7 the last two weeks of the month, hopefully. So here's the one from last week, and one from two weeks ago.

Freak Snow #1, by Kevin Roditeli (writer) and Robin Cannon (writer/artist/letterer) - That definitely looks like someone I want carrying a firearm. Unfrozen Slack-Jawed Yokel.

Set in some iceworld apocalypse, the story focuses on Berny, who has somehow survived, drinks a cocktail of beer and the blood of something called a Smarg, and talks to a beer can and an old cartoon robot toy. He claims he fought three guys, but they were actually women, and one of them was the daughter he thought got eaten by a Smarg 8 years ago, and she shot him, but she's alive, so that's good.

The beer can raises the possibility that Berny's memories of his wife and child's deaths my be inaccurate, and they can't very well have a woman-killer as part of the woman-protecting defense force. He's got to prove he's innocent. The robot's cartoon apparently had an episode with a "hole of truth", and Berny's sure he knows where one of those is, so they go there and he jumps into it.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. Not in a bad sense, just more focused on the disintegration of a single person than I thought it would be. It might be funny, if Berny wasn't so pathetic, a wild-eyed, wobbly-looking shell of a person. Cannon's art style is very loose, like a much more exaggerated Kyle Baker, maybe. At times, I think he's using continuous contour line drawing, where the person draws without ever lifting the pencil. (I remembered that was a thing, but I had to look the term up). Huge, uneven eyes and skin folds that run into jawlines. It's like a scribble that managed to pull itself into a coherent drawing through gravity. 

It certainly works for making Berny look unhinged, but sometimes I can't entirely tell what's going on. When Cannon whites out an area to show the flight of a bullet, or smoke drifting from a gun. I guess you could argue that Berny's perceptions of things is pretty sketchy, so it should be a mess.

Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #6, by Larry Hama (writer), David Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Ah, I see the Wakandans have perfected their boob armor. State of the art, no doubt.

The heroes' attempt to stop the undead dragon's not going well. Okoye needs a little more power, which means, yep, the baby dragon has to die, too. Then Danny goes ahead and gives her the Iron Fist chi while he's at it. Cripes, he passes that stuff around like it's a common cold. Okoye kills the dragon, but here's the Heirophant, but she kills him as well, after making a comment about how her hubris may kill her. But then she just stabs him with the spear and punches him the chest with the Iron Fist, so I'm not sure what that realization did for her. Get her to wait for him to attack, rather than charge in?

Day is saved, dragon hearts return to their cities, Gork is reborn as an egg. The Brenda lady is left blinded and still swearing vengeance, but Danny won't let her be killed. OK, not sure what Hama's point was using her at all. She didn't really do anything of significance, since Taskmaster could clearly have killed the dragons just as easily. She never got any sort of a showdown with Danny.

Danny tells Okoye she can't give him the Iron Fist back which, bullshit. Danny's taken it back from people in the past, so clearly if he gave it to her, she can give it to him. But, sure fine, whatever. She gives the chi to the egg that'll hatch as Gork one of these days, and Danny's apparently done being Iron Fist now. Right, pull the other one. There's been at least three other mini-series where Danny either loses the Iron Fist, or has lost it, or lost his purpose in the last 20 years. 

 

Man, I was so excited about this mini-series after the first issue, and it let me down so, so badly. I've mentioned multiple times the way there seems to be a lot of pointless running around, but I do not see what Hama's going for at all here. Take the Fist off Danny? I thought Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist series already did that 7 years ago, or at least Pei was the one training to be Iron Fist and Danny was her teacher. That was definitely the impression I got when they showed up in Black Cat, with Pei socking Beetle all over the place and calling Danny "Thunderer".

What I Bought 5/8/2021 - Part 2

Of the four comics I went looking for last weekend, I didn't expect the last issue of The Union to be the one I couldn't find. So instead of two fifth issues to look at, we've only got one.

Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #5, by Larry Hama (writer), David Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - She's aimed that kick a little high, hasn't she? Or is Sue Richards riding on Danny's shoulders?

Nobody's very happy Okoye killed one of the dragons, but apparently it was so she can absorb its energy and team-up with Danny to save the day. Somehow. I guess if she's got it the evil Hierophant guy can't get it. Can't decide what that guy reminds me of. Demon King Piccolo crossed with the Lich King from Adventure Time? Eh, probably not. The Mother of Mercy's expositing is interrupted by him and Brenda, or Yama Dragonsbane. Who still has not bothered to actually fight Danny Rand. 

It is funny to watch Luke Cage basically no-sell everyone's offense in this mini-series. Super-strong, bulletproof guy is not impressed by all this kick-flippy ninjitsu stuff. Brenda goes charging to unleash some sword attack and surprise! The blade breaks on his skin and he punches her in the head.

Fooh lures the bad guys into chasing him back to Rand Tower, and blows up his gate, trying to close all the gates that way. Maybe it works, maybe it didn't, but the remaining heroes are going to have to fight the big, angry, presumably evil dragon that's been sitting on that tower in the cursed city for the previous four issues.

The farther into this mini-series we get, the more of it that seems pointless. Like, what was the need for the Immortal Weapons to run around trying to protect their dragons and cities? Apparently it was better for Okoye to kill the dragons and absorb their power herself to keep it from Hierophant. Did they have to do all this so the proper person to assume that "honor" would reveal themselves? Because it feels like nobody has done anything of any use in this story. Move the Heavenly Cities? Doesn't help. Hide the dragons? Doesn't help. Smash a bunch of undead ninjas? Doesn't help.

 

I guess Hama could be going for a "heroism is ultimately futile", or "easy solutions are no solutions at all" sort of ending, although I kind of doubt it. But it really feels like Danny might as well have stayed home and gotten a few more hours sleep.

What I Bought 4/14/2021 - Part 1

My best week for new comics in months. Maybe over a year. Five comics, plus one from last week. Huzzah! So let's look at a couple of those on this lovely spring day.

Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #4, by Larry Hama (writer), Dave Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - This needs an old Joe Kubert cover-style, "There's no sign of the giant spider, Immortal Weapons!" dialogue balloons.

We find out who the mysterious dragon killer is and it is. . . I have no idea who Brenda Swanson is. The internet tells me she's from the Iron Fist series Kaare Andrews did 7 years ago. Credit to Hama for using all kinds of stuff, I guess. Another person with a grudge against Danny's family, apparently, and she wants some of that good dragon chi. Who doesn't?

Okoye's in the Heart of Heaven and speaks with another dragon who encourages her to look at the big picture and decide what's necessary to fix things. Which is, as Danny and the others find out after another seemingly pointless round of running around fighting undead ninjas, to kill the remaining dragons. I feel like Pei is going to have some objections to Okoye trying to kill her baby dragon, Gork. Which I figure is coming next issue. Danny tries to stop her, there's a lot of arguing about him not understanding what needs to be done to solve the problem.

One thing, among many, I'm confused on is where all these undead ninjas are coming from if that gate Danny pushed closed a couple of issues ago is still closed. Nothing anyone is doing seems to actually be making a difference. I really hope this doesn't turn into one of those stories where a bunch of characters are fooled into thinking they're accomplishing something, because one character is leading them around by the nose.

The design for the dragon from the Bride of Nine Spiders' dragon is terrifying, but appropriate, I guess. Strange none of the others seemed so unique, though. The fight scenes are brief, and like I said, seemingly pointless to the story, but Wachter draws them well enough. The roughness to his line makes the characters look more worn down and weary.

Runaways #35, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - This is your life when you pay for magic on the installment plan.

Nico avoids doing something really stupid with Pixie. First time for everything. They find the young mutant, whose mother contacted Krakoa. Jodi doesn't want to go, because she thinks she'll never get to go home again. Oh, but after the first time you die horribly and get resurrected, why would you ever want to leave? Anyway, Jodi agrees to at least give it a try, and Logan agrees to not try and abduct Molly. Chase is also dating an older Gert through the magic of time travel. Er, science of time travel. Whatever.

The most important point - other than Molly remaining safely out of the clutches of the X-books - is that weird guy we see when Nico uses her magic finally got explained to me when Nico explains it to Karolina. There's a magician sealed inside the staff, and in exchange for Nico not having to cut herself to use it, he gets to put a bit of his soul in her instead? Yeah, no way that ends horribly. So, lover's quarrel as Karolina wants to destroy the staff, and Nico doesn't want to give the staff up. Which could be seen as her not wanting to surrender her power, but is also entirely likely about her friends' tendency to die, and magic being a useful tool to bring them back.

I'm still amused by the fact Molly is already taller than Nico. Although looking at volume 2 of the series, Kris Anka didn't draw her that tall. I guess she hit a growth spurt. Makes sense for a 13-14 year old. Anyway, I couldn't help laughing at Nico's expression in the second panel there. So excited about the idea she could trick the magician trapped in her staff for generations. I mean sure, the guy was dumb enough to get trapped in the first place, but given Nico's poor track record of decisions, I doubt she's going to sucker him.

Maybe they could call Hawkeye. When you need someone to trick a powerful being that's not as smart as they think, he's your guy.

What I Bought 3/17/2021 - Part 2

Depressingly, but not surprisingly, there are still a lot of people in this state with their "Trump 2020" flags flying in their front yards. Or their "Trump's face superimposed on Rambo's body" flags. I would ask when these folks are gonna get over it, but the answer is "never."

So instead of talking about people being idiots, let's talking about comic book characters fighting undead ninjas. Much more interesting.

Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #3, by Larry Hama (writer), Dave Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Like Deadpool, Okoye knows all giant lizard monsters have a critical blind spot on top of their heads.

Having temporarily kept that door shut, Danny realizes that maybe bringing cities brimming with undead ninjas into populated areas unprepared for their arrival was a bad idea. So he, Luke, and the Bride of Nine Spiders split up to try and keep anyone near the cities from killing the dragons. Someone named Radiance in Tokyo gives Danny a little guff, but agrees to leave the dragon alone as long as he helps her kill the undead. Easy enough. 

Luke goes to Rio, where Sunspot cops a real attitude about how he got pulled away from basically running space to deal with this. Okay DaCosta, don't let the fact Hickman's taking a liking to you give you a swelled head. He changes his tune once Luke proves very effective at killing the undead. Wachter even makes sure to give us more undead being hit with their own severed limbs. And he wanted to make sure burning corpses don't start brush fires, so that's cool. 

 

Bride of Nine Spiders mostly just cuts to the chase and starts killing undead without being asked to win over Okoye. I mean, she does narrate what she's doing while she does it, but she (or Hama) is old school, it's fine. I'd prefer it if Wachter made her more still when she's fighting. She was originally presented as someone who kind of hangs back, unleashes the spiders, doesn't move too much, but just wreaks havoc. Whatever, teamwork makes the dream work! Then some Storm Shadow looking guy on a rotting horse shows up, kills the dragon with one swing, cuts out its heart with another, kills three of Okoye's soldiers with the next and bails. She gives chase, but the Prince of Orphans, looking beat to crap, tells her she'd lose, and can be more helpful elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the Hidden Dragon's not content staying hidden.

This issue could almost feel like filler. Danny and the other go fight undead for a few pages, then Fooh calls them back because of the Hidden Dragon. The only thing of real significance seems to be Prince of Orphans enlisting Okoye. But the fact that Danny was told to protect the Heart of Heaven, but Aman is telling Okoye she needs to go there, keeps giving me that feeling someone (probably Danny) is getting played here. Fist is running around, following instructions, but nothing he's doing seems to be making the situation any better. They stop the undead, for now. But another dragon died, so what good did that do? Why hasn't Aman stepped in to work with the other Immortal Weapons?

What I Bought 2/20/2021

I survived last week's deep freeze, and however many inches of snow that came with it, and so did my car battery. It did not enjoy trying to start on some of those sub-zero mornings, but it always did. Hopefully that's the last of the really crappy winter weather. I managed to find two of the three comics from the previous couple of weeks. Apparently, Marvel handed down some edict everybody has to use Taskmaster this month.

Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #2, by Larry Hama (writer), Dave Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Neither of the stores in town had this cover, so I ended up with the Billy Tan one, but count on Marcos Martin to make something look good.

Danny speaks with the Mother of Mercy in the Heart of Heaven, who tells him he's gotta save the dragons to preserve everything or else the Hidden City will emerge. But he and the remaining Immortal Weapons won't be enough, so he has to use the portals to bring the Heavenly Cities to Earth, then get Earth's heroes to help. Fooh's already got the portal machine ready (which I feel Danny should be more concerned about), but then he activates it before they've even tried alerting the Avengers or anyone. So when the Hidden City manifests, Danny, his friends, and the other three Immortal Weapons have to go charging in themselves. Meanwhile, the Wakandans are not too stoked about this city appearing out of nowhere on their border, complete with a dragon. And the gate Danny has to keep closed is already trying to open.

Once again, Hama is wasting no time. No pages spent on a difficult trip to reach the Mother of Mercy, or on collecting items to construct the portal. They're already at the Heart of Heaven when the issue begins, and Foon's been building the machine. Which actually seems ominous, like Danny's being rushed into this, but maybe I'm just too accustomed to decompression. Hama's Bride of the Nine Spiders is also much chattier than I remember her being. But Fraction and Brubaker mostly just had her do a creepy laugh, not a lot to judge by. He also pulls out an, I think, old Shang-Chi villain, Midnight Sun. Wears a fedora and a cape over a spandex. Sure, why not?

Wachter might need to ease off on the cross-hatching around Danny's jawline. There's panels it looks like Danny's trying for a scruffy hipster look to impress Misty Knight, while at the same time his jaw just sort of disappears into his neck. More noticeable from the front than in profile. So I think in general he might want to reduce the shading and extra lines a bit, but the design for Fooh's gate is cool enough, and I like the massive door they've got to keep shut. The dragons look imposing and gigantic. Which still makes me wonder how the hell Taskmaster managed to kill one.

 

Oh yeah, the Taskmaster appearance is that he delivers a dragon heart to whoever the mastermind is, but before he can properly present it, has to dump an entire bucket of blood over his head. Man, that's dedication to a paycheck.

Power Pack #3, by Ryan North (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Why the doves?

The kids are generating power as part of Agent Aether, and they aren't in trouble with the stupid authorities, so that's good. Then they see Taskmaster blowing something up and try to fight him. But their powers are barely functioning. Uh-oh. Still, Julie tricks Taskmaster into trying to show off so Katie can taze him through a fence and they win. Oh, the humiliation. In comparison, dumping a bucket of blood over his head is probably a good day. Leon even draws Tasky in the some position after his crash-and-burn that he drew Julie in when she goaded him by trying the move and failing. Nice touch.

The kids go see their mentor, who feigns concern and starts talking about giving some of the energy they generated back. Which Julie notes is not how that works at all. I honestly didn't know she was supposed to be this smart. But I didn't know Alex was smart enough to be in the Future Foundation either, so why not? All teen superheroes are geniuses! The kids are trapped, the Wizard drops the disguise and prepares to blow them up, Julie manages to break out of her cage and puts herself in the line of fire.

Credit to North for having the Wizard mention that hacking into the government's database to add "Agent Aether" as an approved mentor was easy because it was built by the lowest bidder. Although if my experience is anything to go by, the lowest bidder didn't even do it. They worked up a proposal, and then the agency had their extremely overworked IT people do it themselves. So it's even shittier quality than he implies! Capitalism!

 

I feel like the kids should have noticed their powers were fading sooner, though. The day before the fight with Taskmaster, we see three of them using their powers to fly home, without any apparent difficulty whatsoever. And yet, by the very next day, before they've even gone back to the Wizard's lair, it's now almost impossible for them to do anything?

What I Bought 1/20/2021 - Part 1

Only three comics so far this month, but I did manage to find all of them last week. I was even able to find the specific covers I wanted for the two where I had a preference. Take the small victories. Gonna look at the two mini-series today, save the one ongoing for Wednesday.

The Union #2, by Paul Grist (writer), Andrea Di Vito (penciler), Le Beau Underwood (inker), Nolan Woodward (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - If you're gonna kneel over someone's defeated body, you could at least look at them.

The remainder of the team's fight against the possessed guards ends quickly, and badly. The Choir gets possessed - because apparently sound isn't a problem for symbiotes anymore - and Union Jack gets decked. By the time he wakes up, the bad guys are off to the nearest town, wreaking havoc in an amusement park. The symbiotes are destroyed by Jack jamming a sword hooked to a generator into a bunch of water - because apparently symbiotes are vulnerable to electricity now, fantastic - recovering Choir and saving that particular, limited day.

Then the rest of the team tells Jack they're leaving, because they were only in it for Britannia, and they're not stoked about taking order from "Union Jack". To make matters worse, Jack learns that if he can't produce a team to lead, he's in violation of some contract he signed with the government, and he's going to jail. At least according to some shitbag PM that acts as liaison. I'd question how likely that is to happen - you just lost several more heroes, you want to throw one of the few you got left in the pokey - but given the whole Brexit thing, I'd say Britain's government doesn't deserve any more benefit of the doubt than the United States'.

Well, we got to see a little of what the new characters could do, which is something. And I do like the tension between Jack and the rest of the team. I'm curious though, if you took him out of the picture, would the other three get along, or are they only united in the face of the symbol of England? I don't have any idea how well Scotland, Ireland, or Wales work together when left to their devices.

 

I like The Choir's design, with the scarf across the lower half of her face, although I thought it was a little funny the symbiote even covered the scarf where it hangs off her. I guess that means you can't just grab it to try and swing her into a wall, but it seemed like overkill. Overkill, in a Marvel Event tie-in about symbiotes overtaking the world? The hell I say! I wish Kelpie had a look that suggested "water demon" more than generic spandex. I know she's supposed to look like a superhero, and something streamlined is probably smart for a water manipulator, but it's a little underwhelming compared to Choir and Snakes.

Iron Fist: Heart of Dragon #1, by Larry Hama (writer), David Wachter (artist), Neeraj Menon (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Aja can't keep a monthly schedule to save his life, but I like the guy's work.

Danny's Randall Gate has been modified by a guy named Fooh to be able to travel to the other Heavenly Cities, so they do a test run to the Under City and finding under attack from undead ninjas on horseback. Danny's asked to protect the dragon, and finds Taskmaster has killed it an stolen its heart. Now I like Taskmaster, but that seems. . . improbable. Him beating Danny and escaping, not nearly as improbable. Back in New York, Luke is babysitting the future Iron Fist, Pei, and a baby dragon (the one that so liked Felicia in that issue of Black Cat). Then Lady Bullseye shows up with more undead ninjas, but Iron Fist and Fooh's return makes her run. In the meantime, though, someone killed Tiger's Beautiful Daughter and her city's dragon, too. 

Why does Tiger's Beautiful Daughter seem to draw the short straw on this stuff? She was the one that Davos beat down, and now she's the one that gets killed. Let Dog Brother or Bride of Nine Spiders take turn. Or John Aman.

I'm not sure it isn't just Hama's writing, but Taskmaster seems off, in terms of dialogue. Oddly formal, even when he's boasting or talking trash. 'Might I remind you that I am fighting you to a standstill without the use of my left hand?' It makes me wonder about possession, but Luke also uses the word "obstreperous", which is not one I'd see him using casually with friends. More like something he'd use with someone who was talking down to him. But I'm not up on Luke Cage's current status, so who knows. It's fine, just odd. 

At any rate, I definitely appreciate that Hama just dives right in. Danny's gonna visit a city, oh crap, it's under attack! Dead dragon! Luke Cage punching undead ninjas! Shit's going down! Screw decompression and lots of build-up via talking! Larry Hama and David Wachter know you want to see action!

 

Wachter goes a little heavy with the extra lines on characters' faces and the shading, but overall, I like his work. There's a good flow in the action sequences, where you can read how one action leads into another, and it leads the eye across the page naturally. He took an intermediate approach on Danny's costume between the classic with the really high collar and the shirt open to the navel, and Aja's more streamlined version. It leans towards the classic look to be sure, but the v-neck isn't as deep, the collar's more restrained. 

I wish Menon would brighten the colors up a bit. Maybe in the Under City, which I'm guessing doesn't get much sun, it makes sense for things to be drab, even for a "heavenly" city. But back in New York, I feel like the colors could pop a little more.

Minor quibbles aside, I have a good feeling about this mini-series. Getting excited to see the rest of it.