Relationship Hell

Hey man, whatever exercise regimen works.

Mirka Andolfo's Un/Sacred follows Angelina and Damiano, through a long and winding relationship. Damiano's originally just interested in sleeping with Angelina, but quickly finds himself having fallen into a seven year relationship with her. The story as written as a series of one-page comics, each more or less stand alone, but part of a larger arc. The first third of the volume is mostly Damiano trying to find ways to convince her to sleep with him, or thinking she's asking him for that when she's really inviting him to a sleepover with her gal pals. So the entire page is panels of him watching her make preparations, getting increasingly excited, and then the payoff is him sitting grumpily while her friends give him a manicure and sing along to some cheesy song.

The second third (dubbed "Purgatory") runs from their engagement and the difficulties that arise with Angelina's mother, up to the wedding. The humor is much the same, but filtered through wedding prep and conflicts between Angelina's very uptight, rich white lady mom, and Damiano's more hedonist parents. One comic seems to be a part of an adult film, and in the last panel we learn it was, and that it's when Damiano was conceived. And that his parents thought that was a good thing to watch with the engaged couple. 

The final section covers Angelina being pregnant and Damiano trying to find a balance between growing up and being a responsible husband and expectant father, while not abandoning his dreams of music stardom. There's a lot of panic about that, Angelina getting frustrated with some aspects of pregnancy, including one comic of way too many people trying to cop a feel. There's also a family reconciliation, but it reveals there was almost an incest situation which. . .I was not expecting that. Don't know if Andolfo always had this swerve planned, or if things changed somewhere along the way.

A lot of the humor revolves around misunderstandings or misdirections. Damiano getting himself in hot water for not recognizing the earrings Angelina wore when they first met, but talking himself out of it by perfectly describing her necklace from that day. Which he remembers because he was fixated on her rack, which Andolfo draws very generously. I think there are slightly more jokes that revolve around Damiano being a horny devil than Angelina being rather naive or squeamish about sex, but it's pretty close. Damiano certainly gets more character development; though he retains the core of a lazy horndog, he does try to get a regular job and be a considerate boyfriend. He doesn't always succeed, but Andolfo shows him making an effort. Angelina doesn't seem much changed; she never entirely seems comfortable talking about sex with other people, but she was never oblivious to the idea, just firm that she wanted to wait. She's still very bright and cheerful, still prone to telling Damiano to go sleep on the couch when he fucks up.

Most panels, Andolfo keeps the artwork of fairly straightforward style. Minimal linework, distinctive character designs, easy to exaggerate for comic effect whenever called for. But it shifts to a more detailed approach with coloring done to approximate an unearthly glow for the wedding sequence. And since it takes place in a church, Damiano and all his family are giving off smoke the entire time, which was a little detail i appreciated.

What I Bought 12/6/2016 - Part 2

Today, characters try to solve problems by talking to people reasonably. This will work in one book, and not in the other. 50% is still a better success rate than we manage in the real world.

Ms. Marvel #13, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Mirka Andolfo (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I understand the point of the cover, but it feels very unlike most of this book's covers up to this point. Much more typical superhero.

Kamala's brother-in-law to be appears abruptly in her English class because someone is gerrymandering the districts right before the election. This someone turns out to be a hate-spewing candidate who is working with Dr. Faustus and HYDRA. Geez, I thought HYDRA Captain America would have dealt with that sort of thing by now. So you can kill cool villains like the Red Ghost and the Super-Apes, but not losers like Dr. Faustus? I bet if John Walker were HYDRA Cap, he'd have killed Dr. Faustus for us.

Anyway, with Nakia and Mike's help, Ms. Marvel gets a bunch of people to actually go vote and they elect a third party candidate to mayor, and deal HYDRA another setback in their plans for world domination - by taking over a town in New Jersey. Maybe they should have focused on one block in one town in New Jersey. Really start small, like ACROSS did in Excel Saga.

As things go, it's fine. I like Andolfo's art a little better here than I did last issue, mostly because there aren't as many facial expressions that seem off. Mike does seem to have been slimmed down, though. I think Andolfo might be the first artist on the book I've seen who doesn't draw Kamala as having large feet when she stretches out her legs. Alphona and Miyazawa for certain both draw her feet as also being large, which makes sense, she'd want a stable base to maintain her balance. The range of people Andolfo draws as they attempt to get out the vote was pretty good.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #14, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Clayton Cowles and Travis Lanham (letterers) - Is Doreen shaking her fist at the Enigmo, or signaling to some unseen forces to charge? You decide! Crap, that's a voting reference.

There is an Enigmo not interested in world domination. He split off from the others long ago, and wants to help our heroes. Scott comes up with a plan for the Good Enigmos to gradually convince the other Enigmos to abandon this plan, but it crashes on the rocks of the Good Enigmo not being able to merge with the others any longer. So, huge scrum in Toronto, literally, as our heroes win by tricking all the Enigmos into merging into a Giant Enigmo, which promptly causes their leg to snap from the weight, and giving the good Enigmo a chance to force a merge and argue inside their collective mind for not taking over the world.

I feel as though I remember this whole thing about the vulnerability of being a big human from John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque's Blue Beetle run, when Jaime tangled with Giganta? Although that was explaining that magic is why her bones didn't crack. Whatever, not a complaint, just something I remembered. I did like this quite a lot. The fact Scott's "heist" is remarkably simple and this frustrates Doreen. So Scott specifically comes up with an extra thing she can help do. Brain Drain's constant lamentations on the futility of existence. Those feel as though they could get irritating, but they're being worked in while the plot is still going, so it avoids the sense of padding I was getting with the Ghost Bandits in Atomic Robo. The use of giant-sized toys to help win the day.

While I would certainly agree the new costume Brain Drain got in the last page wrap-up has a better mask than his old costume, I miss the cape. It's not as though he's going to be worried about getting sucked into a jet turbine. He'd simply accept it as an inevitable sign of the futility of accoutrements when we are all destined for entropic decay. Also, Maureen, trying to set Doreen up with Scott is a huge "NO." Even if he weren't written as kind of a loser by Spencer these days, his daughter isn't that different in age from Doreen. No, just no. The designs on all the action figures were pretty sweet. Galactus with moose antlers is awesome, to the point I hope the next time he appears in this book, Doreen sees him with moose antlers rather than those usual Kirby tuning fork things that come off his helmet.

Anyway, I look forward to next issue, even if it's going to involve Taskmaster getting jobbed out to a freaking cat. But after all the losses to Deadpool, the recent defeat by X-23 in two pages, and that time he got taken out by Rick fucking Jones, I suppose he's used to it.

What I Bought 11/1/2016 - Part 3

I hate these flashing yellow left turn lights. Especially since lately, I seem to be stuck at a lot of lights that automatically go to it. I'm sitting right there, give me the goddamn green arrow! Also, not a fan of Marvel putting that #1 in the left corner of the cover for the first issue of a new story like it's the first issue of the book. Feels like a cheap bullshit bait-n-switch, though I'm hardly surprised they'd try something like that..

Ms. Marvel #12, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Mike Andolfo (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm up for a "Fightin' Crime Around the World with Ms. Marvel" storyline. Not what we're going to get, but I'd enjoy seeing it.

Kamala goes to visit family in Pakistan to try and clear her thoughts (or get away from them). There she gets to experience the joy of people treating her like an outsider because she's too American, instead of too Pakistani. She tries to stop some guys running a water extortion racket essentially, and gets chided by a local hero for not doing a better job because she doesn't understand all the dynamics. Which makes her a stand-in for the U.S. government, I guess. Except she's actually trying to help others, not just herself. I'm not clear on how Red Dagger was going to stop the villains without wrecking the truck, though. His shtick is he throws daggers. I assume he's going to try popping a tire, which seems like a good way to wreck a truck being driven on a questionable mountain road by some dumb thug.

Kamala seems resolved to return home and fight for her home and deal with her problems. We'll see how that works out for her. I expect things are going to be fairly hostile, but presumably Ms. Marvel hasn't lost everyone that was on her side. I am, now that I think of it, surprised we never saw her mother's reaction to what she was up to during Civil War II. It doesn't seem as though Wilson has done much with the fact she knows her daughter is a costumed crimefighter since that big reveal last year.

Mike Andolfo steps in as the artist this month. He does a fine job of working in a style generally similar to the other artists the book's had, although Ian Herring's colors do a lot to maintain that common thread. The yellows he uses in particular, both the solid golden yellow he uses as a background sometimes, and the softer one that stands in for natural light in a lot of the scenes of Kamala with her family, create a strong link with earlier issues. For whatever reason, his use of that color sticks strongly in my memories of the book, so it helps maintain that visual even with different pencilers.

Andolfo's characters are expressive, as he has a style just simplified enough to allow for some exaggerated expression where it fits, but detailed when needed. Although, there are a few scenes where Kamala is, I'd almost describing as sarcastically drawling at someone - the TSA agent on page 1, or Kareem on page 7 - where the expression seems appropriate for the dialogue and scene, but wrong for the character. Like, I can see myself making that face with that passive-aggressive comment, but not so much Kamala Khan doing so, if that makes sense. The surprised and awkward expressions she makes when meeting her relatives, her sleepy look on the last page, those fit the character, it's just those few other pieces felt off.

As a standalone issue, this felt slight to me. Well done, but slight. I think as part of the larger arc for her, the moment to stop and take stock between the recent disasters and whatever comes next, it'll work better.

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #11, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - My boss recently described a confrontation we saw on the job as a bit of a catfight, which the rest of us found rather awkward. It prompted much discussion about whether he really understands what he's saying or not. I tend to lean towards "no". I certainly hope that's right.

Felicia recruits a gang of young ne'er do wells to help her get rid of Hellcat, 'cause reasons. First though, they want to get rid of all the people she could call on for help, and since Felicia is able to get ahold of Bailey's magical Bag of Infinite Holding, that might be pretty easy. Or maybe not, because one of the gang is Ian's abusive ex-girlfriend, who is letting the cat out of the bag about Felicia's plans. Look, the creative team started it with the cat puns, blame them.

I still don't really understand Felicia's reasoning for this. Fine, Patsy isn't getting distracted by Big Event nonsense. But she also isn't actively fighting crime. She's pretty much dealt with threats she just stumbled along (Arcade), or that came after her first (Casiolena). If Felicia is meant to be a halfway intelligent, sigh, crime boss, she ought to be able to work around Patsy. Like, if you wanted to avoid Daredevil, staying out of Hell's Kitchen was historically not a bad first step. It wasn't an ironclad guarantee (not to mention the 11 million other heroes in NYC), but it was a start.

But I continue to think the idea of Felicia Hardy as a crimelord is dumb, and misses the point of what makes the character fun, so Leth and Williams were already starting on an uphill slope.

I appreciate the fact that Patsy and Ian having a disagreement over whether he's going to us his powers to fight evil or not did not turn into some big break in their friendship. They each took some time to cool down, thought it over, then discussed what was really bugging them. Adults handling things with discussion, and saving the punching for stuff that needs punching.

I assume it's Rosenberg adding what I'd call "gloom lines" in some darker moments. It might be Williams' using them as a shorthand for shadows, though. They pop up in the corners of rooms in some panels, but I mostly notice them overlaid on characters, like Ian when he walks away after being frustrated by Patsy. They remind me of something I see in manga, usually right after a character has received some extremely depressing or insufficient advice. Although it's usually accompanied by that giant sweat drop next to the head there. So maybe I'm entirely misreading it, but I noticed it in the previous issue, and I associated it with scenes where the character's mood is worsening, a dark cloud is settling over them, and I like that. And I think there's a chance I'm right about it. When Jubilee leaves the sparring session, the shadows on her face don't have the lines, because she's in a good mood. When Patsy leaves Bailey, she does, because she's bothered by what went down with Ian.

Anyway, I'm half looking forward to, half dreading a showdown between my second and third most favorite (by some metrics) Marvel characters. Should be fun, but someone (Felicia) is going to come off looking bad, which will be a little disappointing I'm sure. Oh well.