Alternate Favorite Marvel Characters #10 - Taskmaster

Character: Taskmaster (Tony Masters)

Creators: David Michelinie and George Perez

First appearance: Avengers #195

First encounter: Amazing Spider-Man #367. I think he appears on the last page and cover of the issue before, but that didn't tell me anything about him, so let's pick this issue, where Spider-Man and Solo run up against some guys trained by Taskmaster while pursuing leads on ULTIMATUM and the Red Skull.

Definitive writer: Gail Simone used him as a regular member of the cast in her Deadpool and Agent X runs, and that's probably the version I think of. A gun-for-hire to be sure, ruthless when he feels like it, cocky to the point of being almost insufferable. Not really trustworthy at any time, but when he found a few people he cared about he did try to help them, in his own way.

Definitive artist: I've only seen him draw one comic with Taskmaster, but I think I'll go with Stuart Immonen. There's a fluidness to his style that fits how I picture Taskmaster moving, he makes the pirate boots and cape look good, and he makes sure the skull mask is partially in shadow, which helps it look more like a mask and less like it's his actual face (which it isn't supposed to be).

Favorite moment or story: In the final issue of his first mini-series, Taskmaster #4, Taskmaster is trying to take revenge on Sunset Bain, who had used him and then tried to betray him and leave him for dead, as vicious criminal industrialists often do. He's made his way through her security guards and most of her defenses, but she has one guy left. An enhanced human, fast and strong enough to catch bullets.

Taskmaster knew he'd have to deal with that guy, so he watched footage of himself on fast-forward, and for a few moments, he's able to make his own body move with that kind of swiftness, which is enough to get past the goon's defenses and drop him.

It's a clever move, while still keeping in mind that Taskmaster does have limits to what he can manage, regardless of his powers. He would like to kill Bain, but the cops are coming. Normally they wouldn't be any problem, but between a bullet he took earlier, and his own exhaustion after that stunt, he has to bail. Mostly though, I just think it's a cool trick.

What I like about him: Not every villain has to be someone's arch-nemesis. Not every battle has to be a titanic struggle for the fate of the hero's loved one, or the fate of the world. Sometimes you just need a fun villain to give the hero someone to fight for an issue or two. Much like Arcade, who holds the #6 spot on the favorite characters list, Taskmaster is great for that role.

His superpower is cool, for one thing. The ability to learn almost any skill, instantly? I would be all over that. Cuts out all that time lost practicing. As an antagonist it gives him a wide array of abilities to draw from to challenge the hero with. But since he still has to be able to physically do whatever the skill is, there are limits to keep him from being too overwhelming. He isn't the Super-Adaptoid. It isn't as though he can watch Charles Xavier put his fingers to his temple while muttering, "To me, my X-Men," and the next thing you know, he can seize control of your mind.

There's a story in Kurt Busiek's Avengers' run, issue 26, where Taskmaster is hired to impersonate Captain America and trick a group of heroes into attacking a building controlled by a religious group the Avengers are having issues with. It's a quartet of heroes - Carol Danvers, Genis-Vell, Silverclaw, and Scott Lang - who haven't worked with Cap much, or at all with each other, so it takes them a while to figure out something's off. Once they do, Taskmaster drops the disguise and sics some of his students on them. When that fails, he fights all four of them by himself, and because he's been watching and studying their moves, for a time he's mopping the floor with them.

That issue includes most of what I like about Taskmaster. It's not a big revenge scheme on his part, just a job. But he enjoys the opportunity to jerk the Avengers around a bit, and when the disguise fails, he owns it and openly challenges them. Then he uses it as a chance to test some of his students, while using that as a chance to figure out these Avengers' moves. He's able to use what he's picked up (and their relative inexperience working together) to more than hold his own. But he loses when Genis charges him, then switches places with Rick Jones at the last second.

There's a lot of pieces there. The fact none of it is personal, just a paycheck. The occasional villain who despises the hero is fun - there'll be one of those later on in this series - but sometimes you want the guy who is simply doin' a job. It means you can use him against just about any hero, and depending on what the job is, he has a chance. Sure, Taskmaster probably can't defeat Iron Man in a one-on-one battle, but if all he needs to do is keep him off-balance long enough to finish stealing something and escape? Yeah, he can manage that.

So he can present a challenge, but not one so overwhelming that it seems impossible the hero can win. Taskmaster is ultimately mostly human in his abilities. He has limits, and he can be particularly vulnerable to surprise, precisely because he's so sure of himself. If he thinks he's seen everything you've got already, then he's sure he has some trick he copied from someone to counter it. If you can bust out something new, you can catch him entirely flat-footed. Case in point: That hodgepodge Avengers quartet wins when Genis charges at Taskmaster only to switch places at the last second with his counterpart Rick Jones, who kicks a gobsmacked Taskmaster right in chops.

At different times Taskmaster has fended off the Avengers, eluded Spider-Man, brought down Cassie Lang and Eric O'Grady while they were 50-feet tall and fighting each other. At other times he gets clocked by an RJO (Rick Jones Onslaught) From Outta Nowhere, or loses to Deadpool when Wade is fighting with his wrists and ankles cuffed. If he doesn't have time to adjust, or the opponent is just too unpredictable, he can lose really badly. And sometimes he loses to Moon Knight because Moonie is just too fuckin' crazy to stop coming at him, and Taskmaster is just here for a paycheck. He's not looking to die fighting some nutjob that talks to the moon.

He used that job with the Avengers as a chance to test some of his students, and the schools he sets up are a nifty variation on his shtick. Most of the mercenary types in comics don't like to hand out trade secrets. Maybe they take a student every so often, but why create potential competition? Taskmaster, maybe because of how many skills he has, maybe because it's so easy for him to pick things up, he shrugs and says, "Let me make some extra bucks off this."

Why not? There are all kinds of organizations that need cannon fodder, and that cannon fodder needs to be marginally useful. Taskmaster knows all sorts of things that can help with that. He's not going to train these guys up to the point they could take some of his more high-paying gigs, so it's an easy way to make some more money, and one that greatly reduces his chances of getting punched in the face by superheroes. And it keeps more avenues open to him for future work.

Also, I think it shows something about his attitude towards all the skills he has. He's pretty cocky about it, how quickly he can learn someone's moves, how many he's got. He's taken jobs for the government to get access to the World War 2 film archives, so he could study footage of heroes who are dead. He's the person who wants to know everything he can pick up about fighting, killing, infiltration, foreign languages, any skill that could possibly be helpful.

At the same time, because he can pick everything up so effortlessly, it doesn't mean as much. He copies Iron Fist's Flying Eagle Strike, so what? Just another skill. Throw it on the pile next that triple flip he picked up from Nightcrawler. I think he figures, what's the point of being able to do all this stuff if you can't show it off? Almost every fight he has, he has to namedrop who he stole each move from. Blah blah blah, drinking buddies with Bullseye, blah blah blah Daredevil's billy club block, blah blah blah. Training people and setting them up with HYDRA or AIM (or SHIELD) is just one more way to show off. "See how much stuff I taught these guys? I can do that, because I know all this stuff. Aren't I cool?"

Scott Lang gave Taskmaster some grief over his costume. He's a pirate, but also a skeleton, plus he threw in a cloak, pick a theme. It's part of that need to show off. Be garish, get attention, have some showmanship. It's not as though he can't dress down, wear a disguise. He can easily mimic another person's movements and speech patterns after all. If that's what the job requires, he'll go that route. If he wanted, he could be one of those legendary assassins spoken of in whispers. The one whose true face and voice no one has ever seen and lived to tell about it. But that's not how he plays it. Sometimes you need to be flashy, you need people to notice you, and his outfit certainly accomplishes that.

For the record, I don't mind the "track suit" look the Udon art team gave him; it has a pleasant simplicity to it, wouldn't restrict his movements, and the skull helmet is very cool. But it lacks that flashy element that seems key to Taskmaster.

Taskmaster has had two mini-series so far, and they took opposite approaches towards his memory. The first one, by the Udon Studios crew, which said he'd had the powers since he was a child at least, stated he remembered every moment of his life with perfect clarity. The second one, by Fred van Lente and Jefte Palo, said that he gained the power because he was a SHIELD agent who injected an experimental formula he found in a HYDRA base into his head, and that he could barely remember anything about himself because he had learned so many skills they were taking up all the space in his brain.

The van Lente/Palo mini-series went for the notion that Masters had cost himself dearly by using the serum, and while I thought the whole "forgotten wife" reveal was a bit much, the idea that his memory for people and events is almost non-existent did seem to work with his willingness to work with anyone. Taskmaster really doesn't seem to hold grudges, and will work with anybody just about, even if they parted on bad terms the last time. He's fought the Avengers multiple times, but was willing to take over training the new recruits at their Initiative camp. Deadpool has humiliated him more than once, but he and Wade might almost be considered friends. Taskmaster has been willing to help Deadpool in the past, and while I'm sure he's getting paid, Deadpool doesn't usually have that much money. Tasky could get more on another job elsewhere easily, but he still works with this crazy guy who has busted his jaw multiple times.

But if he only vaguely, or occasionally, remembers who anyone is, it could make sense. He approaches each meeting fresh, and judges the person based off what they say and do that time. If we go with the idea the second mini-series put forth, that Taskmaster on some level remembers he abandoned his wife by taking this serum and forgetting her, even if it's only a vague sense that he's a bad person, he might see a kindred spirit in Deadpool. When Taskmaster has helped Wade, Wade is usually in trouble for one reason or another, rather than it being a random "Kill this person for lots of cash" job. The attempt to do the right thing, or fix a past mistake could resonate with Taskmaster.

Because there's really no reason for him to willingly pose for a photo where it looks as though one of the washout Initiative recruits has defeated him, except just to be nice. The kid tried hard, but the nature of his power didn't seem to allow for things to work out for him as a superhero. If Masters supposedly always wanted to be the best, and took the serum to achieve that, he could feel empathy. Or maybe he remembers everything about his own life, knows he was never like that kid, but still figured there was no harm in giving the kid a good memory to go home with. He met Sandi and fell for her, and while that ended with her in the hospital, he did stay in the vicinity and try to sort of look out for her. He didn't always do this in healthy ways - killing the abusive boyfriend she told Deadpool just to beat up, trying to kill Alex Hayden (Agent X) because he thought he was bad news - but it's out of a genuine concern and desire to make up for his own mistakes, so the intent is good, at least.

Taskmaster has a lot of versatility, which comes in handy. Play him as a bad guy, play him as a surprise ally, or even a friend. Use his skills to make him a surprisingly difficult opponent for people in a higher weight class, or the limitations to bring about his defeat. Heck, you can make some gags out of him possessing some unusual or unexpected skill he picked up randomly.He's learned how to cheat at cards, but he also knows how to make a little flower out of a radish, because he picked up the technique from a restaurant. Give him a surprisingly good singing voice, or adept at carving marionettes. There are all kinds of possibilities.

Taskmaster picks up the pace, because he's got places to be, people to kill in Taskmaster (vol. 1) #4, by Ken Siu-Chong (writer), Jon Babcock (letterer), and the art team of Arnold Tsang, Drew Hou, Omar Dogan, Robb Ross, and Shane Law. Taskmaster makes some Avengers look like chumps, then is defeated by Scott Lang's favorite musician in Avengers (vol. 3) #26, by Kurt Busiek (writer), Stuart Immonen (penciler), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Tom Smith (colorist), Richard Starkings and Albert Duchesne (letterers). Scott Lang has another bad day in Ant-Man #3, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), and Travis Lanham (letterer). For every $10,000 you donate to PBS, Taskmaster will kick Hawkeye in the face once in Avengers (vol. 1) #223, by David Michelinie (writer), Greg LaRocque (penciler), Brett Breeding and crew (inkers), Christie Scheele (colorist), and Rick Parker (letterer). Tasky prefers the drums, but still saves the day in Taskmaster (vol. 2) #2, by Fred van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (penciler), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), and Dave Lanphear (letterer).

2017 Comics in Review - Part 5

I need to come up with a less clunky way to work the names of the creators on the books into those summarizing paragraphs. Anyway, lists! Most of these were actually pretty tough this year. Of course, in some cases that was due less to lots of high quality candidates, and more because there were almost no candidates.

As always, if I didn't buy it, it isn't in the running. So yeah, it's a limited field, but you don't want me ranking books I've only vaguely heard of.

Favorite Ongoing Series (min. 6 issues purchased this year):

1. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
2. Unbelievable Gwenpool

Giant Days came up one issue short of qualifying, which is too bad. It would have been a strong contender for #1. Can it maintain that momentum in 2018?! Of the actual qualifiers, Scarlet Spider and Deadpool were both out of the running since they got dropped. Can't very well be my favorite if I was fed up enough to stop buying it, right? The art on Copperhead couldn't keep up with the other four contenders, and Squirrel Girl and Gwenpool were far ahead on the entertainment scale, so the last spot came down to Ms. Marvel or Cave Carson. But then I couldn't decide between them. I like the Oeming/Filardi art team more than Ian Herring and some of the artists he teamed with, but not all of them. Cave Carson lagged in the last three issues, but I wasn't that excited about Ms. Marvel's fight with the computer program, either.

So ultimately, I punted on the whole decision. Whee! As for Numbers 1 and 2, Squirrel Girl won out narrowly because I think it was more consistent. Gwenpool's artists varied quite a bit in skill, so the quality of the art did as well, while Squirrel Girl has the Erica Henderson/Rico Renzi team there gettin' it done each month. I probably prefer Chris Hastings as a writer to Ryan North, but it's more variable. At it's best, I probably enjoy Gwenpool more, but it wasn't at that level enough to edge Squirrel Girl.

Favorite Mini-Series:

1. Empowered: Soldier of Love
2. Avengers: Four

It was a limited field this year. I require the mini-series to have shipped at least half its issues in the year in question. Which ruled out Atomic Robo, Demon, and Deadman. Wynonna Earp and Real Science Adventures each got dropped part way through, which would seem to disqualify them. I have more fondness for the Kooky Quartet than Empowered, and I was probably more invested in the story in Avengers: Four. But all that variability in the art really hurts Avengers. Being able to maintain the consistent look the story wants is kind of important. So Karla Diaz producing quality work for the entirety of the series tips it in Soldier of Love's favor.

Favorite One-Shot:

1. Master of Kung-Fu
2. Justice League of America: The Ray
3. Darkhawk

Master of Kung-Fu was the easy winner. It does provide a set-up for future stories if that opportunity occurs, but it focuses primarily on just telling a story. Even abnormally muddied art from Talijac is solid. The battle for #2 was close. I'm more interested in the potential of what Darkhawk put out there, which is probably irrelevant since I doubt it'll be followed up. I prefer Kev Walker's art. I don't like either of the books' costume redesigns. I think Steve Orlando probably did a better job telling a story, without feeling so exposition-heavy.

Favorite Trade Paperback/Graphic Novel (anything I bought is fair game):

1. Collen Coover and Paul Tobin's Bandette Vol. 3: The House of the Green Mask
2. Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Val Mayerik, and a bunch of other people's Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection Vol. 2
3. John Allison and Max Sarin's Giant Days Vol. 3
4. Steve Ditko and Denny O'Neil's The Creeper by Steve Ditko

It isn't quite written into this blog's constitution that Bandette wins favorite GN any year I buy a volume, but it's pretty close. Note that doesn't guarantee a win in the future. The blog constitution was made to be broken. It was written 200, er 10 years ago! Times have changed! (Yes the blog is over 10 years old, but I had to destroy the first constitution because there were too many clauses about hitting Chuck Austen with pipe wrenches left over from a previous adm - this gag has gone too long).

I know it seems strange to list O'Neil on a book that's title literally says it was by Steve Ditko, full stop. But O'Neil does get most of the writing or dialogue credits on the earlier stories, which were the ones I liked, so I figured his name deserved to be there. I haven't read through either of the Howard the Duck collections in a few months, but my recollection is that I enjoyed the second volume more than the first. Maybe because it had moved beyond the early stage where Gerber was still getting things into place. I don't give a flip about Man-Thing and his touch that burns your fear. Get some ointment and move on.

Favorite Writers:

1. Christopher Hastings
2. John Allison
3. Ryan North

I opted not to factor in back issues or trade paperbacks this year, for two reasons. One, if I did I felt I needed to do the same for the artists, and that wasn't something I was prepared to do. Two, before I decided that, when I was trying to factor them in, it wasn't clarifying things as much as I wanted. Even among my old stand-bys, the stuff of theirs I bought was not their best.

Anyway, I picked Hastings first because, as I said in Favorite Ongoing, at his best I really like his work. I like his sense of humor, and I like the things he comes up with to put in his stories. And he can write something that works emotionally when he wants to.

Favorite Artists (min. 110 pages):

1. Guruhiru
2. Max Sarin
3. Michael Avon Oeming

So I didn't want to have to factor in the artists for all those trades and such. It was going to be even harder because Steve Ditko's '60s Creeper was pretty awesome, but that trade included his work from the late 1970s, which was not nearly so awesome. So how do I account for that? To hell with it.

Of the artists, the Guruhiru team edged out Sarin because I haven't seen Max Sarin draw a fight scene yet. There were a couple of close calls, but they always get cut off. And I loves me some entertaining fight scenes. Oeming had some fight scenes to draw, and they weren't bad, but I like Sarin's figurework better. His work suits the humor that crops up most of the time in Giant Days.

And that's it. Year in Review posts are done until such time as we have another year to review. Sunday is going to be an Alternate Favorite Character post, if I get off my ass and get it done, and then Monday we'll look at some books that have come out this year.

2017 Comics in Review - Part 4

Not as many titles today, because two of them account for over 20% of all the new comics I bought. Kind of how it went this year. A lot of titles I bought for a month or two, and then a handful that lasted the whole year. And it really wasn't because I was buying a bunch of mini-series, those only make up 17 or 18 of the total. There are only 4 one-shots. Books just kept getting canceled or I dropped them after a few issues. It'd be nice if this year turns out different, since that would mean I was enjoying what I was buying, and it would be selling well.

Steven Universe #1, 2: I gave this book a whirl because I do so enjoy Steven Universe, but I am not the target demographic here. The stories and the art are fine, but they're aimed younger. I think Melanie Gillman, Katy Farina, Whitney Cogar, and Mike Fiorentino are actually trying to make a book for young children. The nerve.

Tick 2017 #1, 2: Cullen Bunn and JimmyZ are writing about the Tick's origin, which involves Canada, and lumberjacking. I'm not sure the Tick is a character that really needs his origin explored, but if they throw enough weird and/or funny stuff in there, I can roll with it. Douglas Paszkiewicz, whose Arsenic Lullaby is a favorite of mine, drew the first issue, but then Duane Redhead drew the second issue. So I don't know what the artist situation is for the book. Alternating? A different artist every issue?

Tinkers of the Wasteland #1: I grabbed this on a whim, because the cover looked cool. Reminded me a little of a Gorillaz album. Written and drawn by Raul Trevino, about a trio of teens trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world. By stealing chickens from a bunch of Road Warrior style chumps. And there was going to be something about aliens in there. I couldn't get into the writing, though.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #15-26: Squirrel Girl celebrated her birthday, received a nifty flying suit from a wealthy benefactor who turned out to be evil, fought DINOSAUR ULTRON in the Savage Land, and might be going into space soon, if Loki can get his act together. Ryan North wrote all the issues (except for parts of the "jam" issue, #25), Erica Henderson drew all the issues (except #25, which had several artists), Rico Renzi colored all the issues, and Travis Lanham was the letterer for all of them.

High Point: Ahem, did you miss DINOSAUR ULTRON? Do you really need anything else? I can't believe we got Frank Cho's stupid Naked Lady Ultron a friggin' decade before we got DINOSAUR ULTRON. Let's see, what else? Brain Drain's dialogue. 'Would any cool bros here like to consent to hanging out? Complete my forthcoming high five in three seconds to indicate yes.' His straightforward nihilism is also funny. It resonates with me. I really liked the design on that flying squirrel outfit. It's mostly shades of brown, but the belt pouches and the blue chest emblem add just enough color to make it work. There are a lot of other individual gags or panels that were fantastic, as well.

Low Point: Issue 25. Those jam issues so rarely work. Too hit-or-miss, especially when the typical level for an issue of the comic is as high as this book's is. Other than that, I can't really think of anything. Melissa Morbeck (the wealthy benefactor) got tiring with her casual arrogance and dismissive attitude towards Doreen's attempts to reason with her, but that was the point. She's like all sorts of horrible people wrecking the world right now, and those people are very tiring to deal with, too.

Unbelievable Gwenpool #11-23: Gwen went solo, ran into Blade (drawn by Myisha Haynes), got trapped in a new Murderworld with her old friends where she nearly killed Deadpool (drawn by partially by Guruhiru and partially by Alti Firmansyah), teamed up with Kate Bishop and Ghost Rider to save her ghost friend Cecil (drawn by Myisha Haynes), discovered a new power and her evil future self (drawn by Guruhiru), and tried to kill Dr. Doom (drawn by Irene Strychalski). Christopher Hastings wrote it all, with Rachelle Rosenberg coloring everything not done by Guruhiru (since that team handles the line art and color art).

High Point: The fight with Deadpool was my favorite moment. The way Gwen is able to tip things in her favor, and the way Wade twists it back, the switch from Firmansyah doing the art to Guruhiru at the moment that happens. I think it helped demonstrate a difference in the two characters. Hastings didn't nerf Dr. Doom, and he writes a great angry Doom. 'You would open a dam because it is not satisfying enough to drown in a puddle.' Great line. And, Gwen responds by describing his speech as 'Shakespeare's angriest fart,' also pretty great.

Low Point: I didn't care much about the two-part L.A. adventure, issues 14 & 15. Might be my indifference to Kate Bishop and Robbie Reyes, but it isn't as though I'm some huge Blade fan, and I liked issue 11 just fine. But I think issue 11 told me something about Gwen as a character, whereas the two-parter just seemed like an excuse for Kate to be unsure about the pink girl trying to murder everyone.

Wynonna Earp - Season Zero #1, 2: This was going to fill in some gaps about the kind of trouble Wynonna got into prior to joining her current group. Which seemed to involve a bunch of angry mercenaries. The were certain things about the writing (by Beau Smith, with Tim Rozon contributing to the story) I didn't dig. A sharp increase in the animosity between Agent Dolls and Doc Holliday, or Wynonna seeming to recognize there was no point in trying to keep her friends out of this, only to immediately try to sneak off alone anyway. The big fight that was coming up might have been good, but Angel Hernandez' art wasn't inspiring a lot of confidence. And letterer Christa Miesner was taking an approach with the sound effects better suited for the Adam West Batman show than this particular book. I would normally appreciate a person being thrown across a room with a big WHOOOOSH sound effect, but it doesn't really fit the tone here.

That's it for the individual titles. Tomorrow we wrap this up with everybody's favorite thing: lists! Which things will win my coveted seal of approval? You can probably already guess, but click on the post anyway. Maybe I'll type something funny!

2017 Comics in Review - Part 3

I like to keep track of who's drawing the pages of the comics I'm buying, and how many pages they draw. I set some arbitrary cutoffs at 110 and 154 pages. Five artists reached the lower cutoff: Max Sarin (110), Mark Bagley (111), the Guruhiru team (125), Scott Koblish (140), and Drew Moss (140). Two artists made it past the higher cutoff: Michael Avon Oeming (198), and, as the leader for the second time in three years, Erica Henderson (220 pages, or 11 issues)!

No one else really came close to the lower cutoff. For the second year in a row, Ms. Marvel bounced between artists so much it didn't get a single pencil artist to do more than five issues, despite shipping 12 times. There just aren't many series I bought enough issues of for their artist to reach that page total, even if the book kept the same artist.

Justice League of America #1: Batman decided they needed a somehow more down-to-Earth JLA, which sounds like another Outsiders, but let him call it what he likes I guess. Steve Orlando, Ivan Reis, with Joe Prado and Oclair Albert on inks, Marcelo Maiolo as colorist, and Clayton Cowles lettering. This is the recruitment drive issue. At least Orlando got it over with in one issues. AS long as you don't count those one-shots they did about most of the characters. And was there a #0 issue? Whatever. This issue still boils down to Batman strutting around barking orders, which certainly seems like a good way to build a team that hates your guts. To be fair, he has taken a lot of hits to the head. Pass.

Justice League of America - The Ray: Hey, here's one of those one-shots! Stever Orlando wrote this, too, with Stephen Byrne handling the art, and Clayton Cowles on lettering duties again. Changed the origin a little, with Ray living with his mom, running away from home, figuring out his powers on his own. It's not bad as a one-shot, tracing this arc of Ray being forced to hide himself in one form or another, and finally deciding not to do that any longer. Sort of. Have to make allowances for the secret identity thing.

Master of Kung-Fu #126: Another of the Marvel Legacy things. Shang-Chi tracks down a crazy ex-Hand scientist who was trying to teach animals martial arts, and was then just going to transplant Shang's brain into an octopus. That doesn't go well for him. CM Punk wrote it, with Dalibor Talijac and Erick Arciniega on art duties, and Travis Lanham lettering. Of the three of these I tried, I think this one did the best at just writing a done-in-one story. Kept it accessible without too much backstory, brought in a fun, disposable villain. I feel Arciniega's colors muddied the artwork, but maybe Talijac needs someone else to ink him, because the linework wasn't as strong as in other work of his I have. Still, I'd be interested to see more of this.

Ms. Marvel #14-25: Another busy year for Kamala. G. Willow Wilson wrote the book all year, and Ian Herring's coloring kept it having a consistent feel despite the 5 different pencilers the book used this year. Joe Caramagna lettered it all year. Takeshi Miyazawa drew the battle between Kamala and a computer virus learning sentience from humans on the Internet. Francesco Gaston drew a one-off issue checking in with Bruno in Wakanda. Marco Failla drew the return of HYDRA to Jersey City. Diego Olortegui drew the story about Kamala and her acquaintance from Karachi the Red Dagger trying to slow down a runaway train. And finally, Nico Leon drew the most recent issue, where Kamala's friends are trying to protect the city in Ms. Marvel's absence.

High Point: I know the book gets artists who are mostly within the same general range of styles, but I think a lot of credit has to go to Ian Herring for keeping the feel of the book consistent with his color work. I know I said that in the previous paragraph, but it was worth repeating. Of the artists, I like Miyazawa and Olortegui the best. Miyazawa adds such interesting background details, and Olortegui is pretty great at body language and expressions. Mike and Zoe trying to be Ms. Marvel has been funny so far. That HYDRA twerp Lockdown being arrested was gratifying.

Low Point: The fact they just let Josh walk away after his involvement with HYDRA's attempt to subvert democracy in Jersey City. It isn't as though he snuck out the back. The last we see of him he's standing in the middle of the street watching Kamala walk away. He's right there, friggin' arrest him!

Nova #2-4: Well, Jeff Loveness and Ramon Perez, with clutch superstar Ian Herring on colors and Albert Deschesne handling lettering, brought Richard Rider back. So that was something. He and Sam shared the book, fought Death's Head at one point, went on separate dates.

High Point: Perez' artwork was excellent, and Herring got to go different places with the colors than he normally does on Ms. Marvel. A lot of neon purples and reds. Cosmo was involved in the fight with Death's Head in issue 3. Cosmo's always good.

Low Point: I just don't really care about Sam. That part where Sam's teammates kind of blew off Rich being a New Warrior hurt. They're calling themselves the friggin' Champions, they don't get to look down their noses at anybody else's team affiliation! And Rich was an Avenger, for like five minutes! Ask Ed Brubaker, he did it!

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat #14-17: Geez, feels like eons since this book ended. The Black Cat got her hands on a magic claw that put people under her control and rather than grab, I dunno, Thor or a Hulk, she grabbed some of Patsy's friends. That didn't end well for her, but Ian had the chance to get some closure with his abusive ex-girlfriend. Patsy had a strange magic cold where he sneezes made random things happen. And then she got a big advance check for a book and took her friends shopping. So Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles at least got to give Patsy a happy send off.

High Point: I remain surprised by how well the addition of vampire, ex-mutant, infant son-having Jubilee to the cast went. She rolls with Patsy's craziness so well (it's better than dealing with Logan and his moods), and Williams drawing her mist form as a little pink cloud with pink sunglasses is adorable. The back and forth between Ian and Patsy is entertaining. Hellstrom banishing Hedy to Hell, but then chastising himself for losing control again. So dramatic.

Low Point: The Black Cat arc was a low point. The story didn't make a heck of a lot of sense, even if I'm willing to roll with the Black Cat being flat out evil. Which I'm not.

Power Pack #63: The last of these Legacy I bought. Devin Grayson opted to have Katie relate an old adventure to her teacher like she was telling a story. It mostly focuses on Katie's relationship with Alex, who is off with Reed Richards, wherever they are, and basically ignores half the team. Not necessarily bad for a one-off story, but if you're trying to sell folks on wanting to see more, kind of a curious approach. But that's as much to do with the overall idea of these things as anything else. Marika Cresta and Chris O'Halloran handled the art duties, and Joe Caramagna lettered it.

Ragman #1: Ray Fawkes, Inaki Miranda, Eve de la Cruz, and Josh Reed were the creative team for this updating of Ragman's origin, where he looks a bit more like a mummy, or like he's made out of vines, than the patchwork costume he typically has. And Rory is a soldier dealing with PTSD after things went bad in some attempt at tomb-robbing. I didn't care for the redesign on the outfit. I guess it fits with a more horror vibe, but it's kind of dull. And the first issue didn't really do enough for me to develop any interest in what was happening.

Real Science Adventures #1-3: Even though I hadn't found the anthology format of these Real Science Adventures stores to work for me, I figured I would try again. There were two stories running. One was about the Flying She-Devils trying to swipe a flying boat from a rival crew to enable them to keep their base. The other was about Agent Sparrow infiltrating some Nazi super-weapon to destroy it. Brian Clevinger, Anthony Clark, and Jeff Powell worked on both stories, with Lo Baker as artist on the She-Devils story, and Wook Jin Clark on the Sparrow story. I couldn't really get into either story, so I bailed halfway through.

2017 Comics In Review - Part 2

My total number of new comics purchased in 2017 was 117, which is down three from last year, and seven from 2015. 72 of those comics were from Marvel, or 61.5%, roughly. So Marvel's total dropped by one for the second consecutive year, but its percentage actually went up (59.7% in 2015, 60.8% in 2016), because the total pie is shrinking faster. Cue Marvel execs high-fiving. "We're getting more!" But it's of a smaller pie. "But it's more of it!"

DC wound up with a total of 15 books, or around 12.8%. Which is up slightly from last year's 11 books and 9.2%. And if DC and Marvel both managed to increase their shares slightly, then yeah, all the other publishers totaled up a little less. 30 books this year, around 25.6%, down from 36 books and 30% in 2016. Unlike 2016, when IDW outpaced DC all by itself, no single tertiary publisher dominated. IDW, Boom, and Image each had 7, Dark Horse had 4, NEC and Joe Books had 2 a piece, and Scout Comics had 1. If the first three months of solicitations are anything to go by, Marvel's going to take a step back in 2018, and the smaller publishers may leap forward. Stat stuff is over, you can wake up now.

Deadpool #24, 25, 36, 287-291: I'm not wasting my time with the change in title. It's all Deadpool. Gerry Duggan is still writing the book. Matteo Lolli and Christian Dalla Vecchia illustrated a couple of issues, one with Ruth Redmond as colorist, the other with Guru eFx. Scott Koblish handled all the others, with Nick Filardi on colors. Joe Sabino's the letterer. Wade failed to finish Madcap, got himself in debt to Stryfe, and killed a Cable. There was also a stretch of seven months where I wasn't buying the book because it was busy crossing over with other titles and tying in to Secret Empire. Ain't nobody got time for that.

High Point: Well, when Wade screws things up, he does so spectacularly, no bones about it. Even if I was not exactly satisfied with the recent "Cable Dies" arc (more on that below), I enjoyed the moments where Wade is still and quiet. Those are unusual for him, and Koblish and Filardi did a great job showing the fatigue, the weariness in him. He's lost it all before, but it was never as much to lose as it was this time, and that's getting to him. And they sell it.

Low Point: That said, the "Cable Dies" arc was a disappointment. Complaints about pacing and stories feeling overly padded out aren't new, but still annoying. But having Cable hate Deadpool, and openly state he never has and never will trust him took some punch out of the conflict. You have Cable as the guy who still believes in Wade, maybe the last one who does, then I don't want Wade to kill him. You make Cable some grumpy asshole old man yelling about what a fuck-up Wade is. . . Even if I agree, the grumpy asshole old man doesn't get to say it. At that point I'm rooting for Wade to kill him, which is probably not the desired reaction. I mean, Duggan already did the story where someone makes Wade kill four people Wade doesn't care about.

Demon - Hell is Earth #1, 2: Jason Blood was being plagued by dreams that bring him to Death Valley. Then an eldritch nuke hits and unleashes a piece of Hell. And now Blood is a ghost haunting Etrigan while they try to figure out what's happening. Or Etrigan can just kill everyone. Andrew Constant, Brad Walker, Andrew Hennessey, Chris Sotomayor, and Tom Napolitano have been the creative team so far. I think I'm mostly here to watch Blood and Etrigan play off each other, and watch Brad Walker draw hellscapes. The stuff about the mysterious kid doesn't intrigue me much yet.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #1: Well, I just reviewed this last week, but Adam Warren, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee have the demon who gave Spooky her powers out for revenge, and Emp got dragged along into Hell with her. I expect McNeil will make it all look very disturbing. Those giant, partially dissected frogs were a good start.

Empowered - Soldier of Love #1-3: Adam Warren, Karla Diaz, and Nate Piekos set an embittered one of those "magical girls" to Emp's city looking to destroy love there once and for all. Because she figures everyone will be so much better off without that sappy delusion clouding their judgment. It's all a bunch of crap anyway, right?

High Point: Diaz' design for the "Soldato del Amor" was pretty great. The combination of the frilly skirt with the beret and the e-cig. Plus, magical talking pangolin companion. Diaz' art gave her a lot of personality, most of it ugly. She draws an excellent smug grin. By partway through the third issue, you really want anyone to show up and punch the Soldato right in the chops.

Low Point: I don't have one for this. It happens sometimes. I'm just such a happy and positive person! The previous sentence is a lie.

Giant Days #29-33: The continuing adventures of three friends in college. These five issues mostly revolved around Esther and Susan hating Daisy's girlfriend, and the three of them trying to decide on housing arrangements for the coming year. John Allison, Max Sarin, Liz Fleming, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell are on the creative team for each issue. Irene Flores handled some of the inking chores in #31, and Kieran Quigley did some of the color work along with Cogar on that issue as well.

High Point: I love the pacing. You can never be sure when a plot thread is going to come to a head, or what's going to result from it. There's always something happening, and the book is alternately touching and hilarious. The Sarin/Fleming/Cogar are team sells it. The knack for being able to do silly and over-the-top when that's what's called for (mostly with Esther, because she's very dramatic, and there's a panel where she explains what she did to rivals in school that I love), or small things with body language and expressions that say a lot. I'm continually impressed by the book. For a specific scene, the sequence in the pub that begins when Daisy starts hustling pool to pay the electric bill, and ends with Emilia stopping her brother from pummeling McGraw and Ed.

Low Point: Nothing. Was the last lie actually a truth? Ha. No.

Great Lakes Avengers #4-7: For about five minutes, the GLA owned the Avengers' name somehow or the other, and set up shop in Detroit, where they fought a crooked politician. Until their newest member mauled him. Then Bertha got roped in by some creepy doctor who wanted to duplicate her power and went on a rampage, but they stopped him. Then Deadpool showed up to tell them they were canceled. You have the year he's had, you take your jollies where you can. Zac Gorman wrote all the issues, and Tamra Bonvillain colored them, Wil Robson drew most of them, except issue 4, which was drawn by Jacob Chabot.

High Point: The page where their newest member decides the evil councilman needs to die looked good. Chabot and Bonvillain captured the feel of one of the old horror comics (kind of important since the team member was a werewolf). I liked Doorman's issues with having been on a different plane so long he can't remember basic things like his age or what powers he has. There was something there, in the different perspective he has from the rest of the team.

Low Point: I couldn't get into Robson's art. Characters' facial expressions were over the top all the time. Comically demented or angry, even at times when they weren't supposed to be. Wasn't that into the evil doctor storyline, so issues 5 and 6 were mostly a drag. It was one of those books I was buying because there was potential for them to do something I'd really enjoy, but there was no guarantee they'd ever actually do it.

Hulk #9: Mariko Tamaki, Julian Lopez and Francesco Gaston, Matt Milla, and Cory Petit worked on this issue. I bought it because Jennifer Walters was supposed to interact with Patsy Walker for the first time since Bendis put Jen in a coma for Civil War II. Given that Jennifer has been going through some stuff in this book, it seemed odd her friend wouldn't be trying to help. They talked on the phone for about two pages. Calvin's a sucker, sing along now.

Iron Fist #1, 2, 5: The book started with Danny having no connection to the old Iron Fist chi, and trying to rekindle it with a tournament. That didn't work for me, but I came back a couple of issues later when he was supposed to team up with Shang-Chi. That didn't take either. I can't get into Ed Brisson's take on Danny Rand, where he's kind of a pitiful fight junkie. Mike Perkins did some good stuff in some of the fight scenes, overall his art isn't to my taste. Andy Troy's colors all appear washed out and muddied, even when it's a bright daytime scene. Just didn't work for me.

Day 2 done. Tomorrow, there's one series that made it through the whole year, plus a bunch of stuff I dropped after a couple issues, and a couple of one-shots.

2017 Comics In Review - Part 1

And here we are! I like being able to do these early in January. Those two years where I couldn't get to this until February were pretty embarrassing. This is going to run all week. As usual, the first four days will be for going over each title I bought over the course of the previous year. Talk a bit about what went on in the book, who worked on it. For the books with more issues, the things I liked best and least. Day 5 is the day for best ongoing, top artist, that stuff.

I toyed with changing how I organized the titles this year, but ultimately stuck with alphabetical order by title. Works as well as any other.

Atomic Robo - The Spectre of Tomorrow #1, 2: Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Anthony Clark, and Lee Powell are giving us a story about Robo not paying enough attention to his neighborhood association bylaws. Also, people are either randomly becoming robots and then exploding, or have been robots without realizing it. And Robo's employees are either losing their minds or on the verge of open revolt. Things are still ramping up, but I'm trying to figure out why Robo seems off.

Avengers - Four #3.1-5.1: Mark Waid and mostly Barry Kitson on art, along with Mark Bagley, Sean Izaakse and Ro Stein on the last issue, plus Mark Farmer and 5 other inkers, Jordan Boyd, Matt Yackey, and Wil Quintana as colorists, and Ferran Delgado as letterer. All that for the last 60% of a mini-series about the Kooky Quartet and their mysterious fifth member, who turns out to hate the Avengers and wants to destroy them for reasons I'm sure were detailed in a story I didn't read.

High Point: Everything to do with Hawkeye. Giving Cap a hard time, incurring the wrath of Jarvis, shooting an arrow at Wanda to get Pietro off his butt and back in the fight. Most of all, how personally he took it when Cressida dismissed him as not being Avengers-worthy. I've missed that character.

Low Point: That whole mess of people involved on the art side of things. I like several of those people's work, but when you get to the final issue, and there's four pencilers, six inkers, and three colorists, that's just ridiculous. The art swings wildly from one page to the next, the tones of the colors are all over the place. It disrupts the whole flow while you're trying to read it.

Ben Reilly - The Scarlet Spider #1-6: For the first five issues, Peter David, Mark Bagley, John Dell, Jason Keith, and Joe Caramagna were the creative team. Issue 6 marked the departure of Bagley and Dell, and the arrival of Wil Silney. Which was also the point when I decided to bail. This one spun out of Clone Conspiracy, about the 27th or 28th Ben Reilly clone trying to find a place to lay low, ending up in Las Vegas, working for a lady who hates his guts, with another clone of Peter Parker gunning for him. Then Death showed up. That lady gets around.

High Point: I always enjoy Bagley's artwork. The issue long fight between Reilly and Kaine in #5. That whole fight, Reilly's trying to be chummy and just have fun with it, hoping Kaine will come around, and Kaine just keeps trying to kill him. I've always been interested in him as a character, a guy who had all these memories and morality forced on him, and has spent a lot of time trying to twist away from it, get free, forge a life and identity truly his own, and never quite pulling it off.

Low Point: Sliney's artwork is not to my tastes. Stiff and kind of lifeless, characters feel posed and disconnected from their surroundings. On the writing side, I wasn't terribly interested in Cassandra Mercury and her sick kid.

Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye #4-12: Jon Rivera, Michael Avon Oeming, Nick Filardi, Gerard Way, and Clem Robins. Let's hear it for steady creative teams! Cave, Chloe, and Wild Dog reached the kingdom of Cave's deceased wife, only to find it in shambles and a terrible creature about to escape. They chased the creature across several dimensions, and eventually met another Cave Carson, who was responsible for the cybernetic eye.

High Point: Oeming did some great panel layouts in this series. There's one in issue 6, when Cave's eye leaps out of his head. Oeming makes a smiley face out of three panels. It's creepy as hell, and given what's going on at the moment in question, that's perfect. Filardi's color work was excellent, especially when they were still in the subterranean world. A lot of deep, solid blacks to contrast bright waters or lights. Wild Dog interrupting a villain with a missile was great, and the growing rapport between he and Chloe was a fun piece.

Low Point: The book dragged in the second half. A couple of issues during the dimensional jumping felt like stalling. Nothing much happening. They kept adding characters to Cave's team, Jeanette, Cave's old professor, but then not doing much with them. Not building any reason for us to really care. They were there just enough to suck focus away from some of the core characters.

Copperhead #11-17: Jay Faerber, Drew Moss, Ron Riley, Thomas Mauer doing the work for all 7 issues. Sheriff Bronson had to investigate the murder of the Mayor, which created more trouble when her deputy was appointed Interim Mayor, and it raised more trust issues between her and Budroxificus. Then the dangerous convict who fathered her son showed up, and that's still playing out, although there are already casualties.

High Point: The story of how Clara became a cop and Zeke's mother was interesting. Certainly not what I expected. I'm curious to see this scheme of Mr. Hickory's Faerber's building towards. The fight between the Sheriff and the assassin in issue 14 was some of Moss' better work. Just a solid, straightforward fight.

Low Point: Having Clara yell that she quits at the end of issue 12, only to have her still on the job at the start of issue 13 was a cheap attempt at a surprise last page. Moss struggles with proportions on characters. Lower bodies that are far too short, oddly tiny hands, things like that crop up randomly in there, and it's distracting.

Darkhawk #51: One of Marvel's Legacy stunts, bring back long-canceled series for one issue. Kev Walker, Chad Bowers, Chris Sims, Java Tartaglia, and Travis Lanham check back in on Chris Powell, who had become a cop since his amulet stopped working. But he gets a chance to go back to being Darkhawk after an attack by some irate aliens. Probably too much exposition for a one-shot issue, but if it was really laying the groundwork for an ongoing, I was intrigued. Plus, I love Kev Walker's art, even if I don't love the redesign on Darkhawk's armor.

Darkwing Duck #7, 8: The last two issues before the book was canceled were a two-parter where an army of zombie potatoes created from the remains of one of Bushroot's attempts to make himself a girlfriend were running rampant across St. Canard. James Silvani and Aaron Sparrow were on both issues as artist/writer, with Andrew Dalhouse, Paul Little, and Matt Herms as colorists on issue 7, and just Little on 8. It had some good jokes, and continued laying the groundwork for some big plan of Negaduck's we will presumably never see. Oh well.

Deadman - Dark Mansion of the Forbidden Love #3: This was the last issue of Sarah Vaughn, Lan Medina, and Jose Villarubia's gothic romance story starring Deadman and the ghost of a murdered woman in an old mansion. Not a genre I usually spend much time with, but the story tense and atmospheric. The third issue brought out the truth about Adelia's murder, how the author Nathan Delamere was connected to it, and Bernice and Sam's feelings for each other. Villarubia's colors are fantastic, especially on Adelia, the contrast between her spirit's normal form, and the dark energy that overtakes her at times.

That's it for Day One. Tomorrow there'll be a few ongoings I tried but ended up abandoning, a couple I stuck with, plus a couple of mini-series.

Sunday Splash Page #4

"Killer Robots Compensate, Too" in Agents of Atlas #10, by Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman and Paul Rivoche (artists), Elizabeth Dismang (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer).

It took three years after the initial mini-series before the Agents got themselves an ongoing. Jeff Parker still writing, working with a few different artists, mostly Carlos Pagulayan and Gabriel Hardman.

Set after Secret Invasion, when Norman Osborn became Boss of All Superheroes, Parker had the characters run with the Atlas Organization's rep as a worldwide criminal enterprise to try and get close to the bad guys and disrupt them from within, while inevitably coming into conflict with other heroes. From there, Parker could branch out, have Atlas involved with all sorts of skullduggery, run them up against heroes who bought their reputation, and mine the varied histories of the characters and their adventures from the '50s.

Unfortunately, the book got axed after just 11 issues. They tried again in early 2010, with Atlas, adding 3-D Man (formerly Triathlon) to the roster, but that got canceled after just 5 issues. Outside a one-shot during Secret Wars, I haven't seen the team since, although Gorilla Man's gotten some use in various Deadpool comics.

What I Bought 1/3/2018 - Part 2

Alex and I watched a couple of different stand-up specials on Netflix recently, and I never want to see another comedian complaining about how people get too easily offended these days. Not that I expected better from Joe Rogan, but I did think Dave Chappelle wouldn't go that route, especially after he spent all that time on a bit about how good he is at coming up with jokes. Then it shouldn't be that hard to come up with some that don't punch down, should it?

Giant Days #33, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (penciler), Liz Fleming (inker), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Hear no Embarrassing Disaster, see no embarrassing disaster, speak no, aw forget it.

With Daisy and Susan moving in with their significant others, with reservations, Esther is scrambling to find new roommates. But hey, there's Ed, also trying to find a place. He recognizes that Extreme Bros would be a terrible experience, but turns down Esther's offer. Then he ends up accepting Dean's offer to live with a bunch of coders who mine cryptocurrency, but not before helping Esther move in as well. And Ed makes sure she gets the nice room, while he takes the glorified closet.

Things are in a death spiral for several characters. Esther is running out of people to rely on, Ed's going to wreck himself hoping for Esther to confess feelings for him rather than just getting it over with and telling her how he feels. Daisy's doing the same thing with Ingrid (see her open admission to Susan they were hiding in her makeshift room, and her uncertain face when she says, 'If you can't beat them, join them!'). Susan seems to be doing the best, as she and McGraw seem to have found a good equilibrium. But she's worried she's committing to being an adult too soon. It doesn't seem as though any of them have figured out balance. What am I saying, of course they haven't. They're college kids. The fuck they know about balance? I'm considerably older than them and I still can't seem to find a good balance between time spent alone and time spent with friends.

Requisite paragraph gushing about the art: Sarin having Esther keep collapsing into the face on the floor position at each setback was pretty good. Daisy got a slight variation of it on the last page as she collapsed on the couch, which seems to indicate a similar level of unhappiness and isolation in the two of them. Also, Sarin draws the backgrounds with the same wobbly lines he draws the frazzled Daisy with. And in the panel where Esther first reaches out to her, the squiggly lines start just on the other side of Daisy, as if we're entering a zone of altered reality caused by her mental state. Actually, that may just be part of someone's coat hanging up in the background, but screw you, I'm saying it's a deliberate move.

And the panel of Ed's nightmare vision of Dean was beautifully colored, the pink glow of the computer monitors, contrasting with the maw of Dean's mouth. Sarin and Fleming even drew in the taste buds on the tongue of the giant, sharp-toothed Dean. It's just a nice, horrifying image.

Anyway, there will undoubtedly be many tears in the near future, though I can't predict at all who they're going to come from.

Copperhead #17, by Jay Faerber (writer), Drew Moss (artist), Ron Riley (colorist), Thomas Mauer (letterer) - Human Resources is going to need to have a talk with Interim Mayor Budroxificus.

Ishmael's attempt to protect Zeke doesn't go well, as he gets beaten to a pulp by Clay. The Sheriff is explaining how she wound up with Zeke and Clay's money, and the sequence of events is not what I expected. Wasn't what her captor expected either, but that lady is dead now, so her expectations don't count for much any longer. Mayor Boo is tracking Mr. Hickory to some clandestine meeting. And by the end, the Sheriff has caught up to Clay, who she probably should have just shot when she had the chance.

Surprising revelation in this issue comes from Interim Sheriff Ford telling a possible informant he can do anything he wants because he is human, white, and a cop. I knew humans in this universe tended to hold themselves at the top, certainly compared to the "arties" or Budroxificus' species. And cops are seemingly all conditioned to believe they can do whatever they please. I'm surprised, though, that being white still matters in this particular fictional universe. I guess crackers didn't see any reason to knock that shit off once they had other sentient species to discriminate against.

There's a few panels in here, when Moss draws people in profile, where his artwork reminds me a bit of Greg Capullo's. In the faces mostly. The panel in the lower left there, for one. He uses a little lighter linework than he normally does, but it might also be Riley's coloring. The skin tones remind me of Capullo's time drawing Batman in the last few years. It doesn't carry over from one panel to another, so it's a brief, abrupt surprise.

The fight between Clay and Ishmael is handled differently from Clara's fight with the assassin in the conclusion of the last arc. A lot fewer speed lines, and Moss doesn't focus on the impacts as much. In that earlier fight, there were a lot of panels of the moment a hit landed. Here, he seems to draw the moment before the hit lands, or simply doesn't show the impact. Because for Clay, Ishmael is ultimately irrelevant. Not because he's an artificial human (or not only that), but because, as Clay describes during the beating, he's naturally tough and mean. He likes hurting people, doesn't really matter who. He killed Missus Sewell without a second thought, simply because she was near his son. It's all in service of his goal, and that's all that matters to him.

Well, I certainly hope Clara choosing not to simply shoot Clay in the back doesn't come back to bite everyone in the butt next issue.

Murdering My Way Through Mordor

My friend loaned me Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of Mordor, so I got to take that for a test run.

The plot involves a Ranger whose family is slaughtered and is himself used as a blood sacrifice by one of Sauron's lackeys. The Ranger, only mostly dead, finds himself bonded with the ghost of a long-dead elf who also wants to stop Sauron. The two set about trying to bring the bring fiery eye to its incorporeal knees.

A lot of the missions involve Tallion discovering some new power he has as a result of this fusion. There are a couple of subplots - one about a dwarf hunter, one involving Gollum, another about a young woman trying to defend her mother's kingdom. All of them seem to revolve around people wanting Tallion to hang out with them, and him preferring to go off and brood alone. This guy would be a great addition to that hypothetical team of angry protagonists I made.

The game is filled out with a lot of time-consuming optional quests. You can search for particular herbs, or kill a certain number of particular animals. You can rescue slaves, or undertake challenges geared towards your various weapons that "build your legend". They aren't necessary, although they help you earn experience and money to purchase more upgrades. I grabbed herbs as I came across them, but was never paying attention to which ones I was specifically meant to be looking for they. They all restore your health. The weapon challenges didn't interest me, and there's only so many times I can rescue some trio of slaves tied to posts (who look exactly like every other trio I've rescued) before I had enough of that. I thought, foolishly, I might be nearing the end of them when one slave I rescued mentioned word of my deeds was spreading and all the slaves believed they'd be saved. I figured I was going to wind up with an army of humans to go with my army of Orcs. As it turned out, I was only halfway through those rescue missions.

Combat is similar to Batman: Arkham Asylum with the critical use of the Counter button, the leaping around from one enemy to the next. Tallion even has his own version of the Detective Mode Batman had in his ability to enter the Wraith World and see through Celebrimbor's eyes. Which lets him pick out Captains from regular soldiers, and distinguish which soldiers are likely to provide good intel on the commanders. You can climb almost all walls and rock ledges, sneak around on rooftops and across beams, and either snipe from there with a bow, or drop down on the enemy from above.

The meat of the game is dealing with the Captains, and beyond them the Warchiefs, of Sauron's Army. Initially, you hunt them down to kill them. There are certain missions involved with those, as well as things called Power Struggles. Those take a few different forms, but it boils down to another chance for you to run in and kill another Captain or two. Though it can get out of hand. I jumped into the middle of a fight between two Captains, and while trying to fend off them and their followers, a third Captain either heard the disturbance or just wandered in. If Tallion is killed or runs away, the surviving Captains gain more power for having defeated the Gravewalker. Which means a promotion, but the only effective difference I noticed was if they reach Warchief status, then they have from 1 to 5 Captains as Bodyguards, who can be a pain in the ass to get past.

The Captains and Warchiefs have various things they fear, or are vulnerable to, or invulnerable to. The only way to learn what those are is to collect intel, mostly achieved by finding footsoldiers and using the elf's powers to interrogate them. If you can avoid killing them while you're fighting them and their buddies. I accidentally killed the one I was after a few times, because by that point I was trying to fight 10 guys at once, and I couldn't be picky about which person trying to kill me I attacked.

You can still attack Captains without knowing their weaknesses. It's just a little embarrassing when you try to leap down on them from above for a surprise kill, only to have them casually pull you off their back and toss you away because they're invulnerable to stealth kills. When it works though, it's great because most other enemies will be terrified if they see you kill their leader. If you aren't up for a big fight, that quick kill will get everyone else to back up and you can run like hell. Or climb a wall, ride off on a Caragor, whatever.

Once I killed a Warchief that way, and the game showed his surviving Bodyguard immediately took his place. No problem, the guy is right there, I'll just kill him now as well. I turned to face him. . . and he was hightailing it down a ladder in terror. I expected better from a guy with the title "the Executioner". Anyway, I chased after him and killed him a minute later.

I've read stories online about people who had that one Captain that kept getting the best of them somehow. I didn't really experience that. There was one Captain early that killed me a couple of times. You couldn't stealth kill him, he was very good at countering attacks, had poisoned weapons, and I wasn't adapting. I needed to let him attack, then exploit the opening, but he'd hit me, I'd lose the rhythm, and it would go downhill. But I never got particularly steamed about it. I avoided him for a while, until I had a better grasp on the game, and had unlocked a few more abilities. Every time I went after him and failed, he gained prestige, and I didn't feel like helping him any further.

The problem I had early was not understanding what I needed to be doing. I thought I needed to destroy Sauron's army, so I would attack any random group of Orcs I came across. Inevitably I'd chase the last one, kill him, and when I jogged back to where I'd been, there were already five more Orcs tromping in. Eventually I realized it's like Grand Theft Auto, where there are always going to be more members of a particular gang. You can kill as many of them in drive-bys as you want, there'll always be more. Once I grasped that, I avoided fighting the rank and file as much as possible. All it seemed to do was wear me down, and run the risk of being picked by off randomly because of bad luck or slow reflexes. And then you've given some random jerk the chance for a promotion at your expense.


The game boils down to dealing with the leaders, and the fact the ones you kill will eventually be replaced. It's disheartening to have killed 5 Captains, then be killed yourself, and watch not only the guy who killed you get a promotion, but all those others gaps you created in the command structure be filled in one fell swoop.

What it did for me was streamline the game. I focused almost exclusively on killing Captains. I wasn't playing Missions or jumping into Power Struggles constantly. I still spent most of my time running around the area. But even just running around grabbing artifacts to pick up backstory, you find Captains. Especially if you end up near a Stronghold. There's usually at least three in those. I was always on the lookout for those opportunities even when I was just roaming. If there was a Captain nearby or along the way, then I stopped to deal with him first.

I can't waste time looking for herbs or killing rats, because while I'm doing that, the game is replacing the Warchief's Bodyguard that I just killed. Better to keep the pressure on. I know it's futile, since the game will fill those spots sooner or later*, even if I don't get killed, but it felt like the right approach, given the plot.

That isn't a complaint. I've said repeatedly I wanted to play this game to sneak around and kill Orcs. The game gave me all the chances I could have asked for. It's just unusual the game is set up in such a way that it doesn't encourage me to mess around with all the little completionist quests games like these throw in as filler. When I played Red Dead Redemption, I spent a fair amount of time doing the herb gathering and hunting challenges, or just riding my horse. When I played The Saboteur, I went after every freeplay target there was. Not just all the pieces of Nazi infrastructure, but finding postcards and climbing monuments for a nice view.

Those games were set up so there was ultimately one guy you were after. You might have to kill or capture other guys along the way, but the guys in question weren't going anywhere, and the path to them wasn't going to be any easier or harder based on whether you focused strictly on advancing the story or wasted a lot of time riding around the countryside. There was no incentive to rush. Shadow of Mordor sets it up so that, if you kill or turn some of your Target's protection, you should attack now, before he gets reinforcements. Waiting is only going to make things more difficult.

Maybe I'd feel differently if I had picked up the Brand power sooner, where I could have been turning Captains to my cause earlier. I was doing so much free-roaming killing, there didn't seem to be a need to try and turn Bodyguards to get at the Warchiefs. Just kill them and grab the Warchief.

Having beaten the story mode, I should probably take advantage of the opportunity to continue wreaking havoc in the world to use the Brand more. Set the different Warchiefs against each other.

* And in the bigger picture, Tallion and Celebrimbor obviously did not succeed in defeating or destroying Sauron, since, you know, the hobbits still had to go chuck the damn Ring in a volcano.

What I Bought 1/3/2018 - Part 1

The books I ordered last week arrived today. Good thing, as none of the books I wanted this week were on the shelves. In an effort to keep to the schedule I had planned for next week, we are going old-school. Reviewing comics the day I bought them, whoo! Who needs time for more careful reflection and thought? Today we're looking at two books dealing with Hell, because a boiling lake of fire sounds pretty appealing given recent weather difficulties.

Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell #1, by Adam Warren (writer), Carla Speed McNeil (artist and letterer), Jenn Manley Lee (colorist) - What's the worst part for our heroes, the flames, the vengeance-fueled blondes, or the school outfits they're stuck in?

Sistah Spooky (aka Theresa) gained her looks and incredible magical powers by making a deal with a devil, the same deal as made with all her snobby classmates (except they didn't get any magic). She was cruel to Emp for a long time because Emp reminded her of those classmates, but now they're friends. Which means Emp gets dragged into Hell with Spooky when the demon she made the deal with decides to give all those old classmates a chance to kill her and take her magic for themselves.

Warren is able to fill in any potential new readers on the backstory between the two, and Spooky's history in general. I knew some of it, but there was quite a bit I was unfamiliar with, so that helped. But it seems likely that a lot of what gets laid out here is going to factor into the story. The ugly history between Emp and Spooky, Spooky's girlfriend Hannah having died not too long ago, and the rescue attempt having failed.

And it seems relevant that for at least the first half of Spooky and Emp's chat in the coffee shop, Spooky doesn't really make eye contact. Emp is looking at her, listening and attentive almost constantly. Spooky is mostly looking around at other people, or at the ground. Which could be a sign of her not really caring, but then she does start making eye contact when Emp lays out exactly how shitty Spooky was to her and how much it hurt. It shifts the reading of it to where Theresa is still caught up in her own issues, but she was maybe honestly oblivious to her hypocrisy. It's telling that once called on it, she starts making eye contact more regularly and doesn't let Emp start in with self-deprecating talk.

I especially like how Carla Speed McNeil laid out Page 6, with the litany of cruelties running diagonally across the page, Emp in a panel in the upper corner, and Theresa in the opposite corner in the bottom, where it feels like all her past digs are toppling over on her. The demon's suit having the same coloring and pattern as the skirts in the school uniforms. And that office he was in, with the shadowy husks typing away endlessly was pretty creepy too. The color Lee used for them works well, because it isn't a simply black, like they were just shadows. It's a grey like ashes, with a few darker shadows to give a vague distinguishing to some facial features. It makes them almost insubstantial, like they'd blow away if you breathed on them.

The Demon: Hell is Earth #2, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciller), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - Yeah, I'd pay money to see Etrigan fight giant, burning minotaurs. I just did, in fact.

The bubble of Hell caused by the missile is expanding slowly, and corrupting anyone who touches it. Inside, Etrigan wants to kill the little girl from Blood's dreams, and is stopped by Blood threatening to talk endlessly about things of beauty and kindness. Like butterflies. The girl mentions Madame Xanadu, the three set out and find her fighting off the people from the bar she was at, who are quickly dispatched by Etrigan. Some talking ensues, until the Demon gets bored and incinerates the little girl. Oh well, that's that.

Most interesting thing to me is it referenced the Demon Knights series that was part of the New 52. Where Xanadu was in a relationship with Etrigan and Jason, apparently. I guess there's no reason that can't still be in continuity if they want it to be. But as a potential emotional lever on Etrigan, that past relationship could be a fun piece to have in play. I don't know which direction it will push him, but that's part of the fun. He might surprise us.

I would guess a lot of the credit for all the lovely fire in this issue goes to Sotomayor's colors. You would think in a scorched hellscape it would blend in, but they go with vague, featureless backgrounds, or against creatures that are very dark, that it's able to pop. Also, Etrigan seems to leak a little fire from his mouth whenever he's annoyed. Like someone who spits when they get agitated, or talks with their hands a lot. Not a bad touch, although this Etrigan doesn't seem very clever. I tend to think of him as being cunning, up to a point, and that's lacking here. Maybe that's deliberate, an effect of where they are, or it's just how Constant writes him. He lets Etrigan rhyme when he wants to, which is mostly when he's fighting and feeling good.

Walker's artwork is solid. Combined with Sotomayor's colors, the people altered by what's going on look a bit like the X-Man Sunspot when he powers up. Etrigan being extremely big and muscular is a deliberate choice related to the story. Walker still has a tendency to exaggerate faces, especially lips, to an extent that can be distracting. The little girl makes a face in one panel like she's posing for one of those duckface selfies, but that doesn't seem situation appropriate. It doesn't happen much, fortunately.

Following the Pack - Mike Link & Katie Crowley

It's over 20 years old, but it was a brief overview of the state of wolf populations across most of the world, as well as looking at what research had been done in the various locations, and what legal protections there were, if any.

Most of this is done with short sections in each chapter focusing on a particular researcher, naturalist, or advocate of the wolves in that part of the world. There's a quick biography of the person, description of the work they've been involved with, some quotes from the authors' discussions with them. It's an interesting mix of people who very much came through the academic path and have remained as researchers, to people with none of that sort of formal training. Instead they learned and grew interested in wolves or nature through childhood experiences or working with trappers.

It's interesting to read an older book like this, since it mentions things like the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone as something that had only recently been approved, and hadn't even started at the time this book was published. Now we're 20 years in, and there's something like 100-120 wolves running around in the park. Or it discusses the efforts to maintain populations of red and Mexican wolves in captivity and gradually release them in the wild. The red wolves had been getting slowly released in the book, but the Mexican wolves hadn't been. In the present, the Mexican wolves are doing a bit better in both captivity and the wild, and the Fish & Wildlife Service may be abandoning releasing red wolves into the wild entirely.

The talks with the different researchers also provides a chance to discuss the attitudes of people in those areas towards the wolves. As you might guess, people who have livestock at stake tend not to be big fans, although in the section on Mexican wolves, it was mentioned the idea of radio collars that could be triggered at a distance to inject a sedative (so that a wolf that was killing livestock could be removed) was winning some converts among landowners.

One area that certainly has wolves that isn't discussed is Russia, which I assume has to do with how recently this book was written after the fall of the Soviet Union. Looking around online, it doesn't appear there was much research into wolves in Russia in the 20th Century, except in how to most effectively kill lots of them.

'While most people assume that Scandinavia would support the most wolves in Europe since there is a relatively small human population and a wild landscape, the opposite is true. The feeling of wilderness is deceptive. This is a very managed land, and the wolf is not wanted. The wildness of the wolf defies the sense of complete control that the countries seem to want.'

The 2017 Attempts At Entertaining Myself

As far as 2017's non-comics entertainment went, it's a movie-heavy year. The book and video game portions of this post are going to be fairly slim. On the other hand, I do have a small pile of books next to my couch right now to work through. And maybe I'll buy that PS4 eventually and dive into its game library.

Books

21 books total this year. 6 of those were books I hadn't read since before I started this blog, and decided to reread. Which leaves 15 others to consider. Ten of those were nonfiction, although the review for one of those doesn't go up until tomorrow. Broadly, three of the nine were science related, three were sports related, and the other four were historical, two of those focusing on Ernest Hemingway. Of the best in the three general categories, I'd lean towards Ankiel and Brown's The Phenomenon, Ackerman's The Genius of Birds, and Druett's Island of the Lost. The Phenomenon has an emotional punch to it, and Island of the Lost used existing accounts of the stranded crews, while knowing when to step in with a greater explanation of the challenges faced. That said, The Genius of Birds was my favorite of the bunch, given my interest in ornithology, and how Ackerman touches on the different kinds of intelligence, the difficulties in even trying to figure out how to test them and what the results actually mean.

As for least favorite, Hemingway and Gellhorn. It isn't badly written at all. I've just read enough other books on the topic I didn't feel I was gaining new insights into them, just more details to hang on what I already knew.

Fiction is a grand total of 5 books, unless I include the rereads of The Mediterranean Caper and the Odyssey series. None of those would qualify for best, although Mediterranean Caper might get worst for the attitudes towards women in there. Of the 5 new books, one was a collection of short stories by various authors intended as science fiction mysteries. As with all anthologies, it's a mixed bag. Four books then.

Best would have to come down to either Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, and I'd lean towards the latter. They're written in extremely different styles, although there's a certain inevitability in both. The father in The Road has an end waiting, and the young shepherd in The Alchemist has one as well. There are other paths, but reading the books, you know where things are ultimately going to end. I'm picking The Alchemist at least in part because it was more hopeful, that the effort will pay off. I don't need a book to tell me I'm trudging towards my own death on a world that's slowly dying itself. On the other hand, a book reminding me that just because I choose one path now doesn't mean I can't double back later, or that path might interest with one of the others again down the line.

Worst by default is either Santiago or The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man. Lean towards the latter again. The reveal at the end of Santiago was obvious a ways off, but Resnick populates the book with some interesting characters, which makes for an enjoyable journey at least. The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man wasn't bad, but I came in part way through the series, which rarely helps, and didn't really grasp what kind of series it was at first. Once I understood it was going to be one of those alternate histories where all sorts of figures who were significant in our timeline keep popping up in this new one, I was less enthused.

Movies

I watched around 55 movies I hadn't watched previously this year. 55 I bothered to review, anyway. A lot of them were bad, the consequence of watching lots of cheap sci-fi/horror films on Netflix early in the year. Actually a surprising number of major movies, although most of those hadn't been in theaters for some time. Most of those were also poor-to-forgettable. So let's start with worst first.

Spectral has to be an Honorable Mention, for no other reason than I couldn't remember a single character's name while watching the movie. Captain of the Clouds was not one of Jimmy Cagney's better films, I'm guessing. Absolutely Anything had a few characters trying much too hard to be funny, and falling into irritating. And certain things between some of the characters resolved far too neatly. The Gallowswalkers ripped off all its best stuff from other, much better Westerns.

It comes down to The Presence versus In The Valley of Violence. Of all the movies I watched this year, those two were the most grating, and for the same reason. There came a point where the most obvious, sensible decision, that anyone with a bare minimum of intelligence (In the Valley of Violence) or compassion (The Presence) would decide to leave their current location. In both cases, the characters stay, because they're stupid beyond belief. Of the two films, In the Valley of Violence at least had some actors (Travolta, Ethan Hawke, Karen Gillan) I recognize, and while none of them are any guarantees of quality, I am going to hold their movie to a higher standard than some low-budget, found footage ghost film from Germany.

Best films is harder, because it's easier to criticize than praise, yes. But it's hard to think of a film I enjoyed unreservedly. Logan was pretty good, but dragged a bit in the middle with the farmer family (also the praise seemed out of proportion).  Wonder Woman's ending felt entirely at odds with the rest of a very good film. The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun had some fun parts, I just exhausted myself sitting there trying to weigh different explanations for what was happening the entire time. And I'm not sure how it would hold up on a second viewing. I loved the parts of The Hunter with Defoe out in the woods, but everything that went on back at the cottage felt like a needless distraction. I knew how it was going to end, so it felt pointless. Assassination drags in the last 45 minutes, although it's real close.

I would probably narrow it down to Black Snow and Trollhunter. Black Snow isn't really an enjoyable film; it's extremely uncomfortable to watch at times. I'm far more likely to re-watch any of the movies I listed in the previous paragraph. But Black Snow knows what it's trying to do, and it doesn't waste time on any filler. It pares the cast down to what it needs, and gets to business, so it can build things towards a pair of revelations.

As for Trollhunter, I thought it did a really good job taking all the disparate legends and stories about trolls, and fitting them into a sort of framework, and examining what might go into the work of someone tasked with being a kind of game warden for them. Who that person would be, what their attitude is, what tools they use. How daunting a task it is, the things you learn as you go. They spent some time figuring out the worldbuilding, and then shot an interesting, entertaining, at times even funny, movie. I usually pick two favorites, so there they are.

Video Games

Another year of thin pickings at the video game category. Let's see, Super DragonBall Z on the PS2, and then Foul Play, Portal, I Am Alive, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Skyrim, and Marvel Puzzle Quest on the XBox 360. Also, I loaned Shadow of Mordor by a friend and just finished it last weekend, although the post won't go up until Thursday. And I replayed Singularity and Catherine.

That's more games than I remembered, but I was burned out on Puzzle Quest by January, and finished Skyrim (or as much as I was going to finish) before Groundhog Day. Foul Play I played one weekend with a friend, then once solo months later. Not a strong crop of candidates.

If I include the replays, the Singularity would probably win best. I don't find myself as excited about games that are just running around killing. But on occasion, if the game does it with a certain style or cool toys like time manipulation, I still enjoy it.

Leaving out revisited games, Shadow of Mordor for best. I'll leave most of my thoughts for Thursdays post, but basically, I wanted to sneak around, slit Orc throats and strike terror into their hearts, and most of the time, the game let me do that. There were some fun abilities to be unlocked, and sometimes that's what I'm there for.

For worst, I found Foul Play unbearable in single player. Co-op was more fun, but I don't play co-op a lot, so that's of limited use. I Am Alive's story annoyed me, and the way some of the combat was structured wasn't great (giving you one less bullet than the number of enemies you were about to face). That said, I liked being able to wander through the town, climb buildings, explore rooms and rooftops. Having the map update itself as you found dead ends or bridges across chasms was a nice touch. That's what ultimately saves it and leaves Foul Play as the loser.