Saturday Splash Page #163

"Appeal Denied," in She-Hulk (vol. 3) #3, by Charles Soule (writer), Javier Pulido (artist), Muntsa Vicente (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

As part of Marvel Now!, aka, "Marvel tries the novel notion of giving talented creative teams room to do their thing," She-Hulk got another ongoing series, this time written by Charles Soule, with Javier Pulido as lead artist.

Soule sends Jennifer Walters back to lawyering, after Peter David's curious decision to make her a bounty hunter. However, while Dan Slott had Walters working specifically in "superhuman law," Soule starts with Walters being denied a bonus by her current employers specifically because she's not bringing them any work from her pals in the costume set. Why aren't they handling Reed Richards' patent applications? That sort of thing.

So she breaks their expensive conference table with one finger and starts her own firm, setting up in a little commercial office space in Jersey, where all the other tenants are also variously super-powered or whatnot. The supporting cast boils down to Patsy Walker, who She-Hulk hires as an investigator after feeling Patsy's at a low point (Soule implies Patsy slept with Eric O'Grady, the shittiest Ant-Man, and I'm just going to say, "no," to that. Or maybe "NO!"), and also Angie, a mysterious woman who applies to be Jennifer's secretary even before Jennifer's thought of hiring anyone. Angie's very mysterious, and has a monkey named Hei Hei.

Most of the cases cover an issue or two, and start with some legal issue before punching is required. Kristoff seeks asylum in the U.S. to avoid being forced to take the Latverian throne if Doom is unavailable. Doom objects to this independent thinking and hauls Kristoff back home. Steve Rogers is accused of murdering someone, back before he got the super-soldier serum treatment. Hank Pym's trying to buy someone else's shrinking invention, but one of the two creators has gone missing. I think Soule has a law degree, though I heard mixed things about how accurate the courtroom proceedings he depicted were. They were interesting enough for me.

Javier Pulido is the artist for 10 of the 12 issues. Pulido tends towards simple character designs and layouts. He tends to draw scenes in profile, so we sit off to the side and watch Jennifer and Kristoff discuss his situation across her desk. He's also fond of having the story run across pages, only to switch to splitting up further down. So on the top half of the page, you finish the right-most panel on the left page then keep going onto the right page. Until you get to the bottom half of the page and now need to read vertically through 3 or 4 panels on the left page, and then switch to the right page.

It's frustrating and drags me out of the story, though I think Pulido tries to signal which you're supposed to do based on whether there's a panel gutter along the spine of the page. If there is, it's like a wall and you stay on the page you're on until it goes away or you reach the end of the page. Then you can jump to the next page. No panel gutter, no wall. It would be better to just pick one for a given pair of pages and stick with it. He could always do it the other way on the next pair of facing pages.

The big mystery of the series is a mysterious "blue file." A suit filed in South Dakota against Jennifer Walters, several other heroes, and a few villains. Jennifer has no memory of what it could be about, or when it came into her possession, and neither do the others.

Unfortunately, the first time it really becomes prominent in the story is during the two issues Ron Wimberley draws, and the shift in art to him from Pulido is staggering. Odd perspectives within panels, distorted proportions. Rico Renzi opts for colors that lean more towards the neon side of things than Muntsa Vicente. I think Mike Sterling noted those issues hurt the book's sales at his store, as people dropped it and wouldn't come back, even once Pulido returned.

I definitely didn't love Wimberley's art, though maybe I'd have dug it on a book that established a similar look to begin with, but I kept buying. It wasn't a deep book, but I enjoyed it. Soule doesn't bother with any real conflicts between Jennifer and She-Hulk. She's usually big and green, but she's smart and composed and professional, allowing for some ragged clothes when she has to trash a bunch of Doombots.

The book was canceled after a year in early 2015, in the run up to Hickman's Secret Wars. I'm getting tired of typing some variation of that, but there's still a couple more books where it'll apply.

What I Bought 7/2/2016 - Part 2

Like I said Wednesday, I didn't find all the new comics I was looking for, Wynonna Earp #5 being the main whiff, but I found a few. So here's one comic that's four comics, which meant there are a lot of labels for this post. Times like this I regret my newfound interest in giving at least some of the creators post labels.

Deadpool #13, by Gerry Duggan, Charles Soule, David Walker (writers), Jacopo Camagni, Guillmero Sanna, Elmo Bondoc, Paco Diaz (artists), Veronica Gandini, Mat Lopes, Nolan Woodard, Israel Silva (colorists), Joe Sabino and Clayton Cowles (letterers) - Jesus Christ that's a lot of creators. Thank goodness there were no inkers involved.

Marvin Shirkley was an investment banker who made some bad choices with several criminal organizations' money, so now they want to kill him. Except they waste time fighting each other and he's able to enlist Deadpool's help, though only once he mentions Typhoid Mary is the chief muscle for the Russians. Wade is still peeved about that time Mary tricked him into thinking she was Siryn and had sex with him, which, I actually did not know about. At any rate, this desire for vengeance causes Wade to act imprudently and nearly get himself and marvin killed, so he takes his client to the D.A.'s office, and tries to get witness protection from Matt Murdock. Who refuses to help until Marvin produces a laptop he claims has all sorts of information on his clients (though Daredevil does appear to help briefly).

Except it wouldn't fit in Wade's wall safe, so he threw it in the trash. DD is having no truck with that, so Wade enlists Luke Cage and Iron Fist to help him root through a landfill for the computer. It turns up, so does Mary, she steals it, Marvin and Wade pursue, Daredevil shows up again, the laptop is retrieved, Wade chooses not to kill Mary, opting to maybe try and get her some psychological help instead, which confuses Daredevil. And then Murdock shows up to take possession of the diamonds Wade received as payment on the grounds they're stolen goods and evidence. All this is framed as Ben Urich trying to figure out how to sum it up in a story and ultimately giving up. Because Urich gets consistently shittier as a reporter the older he gets. Just like most sportswriters!

Luke and Danny felt superfluous to this whole thing. Maybe if Marvin's case had somehow been relevant to them, or they hadn't decided not to bother helping Wade and Marvin catch the escaping Mary, but they didn't serve much purpose other than padding things out with a lot of jokes about Luke's makeshift non-cursing. Much discussion of the difference in appropriate use of "icky-yucky" and "fiddle-faddle". Daredevil fit better, since it at least made some sense for an assistant district attorney to be involved in the problems of a guy who needs witness protection. Plus, Matt's whole sordid history with Typhoid Mary. Figured that would convince him to stick around longer.

Duggan brought out Mary having raped Wade in the past, something he hadn't brought up previously. He used both characters in Deadpool vs. Hawkeye, and while he alluded to some ugly history between them, he never said specifically what. But at least he did address it, and the fact Wade really wants to kill her over it (in large part because, until her deception was revealed, it convinced him he could be loved), but chooses not to actually fits well with his decision at the conclusion of the recent mess with Sabretooth. Moving past all these old grudges he kept dredging up. Granted, rape is more serious than Iron Fist saying he looked like a melted candle once, but still, it's a new approach he's taking, and he's actually trying to take steps to see she gets treatment. Maybe because he recognizes there's an innocent person in there, and he sees her as a victim of other forces the way he was, only it's other aspects of her own mind instead of sadistic scientists.

The art shifts widely from one part to another. There's no attempt to maintain a similar look or feel within the book, as they opted to focus on having the parts more closely resemble the book they're ostensibly part of. So the Daredevil "issue" features Sanna and Lopes trying to recreate the feel of the current Daredevil series, and sort of succeeding. Sanna doesn't commit to the heavy use of shadows as much as Garney does, based on what I've seen of that book, but it's within range, probably the most of the three parts, though I'm unfamiliar enough with the current Power Man and Iron Fist book to say how close Bondoc's style mirrors it. I don't think it's quite as loose or exaggerated (Luke isn't anywhere near as broad in the chest), but it mostly works.

On the two Deadpool parts, I think Camagni's is closer to the Hawthorne/Koblish styles than Diaz. Camagni's style lends itself more to the comedy aspects than Diaz' which seems to contain many more people gritting their teeth and with the serious musculature. I can't picture what the scene from Camagni's part where Mary sets Marvin's clothes on fire and he does a frantic dance out of them would have looked like with Diaz, but I doubt it would have been as funny.

What I Bought 3/24/2015 - Part 3

So let's look at a couple of books that only have one issue each. One of them is wrapping up, and I might be dropping the other one. It could go either way.

Secret Six #2, by Gail Simone (writer), Ken Lashley (penciller, inker), Drew Geraci (inker), Jason Wright (Colorist), Carlos M. Mangual (letterer) - That's a really nice cover by Eaglesham and Wright. The design for the spears, the contrasting light and dark, and everything draws you to Catman, cornered and under fire.

So 18 months ago, someone captured Catman and locked him in a cell for a year. Someone with a very Joker-like smile, but it's hard to tell with the coloring what the guy's coloring is. He did let Catman out after a year, and Blake vowed to find and kill him. The guy said Blake owed a debt, and these people who locked our cast in a coffin at the bottom of the sea mentions a woman was killed 2 years ago, so is that the issue? Hard to say, but the old lady with the ventriloquist dummy is a telekinetic, so she raises the coffin to the surface, Porcelain weakens its walls, and Blake tears through, because he has cybernetic claw things, I think. Anyway, now the group seems to committed to finding the people who locked them up and killing them. We'll see how that goes, 'cause I have no clue who they should be looking for. Someone amoral with money, I guess.

The art on this shifts a lot depending on who inks it. With Geraci's inks, it's almost like he's doing a charcoal drawing. Much heavier on the black, deeper, thicker, wider shadows, and it seems to simplify the art considerably. It's an extremely notable transition for when Lashley inks his own stuff, is what I'm saying. Wright goes heavy on the blues in this issue, which does make the occasional red or green shaded panel more noticeable, but it's a murky feel most of the time. Appropriate considering both plot threads involve someone locked in a dank box.

At least we're starting to see the outlines of the character relationships. The big guy is going to be kind of paternal towards Alice, though I've got a hunch he won't last long. He seems a little out of his depth. The old lady is kind of Ragdoll, with a little of Jeanette in her, and I have a hunch Catman's going to form a friendship with this Strix person. Not sure why, I just have a hunch Blake will appreciate someone who doesn't talk, but prefers to just kill things. Still not sure whether I'll buy the next issue, but at least I have until June to decide. Maybe by then they can get the book back on schedule.

She-Hulk #12, by Charles Soule (writer), Javier Pulido (storyteller), Muntsa Vicente (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I went with one of the variant covers, since there wasn't a difference in price. I just like this one more than the main cover. It says "final issue" to me more than the other did.

So, Nighteater - when did he become Nighteater? - hired Dr. Druid, Vibro, and Shocker to help him cast this spell, which sacrificed every in Divide County, except George Saywitz (the source of the Blue File), because Jen got him out in time. The purpose of the spell was to make everyone remember Nighteater as Nightwatch, a now-retired hero. Not a great one, just an OK hero who would be respected and remembered well. Trench has Jen under his control because of a spell he set when he appeared back in issue 5 and 6, and he seems to be about to tie up all the loose ends, but Angie called Shocker and told him what happened, and Hermann isn't happy. Why didn't he get to be a hero too? That disrupts Trench's concentration long enough for Angie to dispel his control of Jen, and she whups his butt. After, Angie appears ready to move on, bu Patsy convinces her to stay by pointing out things will fall into total disarray without Angie. Because Patsy sure as heck isn't doing any filing. And we end with Jen preparing to defend The Inhumans against a case being prosecuted by the firm Jen left at the start of the series.

There's a recurring theme in this run of people trying to blame others for their mistakes, or wanting to be redeemed/forgiven without actually repenting. I think it's something to explore further later, because I'm not quite sure how it relates to Jennifer yet. Is Soule saying something about lawyers, that by representing the law, or taking part in the judicial process, they're helping to ensure power is used responsibly? Or is it something about Jen being a Hulk, having all that power, even if the source of it has caused a lot of destruction? I'm not at all sure.

I'm also not sure about Trench. So did Soule just rewrite Trench's entire history? Is he saying the guy was never a hero, he just cast a spell to make people think that? So he didn't actually try to help Spider-Man during Maximum Carnage? He might have been on Carnage's side, or more likely, wasn't within a 1000 miles of the thing at all? That's. . . I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's the sort of giant, retroactive thing I tend to hate. Like trying to make the Sentry the most important guy ever in the Marvel Universe, except this is the character trying to do it for themselves. It's not that I have any fondness for Nightwatch, but there might be someone who does, and who knows how they feel about it.

That aside, it's a good last issue. Wraps up the Blue File thread, leaves a useable status quo for future writers. I don't know what Pulido's moving on to next - I have a vague feeling he's lined up to do something for DC? - but hopefully it's something good. Soule's already writing like 15 books, he doesn't need anything else extra.

What I Bought 1/26/2015 - Part 8

I still watch Pardon the Interruption. I avoid all of ESPN's other "shouting about sports" shows, but that one always had the air of two friends bickering gently, so that helped. Lately though, Wilbon's just gotten so irritating. Implying Marshawn Lynch has nothing worth saying, just because he doesn't like talking to the media, or those strawmen he created to rail against analytics Wednesday (I'm pretty sure no one has ever argued you shouldn't start Jordan and Pippen together because they were both wing players). Fine, he's old and cranky, but Kornheiser is older still, and he's managed to keep his head from drifting that far up his own ass.

She-Hulk #10 and 11, by Charles Soule (writer), Javier Pulido (artist/storyteller), Muntsa Vicente (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - They changed Pulido's credit from artist to storyteller between these two issues, but left Soule as writer.

 Steve Rogers gets on the stand to tell his side of the story, which is basically the same story, except the guys Sammy's brother was working with were actually Nazis, and the FBI showing up on a raid was the only thing that saved Steve. Which is what the file Patsy recovered says, but Jen can't use that, as there is no "Hellcat stole it" exception for evidence. Which is a shame. Anyway, it boils down to he said, he said, the word of a dead man admitting he was mixed up in something (though he omitted that fact about it being Nazis), versus the word of Captain America. So Steve is found innocent and later reveals to Jen and Matt that it was all part of a plot by Dr. Faustus to ruin Rogers' reputation. I had the same reaction to that reveal as they did. "Oh, Dr. Faustus, of course!" I don't know anything about him, but OK sure, I guess Cap's enemies are lining up to get their last licks in before he keels over. I expect Crossbones will be mailing Steve a package of adult diapers and applesauce any day now.

Jen, Angie, and Patsy return to their office to be greeted by Titania, who is here to convince Jen to stop nosing around in the Blue File. But being a bad guy, she'd just as soon use it as an excuse to kill Jen, and she even brought her old friend Volcana along. In the ensuing fight, Angie demonstrates control of energy by redirecting one of Volcana's blast back at her, and Hei Hei survives being in thrown into orbit by sprouting wings and growing considerably. While he finishes pummeling Titania, Angie reveals she'd been continuing to look into the file, and Jen (with weird swirly light in her eyes) fires Angie. Who then tells Jen that Nightwatch has been behind everything. Pretty much like we figured.

What do we figure is the deal with Angie? Personally, I'm betting on her being an Ancient One. Maybe not the one that trained Stephen Strange, but maybe the one from before that. She's been walkabout in other realms for a long time, and now she's back. In paralegal form.

It's rare I say this, but not a fan of Pulido's version of Volcana. She looks like a rock creature, when I'm pretty sure she's always been a being of energy. Like "Volcana" was more a reference to the heat and light, and less to the geologic origins of that heat and light. That said, it was nice to see Titania bring her along, rather than the Absorbing Man. I mean, those two are a fun villainous couple, don't get me wrong. But sometimes you want your friend to come along, not your significant other. Plus, Volcana was more likely to work in a supporting role, whereas Crusher would have tried to hog more of the action.

I don't know much else to say. The Steve Rogers story kind of petered out. I guess I was expecting something more to swing it than "Steve tells his side and it involves Nazis". I didn't expect him to lose exactly (though they were dealing with a jury made up of the sorts of imbeciles who populate the Marvel Universe, so it wouldn't have been a huge shock), I guess I just figured Jen would have to do something more. And I have to wait and see how things play out with the Blue File in the final issue. What's it about, what's Nightwatch trying to protect (because I'm pretty sure something bad is going to happen when they start remembering). Sticking the landing is hard.

What I Bought 7/3/2014 - Part 5

All right, last pair of comics for a couple of weeks. One book has a guest penciler, the other one is getting back its usual artist.

She-Hulk #5, by Charles Soule (writer), Ron Wimberly (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I have never tried that "tape all the pieces of evidence on the wall" thing you see people do. It always looks too messy and disorganized for me. I'd just get distracted by it.

We're into the "let's split up, gang, and look for clues" portion of the investigation. So Jen visits the Shocker, who is both more and less pitiful than he is in the book we'll be discussing further down. But Jen manages to avoid a fight, and the Shocker manages to remember a few things after he zaps himself with his gauntlets. Patsy goes to visit Tigra and they have a pleasant chat until Patsy mentions the name of the guy who brought the case against them. Then Tigra tries to kill her, and herself, though Patsy narrowly averts both those things. Angie's up in North Dakota trying to find the original documents, which she does, but the person at the courthouse is about to shoot her. Which means it's probably a bad thing Jen wraps up the issue calling Wyatt Wingfoot to discuss the case with him.

So we have post-hypnotic implanted suggestions, a mysterious person was up to something and needed two villains with similar shticks to help, and the resultant effort by the heroes to stop it destroyed a town. I have no idea how all that pieces together. I also don't know if it's significant that Wimberly used the same spiral in the eyes thing for the country clerk when he's getting ready to shoot, and for Angie and the monkey when they saw whatever it was they saw in the ruins of that town. Is she (or the monkey) connected to all this?  Is there some sort of illusion cast over the town, and it requires a similar effect to the hypnotic suggestion to see through it?

Can't say I care for Wimberly's art. Everything's too wrinkled, and he draws things so I feel like I'm looking through a fish-eye lens, kind of like Tan Eng Huat does, which is not an effect I'm terribly fond of. He does good work with the sound effects, though. I especially like the SCREEEE when Angie hits the brakes, the way it follows her across the panel. Don't understand why he uses quote marks around them sometimes (like the THMMM when Jen lands on the fire escape. I like Renzi's colors. They're very, "Day-Glo" is the word that comes to mind, and maybe a little unusual, but they evoke the mood well and make sure things stand out. Angie's car against the frozen expanses of North Dakota, or that pink-purple sky over Tigra and Hellcat's heads. It's a good backdrop for their color scheme, and it looks odd enough to put the reader slightly on edge.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #12, by Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Hmm, I get that Wimberly is trying to make their costumes look like they fit as real clothes would, but no. He made the Shocker look even dumber than usual, like it's some common hood trying to pretend to be the Shocker with a custom made ski-mask.

After two issues of stupid time wasting crap, back to the actual storyline. I mean, jeez, did Lieber and Spencer think they were Fraction and Aja, going to stall for time with a bunch of stupid ancillary nonsense? Whatever. Boomerang manages to convince his team that it was really the Chameleon who screwed them over, which wouldn't have worked if the Owl wasn't there backing him up (because Spencer's Owl is about 1/100th as smart as Mark Waid's Owl). And the Owl wants them to help get back his painting from the Chameleon. He even went out and hired a bunch more super-villains for Boomerang to dupe, er I mean lead in an assault. Isn't this a little small-time for Bi-Beast, though? The others, sure, I could see them getting on board (maybe not Shriek), but I kind of thought Bi-Beast was into destroying humanity or taking over the world, stuff like that. Just being cannon fodder here, so I guess it doesn't matter. Boomerang suckers Overdrive into taking a fake of the painting (because Fred's such an expert on art he can detect forgeries now?), and that leaves Boomerang free to loot the safe. The other thread is that Hydro-Man told Hammerhead how Shocker has Silvermane's head, and now Hammerhead's guys are going to storm Hermann's apartment. Hmm, now would be a good time for She-Hulk to show up and ask more questions.

I'm still having a hard time buying Boomerang being smart enough to even come up with a scam like this, let alone keep it together this long. He's a putz. He's always been a putz. He couldn't out-maneuver the Beetle for leadership in the Sinister Syndicate, because he's a dope. Fortunately, everyone else in the book is an even bigger dope. It's like the Futurama episode where the giant brains make everyone except Fry complete idiots. But there are no giant brains to be seen. The book is still funny, but remember how I said a couple of weeks ago that I've grown really impatient waiting for fictional characters to get their comeuppance? I'm kind of itching to see his team kick his butt.

All that (extensive) complaining aside, credit to Spencer and Lieber for making me care about the Shocker. He's a chump, the guy who figures if you say you're a team or a gang, it means something, in spite of all evidence in his life to the contrary. I've always kind of liked the Shocker, because at his core, he's just a thief. He doesn't care about world conquest or bloody revenge. If he never saw Spider-Man again, I'm sure he'd be just fine with that. But he can't help himself being a thief. He either can't, or won't change, and so he's stuck. There's always going to be a hero there to ruin his day. Now he's got to deal with the fact the people in the same boat as him don't even treat him well. I'd really like to see him get a good moment here, just trounce Hammerhead and his guys, but it's probably not going to happen.

OK, that's weird. I was looking back over it, and the Owl says he hired more guys, and that Fred requested 11 more villains, Fred's response being that now they're the Sinister 16. Except with only 4 members (Boomerang, Overdrive, the Beetle, Speed Demon) to start with, that would only be the Sinister 15. But Lieber drew 12 villains, which would make 16. I'm confused. I also notice Speed Demons is nowhere to be seen during the attack on the Chamleon, so either he's got something planned with Fred, or he's hanging back, waiting to pounce when Fred tries his double-cross.

It's interesting how much more subdued Rosenberg's colors are here than on Nightcrawler. It fits; there's not weird magic, super-powered robots, or schools with training rooms that cost billions of dollars. It's a bunch of cheap crooks running around making fools of themselves. It's basic greed and stupidity, just dressed up a little.