Saturday Splash Page #187

"Phrasing," in Secret Six (vol. 4) #5, by Gail Simone (writer), Dale Eaglesham and Tom Derenick (artists), Jason Wright (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

I may regret this choice in splash page when Blogger disappears this post for "inappropriate content", but it was too funny not to use. 

Three years in, DC's New 52 wasn't working for me. Everything I bought when it first started - Resurrection Man, Grifter, Suicide Squad - was either canceled or I dropped it long ago. Ditto what I bought - Green Arrow, Dial H, Batman Beyond Unlimited -  as those books phased out. In 2014, my DC purchases were basically Conner and Palmiotti's Harley Quinn, the first 3 issues of a Klarion series written by Ann Nocenti (canceled at 6 issues), and the first issue of Gail Simone's return to Secret Six.

Six people - Catman and Black Alice, a Talon from the Court of Owls named Strix, an elderly lady Ventriloquist, a thief named Porcelain, and the refugee from a '40s B-gangster flick there called Big Shot (who is actually an existing character under an assumed identity) - wake up in a metal box at the bottom of a harbor. "Mockingbird" wants to know which of them stole something, but won't specify what was stolen or when, which would seem to complicate matters needlessly. Catman already spent a year locked in a cave, though Ken Lashley (artist for the first two issues) gave the guy such a huge grin you'd figure it had to be the Joker. (It's not.)

Anyway, they escape and hide out at Big Shot's place, which is a cheerful little two-story house in suburbia. It is a stark change from the first two issues, which were very murky and dark, but there was also about a 5-month gap between issues 2 and 3, and when the third issue did show up, the Eaglesham/Derenick art team arrived. I don't know if Lashley had some health issue or something else, or if Simone changed the direction of the book to suit the new artists, but it's hard to picture what we got working with Lashley's art, which is jagged and rough.

It works for a book about 6 broken individuals, trapped and on edge and ready to shatter, but not so much for stories where Batgirl (in that "Burnside" look era) is offering Strix her bright yellow boots, or fighting Catman with a panel that takes the old cartoon "fight inside a dust cloud" approach. Eaglesham and Derenick seem comfortable distorting anatomy or faces for comedic effect.

They're also comfortable drawing Catman as apparently hot to just about everyone. Scandal Savage shows up as part of a smaller, for-hire group with Jeanette and Ragdoll. Scandal's married to both Knockout (who the Six rescued from Hell late in the previous volume) and Liana (the exotic dancer the rest of the team hired for Scandal's birthday when she was really depressed over Knockout's death at the start of the previous volume.) When the ladies decide they'd like a child - I'm not clear who's actually carrying the kid - Catman's the one Scandal calls. (Their pre-New 52 history seems gone, so this is based on their brief interactions in this series so far. But I guess if you just need a sperm donor, his genetics suggest you could do worse.)

The last 12 issues of the book are the Six forming this distaff little family in a suburbia only one of them is familiar with, and protecting it against all manners of outside threats. Black Alice is apparently draining the magic from the world with her powers, which is going to weaken barriers meant to keep out some ghastly tentacled horror from realms beyond. So a bunch of magic-users try to kill her before it's too late, and eventually even call in Superman. Except this is New52 Superman, with the high collar look, and his requests they stop fighting feel more like arrogance borne of overconfidence than a real desire to avoid fighting. Shiva shows up to recruit Strix to take her place in the League of Assassins, and the rest of them have to rally to rescue her, storming the League of Assassins' HQ (or one of them, at least.)

And, SPOILER for a 10-year old comic, they find out Mockingbird is the Riddler, and he's looking for a big diamond he was showing off at a party all of the Six were present at (for different reasons) when the diamond was stolen. A diamond he was going to use to propose to Sue Dibny, who was with Ralph (as in, they were married and he was standing right there) at the time. Oh, and Big Shot is Ralph, which is one way to use stretching powers, I guess. Honestly, Elongated Man against the Riddler in a battle of wits sounds pretty cool, but that's not what we get here. I guess because Scott Snyder tried to make Riddler a Big Boss type, it's all threats and goons and explosions. There's nothing clever about any of it.

Also, he apparently coerced Scandal's group into attacking the Six by abducting Knockout and Liana, and I'm sorry, there is no fucking way the Riddler took a Female Fury of Apokolips captive. Absolutely no way, I don't care how hard Snyder tried to set him up as a dangerous figure on par with the Joker. Who, to be clear, I would not believe could capture Knockout either. She trades punches with Barda, and is more than willing to rip either of those doofuses into pieces! Just ludicrous. 

But Elongated Man's presence in this book is weird in general, even beyond him shifting his body to look like a big, hyper-muscled goon 90% of the time. Simone writes him as being deeply in love with Sue, and protective of the others - trying to provide love and stability - but he's not trying to rein in their violent impulses. When they go to rescue Strix, Alice borrows Giganta's powers and crushes people in her hands, Catman is cutting people up (he has mechanical claw gloves, except sometimes he also seems to have actual claws?) Ralph seems, totally fine with this. I guess if he thinks of them as family, then it's a matter of what you'll do or accept for family. 

Saturday Splash Page #186

"Bad Connection", in Secret Six (vol. 3) #19, by Gail Simone (writer), J. Calafiore (artist), Jason Wright (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

The original Secret Six was a series in the 60s about 6 individuals who completed missions for a mysterious "Mockingbird." It ended after 7 issues, but the concept was brought back in the run-up to Infinite Crisis mini-series, Villains United. This time, the 6 were super-villains - Cheshire, Deadshot, Ragdoll, a Parademon, a re-imagined, more, feral? earthy? Catman, and Scandal Savage, who I think was a new character - who declined to join Luthor's (actually Alexander Luthor in disguise) Society of Super-Villains. They took orders from their own "Mockingbird" (who turned out to be actual Lex Luthor) on missions to hamstring the Society.

Cheshire wound up being a traitor, while Parademon was killed by '90s Superboy enemy/love interest Knockout. Knockout turned out to be the Six's mole, and Scandal's girlfriend. There was a follow-up mini-series the next year (that's volume 2), by Gail Simone and Brad Walker. Parademon and Cheshire were replaced by Knockout and the Mad Hatter, respectively. Following the trend of turnover, Ragdoll chucks the Hatter off a cliff at the end, because he won't share the nutball roll on the team. Simone and Nicola Scott followed that up with an arc in Birds of Prey, now with Harley Quinn as the 6th member.

There were no deaths in that arc, but Harley departed shortly thereafter of her own volition. Straight into Countdown to Final Crisis, which might be worse than getting chucked off a cliff. It wasn't getting chucked off a cliff, but Knockout got killed not long after (I think tying in to Starlin's Death of the New Gods?) which brings us to here. The Six get an ongoing series, written by Simone, with Nicola Scott as artist for most of the first 14 issues, then J. Calafiore for the remaining 22. Which is a heck of a shift in artists. Scott has an extremely smooth style which makes everyone look younger and hotter. Possible exception for Ragdoll, but even he's less malicious-looking and more playful under Scott's pencil than Calafiore's. Calafiore goes with harder, sharper lines and edges. People aren't so much sculpted as chiseled. The latter better fits the level of violence in the book, but Scott's art was equal opportunity objectification - especially when it came to Catman - which appealed to the fanbase. 

With the crew back down to 4, Simone adds Bane, and Jeanette, an old friend of Scandal's. Scott dresses Jeanette as though she had a fine time during the reign of Louis the XIV. Simone has Bane renounce using Venom as part of some desire to not do immoral things. Yet he's working for this crew, who take jobs like busting people out of super-villain prisons and assassinations.

That incongruity seems to be part of the theme of this book. Characters standing on a line, trying to decide which way to go, wondering if they can be better. Catman had returned to Africa sometime between this series and one of the earlier stories, and mutilated some people poaching lions. He questions if that was the right thing to do or not. Bane's fine with breaking limbs, but also decides Scandal (extremely depressed over her girlfriend's murder) needs a father figure and tries to be that to her. Deadshot. . .well, his version of a moral crisis is worrying he might be getting too eager to pull the trigger, losing control. I guess his justification that if he's come to kill you, you did something to deserve it, is important to him. 

Mostly though, the tension plays out in how often the team is at odds with itself. Just about every story involves one or more members turning against the others. Deadshot steals the extremely valuable card they were supposed to deliver in the opening arc. To sacrifice himself and spare the others, true, but he also gutshoots Scandal and hits Catman with a limo, so he wasn't exactly polite about it. The team splits in half in the next arc, where they're working for a prison owner who enslaved Amazons.

When Catman goes on a revenge kick later on, part of the team gives chase, while Jeanette and Bane pull together another roster to take paying jobs. The two groups end up caught in a power play over Skartaris, between Amanda Waller and the Spy Smasher character Simone introduced in Birds of Prey (Spy Smasher loses, as she should.) It's very rare the entire group is on the same page for more than 5 minutes.

They betray and backstab (sometimes literally), and yet, somehow, put it aside when necessary. Deadshot and Catman have a whole thing going around Deadshot liking how Catman makes eggs, but Deadshot also calls him "Tomcat," and Catman lends Deadshot a suit for a date. Deadshot and Jeanette end up on opposite sides over the prison thing, but continue their odd relationship. Ragdoll and Scandal form an odd friendship, even if Ragdoll is a walking Too Much Information hazard. Black Alice eventually joins the team and gets a crush on Ragdoll, who doesn't actually encourage it, but remains supportive and protective of her. It's a book about people who do horrible things to other people, and sometimes to each other, but also have formed bonds where they can rely on each other, if no one else. 

Maybe the incongruity was why my opinion of the book varied so wildly. I would go from loving it in one arc, to considering dropping it in the next. I loved "Cats in the Cradle", which started with the issue the splash page is from, but that got followed by the Skartaris story, which was a big mess of plot inconsistencies and issues that felt like running in place. Ultimately, though, I bought the book all the way from issue 1 to its cancelation at the dawn of the New 52. The book ended with Six having seen that all their vacillating and justifications didn't mean a thing. They were bound for Hell, and decided if the universe was going to cast them as villains, they'd lean into it. By trying to wipe out Batman's entire merry crew of sidekicks. Look fellas, I know we call him "Bat-God", but I don't think he can consign you to eternal damnation.

Simone did have a recurring issue of the team (mostly Catman) getting frustrated that no matter what good they might do, the self-appointed "heroes" always looked down on them as scum. So part of it might have been to show the self-righteous just what the Six could be if they decided to act as "evil" as the heroes believed them to be. A little petty and spiteful, but if you figure you're already bound for Hell, why not go down swinging in the biggest way possible?

Sunday Splash Page #167

 

"Just Don't Pick At It And You'll Be Fine," in Domino: Hotshots #1, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

So Marvel canceled Domino after 10 issues, then, as Marvel usually does, immediately released this five-issue mini-series. I guess they left an entire month between the two, which is more restraint than I'd normally give them credit for.

Something Celestial-related falls from the sky and everybody wants it. Domino's group gets hired by the Black Widow, Silver Fox, and Atlas Bear (the young Wakandan woman who told them Longshot was going to destroy the world) independently to find it. Domino isn't sure she can trust any of them, or count on any of them to follow her orders, regardless what they say.

There's a lot of running around, back-and-forth, attempted double-crosses. Tony Stark gets involved as a competing interest, even sends Deadpool after them. Deadpool then teams up with them, and Stark later decides to help them as well. It all turns into one of those "resist the godlike power" trials. It feels like Domino has to go through a crisis of confidence at least twice, maybe three times. Thinking about it, what I can figure for Simone's less confident version of Domino is that she trusts her power to protect her, so she's comfortable winging it solo. But she can't be certain that protection will extend to her friends and allies, which means she can't just wing it. She has to work against her natural impulses, and that's makes her uncertain. Best theory I've got.

Baldeon's artwork continues to be enjoyable. Not as many people looking psychotic as in the ongoing, but in the circumstances, characters are more likely to be desperate or confused that crazy. Charalampidis' coloring is bright without being overdone during the daylight scenes, and keeps the nighttime scenes from being murky or hard to follow.

All that said, the most enjoyment I got out of the series was theorizing everybody is fighting over essentially Celestial poop.

Sunday Splash Page #166

 

"Wrong Marvel Movie, Domino," in Domino (vol. 3) #4, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Aburtov (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)

The issue before this had a full-page splash of Domino basically drooling over Shang-Chi. I'd have used it if I went with the "Domino in a bikini" splash page two weeks ago. Should try for equal opportunity objectification, right?

So Domino got her first shot at an honest-to-goodness ongoing series in spring of 2018, roughly coinciding with the character's big screen debut in Deadpool 2 (the series started in April, the movie was released in May in the U.S.) Gail Simone wrote the book, no stranger to the world of Cable-adjacent characters (see Sunday Splash Pages #5 and #132). 

Where the two earlier mini-series focused on Domino's past, either her questions about it or ours - I assume someone was asking about if she'd been married - Simone gave her a small mercenary team to lead, consisting of Deadpool supporting cast member Outlaw, and old Serpent Society and Captain America love interest Diamondback. Diamondback being a sort of well-to-do upper crust type didn't seem to track with any previous characterization, but oh well. That way they could get hired for jobs and encounter complications, ala Simone's Secret Six, or Birds of Prey. It's a reliable storytelling approach.

Which isn't to say Simone didn't some use of the character's backstory. The first arc was Domino being menaced by two other subjects from the same program that Pruett and Stelfreeze established as having experimented on her in their mini-series. Simone took a love/hate approach for Domino and her luck power. That she sort of blindly trusted it would keep her alive, but it might leave her bruised and bleeding for the privilege. She also made Domino a little more, I want to say spastic? Not so much a cool, composed mercenary. Maybe that's meant to be a result of knowing your power could save your life in the most embarrassing way possible.

David Baldeon was the series artist for most of the run, although he drew very little of the last two issues, where Domino's hired to kill Longshot to save the world. He has a fluid enough line to draw a Domino that looks exhausted, messy, and confused in bunny slippers and an X-Force commemorative t-shirt, but can also thicken them to make characters look extremely intense or psychotic. Which comes up fairly often in this series.

The series got canceled after 10 issues and one Annual, although there was immediately a five-issue mini-series, which we'll get to next week. My biggest issue with this series was stories seemed to just end abruptly, with major points relegated to offhand comments. The first story raises a question of someone on Domino's team being a traitor, and that's explained and brushed off in one panel. The characters would be in dire situations, where it seemed like someone was going to do a heroic sacrifice, then they were simply OK. A repeated, "Is that it?" reaction.

Sunday Splash Page #132

"Safe Word, Safe Word!", in Deadpool (vol. 1) #66, Gail Simone (writer), Alvin Lee, Rob Ross, Eric Vedder, A-Zero and LTRZ (art team), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Welcome to the Deadpool neighborhood of the Sunday Splash Page town. We'll be here the next couple of months.

I didn't really become a fan of Deadpool until his "bromance with Cable" years. As far as his first volume, I read the first 8 issues of Joe Kelly's run a decade ago, and I think I bought the two-part Punisher guest appearance Jimmy Palmiotti wrote when it came out, because Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's "Welcome Bank, Frank" story had gotten me hyped for the Punisher? Maybe that's why. As likely a reason as any, considering we're talking about me here.

Anyway, none of that stuff is still in my collection. What is, is the five-issue run by Gail Simone and the Udon art team that concluded the volume. Where Deadpool has his mercenary business, with Sandi handling his administrative duties and a man with cognitive issues named Ratbag as his other employee. Taskmaster is also hanging around. Wade unwittingly takes credit for a career-making kill pulled off by an assassin named Black Swan, who puts a mind-whammy on Deadpool that will gradually erase his brain.

I know, how could Wade tell? That was kind of unimpressive as a revenge scheme, given I read this after years of Nicieza giving him constantly shifting amnesia, and Duggan revealing Wade was pumped full of memory-erasing drugs for years. Fucking with Deadpool's brain is like trying to make a toxic waste dump worse. What's the point?

Wade confronts Black Swan, although his goal is not what you might expect. He ends up dead, which they did like 10 issues earlier in his book, but hell, Wade dies a lot. It just never sticks. Shortly after that, Simone and the Udon team were working on Agent X, starring a mysterious amnesiac with scars and a healing factor.

It's only 5 issues, but Simone's brief stint on Deadpool establishes Sandi and Taskmaster as supporting characters, and at least introduced Outlaw, although she only briefly appears here and doesn't really become a recurring character until Agent X. Ratbag, fortunately for him, did not join the pantheon of Hapless Comedy Sidekicks Wade's had over the years (Weasel, Bob, maybe Michael the Necromancer and Agent Adsit.) It gives us Deadpool on a moped, Deadpool using Pym Particles to defeat the Rhino (Rhino would repay the favor in Cable/Deadpool), and Deadpool acting as a bodyguard for Dazzler.

A lot of memorable stuff for so few issues.

Sunday Splash Page #84

"One Punch Isn't Enough," in Birds of Prey #107, by Gail Simone (writer), Nicola Scott (penciler), Doug Hazlewood (inker), Hi-Fi Designs (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

This is the last issue of the only story from Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey I own. And I own this one mostly because a) they brought Ice back from the dead, and b) the Secret Six show up. In my defense, I think Ed Benes drew a lot of Simone's run, and there's only so much of his art a person can handle. Nicola Scott is a considerable improvement. Everyone still looks extremely pretty, but there's not anywhere near as much posing characters for maximum boobs and ass exposure.

This is basically the only appearance of the Six' brief roster configuration that included Harley Quinn. Ragdoll hints in this issue that he's going to try chucking her off a cliff like he did the Mad Hatter previously. Instead Harley wound up as a recurring character in Countdown, DC's attempt to replicate the success of 52, but without basically any of the creative talent from that one.

Might have been better off with the cliff. Man, Countdown was fucking terrible. They turned Jimmy Olsen into a giant Turtle Boy, had him fight Darkseid, and somehow made that suck. How do you even manage that?!

Ahem, where was I? Oh yeah, this was right after 52 and One Year Later, and Spy Smasher - seen getting wrecked in the picture above - has figured out Barbara is Oracle and has taken over her operation. She just fired Lady Blackhawk for disobeying orders by coming to pick them up, rather than staying at the plane. You see how that went.

Honestly, as disappointed as Huntress is in Oracle for letting this happen, I'm more disappointed in Huntress for not having Zinda's back and, I don't know, putting a crossbow bolt in Spy Smasher's eye? But Spy Smasher clearly has strong plot armor game, because when they were fighting the Six, she squares off with Deadshot, who passes up more than one opportunity to shoot her. Deadshot. Not shooting someone he's fighting when he has the chance. Right.

It doesn't matter in the long run, since Canary rallies all Oracle's friends to give Smasher the boot next month, and about three years later, during Simone's Secret Six ongoing, Spy Smasher tries to pull a power play on Amanda Waller, and the Wall basically burns her to the ground. Because Amanda Waller's the best! When she's not being the worst.

This is just kind of an odd book to look at, given the characters involved and where things go from here. Hawkgirl and the Kate Spencer Manhunter are on the team, but I don't think they stay beyond this story. Knockout and Barda have a good brawl, seem to part on good terms. Until Scandal makes a careless comment to Knockout in bed and sends the redhead off to prove something. Which never happened, because she was sacrificed on the altar of Jim Starlin's Death of the New Gods. Ice was brought back, but other than Guy kind of botching his attempt to ask her to move in, I'm not sure anyone used her until Judd Winick's Generation Lost. You also have Misfit, the teen redhead with teleporting powers who briefly called herself Batgirl. This is story where her "DARRRRK VENGEANCE!" call comes from. I can't remember what happened to her, either, other than she had a brief rivalry with Black Alice, and they got briefly tangled up in some lead-up to Final Crisis.

Anyway, future wasting of various characters' potential aside, this is a pretty good story itself. Very much in the vein of Suicide Squad, where the team goes in on a mission where they aren't being told everything, and it all proceeds to go to hell. There are other players opposing them, in this case the Six, there's a lot of tension within the group (I think Spy Smasher brought Manhunter in, so the old guard aren't sure if they can trust her). Nobody likes the boss, and it just turns into a mess. The Six turn on their employer, because he's a complete sleaze, and they don't get paid. They are really bad at their jobs.

What I Bought 7/19/2019 - Part 1

Hopefully the heat wave is over by the time this post goes up. It's 9 am Saturday as I type, and my AC is trying to keep it at 80 right now. Summer is easily my least favorite of the seasons. Considering how much I hate driving in ice and snow, that's saying something.

Of the four books from last week I actually found, two of them were mini-series on their final issues. So let's start with those.

Ghost Tree #4, by Bobby Curnow (writer), Simon Gane (artist), Ian Herring and Becka Kinzie (colorists), Chris Mowry (letterer) - "Get off my poorly landscaped lawn," says old man.

Through Brandt, Arami, and Brandt's grandfather's efforts, the demon is put at rest. Which just leaves picking up the pieces. Brandt delivers a message to his grandmother, says goodbye to Arami, and goes home to save his marriage! Yeah, about that. . .

It's not the ending I expected, but it makes a sense. Brandt ran from his present into his past. The place he enjoyed as a kid, when he didn't have responsibilities. Even met his teenage girlfriend, the first love and all. It wasn't forever, like his grandfather, who preferred to stay at the tree rather than participate in his marriage. Maybe a week. But as Alice notes when Brandt comes home, her life didn't just stop while he was gone.

I'm not clear if she's saying she met someone else while he was gone or just did some thinking. I'm also curious that she says they've done this so many times before when Brandt starts to say he knows they can make it works. Brandt said they never talked about things, because she'd make a cutting remark, and he'd just leave. Apparently Alice saw it differently.

The interior walls of their house are colored this bluish-grey, just a little darker than their fridge, and it makes everything colder. The tones are washed out a bit, I think, everything is less lively than it was back around the tree and the old house. Brandt tried to come back to his life, but it isn't there any longer. In most of the other conversations in the issue, Gane will draw both characters in the same panel, and usually at least parts of both faces are visible. Here, there are a lot more panels of just one character, and even when both are in the panel, we're usually viewing things from behind someone's shoulder, so we can't see their reaction. The positioning plays up the distance between them.

Well, shit, now I'm depressed. Thanks a lot, Ghost Tree.

Domino: Hotshots #5, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (artists), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Later that day, the Celestials were charged with third-degree creepy peeping by the Living Tribunal. They were sentenced to have their teapcup head designs repainted by an over-caffeinated class of second graders. The other Cosmic Bigwigs laughed at them for the next 3 billion years.

The attempt to fight the lady with Celestial power directly goes badly, but the White Fox shows up having somehow acquired the cosmic doohicky Stark was supposed to dispose of. Guess if you want something shot into the Sun, you have to do it yourself. Or ask the Sentry. On second thought, do it yourself. Never contact the Sentry.

Domino gets a boost from the doohicky, briefly considers what she could do with it, but refrains from trying to act like a god because all mutants know about the Dark Phoenix. I guess she's hung around the X-Men enough to have heard about that. Always hard to tell how the rumor mill works with the X-folks. The actual conflict boils down to punching, just punching with glowier fists than normal. I guess the important part was deciding to only use the power to stop Geun, rather than start judging humanity. Deal with the immediate problem, not by killing her, just stopping her long enough she'll calm down, then giving up the power.

One thing I notice is that other characters have to keep asserting that Domino's worthwhile. Sometimes to us, but a lot of times to her. Black Widow pointing out this is why she came to Domino with this, rather than the Avengers. White Fox insisting Domino's the one who should use the Constellation's power. I had never pegged Domino as one with self-esteem issues, but maybe that's because most of the time, she's either working alone, or as part of a group where she's not in charge. Cable's the boss, Domino is the one that reins him in as needed. Being the one in the big chair is different, and having people actually trust your decision-making when it comes to them is weird.

Alex told me a few weeks back he expects me to plan his bachelor party, and while I pointed out expecting me to plan any party is a terrible idea, he seemed entirely confident I'd figure out something good.

Shelfer draws the last two-thirds of the issue, so things look more ragged than on the pages Baldeon draws. Which isn't bad, for the parts of the fight on the boat, where the Hotshots are getting stomped. Domino's Celestial design is fairly cool. The way it's drawn and colored reminds me of Daimon Scott's work a bit in the angle of the eyes and the shading on the skin, where it has this almost plastic texture to it. That said, Shelfer has this particular face he draws, when characters are supposed to be smiling at one another, where it comes off as a vacant look. Diamondback makes that face at Outlaw right before they dive in after Domino and it's like no one is home.

What I Bought 6/6/2019 - Part 1

The week after the tornado, I hit a deer trying to get to work. The vehicle is still driveable, but that's one more thing I get to worry about once I actually get into the new apartment at the end of this week. I hate deer. Nothing that big should be that fucking stupid. You want to commit suicide, run into a tree, not in front of my car.

In other news, I found a few of the comics I was looking for while I was out of town last week. So let's hit the two most recent issues of this mini-series.

Domino: Hotshots #3 and 4, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (artists), Baldeon, Shelfer, and Craig Yeung (inkers, #4), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh great, who gave the Black Widow the Ultimate Nullifier?

The Hotshots jet avoids crashing because Outlaw uses a bit of that Space Hepatitis she got from the Celestial junk to boost the power on Stark's robots. So Buenos Aires doesn't get partially destroyed. There's some talking (and Diamonback makes out with Deadpool, which seems random) and then they continue on trying to track down Dr. Gavrie, only to run into a bunch of Sentinels modified by AIM. Meaning they look like giant AIM guys. Outlaw taps into more of the power and takes them apart, at which point the rest of the crew realizes they've been spreading around Space Hep A like crazy.

So, with Domino and her friends manifesting the power too, the tagalongs (Widow, Atlas Bear, the White Fox) decide maybe they should take the others into custody. To "help" them. Well, White Fox actually attacks Domino so try to contract Space Hep, which doesn't work. She gets booted off the team (to get mixed up in that War of Realms Agents of Atlas mini-series, I assume), and the rest resume chasing Gavrie, who is now calling himself Gavrie the Penitent. Domino channels a bit of what she's got and space kills him. And then everyone rejects the power, so that takes care of that, right? Except there was one other scientist chasing after Gavrie, and she's out to kill them.

You can always tell the point when Shelfer takes over art chores from Baldeon, because Outlaw's short pants get noticeably shorter. Although she used to rock a short skirt. Probably best she ditched that look before she started growing. I'm sure Deadpool would have approved, though. Shelfer's linework on faces seems more unsteady than Baldeon, especially characters further in the background. Seems to struggle to keep a given character's features looking the same as when they're the focus of the panel.

That said, he and Baldeon both have some fun with designs for showing the effect of the Celestial thing on the characters (I'm guessing Charalampidis has something to do with is as well. Maybe most of it). Domino gets the weird Celestial pattern imprinted on the spot over her eye. Outlaw looks pretty cool with glowy eyes shadowed by her hat.

That said, the pattern of this story seems off. I feel like every single issue so far has had Domino asking if Black Widow, White Fox, and Atlas Bear are willing to follow her orders and set aside nationalist concerns. Or her trying to assert her position as leader. I don't know if Simone's taking a more old-school approach - not quite the old exposition dump/recap, but trying to reinforce certain things - but it kind of makes Domino seem ineffectual, since she keeps saying it, and then five minutes later, White Fox is disobeying orders again. Of course, Domino sent her on her way, but we'll see if that sticks. I feel like we're supposed to see the other going along with it as them respecting Domino, but the way Natasha's written, it's almost more likely she's just amusing herself.

Also, where the hell is this thing about Diamondback coming off as a snob coming from? Is it the face she used to date Captain America? Are some of the old Serpent Society talking shit after they fell out with her over that?

And why did White Fox only try to pick up Space hep A from Domino? Diamondback and Deadpool are both also infected, but she ignores going after them? It's not like Domino's less likely to kill her than those two. Neither of them really does anything with their power either, so I don't know if they got rid of theirs or if it's still there or what.

I have to hope this thing will read better once it's complete, because it's paced oddly as it stands right now.

What I Bought 4/3/2019 - Part 1

I've slept really well for two nights in a row. I need to go 24+ hours without sleep more often! There's no way that plan can backfire. Think how much more I'll accomplish!

Like I said, I managed to find most of last week's comics when Alex and I hit a store in Vegas, so let's get to them. For today, two mini-series, both still in early stages.

Domino: Hotshots #2, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I don't think I've ever seen the Black Widow with a fishnet section on her costume before. Kind of an odd choice by R.B. Silva there.

First half of the issue is everybody fighting Deadpool, until Domino talks him down. Second half of the issue is them going to see Tony Stark because 'Pool says that's who hired him, and Stark sending automated drone armors to attack them. Throw in that Domino really doesn't have any control over this group she's working with, and doesn't seem comfortable in a leadership position besides that, and that's pretty much it.

The fight scenes aren't great, because the focus is really more on what Domino's thinking during the fight. So she's narrating about how everyone else is making a mistake underestimating Wade (which I can't picture Black Widow being stupid enough to do), but it isn't really clear what he's suddenly doing that's so much more effective than what he did the first few pages. Plus, Wade's face gets damaged by one of Shoon'kwa's weapons and his eye on that side gets colored pink. Like, entirely pink. I thought it was supposed to mean he's a fake, maybe Stark built himself a Deadpool LMD, but I don't think so.

That said, when you can see the action, the sense of force and effort is there, and Baldeon's still good at body language and expression work. The bit when Domino asks Natasha, Silver Fox, and Shoon'kwa whether they're on board with destroying this "artifact" or about to get chucked overboard. The reluctance on each one's part to actually do so, how Natasha doesn't change expression at all, and Shoon'kwa won't even look at Domino, and Fox makes this scowly unhappy look as she debates it. When Deadpool is supposed to be getting serious, the shading on him gets heavier, puts the damaged side of his face in shadow, makes him look more ominous.

Overall, the issue has some individual parts I like, but isn't great as a whole.

Section Zero #1, by Karl Kesel (writer), Tom Grummett (artist), Ben Dimagmaliw (colorist), Richard Starkings (letterer) - The store only had the variant cover available. Which is Walt Simonson drawing a bug-boy, so that's not bad.

Section Zero is a weird science group that works for "all governments" under the UN, investigating weird shit. They were looking for an insect-person, and found a young boy named Thom who got a tattoo at a vanishing tattoo place (meaning the place later vanished, not that the tattoos do) and turns into a bug for a day at a time. He goes with them as they head to the Outback to investigate a large feral creature killing livestock. But their contact in the UN is also informing some ruthless group of soldiers about the same stuff. I know, duplicity in the government, shocking.

It's. . . fine, I guess. Kesel and Grummett are trying to do a fair amount of world-building right off the bat, establish the setting, some of the characters' major characteristics, a few mysteries quickly, but it just didn't really take for me. I was sort of interested in how Thom's origin story reminds me of old horror comics, the person who goes seeking something, gets more than they bargained for, and can't ever find the person who gave it to them again.

I'm normally a fan of Tom Grummett's art, and it isn't that it's bad here. He has a solid, clean style that's easy to read. You can always follow what's going on, understand character's emotions from their faces and body language. I'm just not sure if he's the best choice for this book. Maybe I'm expecting it to tilt more towards horror than he and Kesel intend, but I feel like maybe you need an artist whose style would play up Thom's bug form as more horrific, make the other oddities look truly odd.

What I Bought 3/9/2019 - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, Previews' website said The Seeds #3 would come out last week. I was very excited, but by last week, they changed their tune and it did not appear. There were 3 books last week that came out I did want, so here's two of them. The first issues of two different mini-series.

Astro Hustle #1, by Jai Nitz (writer), Tom Reilly (artist), Ursula Decay (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - The two guards flanking the noblewoman look pretty stupid in those helmets, but the British colonial looking dumbass with the big feather in his helmet might be stupider.

Chen Andalou was in stasis for 60 years en route to a new colony after being convicted of various crimes. But someone wanted him to die in space. That fails, so he gets put on trial again for a bunch of crimes, and sentenced to death. Then is able to escape along with a space pirate during a jailbreak. The good fortune doesn't seem like it's going to last long, though.

There's a definite sense of being thrown in the deep end, not really understanding what's happening, why everyone is so eager to execute Chen. I have a general idea of what's going on based on what I recall of the original solicitation text. It makes sense, because Chen doesn't know what's going on either. He's been in stasis for 60 years, he doesn't understand anything more about the current political landscape of the world he inhabits than we do. That said, I felt very lost on the first readthrough.

The art style reminds me of Chris Samnee, but not so heavy on the shadows. So closer to Alex Toth then? I've seen Samnee's work described as being in the same vein as Toth's, although Reilly's isn't as fluid in action scenes. That might be a function of page layout. Ursula Decay's color scheme is mostly very bright, especially one Chen reaches civilization. All the laser gun blasts are bright reds and blues, Carbon John's pirate ship white with big pink sails. There's a gravity beam that's a light blue, almost white in the middle, that plays against the pile of corpses in twilight. And Reilly and Decay do a good job using the shadows so that you usually only see parts of the bodies. An arm, or part of a face. Enough you understand what you're looking without it feeling gratuitous.

Domino: Hotshots #1, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - OK, the issue tells us the lady with silver hair is a South Korean agent, not the Black Cat. Thank goodness, because I thought that was a really lousy costume for Felicia.

A piece of Celestial fell in Antarctica, a guy picked it up and is merging with it, and everybody wants it. Domino and her crew get approached by the Black Widow and the White Fox separately to track it down. Plus, the young Wakandan woman with the future vision is there and interested. All three of them are ultimately serving their own interests (or their countries'), which leaves Domino, Outlaw and Diamondback stuck with a bunch of untrustworthy partners. The target is gradually turning into a Kirby drawing and escapes. Then, a wild Deadpool appears!

Well, I appreciate the oddness of the problem. A guy changing into something different because he got too close to something alien. Granted that happens a lot in the Marvel Universe, but this guy doesn't seem like he's necessarily out to rule the world or rob banks. He's just freaking out from early stage omniscience, I think. Understandable.

Gavrie (the infected scientist) seems to have a more blocky body structure as parts of him change. If you're going to go with the Kirby-style Celestials look, the energy crackle, the weird squiggle designs on the armor, might as well go towards a more Kirby-like body type, too. It's still Baldeon's style, the close-up on Gavrie's damaged face is not how I imagine Kirby would draw it, but the character still looks different from everyone around him in a way beyond just being partially covered by weird green stuff.

I'm still a little surprised when Simone writes Domino as the type to fangirl. She geeked out over meeting Shang-Chi, and has roughly the same reaction to Black Widow. Not that both those characters aren't cool, I just wouldn't expect Domino to be the type to be impressed. Always figured her for being more jaded, the type who figures she's seen it all before. Maybe not the best approach for a character if you want to impress your audience that someone is cool or something is weird, though.

What I Bought 1/26/2019 - Part 2

Did you see that thing about the lady in Alberta trying to sell her home essentially by lottery. You send in a letter explaining why you should get it, plus $19, and if enough people write in (68,000, I believe), one of them gets the house, and the money everybody sent in pays for the rest. It sounds tempting, except for the part where I'd be in Alberta. It didn't reach 10 degrees here on Wednesday, and I hated it. I can't imagine living in conditions worse than this all the time. Plus, I assume the taxes on a place that size are a nightmare.

Domino #10, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon, Michael Shelfer, Alberto Alburquerque, Anthony Piper (artists), Victor Olazaba, Ed Tadeo, Michael Shelfer (inkers), Carlos Lopez (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh boy, artist casserole.

Domino saves Longshot from falling to his death. Then defends him from the determined young woman who hired her. Then decides they're all going to the Mojoverse to try and save Longshot and avert his being used to destroy the world. Which they do, with some punching and shooting of goon squads until they can get him to a doctor, as apparently doctors are reserved for the wealthy in the Mojoverse. I'm surprised anyone even bothers with doctors. I thought the idea was to keep everyone glued to their TVs, so just let 'em die and plop someone else on the couch. Apparently not.

This all happens really fast, which makes it hard to have much impact. I'd rather had a couple of issues of Domino and Longshot fighting it out, probably because he's protecting someone she's been hired to abduct or kill. Longshot can even be a naive dupe hired by someone evil and disingenuous if you want. He gets mind-wiped enough that's a plausible state for him.

The artist hodgepodge goes about as well as those things usually do. I think maybe they try to break it up into distinct chunks for each artist, but I'm not sure. Since the characters go pretty much from one fight to another once they hit Mojoworld, it's hard to really mark where one scene is ending and another is starting. I may simply be acting more generous than I should be. none of the other artists' styles really appeal to me as much as Baldeon's does. And Baldeon makes Longshot look particularly sick and lost when he draws him in the first few pages. Most of the other artists seem to land on "sweaty" or "tired", at best. Fortunately the cast each look distinct enough there isn't any trouble with telling people apart.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #40, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Doreen, sweetie, you're in Murderworld, obviously. The damaged Statue of Liberty with the Skrull chin is going to come to life and try stomping you any second now.

G'illian is a mutant Skrull who decided to stay on Earth after Secret Invasion. She was a squirrel for a while, then a human girl, wasn't going great. The Skrulls noticed she's MIA and are on their way back. To get their asses whipped. You'd think they would have learned by now to avoid Earth. When has messing with Earth ever ended well for the Skrulls?

G'illian pretended to be Squirrel Girl and die expecting that Squirrel Girl would announce she was actually alive, the Skrulls would assume G'illian was the dead imposter and go home. That didn't happen, so now she needs help. Tony Stark is, understandably, not on board with this, but is swayed by a heart-warming speech about judging people as individuals, rather than by bad experiences with other individuals who share a common origin.

Which is great in theory, and generally in practice as well. Except for the part where G'illian did abduct and imprison Tony. That's a thing that happened, in this comic, that she admits to. He's got a perfectly valid reason, unrelated to all his other bad past experiences with Skrulls who aren't G'illian, to not trust this particular young Skrull. The metaphor falls apart there, but it's still a good idea in general.

I really enjoyed the astounded squirrel during G'illian's flashback, so maybe I'm getting more accustomed to how Charm draws squirrels. The scowling floral arrangement during the funeral was a nice touch. Otherwise, there's not a lot I can say about Charm's work. It's pleasant and expressive, and it tells the story, but nothing really jumps out or makes a strong impression on me.

What I Bought 12/21/2018 - Part 2

I see the end of the Extermination event sent those time-traveling teen X-Men back to the 1960s, but also brought back the older Cyclops that died in Inhumans vs. X-Men. I would have enjoyed a few months with no Cyclops. Ah well, wasn't like I was planning on buying X-books any time soon.

Domino #9, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Michael Shelfer (artists), Roberto Poggi (ink assists), Guru-eFX (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Estimated number of casualties sustained from people trying to grab the jackpots in the middle of a gun battle: At least 15.

Domino is reluctant to kill Longshot for the young lady that hired them for the last job, but we're told he's going to somehow bring ruin to the world, so Domino agrees to give it a shot. And Longshot seems like he's back to being a near-mindless servant of Mojo, so maybe that's not a bad idea. That kid gets mindwiped more than anyone I've ever seen.

Little difficult to square the idea Longshot is going to end humanity, or that he's going to somehow "guide" the Dark Phoenix back to Earth. Pretty sure the Phoenix already knows how to get back there. Got it saved under Favorite Locations on the Cosmic Positioning System and everything. Did get to see Captain America with his shield sticking out of his chest. Take a shot!

Watching two luck users go at could be nifty, weird things happening to help one, only to be canceled out by something equally strange working the other way. But that isn't what we get. Just a bit of Domino and Longshot kicking at each other on an under construction hi-rise. They lose their footing occasionally, that's about the extent of it. So much wasted potential.

The art chores shift from Baldeon to Shelfer after the fight between Domino and Shoon'Kwa. Shelfer's art style is rounder, softer, inks are thinner (lighter?). That might be Roberto Poggi, I don't know what "ink assists" means here, exactly. Characters' eyes seem bigger, or at least wider. Everyone looks younger basically. Which would work for the early stages of Shoon'Kwa's life story, before the terrible burden of these visions is bestowed upon her, but not so much after that point. On the other hand, I like Shelfer's version of Mojo we see a few times. He doesn't look that different, but he's drawn as being very fat, but also with loose folds of skin in places, which was kind of creepy and unusual. Makes him look sickly, which fits with his original conception as someone who basically literally kills everything around him just from his presence.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #39, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - That's a whole lot of Iron Mans. And at least a couple of his crappy Hulkbuster armors (which typically fail to actually "bust" the Hulk).

Doreen is able to spook Skrull Tony into dropping her disguise and running. Which means they still need to find Tony. After a lot of stuff with trying to track a signal that's being sent to one of Stark's servers, they find him in a cell underwater. A cell that is part of the Skrull herself, and chase her down. At which point she surrenders and says Earth is in big trouble. Please, like Skrulls actually count as big trouble. Even when they try to secretly invade, they always end up going big and flashy and getting their butts whooped.

I like the creative uses of shapeshifting we get to see. Creating a prison out of yourself and I assume pumping water to him from wherever you are on the surface. Although, was she doing that the entire time she was also pretending to be Tony? I'm unclear on that part. But the rapid expansion to create a pressure wave? Very cool. Maybe someone has shown Skrulls doing that before, but I haven't seen it. Also, when the Skrull girl forms wings, they have Kirby Crackle patterns on them. Why? Who knows? I mean, I guess if you can, you might as well.

I continue to enjoy the supporting cast. Brain Drain discovering the wonder of swimming pools was cute, but Mary and her barely concealed desire to pursue super-villainy are a real delight. The version of her in Doreen's mind being comforted by the idea that it's Doreen coming up with non-lethal solutions to a problem and not her was funny.

What I Bought 11/16/2018 - Part 1

There was a new volume of Yotsuba! that came out a couple of weeks ago that caught me completely by surprise. Must have missed it entirely in the solicits, and Amazon's new set-up for recommendations is crap, so I hardly ever use it now. I'll have to buy it eventually, along with like 10 other things on my list.

Kind of getting to these books late, but oh well. There was other stuff to post about last week.

Domino #8, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Morbius is just pissed Domino is even paler than he is.

They let Morbius out of the box, he tells them what the vampires want him for. To spread the disease he had before he became a vampire, which will let them kill all humans. Which seems not smart for vampires to do, but OK, vampires are dumb as hell, sure. They have to kill the vampire king in that region - not Dracula - and they do that. A vampire hunter guy shows up at the end, Domino clocks him so Morbius can leave, and that's that.

There's a chance there'll be carryover from this into the next story, since the same lady that sent them after Morbius is sending them after Longshot, but right now, this felt rather abrupt. That vampire hunter guy made a big deal at the end of the last issue about calling in all the other vamp hunters, but none of them showed up before this ended. Morbius' characterization seems all over the place, although given Domino keeps having internal monologues about the different ways she keeps thinking of him, I assume that's deliberate. That she keeps trying to pigeonhole him for some reason, and it keeps falling apart as he reveals other facets of his personality. Which could be related to how other people perceive based on one side of her.

Or it's a compare/contrast with how people in the Marvel U. approach mutants. Some mutants are bad, so they're all bad, we need to kill them. Morbius' blood could potentially be weaponized by the other vampires to wipe out the human race, so maybe they should just kill him?

Baldeon and Arbutov seem to be having fun with this issue though. The title page done with the characters in poses from some old horror movie film. Domino doing a dramatic tilt of her head to expose her neck. The page where she's actually bitten, with the entirely black background, and the two panels bordered in red of her falling through a void. It's pretty theatrical. And there's a couple of panels where Arbutov uses the shadows to really make the red of Morbius' collar and wings pop. He's also not outlining them with black, which makes the transition sharper somehow.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #38, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - What's it matter, Tony? You couldn't hit the broad side of barn, let alone a Squirrel Girl.

Having concluded the dead Squirrel Girl was a Skrull, and that none of their supporting cast are Skrulls, Doreen and Nancy visit Stark to enlist his help. Tony agrees to figure out which other Avengers can be trusted, but forgets the code word which puts everyone on edge. Doreen and Nancy confront him, he tries to play it off, but blows his cover again. So in comes the Stark security system.

I question Tony Stark's assertion that Ghost Rider has never ridden a single ghost. I know I've seen a Ghost Rider on the remains of an elephant before. Maybe Tony meant specifically Robbie Reyes, which OK, fair. I feel as though there would be a lot of public outcry if an Avenger was using the souls of people's loved ones as transportation, you know? The Ghost Triceratops is pretty sweet. Shield seems to have too many spines, though.

I also dispute Doreen's assertion that Tony is too incompetent to build an armor that's EM field messes with his memory. He built an armor that went sentient, fell in love with him, and went fucking berserk. Tony Stark is an incompetent dope. And he's definitely the person who would have "World's Handsomest CEO" for a coffee mug. Can't quite picture him with that antiquated desk lamp, unless he thought it added a touch of homey charm to his sterile office space.

Rest assured, this blog will never stop being one where we give Tony Stark shit about whatever random crap we feel like.

I don't like how Charm draws Tippy. He might be trying to make her look less like an actual squirrel, and more expressive, but she just looks weird. Too sleek, too rounded in the skull. Maybe it was just that panel where she was in a snit because she couldn't tag along to confront Skrull Tony. A squirrel with a vaguely offended expression is not something I'm accustomed to.

What I Bought 10/12/2018 - Part 1

I thought there was going to be a stretch over the weekend where I'd be awake 42 straight hours, and 62 of 66 hours going back to Thursday morning. Circumstances changed so that didn't happen, which is for the best. On the other hand, I was curious to see how I'd be doing by the end of it, so I'm a little disappointed.

Last week was a pretty good week, comicswise, as I found all four books from that week, plus the one book from the week before that. So let's start with a book entering a new arc, and a book on its first issue.

Domino #7, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Yeah, I don't like that cover any better than I did when I saw the solicitation for it three months ago.

The Posse takes a job recovering some very important box for a wealthy Wakandan lady. The box has wound up in a forest in Norway, where it's being guarded by vampires, who believe it holds the person who will lead them to conquer the world. Joke's on them, though, it's just Morbius. Ha, even crappy, present-day, Final Fantasy villain lookin-ass Dracula would be a better bet. Our heroes are trying to decide what to do about Morbius, while some grim looking guy says to call in all vampire hunter types to end this thing once and for all.

I'm not exactly sure how this story is going to play out, although I assume the ladies will be playing keepaway with Morbius from multiple parties. Could be interesting. I'm also curious what the Wakandans were doing with Morbius. Coming up with a cure for another disease they weren't going to share with the rest of the world? I can't remember which writer put that into their backstory, but man that was a dumb thing to add. "We have a cancer cure, but we don't share it because screw you." Brilliant.

Baldeon's work continues to impress. He handles to fight parts and the funny parts equally well. The sequence where the fight against the vampires is ended was handled well. Nice panel-by-panel progression. And I chuckled at Outlaw crashing headfirst into the snow, the sticking one arm out to point in the direction they needed to go. Also at the contrast between the Domino on the advertising board and the one in real life. Although Domino commenting the dress she's wearing in the picture looks tight is a little odd. Whatever you'd call the stuff she wears during missions is pretty form-fitting. Asking about the dress being revealing would have made more sense, considering Domino's merc outfit covers her all the way to the neck, and that dress decidedly does not.

Love that t-shirt. The funny part is, the boyfriend could be any 4 different guys she's had a thing with during various stints on X-Force.

It's the first issue of a new arc, so there are endless possibilities to be hopeful for.

Infinite Dark #1, by Ryan Cady (writer), Andrea Mutti (artist), K. Michael Russell (colorist), Troy Peteri (letterer) - That's not a bad cover, although given the setting the story takes place in, I'm not sure there should be anything visible in the background.

The Orpheus is a space station designed to survive the end of the universe, to preserve humanity until hopefully a new universe emerges. Except no one other than the people who built it made it to the station in time. Womp-womp. And now one of the highest ranking people on the station appears to have gone nuts and killed someone else. The Security Director and some of her people track him down, in an unused section of the station, but the guy launches himself out an airlock, babbling about things he's seen, and possibly something is coming in.

Well, it feels like the book got most of the set-up out of the way in the first issue. What the station is, where it's at, some of the tensions in a few of the characters, and a possible mystery. Is that enough to keep me around? I don't know. Part of me expects this is going to play out a bit like Jaws, with the Security Director Deva trying to raise the alarm, and the other two surviving members of the Council overruling her, nothing to see here folks. Or Deva may not have any trouble with them, but simply isn't prepared to accept the possibility there was any sort of outside influence on the dead man's actions. Or maybe there wasn't. Being in a space station, waiting for the birth of a new universe that may never come, staring out in an empty void for two years could do things to a person.

The art is a bit of a mixed bag. Heavy on shadows in places, kind of flat at times. Other parts are a bit more detailed, and more effective. The designs for clothing and equipment aren't terribly interesting or visually stimulating, but the place was built in a hurry, so it'd be form over function. The characters we meet are mostly visually distinct, even if I only know a few of their names. I don't think the art is bad, it's just not a style that particularly appeals to me.

The coloring is mostly muted, but it varies in tones depending on setting. A lot of pale blues, mostly in the sections people are living and working in. The unused sector has a reddish, Mars-like color to it. Plays off against the abandoned buildings to give a really "sundown in a ghost town" feel to things. And then the last page switches to a vibrant green because there's something new entering the picture. I thought it was a little strange that the panel where they find the victim, it's mostly the same blue (maybe less green in it) than what we saw earlier in the book, during all the talking. Not sure what that would mean. The first time (see image) we see the murderer, I have no idea what's going on with his mouth. It's like he has a piece of skin hanging from it or something. It isn't present in any of the other panels he's in, so I wonder if it's mis-colored blood?

What I Bought 10/3/2018

The two books from last month I still needed. In other news, I'm taking another shot at Sketchtober. But I'm only going for one every other day. Mostly trying to redo the ones I did last year I wasn't satisfied with, but had other ideas to try. If I don't get one done tonight, I'm going to fall behind, so I better get this damn post done.

Coda #5, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color artist), Jim Campbell - The cover is actually a wraparound that shows the giant striking a tower of the city with his fist. It's pretty cool.

Hum and Serka infiltrate Thundervale by posing as aspiring criminals themselves. It takes some doing on his part to get Serka to go along with that, not to mention bringing the confused wizard some akker, but it works. Hmm is relating the story to the still-living head of the elf he took, who was not a useful source of magic, but is useful as a Jiminy Cricket for Hum. At the end, someone arrives who may try to kill Hmm, or may surprise us by being friendly. I really shouldn't judge based on appearances, right?

There's a bit of humor, mostly in Serka and Hum trying to maintain their covers. It's harder for Serka, since she's rather impatient to get that Whitlord, and Hum's the liar of the pair. The wizard is mostly out of his gourd, but really enthusiastic, which plays off Hum's no-nonsense approach. And it makes the sequence where the wizard gains control of himself and issues a warning more effective.

So Hum's initial plan to get that potion he needs ran into trouble, but Thundervale has a lot of akker, so the question hangs whether he'll go through with it or not, if he can make the potion he requires. I'm curious if this will be the point where he gets the substance, then the second half becomes a question of whether he'll use it or not. All the people he meets keep pointing out that he's simply avoiding discussing unpleasant topics with Serka, rather than just dealing with them, that trying to change people is dangerous. He never has a good rebuttal. I'm curious if he's doing it simply to help her (as he considers it) by keeping her together, or if he's doing it so she's still there to keep him together.

The illusions that either the wizard of Hum create are these bright things, vivid colors. But it's all fake, echoes of something long dead. Meanwhile, Hum is telling this story to the elf head in a dark room in a moving city of cutthroats and bandits. The only light is a blue flame Hum plans to use to erase the evidence of him crime, since the evidence could choose to speak at an inopportune moment. The fire is real, but it doesn't illuminate much but depressing surroundings and the two people conversing. But it does illuminate, rather than disguise.

Bergara draws, a double-page spread of sorts, to show the city on the back of the giant, centered around the device, the Destructor, that turns magic items into akker to keep the giant alive. The angle he chooses is slightly vertiginous, making it appear the buildings are bending over at top towards the Destructor, like they might topple in. It's an unsteady, haphazard look, a bunch of ants scrambling around, trying desperately to keep the giant alive with whatever scraps they can find.

Domino Annual #1, by Gail Simone, Fabian Nicieza, Dennis Hopeless, Leah Williams (writers), Victor Ibanez, Juan Gedeon, Leonard Kirk, Natacha Bustos, Michael, Shelfer (artists), Jay David Ramos, Jesus Arbutov (colorists), and Clayton Cowles (letterer) - When I first glanced at this cover, I thought it was by Amanda Conner, but no, Frank Cho. The fact the picture didn't feature her butt more prominently is what threw me. I bought it because this copy was in less-than-perfect condition, and therefore no more expensive than a standard issue these days, which wasn't the case for any of the copies with the standard cover.

Several stories about Domino's relationships, or off-time. The Simone/Ibanez story is how Outlaw got recruited, which involves a bar fight and a guy who combined an SUV with a Sentinel. Which sounds like a Reaver, honestly, but is not. Nicieza/Gedeon is Cable thinking about the fact he was close with Domino once, but it was actually Deadpool's old girlfriend, Vanessa/Coypcat. But he surely hopes it'll be a reality one of these days. Ohhhh-kay then. Dennis Hopeless and Leonard Kirk have Domino trying to cheer up Colossus after his wedding failed to launch. Leah Williams and Natacha Bustos give us Domino and Nightcrawler coming up with a support group for mutants with visible mutations, and the difficulties they experience in everyday life. Hey, Stacy X showed up as someone struggling with not being a mutant any longer! At least someone remembered she existed, and not just so they could brutally kill her for cheap shock value!

The Cable story is a weak spot, since it's barely about Domino. The story about Outlaw and the one about Colossus are light but entertaining. They play up the idea that Domino appears to take things lightly a lot, and some of that is her powers. But some of it seems to be just trusting others. She's fighting Outlaw, she trusts Diamondback to have her back, even if they were arguing about music five minutes ago, and even though Diamondback thinks Domino escalated this unnecessarily. She brings Crimson Dynamo down on Colossus, but trusts Piotr isn't going to throw up his hands and walk away from a friend in danger. Which is interesting, because Domino does not strike me as someone who would trust readily. Too long spent as a merc, too used to people betraying her or selling her out, too cynical. Maybe that manifests that she doesn't trust easily, or you can break it easily, I don't know.

Also, I wonder if Outlaw making two different comments about Domino's appearance within 10 seconds of their meeting is meant to be a nod towards the last story, about the mutant support group. I'm sure Domino's been called worse than "Ghost Lady" or "Spot", but it can't be fun.

Among the artists, Gedeon is the one I'd consider the weak spot, but apparently he's trying to ape some of Liefeld's perspectives and staging in the panels set in the bathtub, which is putting him under a severe handicap. Leonard Kirk's always good, and he draws a nice quick fight scene (Colossus should certainly use headbutts more often). I don't recall liking Ibanez' art when I've come across it in the past (although I can't remember where that was at the moment), but here it works well. The action is fluid, you can see how the fight is moving from one scene to another. The Design of professor Salvage's weapon is clever. It looks cobbled together, but you can the potential for it to be dangerous anyway. Natacha Bustos' art is expressive, but with some nice sense of fashion for the characters and a good grasp of body language. Which is important for a bunch of characters sitting in a circle, talking about stuff that makes them uncomfortable. Her work reminds me a little of Mike Allred, but not so Pop Art, which I consider a plus, Allred having never been a favorite of mine.

I don't know that any of the stories are essential, depending on how vital you feel it is to learn how Outlaw joined the group, but three of the four are at least fun, and maybe give a little insight into Domino's personality. And the artists seem up to the challenges of their stories, whether that needs fights, or dealing with emotions. The stories mostly get in, do what they planned to, and wrap up without overstaying their welcome.