Deadpool #42

Deadpool is hired by big oil company Roxxon, but changes sides to help the innocent people trapped by the big company. The end gets a bit squick gruesome, but in general it’s pretty typical Deadpool awesomeness.

Spider-Gwen #1

I was one of those fans loving the Edge of Spider-Verse story with her and was super excited to see this get picked up for a solo title. So what do I make of the new series? Mostly I like it so far.

First off, the art. I love how Rodriguez draws Spider-Gwen, but I’m not as into how Gwen and the other mundanes are drawn. That is, Gwen in costume looks cute (love that hood!) but I don’t like how Rodriguez draws her out of mask, nor how the others look. Its okay, not a deal-breaker, but I’m not loving the art.

As for the story, well, it felt like a lot was introduced but not much actually happened in the book, but that’s fine. It is only the first issue, and it teased a lot of interesting potential stories: Gwen’s father, a cop, knows. She’s on the outs with her best pals / band-mates, trying to clear her name and gain respect/recognition of the city, and a confrontation with Vulture! Plenty to go on from this. So yeah, it’s a promising start.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #3

S.H.I.E.L.D. gets called in to deal with a theft at Dr. Strange’s mansion while the Doc is away. The art is fine, nothing amazing, but not terrible. The story is a lot of fun.

I adore Coulson. I love Spider-Man. I love these two teaming up for a story. There’s some really cute Spidey bits, but Coulson is the star. <3 “THAT’S my ‘strategic function’?” and “It shoots a LOT of things” <3

Deadpool’s Art of War:
I wanted to like this much more than I actually did. The covers are gorgeous, interior art is meh. There were a few humorous moments throughout the issues (issue 1’s Deadpool looking for a Loki, issue 4’s “two swords, no waiting” but on the whole, I didn’t particularly care for the mini series. If you are a Deadpool competitionist, or you like comics and you want to read Art of War, this is an interesting way to read the classic text, and it does provide illustrated examples of the lessons. But you’re not missing much if you give this one a pass.

Loki #10:
This is an issue of fall out. Fall out from the Axis event; Loki begs forgiveness from Verity whom he hurt when he was inversed. But more than that, it’s fall out from the vey beginning of this Loki’s life: the death of kid Loki at Loki’s hands. While a tad over the the top, this issue is heart wrenching, and it looks like it’ll only be more so next issue.

Saga, volumes 1-4

I have conflicting feelings on Saga. I was immediately drawn to its beautiful art and I quickly came to love the characters. But other parts turn me off.

In far off universe, there are two warring civiliazations, one a winged race living on a planet, and the other a horned race living on the moon. Alana, of the winged people of Landfall, and Marko, of the horned people of Wreath, have against all odds fallen in love and had a daughter together. The existence of such a child is seen as a threat to both the leaders of Landfall and Wreath, and they both send assassins to take out the family.

Saga follows the adventures of Alana, Marko, their daughter, and the lives of the other people touched by them.

The story is engaging and interesting, the characters compelling, and the art is gorgeous.  So what’s the problem?  I recall reading the author commenting on how he wanted to make this comic too mature to be able to be turned into a tv series, and if true, it comes across in how disconnected the sex and gore feels to the rest of the story.  The sex in the series feels gratuitous to me.  It doesn’t feel needed for the story but only there to make the comic “edgy”.  Add in one of the characters using drugs and I start feeling majorly turned off.

And so I can’t entirely recommend this series. There are interesting characters, a neatly developed world, a compelling storyline, but here and there are parts that leave me cold.

Hawkeey vs Deadpool #2:

This comic continues to be awesome. I adore Duggan’s take on Deadpool, mixing in humor, action, and pathos in good measure. I mostly love the art, but I don’t quite like how Lolli draws Deadpool’s face sometimes. I don’t quite like how they downplay Deadpool’s past trauma with Typhoid Mary, though I suppose it does make sense for Deadpool’s character that he would forget or downplay it, covering his hurt with humor. We do get an interesting look into Deadpool’s brain in this issue.

Thor #2

While Issue #1 was a bit mixed; I felt for Odinson as he struggled with the fact that he was no longer worthy to wield Mjolnir, I was frustrated that we only saw the new Thor as an ending splash page. Issue 2 we finally get to see her in action, though we still don’t know who she is. She speaks in the formal Thor style, but thinks more casually.  (“Oh, man. oh, wow. Quick, say something badass”) She reminds me a little of Kamala as she struggles to learn what she can do, and since I adore Kamala, that’s  a good thing. The art is very lovely. I’m not loving it yet, but I’m intrigued enough with this Thor to stick around some more.

Captain Marvel #9

The flerken cat arc is over (which I loved), and a new one starts (which I somewhat liked). Carol and Tic come across Lila, a character I’ve never heard of before. Lila is engaged to some alien prince guy and she doesn’t want to go through with it, so ropes Carol into playacting as her mom to stop things. The story is cute, the art is cute, the rhyming got annoying very very quickly. Anyway, Lila also gives Carol a letter from home, and we get a dramatic reaction to the letter to give a cliffhanger ending for this issue.