What I Bought 12/18/2020 - Part 1

Pretty good haul this go-round. Out of the 8 books from the first three weeks of December, I found 7 (the last issue of Atlantis Wasn't Built for Tourists is the lone outlier), and just managing that many comics at all is a minor miracle considering how this year's gone. Figured today we'd look at the last issues of a couple of mini-series.

Spy Island #4, by Chelsea Cain (writer), Lia Miternique (cover/designer/supplemental art), Elise McCall (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - The rare skull-blood fern, which makes delicious tea. Or is it the rare blood-skull fern, which is a deadly poison?

So Louie, the Freud sisters' father, is digging up sunken artifacts off-shore using an army of sand fleas for back-up, and Nora has gathered most of the other secret agent types on the island to stage a scuba assault and bring him down. Quite why that required faking the stupid Brit guy's death, I'm unclear. Why it requires outfitting Brit guy's corgi with scuba gear, I'm also unclear. The mermaids, who are sick of Louie's excavations disturbing their sleep, join in to help, and Nora placates the Kraken (also woken up by all the noise and unhappy) with a bottle of wine, and there you go. Louie's still pretending to be a mime, but now he's running an ice cream stand. Truly a fate worse than death.

I don't know. Being a spy is really about daddy issues, for both women and men? Meetings with estranged parents are always ultimately unsatisfying, because they still have the same flaws that led to the estrangement in the first place? In other words, Louie's still a selfish, conniving asshole. Life is a series of things (or people) you find to do to keep from being bored off your ass?

 

I did grin at Nora's annoyed 'unbelievable' when Louie tells Connie she's his favorite daughter. And the panel where the mermaids and the sand fleas leave as quickly as possible as the Kraken wakes up. Actually, the panel that shows the Kraken as this enormous eye that looks like matter collapsing into a event horizon or something was pretty cool. Although how the hell did it get into that cave if its eye is as big as the entrance?

And the bits where they're using what I assume is not accurate sign language to communicate underwater. Although I gotta wonder about Connie's wetsuit having the same symbol on it as Louie's knockoff Deep-Sea Doctor Octopus (with flailing tentacles action!) diving suit. I guess it's what they had available. Brit Guy is out there in flippers, a bucket over his head, wearing his swim trunks. I would think the bottom of the ocean is pretty cold, even around Bermuda. Oh well, not like the cold would damage anything important.

Amethyst #6, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Marissa Louise (color artist), Gabriella Downie (letterer) - Uh-oh, she's activating Extra-Glowy Hyper Mode. Shit just got real.

Amethyst and her friends try to hold off Dark Opal and his combination throne/spider-mech. Even when Maxixe's people showing up to help, and the folks from Emerald and the Banned she offered haven to, things are going poorly. Especially because the Diamonds decided to play Switzerland (or the United States for most of World War I) and just sit back and watch. Amy is running through all this stuff in her head about the properties of different crystals, and hits on black tormaline, which banishes negative energy. If you say so

Which takes down Dark Opal, and frees all of her people, but also may have wiped out all the amethyst present. If you figure her parents' general shittiness, and the fact their entire people where imprisoned within amethyst, I guess I could see the stone being banished as a source of negative energy. 

 

Her newfound birth parents are not pleased, but the Diamonds, largely ineffectual Johnny-Come-Latelys they are, are hauling them off for questioning, so tough shit. So Amy's meeting with her parents went horribly. See my comment in the Spy Island review about there usually being reasons for parties being estranged. Lord and Lady Amethyst were conceited, arrogant snobs, only concerned with their status and that hasn't changed. With no amethyst, I guess that makes them kind of a joke, and that's not OK.

But there still seem to be plenty of people who want Amy to be their leader, so that's good for her.

I'd been under the impression people in Gemworld could only do magic through their own types of gems, each with their own specialties and whatnot. If Amy can channel her power through something that's not amethyst, maybe not. Or maybe she's unique. Ugh, I hope they don't turn her into a Lord of Order again. That was such a terrible decision the first time they did it. I would think that the complete dissolution of one of the Houses of Gemworld would be an issue, but as DC has upended everything now, I'm guessing we'll never know.

Most of the time in this issue, Reeder keeps the panels as square or rectangles. Flat, level, thick black borders. But when things start to get more tense, usually when Amethyst is directly confronting Opal, or Opal is gaining the upper hand, Reeder has the panels start to tilt or slant. I don't think there's a pattern to, them tilting one way when Amy gets the edge, the other when Opal does, it's just something I noticed. I did like how Amy throws the gem and there's a tiny "shiiing" sound effect, and then her magic hits and the panel itself is a massive "CHA" effect. Although I half expected the sound effect to continue on the next line down. But I think it's been well-established by my repeated gushing over Marcos Martin that I'm a sucker for those kinds of things.

What I Bought 8/30/2020 - Part 2

My phone has suddenly decided it can barely pick up a signal inside my apartment. That's not great, since the battery drains like crazy if I leave it on. Hopefully it's some issue with a tower that will get resolved eventually, but this happened my last year working in the boonies, too, with my previous phone. It's just obnoxious, especially since I'm spending more time at home these days.

Amethyst #4 and 5, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Marissa Louise (colorist), Gabriela Downie (letterer) - Good thing she landed on that bed of flowers, instead of all those big, unpleasant-looking crystals.

The confrontation with Dark Opal does not go well. He's not responsible for what's happened to Amethyst's kingdom. He does, however, have an opal he split into a bunch of little spider-things he can control and combine to do useful things like let him control the security in his room. Amethyst manages to overwhelm it and he's stuck at the bottom of a bunch of rubble (until he makes a big mech-thing out of the opal pieces to free himself), but the kids are no closer to solving their problems. And Amy's not listening, and she's lashing out, and things are going poorly.

Then things go worse when they confront House Diamond, the judiciary branch of Gemworld. Apparently, Amy's parents had themselves frozen in amethyst to make the rest of the houses realize how much they needed them to act as shield against Dark Opal. And since Amy wasn't around when Diamond figured this out, they concluded she fled because she was guilty and trapped the rest of her people like her parents. With a weapon whose effects they don't know how to undo.

So everyone on Gemworld is just a complete fucking dumbass apparently. Amy's parents' plan is just stupid. "You'll all miss us when we're gone!" House Diamond's over here punishing an entire country for said stupid plan. Meanwhile, Dark Opal was, in fact trying to take over everything and would have succeeded if Amethyst didn't rally the other houses, while Diamond was, presumably, sitting around with their thumbs up their butts.

Reeder makes Dark Opal look a lot less menacing, and a lot more comically deranged. Which, maybe he is nuts by this point. He's not really the threat this time around, for all that he still holds a grudge. So Amethyst clocks him over the head with some piece of machinery, and his head almost does the cartoon accordion smush thing. Of course, then Amy gets whacked in the noggin by a moving piece of floor two pages later and makes a hilarious face.

Because nothing's really going right for her. This isn't like her past adventures. She's not in control, she doesn't know the lay of the land, literally and figuratively, nothing she tries works. Her call to House Sapphire failed. House Aquamarine gave her a fake prince for help. Most of the other houses have been turning their noses up at her. Confronting Dark Opal did nothing. Appealing to House Diamond for mercy for her people did nothing. All the assumptions she held about herself and her parents are falling apart.

Because she's always treated Gemworld as just some fun adventure. Show up, wear purple clothes, fight evil guys with swords and magic, go home. I feel like Amy was more openly thankful for her allies in the original mini-series, but maybe not. Then again, they all kept telling her she had to be the leader, the one who rallied support, so that's on them. Don't make someone else do the work if you want the credit.

What I Bought 6/29/2020 - Part 1

There were no comics out I wanted this week, and as far as I know, there aren't any I want coming out next week. But I have a few books from earlier in June that showed up, so let's take a look at the third issue of a couple of DC titles.

Amethyst #3, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Marissa Louise (colorist), Gabriela Downie (letterer) - I gotta say, compared to riding a giant caterpillar or a narwhal, a flying horse seems kinda dull.

Amy does receive help from the Kingdom of Aquamarine, except it's in the form of a prince who really doesn't want to accompany her. So there's some squabbling, they find an encampment of nomadic merchants, who Amethyst has to defend from Prince Topaz, and then they use a secret passage that Prince Maxixe knows to get them to Dark Opal's Castle Greyskull looking fortress.

I feel like Amethyst is supposed to be learning a lesson from all this, but a) I'm not sure what it is, and b) I don't think she's learning it. Phoss keeps insisting Amethyst spends too much time in her castle or up in the air with her flying horse, which feels significant. But Amy only seems to take the advice to interact with everyday people like the Banned under duress. She also doesn't seem very appreciative of the allies she does have, for as much griping as she does about all the people that won't help her. To be fair, she did grant the Banned safe haven in whatever is left of her kingdom, which is nice. She still has some sense of right and wrong, she's just weak on the concept of persuasion. Or negotiation.

I wonder if Amy has fallen into some bizarre reflection of Gemworld, where the people she could always trust are now against her, and those she couldn't are actually helpful. I don't know, just a gut feeling, which is almost certainly wrong given my awful track record of predictions.

The opening page is nice, a quick recap done as Amethyst explaining the situation to Lady Aquamarine, set against a backdrop of a map of Gemworld. I love the the lands apparently still form a giant skull. So odd, and given how often the different lands fight, you'd think they'd have spread the landmass out a little more. Make an archipelago in the form of a constellation or something like that. The lands of Diamond being the teeth is a nice touch.

Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #3, by Jeff Lemire (writer), Denys Cowan (penciler), Bill Sienkiewicz (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer) - Dang Vic, what did you eat to create that kind of a cloud?

In 1940, gumshoe Charles Sage takes a case from the sister of a missing factory worker. Maggie and her brother were encouraging the others to unionize, and Jacob's vanished. He barely gets started before some guys show up to gently suggest he drop the case. At which point Charles abruptly becomes the Question, beats their asses, and then turns back to normal. He continues working on the case, but keeps having flashes of being other people, in other times, which he doesn't understand. He gets captured and dragged to a building built on top of the mine the guy last issue died in. At which point Maggie shows up, and stabs him. Man with a Thousand Faces 2, Man with No Faces 0. But in the present, Vic thinks he knows what he's up against, and thinks it's going to tell him who he really is.

I don't know. Having the Question fight an enemy who can take on different appearances as it pleases, who can manipulate people from all walks of life and levels of money and influence, seems like an appropriate match up. As Richard Dragon notes, this isn't an enemy you can just choke the life out of, but Vic is a reporter, he can shine the light in other ways, if he remembers to.

At the same time, the whole past life thing just doesn't work great for me. Denny O'Neill and Denys Cowan gave the Question a certain amount of mysticism (or maybe spirituality is a better word), but he's not exactly magical himself. This smacks a little bit of whatever it was they did with him in the New 52, where he was an angel that forgot who he was. Or was he Judas? Or was that the Phantom Stranger? I know, I know, better to not bring up such things at all.

There are a few points in the issue where Charles' face almost disappears. Not counting the brief moment where he becomes a later reincarnation of himself. Mostly the eyes are shadowed to the point nothing is visible, but sometimes Cowan draws him so that even the mouth is a barely distinguishable line. Maybe it's just a mood thing - this is very much in line with a noir, with the private detective getting into hot water after a dame brings him a sob story - but it's usually when he's following a lead, or trying to put the pieces together. Trying to figure out what the right question is.

What I Bought 3/28/2020 - Part 1

Welcome to what may very well be the last set of new comic reviews for some time here on the blog. You know, depending on how completely everything collapses.

Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler, by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Alan Davis (artist/writer), Carlos Lopez (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - That's pretty smart of them to leave bats running loose in the arboretum. Keeps the bug population under control, without harmful pesticides.

So the old X-Mansion has one of the gates that lets mutants reach Krakoa. A mutant came there, but never made it to the island. A small team goes to investigate, but keep encountering mutants who should either still be dead, or are dressed archaically and speaking in an alien language. Doug Ramsey, who has Warlock hiding on his arm for some mysterious reason finds out a race of alien bugs has infested the mansion and captured Lady Mastermind when she came to use the gate and they perceived her as a threat. That's pretty much it.

I thought I knew most of the weird space stuff the X-Men get tangled up in periodically - and unlike what seems to be a lot of X-fans, I don't mind the space opera stuff - but I have no idea what the Sidri are. The story tells me they're normally bounty hunters, the X-Men encountered them at some point after they first met the Starjammers, that's about all I can tell from this story. I like the way they're able to sort of pile together to form a roughly human form, make their body shape resemble a human face.

The thing is, this really isn't much of a Nightcrawler story. He's ostensibly in charge of the mission, and he seems to be the only one who recognizes the Sidri, but beyond that, he's not doing much. It's really more of a Doug Ramsey and Warlock story. I don't know why Warlock is pretending to be some techno-organic infection Doug has - Warlock's a mutant, shouldn't he be welcome on their special mutant island? - and I presume it's something Hickman will address eventually. Just, you know, not in anything I'm going to end up reading.

I also don't really get why, if Lady Mastermind was unconsciously controlling the Sidri so they'd take human forms, why they'd imitate Rachel in her hound outfit, or Thunderbird. She wouldn't have even met either of them in those states, would she? Maybe Alan Davis just liked those looks, so that's what he went with. Anyway, it's nice to see Alan Davis draw Nightcrawler, but even if you're someone following Hickman's X-stuff heavily, I don't think you need this book.

Amethyst #2, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist), Gabriella Downie (letterer) - Hey, you break it, you buy it. Which will at least be one more issue sold.

The trip to House Sapphire ends with Amy and Phoss getting the old trap door treatment. So that's 0-for-2 recruiting help. They end up on a ship Phoss used to work on, where Phoss' friend asks Amy about Earth. Amy makes Earth sound pretty lame which, you know, that's fair. But Elba's intrigued by the book on crystals Amy's parents gave her, and Amy finds she actually can travel mentally through amethysts. Which is how she finds all her subjects imprisoned in that same material. Including her magic parents, who are supposed to be dead. Amy freaks out a little about that.

The issue started with a flashback to Amy first learning her heritage, with Citrine and Granch assuring her everyone loved her parents, who were so great and brave and true, then returning to the present where everyone in Sapphire's court laughs at the notion. The thing about this mini-series so far is that I wonder if Amy has even interacted with anyone outside her kingdom prior to this. It has that strong feel of a person growing up strictly within the borders of their own nation, never questioning the propaganda it puts forth about itself.

But I was under the impression Amethyst had worked with these other kingdoms against Dark Opal already (the flashback was three years ago). Like back in the original '80s mini-series. She must have met people from other lands at some point? Even if she was traveling everywhere on her flying horse.

Which, I'm with Amy, there is nothing wrong with traveling on a flying horse. Especially compared to traveling on a ship full of people or a giant caterpillar. Arguments about not having experienced anything if you travel in the sky are not persuasive to me.

We got a glimpse at Reeder's versions of a few different kingdoms in this issue. Sapphire's court has a very, it reminded me of Tron. Lot of darkness, broken up by narrow bands of light. This city itself is more cyberpunk, New York in the Marvel 2099 universe. City stretching into the sky, lots of levels, lots of lights and walkways, that kind of thing. The bit of Opal's realm we saw looked like a metal silo, but that might be because it's where he's holding all of Amy's people. Aquamarine, unsurprisingly, has a realm water motif. Shades of blue, falling water, smoothed edges and curves on the furniture and archways.

What I Bought 2/29/2020

Well, I got a little more rest this weekend than I did last weekend. Not on Friday night, woke up coughing at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. But Saturday night went better. Take what I can get. Still couldn't find a copy of the first issue of Canopus, so we'll look at the other two remaining books from last month.

Amethyst #1, by Amy Reeder (writer/artist/color artist), and Gabriela Downie (letterer) - I don't know which gemstone is represented by "line of sheet music that barfs up narhwals", but they should ask for a refund on that symbology.

It seems like the events of the original, 12-issue Amethyst series, are in play here. Amy learned she's the princess of an other-dimensional kingdom, fought Dark Opal, still has parents who love and remember her on Earth, etc. She's been on Earth for an unspecified amount of time, but returns to Gemworld for her birthday. She finds her kingdom shattered, her subjects missing. People she believed were friends behave coldly towards her, and she can only find one person willing to help.

I have a few theories, most revolving around this being some sort of trial for Amy. Prove she can get things done without guidance, without everyone else. She admits when she tries to rally Turquoise's people that she's never really had to try and do diplomacy before. Citrine handled that. Amy could just focus on flying her winged horse and magical zappy blasts. Unfortunately, that's probably not all that's involved in running a kingdom. The presence of Dark Opal kind of argues against it just being a test, though, but maybe he's not such a completely irredeemable person in this timeline.

I really want to see how Reeder portrays the various kingdoms, visually. We only saw the remains of Amethyst's castle in hers, although all the little floating pieces were eye-catching. All we needed was some flying turtles and it'd be a great Mario level. The houses in Turquoise's land are kind of barn shaped, with mushroom chimneys. I don't know if there's a significance to that, but it makes what otherwise seems like your standard medieval town a little more distinct. Also, people in Turquoise's kingdom have four arms now, although they only separate at the elbows, and their clothes are a little pirate-like. The kind of thing I associate more with port towns. Sleeveless vests and pants tucked into knee boots. Stuff like that. Don't know if that means anything, just an observation, but I enjoy studying it.

Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir, by Ron Garney and Gerry Duggan (storytellers), Matt Milla (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Hey, Namor's found gainful employment as somebody's butler! Good for him.

Ben's having a lot of nightmares about falling to pieces and failing to protect Alicia. There's a singer named Rosemary who lived across the street that's gone missing. Then he has a nightmare where a shadowy figure abducts Rosemary. he describes what he sees to Alicia, she sculpts, Reed doesn't recognize him, but Wong does. Except "Wong" is really D'Spayre, and the sculpture is him, and now Ben's in a nightmare realm. He digs his way out, puts the boots to D'Spayre, rescues Rosemary, things are good, for now.

It's kind of a fun story, although I don't get why D'Spayre wanted Rosemary around to sing for him so much. In understand her singing was improving Ben's mood and lessening the effect of D'Spayre's attacks on Ben, but it seems like he really enjoyed her singing as well. I'm also not clear why D'Spayre's own demons would attack him after Ben beat him up for a bit, but I'm pretty vague on the guy's powers, other than being a low-rent, second-rate Nightmare.

I'm also not sure it's much of a noir, at least in tone, but that's another matter. Ben has the stubborn, scrapper mentality of a noir detective, but not really the cynicism.

Garney and Milla's artwork are really the sell here, and they do a lot of good stuff. Milla sometimes colors the whites of Ben's eyes black in his nightmares, which both highlights the blue of his eyes, and makes him look more monstrous. D'Spayre's this shifting form of black-and-white. Sometimes he seems to be wearing gloves and a cape, other times it's just his body that's a mix of light and dark. Some high-contrast stuff with Ben when he's in his hat and trenchcoat, almost Frank Miller style to just hint at his rocky texture under the brim's shadow.

So the story isn't great, but it's nice to look at.