Sunday Splash Page #51

"That Was the General Critical Response, Yes", in Avengers Arena #14, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler/inker), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

There wasn't a full-page splash, at least not one in a Kev Walker-drawn issue I liked. But I didn't want to pass over this series entirely, so here we are.

I don't actually know what the overall critical response to the series was, either. Only that the few people whose stuff I read at the time weren't fans of it. I get the complaints. If you were a big fan of Avengers Academy or Runaways, you weren't going to be stoked about characters you liked being potentially tossed in a meat grinder. As a New Warriors fan, I've been there. Although the group that sustained the most damage was the Braddock Academy kids Hopeless created specifically for this series.

(I read once his original plan had been to have a book focused on those kids. Introduce them, flesh them out, then they get abducted into this mess. I don't know if it would have involved all the pre-existing characters once the abduction happened or not, though.)

But I generally enjoyed it. I wasn't a fan of Arcade being more invested in winning than just having a good challenge, but I could rationalize it that nobody enjoys losing all the time. And especially nobody enjoys hearing themselves shit-talked at their own birthday by friggin' Constrictor. I thought we got a lot of time seeing the different approaches all the characters were taking. The ones who were holding out hope they'd escape versus the ones gearing up to kill. The ones scheming versus the ones being manipulated. The alliances and the petty rivalries. The poor decision making under stress, with Arcade trying to ratchet things up from time to time to make it worse.

I was only really worried about Cammi and Darkhawk surviving, and they both made it. Cammi even got to be frequently badass. I was on-board with that. I really enjoyed when she knocked Chase the hell out. Never was much of a fan of Chase.

Kev Walker managed to hold up fairly well under a 3 issues every two months pace. At least once or twice, Hopeless seemed to work in issues away from the main action for the fill-ins. Like an issue where Molly Hayes goes to Hank Pym because she's worried about her friends being missing. Walker's work is less busy here than it was in Annihilation: Nova. He inks himself at least some of the time, so maybe that's part of it. He drew some pretty good fight scenes, and Beaulieu's color work was really excellent at times. There's a fight where Nico comes back from near-death and just wrecks Katy/Apex, where I thought the purple shade for her magic was really great to contrast a fight in a snowy forest.

Radiation + Magic = It Came From Murderworld!

So in the last issue of Avengers Arena, Reptil kept Hazmat from blowing everyone up (not intentionally, she was bleeding radiation) by turning into a giant crocodile, scooping her up in his mouth, and diving into the water. At first glance, I thought that killed him, while Hazmat eventually made her way back to the shore, but there's a panel at the end of some SHIELD guys hauling a large reptilian body out of the water, so I'll assume Reptil survived.

Normally Reptil's powers are the ability to change into all sorts of prehistoric creatures because of some magic thing in his chest. I thought it might be interesting if the radiation changes things so that now he transforms into radiation-enhanced types of those creatures. By which I mean Godzilla and his ilk. Just have him constantly turning into '50s style sci-fi horror monsters, all those critters that played on the fears the populace had about atomic warfare.

I know, we're past that now. It's all about genetic engineering and tampering gone wild. But if the writer was really concerned that readers would object to it being too silly*, there's an easy out. The magic amulet thing. It's magic, it might cause him to react differently than otherwise expected. Christos Gage already did that bit where Reptil was aged into a future version of himself, than managed to resist being aged back afterward. Some of that was his own desires, but the magic could be part of it. Or say the radiation made him think of those old films, and that's what prompts the shift.

* I don't know if that would be a problem. Radiation is still at the core of a lot of the '60s Marvel heroes' origins, but judging by the movies, people are trying to move away from that to things that sound more, plausible, I guess.

What I Bought 12/16/2013 - Part 1

As I alluded to in Monday's post, my comics did arrive sometime while I was away. Not quite everything, but enough to keep busy for awhile. Especially considering I grabbed a bunch of books while I was at my dad's, so expect lots of reviews of espionage thrillers and the like worked in there. Ought to be able to carry me through to at least January.

Avengers Arena #17, 18, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler, inker), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - It's nice Walker was able to draw each of the last two issues. It'd be nicer if they'd slow the pace on the next series so they wouldn't have to use fill-in artists. No hope of that, though.

So everything on the surface has gone to hell. X-23's nearly finished gutting Hazmat in a berserker fury, only to get attacked by a seriously angry Anachronism, who then gets attacked by Reptil. Nico's trying to kill Bloodstone (and he's encouraging her), and Chase isn't going to do anything to stop it. So Cammi does, after she kicks Chase's ass, which he makes very easy by dint of being a moron. During all this, Arcade has made his escape from Katy/Tim, Deathlocket, and Chris Powell, only to contact Katy and make her an offer. If she kills the others, he'll help her spin it so she's just a tragic lone survivor. If not, everyone will see her for the unrepentant murderer she is. I guess the assumption was she kept Tim locked up in her head for years, she can do it again. So she goes for it, getting control of Deathlocket again (who immediately shoots Chris, nooo!), and unleashing everything Arcade had stored up but hadn't used yet. The side effect of that - along with Reptil maybe dying to keep everyone else safe when Hazmat goes nuclear - is it gets everyone back on the same side again. Not that it's much use, except Tim exerts enough control to free Deathlocket, and she ends Katy. And Tim. Which leaves the survivors to decide what they're going to tell everyone. Which may be moot, because Arcade's still on the loose, and he has all the footage. Which probably explains the next series, if everyone knows what the kids did.

Let's talk about Kev Walker, because he's done a really good job on this book. For these two issues, all the calm panels are done with nice neat straight line borders, and all the fighting panels are these jagged, sketched-looking borders. The calm panels are usually neat rectangles or squares, the action ones are uneven, sometimes coming to a point, or a jagged end, like the end of the panel was broken off. It gives the action this erratic, urgent feel to it. Like the time is jumping a bit. It contrasts nicely with those clean, panels in the run up to the action, the ones that feel calm. The action panels are wild, overlapping in places, leaning in others. Everything's gone crazy, out of control. It drives my eyes ahead, to the next panel, but the thicker borders also help to make me focus, especially in the case of overlapping panels. My eyes are panning across, I hit that black border, and it's like it freezes me for a second, and I just take the panel in. It really impresses the whole thing on my mind. Bealieu's colors help, too, since the calm panels (mostly underground) and in cool blues, but the sky up above has turned red and angry.

I understand why a lot of people were against this series from the start. Nobody likes to see favorite characters killed off, especially if they get a cheap send-off (though it's worth noting I think Juston and Mettle were the only two pre-existing characters that died, unless that Red Raven was already around. No consolation for fans of those two/three, but it's more restrained than I think a lot of people were expecting). For some reason, it didn't bug me. I guess, like I said last year, I figured if anyone I cared about died, they'll just come back the next time some other writer wants to use them. I'm glad Darkhawk and Cammi didn't die, because now there doesn't have to be the hassle of devising a way to bring them back, but if Hopeless and Walker did it right, I could have worked with it. I wasn't annoyed Abnett and Lanning killed of Richard Rider at the end of Thanos Imperative, so much as I was annoyed by some of the other stuff they did in the run up to it, which seemed nonsensical and pointless.

That was something key here. Even if I didn't like a decision a character made, I understood it. Hopeless wrote in such a way that I could see why they would reach that conclusion. It was important I didn't spend a lot of time going, "Why would you do that? That's just stupid." There were a few things that came close (I thought Katy tipped her hand using Deathlocket against Nara too quickly), but even there, I could see what led to the mistake. I thought there was a good momentum to the series, a nice rise and fall of hopes, a few twists, but not too many, and some solid character work. I enjoyed Avengers Arena a lot, and I'm going to try the follow-up series (the fact Marvel actually priced it at $2.99 instead of $3.99 doesn't hurt).

Arcade's Brought Out The Best In Cammi, Not The Worst

One of the things I've enjoyed about Avengers Arena has been Cammi's role in the whole thing. I've been fond of Cammi since I first encountered her, because surprise! I like teenage smart aleck characters. She's been generally smart and level-headed, but she hasn't descended into a ruthless attitude, or a defeatist one. She didn't go along with Bloodstone's belief that they were doomed, and she hasn't adopted Katy - or more recently, Nico's - position that she might as well kill everyone else and save herself. Some of that is pragmatism - Cammi's on the low end of power scale, though I think she's sneaky enough she could handle most everyone except X-23 and probably Original Darkhawk - but some of it is an admirable shift in her perspective.

When the whole thing started, Cammi was in the middle of being interrogated by Agent Brand for trying to steal an interstellar cruiser. As far as we know, Cammi's been on her own since the end of Annihilation. Well, there was that chaos sprite that had been hanging around Thanos prior to that, but they parted company at some point. Drax did go looking for her later (after leaving the Guardians of the Galaxy), but got sidetracked bringing his daughter back to life. He never did get back on Cammi's trail. So she's had to survive by herself, an Earth teenager out in the universe. She made herself strong enough to survive it, and she's justifiably proud of it. 

But in her current situation, she might not be strong enough, and the circumstances work against her. On a spaceship, she can probably manipulate its systems to give herself an advantage of her enemies outnumber or outpower her. But in Arcade's world, he controls everything. She can set a few mines, but in a place as large and variable as this new Murderworld, that's only going so far. When X-23 nearly kills her, then lets her go because she's not the one X was after, that's a bit of a blow to her confidence. She was completely helpless, and the person who had her didn't even consider her worth killing. She didn't take it well, since stopping to do push-ups while castigating yourself is not the smartest plan.

The key is what came after. She started forming alliances. First with Darkhawk, then later Chase and Nico, and eventually the rest of the non-evil kids. It isn't a case of her using them as shields or cannon fodder, like Katy was doing with her boyfriend or Deathlocket. Cammi generally tries to make peace, come up with plans, get everyone on the same page and working towards the same goal. She's consistently approached the situation as though there's a solution other than playing by Arcade's rules.

Which makes sense, given her past. I was introduced to Cammi during Annihilation: Nova, and then she reappeared in Annihilation proper. Consider what she saw there. A diverse group of people, many of them with past conflicts, some dating back millennium, banding together to fend off a seemingly overwhelming force bent on killing them all. Annihilus' forces destroyed entire worlds, entire empires, he had Thanos, and eventually even Galactus as an unwilling weapon. And he still lost. Because people worked together, because they didn't give up, because they kept learning from setbacks and failures to try different approaches. Compared to all that, the current situation with Arcade probably didn't look too bad, provided they didn't wind up at each other's throats. Which, thanks to Nico and Chase, is exactly what happened.

It's a little like the shift Abnett and Lanning tried to bring about in Drax. When he joined the Guardians, he tried to be less Destroyer and more human, as he put it. There was the friendship with Phyla, trying to reconnect with his daughter Moondragon, trying to come to grips with the number of lives he'd taken over the years, the people he'd lost. It didn't necessarily make him less violent, but he was more, selective, or precise about it. And he had maybe a more concrete idea of what he was fighting for, beyond some vague sense he was supposed to "get" Thanos (that's how the brain-damaged version of him I remember from '90s Silver Surfer comics seemed). For as much as Cammi might want to be the tough, emotionally closed off badass who doesn't care about anyone, she can't help herself. She formed attachments whether she wanted to or not. The question now is whether those attachments are going to save her life, or get her killed.

What I Bought 10/31/2013 - Part 1

Some of that driving in the rain I mentioned not enjoying was to get comics. I was kind of hoping for a better haul than 6 books again, but Atomic Robo Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur still didn't show up, and neither did that double-sized issue of Captain Marvel. Also, my comic guy didn't pull October's issue of Captain America for me, but seeing as I was dropping the book anyway, I don't mind that in the least. I didn't even notice until several hours later, when I had some time to read them.

Avengers Arena #16, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Karl Moline (penciler), Mark Pennington w/Rick Magyar and Karl Moline (inkers), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I don't know what to make of all those inker credits. Also, Francisco Francavilla is good at designing covers, in case you hadn't heard. Using the outline of the raygun to frame the image of Cammi against that slightly off-white background helps it pop, even though the colors aren't really strong. Well, the blue near the bottom is a bit, but I wouldn't describe the colors as intense. But it works for the movie poster feel of it.

And here's what Arcade's been waiting for. Aiden's taking out his grief over Nara on Cullen, who is letting him. So Cammi steps in. But then Nico decides she and Chase should just kill everyone else, so she goes after Cullen, Chase knocks Reptil into the path of an enraged Aiden, and Cammi's left to deal with Chasehawk. Oh, and X-23 is still trying to disembowel Hazmat. The one flaw in Nico's plan is that Arcade said there could only be one, so even if she and Chase win out, one still has to kill the other. I'm pretty sure she remembers that - and that Chase isn't thinking of it all, thinking not being a strong suit of his - but I can't decide if she'd kill him, or force him to finish her.

Arcade's loving all this, which unfortunately means Tim/Katy and Deathlocket can't engage their plan to access his systems and save the day. Deathlocket starts engineering diversions, Katy starts hacking, and then they realize they underestimated Arcade. They can't get in his systems, and he's already disarmed Deathlocket. Yeah, it's kind of a pun, but it's also an entirely appropriate description. One bit of good news is that Arcade's powers don't work so well down in the subsystems area. Maybe there isn't as much environment to control, I don't know. The other bit of good news is Deathlocket freed Chris Powell. Still no Darkhawk amulet, but he's got a lot more experience at this than any of those kids. So it's a question of whether they can stop Arcade before the other kids waste each other. Can't say I'll mind if Cammi shoots Chase's face off. He's always been such a complete dumbass it's hard for me to care.

The art is a bit of a mixed bag, not surprising with three people handling inking. Means I don't know who to credit for the good work at the bottom of page 18 and all of 19. I thought the shading there was a lot more expertly done, conveyed a little more subtlety overall. Mostly though, the figure work is rough. Exaggerated lips, eyes you can't really see, Katy's face varies so much there were times I wasn't sure there wasn't a third sibling we hadn't heard about emerging. The layouts are well done. Page 3, Cammi blasts Aiden upwards and out panel 2, into the background of panel 3, where we see Nico make her decision. As she and Chase make their move, the view moves in closer, over their shoulder as they look at Reptil, and some of the energy that surrounds Chase when he activates the Darkhawk amulet is present in that panel, bleeding over from the one below it where he's wearing the armor and flattening Reptil. There's a few other pages like that.

Now we're all set for the big finale, just two issues to go.

What I Bought 10/10/2013 - Part 2

I was told yesterday by my crew leader than a guy on another project asked about the guy who walks down the road talking to himself. She assured him I'm not crazy, but I'm not willing to vouch for that statement.

Avengers Arena #15, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That cover really makes Aiden look too old.

Good news is Cullen releasing the otherworldly horror imprisoned inside him is going to keep X-23 from killing them all. Bad news is said otherworldly horror will end up killing them all if they can't find that ring again, fast. There's mixed success on that front as they find it, then lose it in the ocean, and the question becomes whether Nara will find it before Aiden has to end things more permanently. She does, and get Cullen to revert, but it may have killed her, unless Nico can turn things around somehow. There isn't any hint she can, mind you, I'm just speculating.

Most of the issue is about Nara. We hadn't really learned anything about her, so we find out why an Atlantean was living in England, or at least not in Atlantis. It's kind of interesting, the conflict between the part of her that tries to take Namor's advice to heart (don't rely on anyone), versus the part of her that wants to be close to people. Which probably explains why she got so heated at Kid Briton when he sided with Katy, and it manifests itself again with Aiden. I'm kind of surprised her feelings for him advanced that far that fast, but I guess that happens sometimes. I'm curious why we aren't seeing any of Arcade's reactions to this. I kind of assumed he was consciously manipulating the path of the sun the way Cullen described last issue, so I figured he'd be pretty interested in one of the kids turning into a giant Lovecraftian monster and rampaging. Maybe that's significant, maybe it isn't.

I hope that in the future, they'll slow the output on these books so Walker has time to ink himself. Gorder's not doing a bad job most of the time, but he definitely rounds off and simplifies the faces on the characters a lot. When Walker inks himself, the lines are a lot firmer, the characters' faces have a more solid feel to them.

Captain America #11, by Rick Remender (writer), Carlos Pacheco (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker), Dean White (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I'm guessing on those credits. They list the names but not what anyone did. On another note, the costume, ye gods, could it have any more needless lines? Between the knee pads and whatever that crap is on his hips, I expect him to be a Cap Transformer.

Back on Earth, Cap gets a clean bill of physical health, but does not want to talk about his losses to anyone. Not Maria Hill, played here as much less of a jerk than when she showed up in Avengers Arena a few months back, and not to Jet. As for Jet, she didn't take kindly to this new Nick Fury's interrogation. Or maybe she was just amused by it. Anyway, Cap takes her to his place, where she'll be staying for awhile, and tries to give her advice on how to move past the grief. Except jet doesn't buy "forget the past" from someone living in a museum. So Cap burns all his mementos.

OK, let's stop here for a minute. I understand the symbolic act, of burning all these old costumes and newspapers that record tales of his exploits with the Invaders or whatever. But even setting aside the fact his old shields aren't going to burn in a trash fire, it's just stupid. Even if Steve doesn't want to keep it, that stuff has historical value, or perhaps sentimental value to someone else. Maybe Jim hammond or Bucky would want some of it, or hell, Namor. Give it to the Avengers to keep as part of their history. Or auction off the harmless stuff and donate the proceeds to charity. That's a very Captain America thing to do. Maybe this is just the part of me that has difficulty parting with things, but that's a stupidly wasteful way to go about divesting yourself of reminders of the past. Letting go of the past doesn't mean destroying it

The only other thing of note is Nuke showing up in some Eastern Eurpean country, popping pills, and opening fire on civilians. Whatever.

OK, Pacheco's art. He doesn't get much to do, people sitting or standing and talking, that's basically it. So it's down to faces. I think he draws Jet's face very well, and Steve when he isn't wearing the mask/helmet. When he is, damn he looks really old, which is funny since they outright say in this issue that he doesn't age like everyone else because of the Serum (they also treat that like it's a new revelation. Shouldn't Cap have been in the present long enough for them to already know that?) But Maria Hill's face seems to change a lot from panel to panel, and he keeps giving characters this bored, almost sleepy look. Hill gets it once, and so does Pym while he and Banner are trying to remove the last remnants of Zola from Steve. You'd think Pym would be a little more engaged, but he looks as though he hardly cares. I think Pacheco (or maybe it's Janson) gets too busy with the lines on the face, and that creates the effect. Also, the colors are muted. Not inappropriate for an issue about people dealing with loss, with feeling disconnected, but it dampens my mood while I'm reading, makes the book that much more depressing and me that much less inclined to want to read it.

I guess I like the idea of this issue in theory. Cap trying to adjust to a new set of circumstances - again - and deciding to try a different approach. It's the execution that didn't work for me. Or maybe I've already checked out on the book.

What I Bought 8/30/2013 - Part 2

I do not have a single new comic coming out this week. Given I ought to have about 10 books this month, that's a little odd.

Avengers Arena #13, by Christos Gage (writer), Karl Moline (penciler), Mark Pennington (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer), and Avengers Arena #14, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (penciler, inker), Jason Gorder (inker), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Who does Chase remind you of on that cover? He sort of looks like a young Harrison Ford, but I'm not sure. I feel like Andrasofszky was definitely using someone as a reference. It's kind of an adorable cover, setting aside the truth of their absence, which is terribly depressing.

Gage takes us outside Murderworld, to examine why no superheroes have come busting in on Arcade's little hell. The answer is there are people concerned, but Arcade's managed to set things up well enough their concerns can't solidify. The kids he targeted all have reasons they might take off that seem probable to those around them. Either that or nobody noticed they're missing. Sorry Darkhawk. If other people do want to keep in touch, he's got ways of sending out texts or phone calls to keep in touch. He's apparently gotten his hands on some of those good LMDs, the ones that behave like the person they're meant to imitate and don't start getting weird ideas. Not so far anyway. I can't help thinking the little dustup Arcade had with his helper bot was more than just a sign of how either delusional or self-destructive Arcade is right now. That comment about A.I.'s developing quirks. . .

Moline's artwork is, it's not bad, but some of the faces are kind of lop-sided, and he (or Pennington, I guess) get a little too busy with the extra lines. Arcade looked really old in some of those panels. There's some good work in there as well. The panel of the Bamfs stealing Logan's beer, the first two panels on page 5. He reined Molly's emotions in a little, which made them feel more real (even though I know she's prone to stating what she wants and feels in an exaggerated manner), and the depressed Old Lace, drove the point home. Generally, the less he has to worry about, in terms of action, characters, backgrounds, the stronger the work is. Otherwise it looks rushed, and Pennington's inks couldn't really cover it.

Issue 14 brings us back to the kids, who had decided to go find Katy and give her a beatdown, not realizing Nico had risen from the (almost) grave intent on the same thing. Not that it matters. Arcade kept them walking in circles and systematically split them apart. Cullen's had enough and is lashing out at everyone left, including his best friend/unrequited love, but Cammi manages to get him to spill on that secret she saw in him several issues ago. Turns out Ulysses Bloodstone could give Magneto a run for his money in a Terrible Father competition. OK, it wasn't as though he meant to abandon Cullen for two years in a dimension of Soul Eaters. At least he left the kid well-armed, better than Elsa being thrown to that one demon with naught but a spoon (when she was too young to even speak). Cullen survived the experience, but there's something within that's not too pretty. But it might be the only thing that can keep them alive, because Arcade flooded the entire area with trigger scent, which means X-23's out to kill them all now (which means we've reached the point where the series started, Hazmat wounded and fleeing). So it's whatever the hell is inside Cullen against a completely berserk X-23.

Considering the sheer amount of Trigger Scent Arcade's whipped up, I can't see why Katy was his favorite to win, rather than X-23. We're talking an adamantium-laced mini-Wolverine, with an even better healing factor, he can send into a killing frenzy whenever he likes. I guess he was thinking in terms of kids willingly killing each other. I like that exchange between Cammi and Cullen near the end. As she's blasting at X-23 and he's yelling at her to keep it up, Cammi calmly replies, 'Cullen, she's X-23. I can't stop her.' There's something perfectly deadpan about it, and Walker's art helps a lot. The grim, but calm expression he gives her in the second to last panel, and the fairly casual stance she's firing from in the panel before that. It makes the whole thing feel perfunctory. Cammi knows she can't save Aiden or Nara in the longterm, she's buying them a few seconds at the most, but what the hell. Cammi's always fought to survive, and she has the ray gun, she might as well do something. Even if it's useless. Plus, it dovetails nicely with Cullen's rant earlier in the issue, where he tells her she's refusing to accept the reality that they're beaten. There's no wool over her eyes here.

Walker did a really good job here. In the very first panel, his Cullen actually has a bit of a Steve Dillon vibe. Maybe because Dillon's so fond of profile shots, but the angry weariness in Cullen's eyes is familiar, too. But it's a great picture, you can almost see how he's getting more and more fed up as he thinks back over the past three days. Also, that last page, how the second panel zooms in on his hands as he removes the ring, then the rest of the page is a wide shot of the creature charging at X-23. Like that thing emerged from him (well, he changed into, I guess), and he exploded out of that panel to X and us. This is going to sound strange, but the first time I read through it, that last panel felt very Conan-ish. Like some John Buscema would have drawn. A huge beast charging towards the reader, and the only thing between us a slightly hunched over figure with a sword. X-23 ain't Conan, but the posture, the perspective, seemed familiar. Bit of an inversion, though, since the human figure is the thing hellbent on slaughter and the monster is (theoretically) what's going to protect everyone.

What I Bought 8/3/2013 - Part 5

Like I said, posting's going to be sporadic. Hopefully things will be back to normal by next week. I'm missing a couple of books the store was shorted on for July. So this is the end of the July stuff for now. I do have two books from last week to discuss tomorrow.

Avengers Arena #12, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Jason Gorder (inker, pages 7-12, 17-20), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nico isn't dead after all! She's just amped up on magic and out for blood! And Katy - even with Deathlocked, Chasehawk, and what's left of Juston's Sentinel - is out-classed. Oh, it's a close run thing, but it confirms a suspicion I had for awhile. Namely, that Katy would have difficulty controlling multiple weapons simultaneously in a situation requiring coordination and quick adjustments. If all that's needed is for them to burn down a forest, fine. Reacting spontaneously to a seriously brassed off opponent hurling a variety of offensive magic was another matter.

The Sentinel's trashed, Deathlocket loses her disproportionately large cannon arm, and she and Katy wind up swallowed by the earth. Which puts them in Arcade's base, though he doesn't know it, and Deathlocket found that he's collecting all the dead kids. Plus an unconscious Chris Powell, which doesn't make sense and is disappointing. The former because locking him up takes him out of the game, the latter because I wanted to see what Chris - as the most experienced of the bunch - could manage minus powers.

Kev Walker's back on the art chores, and he inked half his pages. I prefer his inks to Gorder's, because Walker uses a stronger line, which gives the faces more definition. Makes things a little starker, the shadows much deeper, which seems appropriate for this pretty fierce battle. I also like how he lays out the bottom half of page 15. It's four panels, and the two on the end are of the major combatants: The first is Nico looking fierce confident, leaning forward just slightly with the suggested aggression. The fourth is Katy, slumped, bloodied, torn shirt, finally decisively beaten. And in between are the two smaller, more critical panels. First, the Staff of One flying away from Katy, then it reaching Nico's hand as commanded. It's important to show that Katy misjudged the situation, thought having the Staff meant she had the weapon, and the realization that she was wrong, that Nico has the power, and Katy has nothing left to defend herself with.

I've mentioned this before, but I really like the purple Beaulieu uses for Nico's powers. It's a pretty purple most of the time, meaning it's a shade I find aesthetically pleasing. But combined with Walker's shading, it can be extremely effective for that otherworldly, somewhat horror effect. See page 16, when the Earth opens up and reaches out for Katy.

Daredevil #29, by Mark Waid (writer), Javier Rodriguez (penciler & colorist), Alvaro Lopez (inker), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - It's nice to know even successful superheroes like Daredevil hate having to listen to noisy children as much as I do. That completely helps me identify with him in a way I didn't before. I'm half-joking.

OK, I don't have #28 yet, but as I understand, Matt's helping a childhood acquaintance defend himself in court. Except this acquaintance known something the racist Sons of the Serpent want kept quiet, and they are all over the place in the judicial infrastructure. Which means the judge can shoot the man and expect he'll get away with it, because everyone else in the courtroom except Matt is a fellow member. Which putts Matt in a situation of trying to protect his client, plus any other innocent people (including one poor paramedic tagged as the fall guy), while also trying to figure out how to stop these guys from escaping scot free, in a situation where he can't be sure who is what they appear to be.

I feel like coming in halfway blunted the impact of the story for me. I like watching Matt try to protect people when he can't figure out who to protect them from. Especially when some of the cops aren't bad guys, just guys who got bad information and are reacting to it. One of their fellow officers tells them that paramedic is the shooter, they trust him. I'm sure it's not a coincidence the paramedic was black, both because we're dealing with an openly racist organization in the comic, and given the recent look into the NYPD's highly questionable practices when it comes to who they decide to "randomly" stop and search. I'm also curious if Matt trying to ferret out this corruption in the legal system will be the backdrop conflict for Waid and Samnee's next big arc (like how Bullseye's repeated attacks were for the first 2 years). That could be interesting, since it's a different sort of challenge, one that's personal in a different way. So even when it isn't an issue I love, it's still an issue I strongly like.

And let's talk about that art. It doesn't happen throughout, but there are a lot of times where Rodriguez draws Matt in such a way that his eyes are covered. I don't know if that's a coincidence, or a deliberate choice because it's Daredevil, so why not cover his eyes. The panel where he's preparing to jump kick the cop from behind, his arm is across his face, for example. I don't know, just something I noticed. Also, Rodriguez' Daredevil seems a little taller and thinner than Samnee's, but they still look similar enough that it maintains the look of the book, though Rodriguez favors a brighter array of colors. The first page has that panel of Matt kicking the bailiff with an extremely bright blue background. It's quite the attention getter. There's also the page of DD leaping down the stairwell, with the three long vertical panel charting his progress. Especially the last one, him diving straight down, the bullets whizzing past on all side. I always like those kinds of images.

The Girls Make The Plans, The Guys Blow Them To Hell

Reading Avengers Arena up to issue 11, the girls have been more mature or productive in how they've handled things than the boys.

It isn't absolute: Hazmat's shifted between impetuous, violent behavior and an attempt to disconnect completely from the reality of her situation. Nara was as focused on revenge as Juston (though she also seems to have Anachronism wrapped around her finger. Not sure if that's intentional, or she just likes aggressive guys). On the boys' side, Bloodstone was the first to see through Katy's deceptions, and he's been quite cool under fire and willing to work with others.

Overall, though, the guys seem to devolve into chest-thumping and stupid attempts to protect their turf (meaning typically, a girl). Chase threatening to kill Reptil if he behaves threateningly towards Nico again, when they're supposed to be working together. Or deciding to ignore the majority of the group's wishes and kill Katy/Tim himself. As it turned out, he had the right idea, but went about it in the wrong way, getting himself expelled from the group, leaving him alone and vulnerable to Katy's powers. Or Kid Briton bullying Anachronism for whatever reason he sees fit. As for Anachronism himself, he's paying attention to Nara and not much else, plus there's the issue of how helpful it was to kill Kid Briton, however enjoyable (and deserved) it might have been. Reptil, interestingly, is going the other way. He's passive, following Hazmat or X-23's lead. It would appear the break-up with Finesse and the loss of Mettle have kind of dampened his self-confidence. He's not causing problems, but he's also not been doing much to confront them unless someone prods him along.

Contrast that with several of the girls. Nico really stepped up, recognizing that she and and Chase couldn't make it by themselves, and tried to forge an alliance with the Academy kids. When that got blown to hell, she still saved Cammi, and the three of them formed an alliance. She held the line alone against Katy's Robo-Army and got everyone else to safety. Cammi, despite her distaste for relying on anyone or feeling weak, was also willing to try and work with others. First Darkhawk, then Nico and Chase. I thought X-23 going to look for Juston was an intelligent decision. She'd been sticking with Reptil and Hazmat to help them, but once that wasn't a viable option (because of the trigger scent), she turned her attention to another friend. Sure, it doesn't work out so well for Juston that he was an afterthought until there weren't other choices, but I still think it's a good call on Laura's part. She could sit in the woods and bemoan her fate, or she could accept she can't look after her two less-survival savvy friends for the time being and try to do something productive. Like determine the fate of another friend who, if he's still alive, might be able to help.

Even Katy's a good example. She's decided to try and survive, just like the others. It's simply that her approach is to kill everyone she can't control, rather than form alliances to thwart Arcade. It strikes me as a "being cynical = mature" mindset, but that isn't necessarily out of place for a teenager. I was of a similar state of mind in high school (more pessimistic than cynical). Even so, she's proven to be clever, adaptable, and focused. She got herself a pair of powerful, easily manipulated weapons (Deathlocket and Briton), and tried to remove those she considered easy prey in a way that would give her deniability (by using Deathlocket). When that plan hit a speed bump - her targets survived and not only was one of them was smart enough to see through the deception, one of the others killed her pet boytoy - she was able to regroup within a day and take advantage of the opportunity presented. Now she has more firepower on her side than ever.

You could even throw Arcade and Ms. Coriander in. Arcade's always been portrayed as somewhat childish. The whole way he explained his origin way to the X-Men's friends as his daddy cutting him off when he hit 18, so 'the next day, I cut him off'. He treats it like a joke, which is how he's treated most things. It's all a game to him. If a target was boring, then success was irrelevant. Which didn't mean he let them go, he just wasn't much interested in their death. And now he's sick of being considered a joke, and can't recognize that the people saying it are even bigger losers than he is (the Constrictor should not be talking smack about anyone), so he has to prove them wrong. It's a big "nuh-uh, you're stupid!" Coriander acts out of some misplaced pity for her old boss, but she's smart enough to a) anticipate the double-cross, and b) set him up with his new digs and then skedaddle. Win, lose, or draw, this isn't a scheme she wants to be anywhere near when it's all said and done.

I did a (very) brief search on the Internet to see if there was evidence girls mature faster than boys psychologically. It seems agreed that girls brains develop earlier, what with them hitting puberty first, but that doesn't necessarily equate with maturity. Though I didn't find much consensus on how to evaluate maturity. I was thinking along those lines because of something my dad had said about how he'd noticed a decline in maturity in his students over his last 15 years of teaching, including the girls, who he felt were typically more mature. I didn't ask him at the time to define the term, but my guess is he meant more likely to stay on task, pay attention, etc. He might have meant in terms of their ability to synthesize information from different sources into a coherent argument, I don't know. Something for me to remember to ask him though I've been meaning to ask him if he threw that Goldeneye deathmatch against my friend for about 6 years so who knows when I'll get to it.

I don't know if it is true that girls are more mature than boys on average in adolescence. I wouldn't be surprised. But in the case of Avengers Arena, it seems too common to be coincidence that the girls are the ones doing most of the planning and thinking, while the guys posture and throw things into chaos by being needlessly aggressive towards each other. I don't have any issue with it, if that's what Hopeless is doing. Before I started looking for research, I took it as given girls matured mentally faster than guys, so it seemed perfectly appropriate to me that it would play out that way on the whole, with a few outliers in both directions.

What I Bought 6/29/2013 - Part 2

I am absolutely ready for that time off. I need to get away from this place for awhile. People have no respect for others personal space. Somebody put a casserole on my shelf in the fridge without asking, and I'm pretty sure some asshole has been using my toothpaste. The urge to scream and punch things is rising. . . and you know what title I'm reading is best when you want to see things suffer!

Avengers Arena #10 & 11, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Riccardo Burchelli (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nico, I don't think the giant robot wanted to play patty cake.

Let's see, X-23 tries to avenge Juston's death and gets pummeled by what's left of his Sentinel. Wolverine kills like 50 Sentinels a week. Some clone. At that point, it comes down to Nico, as no one else is apparently of any use against Katy and her toys. Personally, I think a super-strong guy with an axe could do some good, properly placed, and I'd lay good odds on Cammi if she could get her hands on Katy, but the general point's accurate. Nico holds her own for a bit, gets everyone else to somewhere else in Murderworld, and then her leg gets broken, so she can't reach the portal. Then Chase shows up. . . under Katy's control. Darkhawk armor not such a great thing now, huh Chase? So he pretty much lands the killing blow on Nico, though she is able to reach her staff and possibly cast one more spell. We'll see how that goes.

Those she saved wind up on the same beach where Reptil and Hazmat wound up. Reptil's recovered from his burns, but Hazmat may be in shock. She's pretty much decided to hell with Arcade's game, she'll hang out on a beach, party and eat until this thing ends, however that is. But she will not fight and kill for Arcade's amusement. Which doesn't sound like the least sensible idea I've ever heard. It's not a heroic sentiment, but I can appreciate the desire to go out on your terms, as opposed to someone else's. The others are less impressed, and guilt trip Reptil into guilt tripping Hazmat into getting back in the game. I suppose they are the two remaining heroes with the best chance of handling a Sentinel and a Deathlok. You got Tyrannosaurus Boy and the girl who can go off like a nuke.

There's something about the timeline that doesn't jibe. When Cammi's going off on Hazmat and Reptil about lounging on a beach for two weeks, she says the rest of them have survived for two weeks trying to keep each other alive. If she means the whole group of them, there's no way that makes sense. Hazmat and Reptil wound up on the beach after Arcade started up the natural disasters to herd them together. That's when Aiden killed Briton, which triggered Katy losing control. For one night, and by the next morning she had Deathlocket and the Sentinel, and killed Juston. I don't know if Hopeless screwed up, or if it means something. Maybe night and day don't actually mean anything there. I haven't seen that explicitly described, but it could be.

I know Nico's death cheesed some people off. I'm not really one of them. Not happy she's dead, but I'm still of the mind that if a writer really wants to use her, she'll come back. That's assuming Hopeless doesn't put the toys back in the box when he's done. But she went out fighting, never gave up, might have managed something big there at the last. As far as it goes, not a bad death at all. She and Mettle both made the big sacrifices, though it remains to be seen whether they accomplished anything in the long run. I am curious as to what Chase will do at this point, having just killed Nico. When I was reading Runaways last year, he struck me as a frequently useless chucklehead, but he might surprise me.

I had this idea after reading issue 9 that Katy let Tim out as part of a plan. Originally she counted on Briton to do most of the dirty work, with Deathlocket as her ace. Then Aiden killed Briton, and she knew everyone was gonna come gunning for her, so she lets her brother out to regale the bleedin' hearts with his tale of woe. Giving her time to regroup and get access to a Sentinel. Based on what she told Deathlocket and herself, I guess she really did just lose control. At least it suggests she's not unbeatable, if you can shake her enough.

I don't have much of anything to say about Burchelli's artwork. Little muddied for my tastes, characters' faces seem to change shape a lot and some of the expressions are just odd. It took me awhile to figure out X-23's face in the middle of page 5 was her sniffing the air. I'd very much like Kev Walker back. I'd also like them to stop with the three issues every two months nonsense so the need for fill-in artists would be alleviated, but fat chance of that.

I Guess Playing For Fun Gets Stale

It's been a month since I received my copy of Avengers Arena #7, and I'm still trying to decide if I like the slant Dennis Hopeless put on Arcade.

It makes sense that Arcade would get frustrated by the constant defeats. Given that, it also makes sense he might either give in to despair or try to prove something.

Even so, part of Arcade's appeal to me (and he's my favorite comic book villain), is that winning really doesn't matter much to him. Sure, he'd like to win, kill Spider-Man or whoever. That's how he earns his bread (though I've always assumed he paid the bills off-panel with those boring, ordinary people assignments he complained of the first time he went after the X-Men). But at the end of the day, he's a showman, not a hired gun. He's not Tombstone, where it's business. He wants to enjoy himself, test the limits of his creativity (and sadism). The line of his that sticks with me is (from that first tussle with the X-Men), 'You see, ladies, any fool can kill. I wanted to do it with style.' If he was able to do that, it didn't matter so much if he lost.

In some ways, Arcade is the writer and artist placed inside the book. He's there to be an entertaining threat to the hero, create some nice visuals, some dramatic tension, and ultimately, lose. But so long as he accomplishes the first three things, the last one isn't such a big deal. As a reader, I don't mind that Arcade fails to kill Deadpool and Hercules in Deadpool Team-Up #899. I care that with an assist from Nightmare, he gave Deadpool's caption boxes physical form so they could try and kill him. That's creepy, but also cool.

This attitude put Arcade ahead of a lot of other villains. A dope like Constrictor thinks he's supposed to win, and so he keeps committing crimes, thinking this time it'll be different. When in reality he's a loser there to get swiftly pummeled and probably left for the cops hog-tied with his own coils. So he's always frustrated, while Arcade can enjoy the competition, even as he loses.

Of course lately, Arcade's been getting frustrated himself. Even before Avengers Arena, or his humiliating birthday party, there was Avengers Academy Giant Size, where he went after them and the Young Allies, trying to prove to prospective employers that he still had it. That Deadpool Team-Up issue had some of as well, since he was trying to eliminate a rival in the job market. I don't know what that shift is about. Some move towards greater realism, perhaps. Most people couldn't retain such an upbeat attitude in the face of constant defeat. I'd think that would apply even more so to someone who kills people with no qualms whatsoever, because they are, at best temporary sources of entertainment.

Or it could be the idea that for villains to be interesting, they have to be threatening, and for them to be threatening, they have to be killers. Which is how the Joker got whatever ridiculous body count he has by now. It isn't sufficient to be a taxing mental challenge, or simply a persistent nuisance, there has to be a possibility the villain will skip rope with your spinal cord, or otherwise destroy your life. Which, if you agree with Ms. Coriander's assessment of Arcade, would explain some of this. He's demonstrated he can snatch away heroes and drive them to kill each other, when he chooses. Which is certainly control, since he would dictate when that happens.

You can certainly see some of that in his past schemes. He delights in putting the heroes in situations where they have to risk their lives, or get them to jump through his hoops. He forced Captain Britain to sit in a small box and risk drowning, because otherwise his lady (Courtney Ross) would die, and the controls to save her were in said box. He tricked Colossus into believing he'd betrayed Mother Russia and turned him against the X-Men. He got Kitty and Colossus to protect him from Miss Locke on his birthday. It's why he likes using robot duplicates of the people he's killing, to mess with their heads about who they're fighting. It's part of the show, turn their strengths against him, see if they can overcome it and win. It's how he gets his kicks, and I guess that's still in effect. I'm still not sure I like the increased emphasis on winning, though.

What I Bought 5/27/2013 - Part 2

Huh. Got to that book review yesterday after all. In other news, Happy Clint Eastwood's Birthday Day! I'm watching the Dollars trilogy to celebrate.

Avengers Arena #7-9, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist, issue 7), Kev Walker (penciler/artist, issues 8, 9), Jason Gorder (inker, issue 8, & pgs 6-15 of issue 9), Rain Beredo (colorist, issue 7), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist, issues 8, 9), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Dave Johnson does some good cover work. Now I want a game called "3. . .2. . .1. . .Death!"

Issue 7 explains how Arcade's doing what he's doing and why. The "how" is that his new girl Friday, Ms. Coriander wired Magneto's old base underground in the Antarctic into Arcade's suit so he can control pretty much everything there by thought. The "why", is Arcade had a birthday shindig and learned all the other super-villains think he's a loser. He decided they were right, and it nearly destroyed him. Which is why he took a stint as a bartender in Bargalia, I guess. But he's rediscovered his muse, that it's about making other people do what he wants, more than the killing. Maybe.

I'm going to want to spend more time on it later, so for no, let's say I'm conflicted on this take on Arcade. Certain parts of it I like, other parts not so much. I do like the idea of super-villains as being essentially gossipy high society ladies. All polite smiles and hugs to each other, then horrible gossip behind their backs.

Vitti's work isn't quite on the level of Walker's but he does give Arcade appropriately deranged looks for most of the comic. He's always slightly bug eyed or with a creepy grin. Or both, which is especially unnerving. I will say, people seem to really like gritting their teeth. Constrictor and Arcade both do through most of their run-in in Bargalia. And for the record, Constrictor should not be talking shit about anyone. Omega Red ripped off his shtick, and does it better. Oh, you were a member of the Serpent Society? Too bad Black Mamba, Asp, and Diamondback are the only members anyone cared about. Oh, you tried going straight for a bit? Get in line.

The other two issues bring us back to the present. X-23 finds Juston and what's left of his Sentinel. Bloodstone asks Cammi and the 2 Runaways to help bury the now headless Kid Briton. And it turns out Apex has a twin brother who shares her body, except she's kept him sealed up inside for 2 years. Also, I was right about Apex being some sort of a technopath. Go me. The kids vote not to kill Apex while Tim's in control, Nico gives Chase the boot when he goes for it anyway, and it all goes balls up. Apex stuffs Tim back into the hole, regains control of Deathlocket, kills Juston, and steals his Sentinel. Well done there, team!

I expect better from Cammi and X-23, honestly. But I also thought Cammi and maybe Bloodstone would vote for killing, so I've clearly given all of them too much credit. I suppose I shouldn't encourage them to murder, but they clearly don't have it together sufficiently to keep Apex detained. They're smart enough to not let anyone reliant on technology guard Tim, but not smart enough to keep Deathlocket the hell away, because aww, puppy love. No, cyborg killing machine already occasionally commanded by amoral teenage psychopath hiding somewhere within the person you've tied up. There's a part of me wondering if Katy let Tim out on purpose.

I'm curious what big secret Cammi saw in Bloodstone's eyes, but I'm surprised it turned out he is romantically interested in Anachronism. Did Kid Briton know that when he described him as Bloodstone's boyfriend, or was he just being a sneeering, homophobic jock asshole? I'm inclined to think the latter, because the former would require Briton to have thought of anyone other than himself, but you never know. And we never will, with Briton dead.

So Jason Gorder inked a fair amount of Kev Walker's work over these two issues. I will confess, I'm not sure there's a substantial difference. I do think he probably helps, as some of the faces in Walker's pages look a little rushed. Understandable, given the 3 issues every two months pace the book is on. I like the look Bloodstone gets in #8 when he asks the others to help bury Briton. There's not much expression at all, mostly he looks weary, but you get the feeling he doesn't really care, he's just doing it because Aiden mentioned it as something they should do. The colors Beaulieu uses for issue 9 are pretty good too, especially the shift between 7 and 8. All the dark blues, then the change to orange with the campfire. it's light, it ought to be warmer, more reassuring, but it makes more shadows, too. Emphasizes how cut off they are, how isolated, how much they don't know. Later, there's the spotlight from what's left of Juston's Sentinel. It can highlight whoever has the floor at that moment, but it also casts even sharper shadows to highlight to divide over what to do with Tim. It isn't subtle, but it's effective.

What I Bought 4/2/2013 - Part 2

Nothing for an intro that wouldn't be complaining. And I did enough of that to myself all through work today. Onward!

Avengers Arena #5, 6, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank Martin (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - What do you think is more relevant on the cover, that Hazmat's giving everyone cancer by not wearing her containment suit, or that Darkhawk hasn't quite mastered using starfish as part of a swimsuit?

Arcade wants things to get hopping, so he cranks up the natural disasters. There are safe zones, one of which has a box full of food and medicine. During this announcement, Nico and Chase save Cammi from an avalanche. Walker has a nice bit where the middle panel is of Cammi about to get buried, then below it are two panels. On the left, Nico casting a protective spell, on the right Cammi inside the "snow globe" as the snow covers it. What I like is that not only does the staff cross over from one panel to the next, but some of the energy from it moves in a line between the two panels with Cammi. It's like she was trying to outrun the snow in the first panel, then passed through the energy on her way to the later panel, and that's how she was encased. Anyway, after that, she wants to work together with the Runaways, and they agree. Go, teamwork!

Elsewhere, Reptil's sort of up and moving, and tells Hazmat and X-23 it was Death Locket who fried him not Chase. Before they can really do much with this, Hazmat trips a trap loaded with a trigger scent, which sends X-23 into a killing fury, forcing the two Young Avengers to flee. I'm not really clear on the trigger scent. I get Weapon X used it to make her kill, but does it throw her into a complete fury, where anyone she meets is dead, or just anyone covered with that scent? I'm guessing the latter, since it effectively wrecks that trio, and probably leaves her scared to approach anyone else, either. Walker does a good job there, too. She looks so out of it, with the red eyes and the drooling, but also tortured, because Arcade's just forced her to stay away from her friends. Credit to Frank Martin for the red eyes, too. They're disturbing, in a way that makes them both scary, but also haunting when she looks devastated in the middle panel of page 8 of #6.

I thought this stuff was mostly incidental and I'd move through it quickly to the main show, the Braddock Academy bunch. So much for that. So Kid Briton is a complete jerk, who was dating Apex, but also fooling around with Nara on the side. Bloodstone and Anachronism were a couple of his punching bags. Anachronism is probably strong enough to take him, but unwilling to really use that power. Apex has some kind of hold over Death Locket, making her shoot Nara in the back and over a cliff. Nara wants revenge, and she also wants Anachronism (I'm going to stick with "Aiden" from this point forward) to stop holding back, stop pretending any urges to fight are the warlock which possesses him (allegedly). This argument is cut short by Arcade teleporting them to the box of goodies, just as their three compadres reach it. Cue Nara going after Apex, Cullen finding a bazooka amongst the tasty cakes to keep Death Locket out of it, and Briton getting his dander up and attacking Nara. At which point, Aiden jumps in a decapitates him. Well then.

There are certain things coming that I can see pretty easily. Chase is going to activate the Darkhawk armor at some point, which will lead Cammi (and maybe Nico) to suspect he's the one who took Darkhawk out. Actually, Cammi will suspect it was a dual effort. Either way, that's another alliance shattered. Apex is a little harder to figure out. I'm already pretty sure that bit about her only power being to fly (slowly), was a load of crap. She's some sort of technopath, like Machinesmith, which is why she can control Death Locket, take out a Sentinel, and Darkhawk (I'm sorry, I refuse to buy that a Deathlok has enough juice to do either of those things). The question is, what's she up to? I can't decide whether she's doing what she thinks she must to survive, and Arcade's taking advantage, if she has some larger plan in mind, or if she's working with Arcade. Assuming it is Arcade. In issue 5, there's some sort of wire or tubing running from off panel up inside his coat. Not sure what that is.

Then there's Aiden. Now that he's let loose and killed a guy, where does he go from here? Does he try to blame it on the warlock, absolving himself of blame, does he get so terrified of himself he refuses to use his power, or does he turn into a big, swaggering alpha male dimwit like the one he just killed? It'll be interesting, the bullied nerd has power now, what does he do with it?

What I Bought 2/25/2013 - Part 1

Two weeks ago, I decided to drive from the boonies to Marvels and Legends to pick up comics and drop off an updated pull list. I didn't bother to call Jack because I figured he wouldn't have shipped my books by then. Naturally, he shipped them the day before I arrived, to my non-boonies address. So it took them the better part of a week to get there, then the better part of another week for them to arrive here after being mailed again by helpful family. And here we are.

Avengers Arena #4, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Frank martin (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That is a completely inaccurate cover. Shocking, I know.

As there are only two Runaways thrown into this mess (Nico and Chase) they're finding it a little hard to handle things alone. It's difficult to sleep when only one person can at a time, and one of them has an extremely twitchy trigger finger. Fortunately, Nico magicked up a special fruit tree, and offers it to the Avengers Academy kids as a show of good faith. Things are going well, Chase and Reptil are talking. Chase wanders off, someone nearly incinerates Reptil. Hmm, Chase's gauntlets can do that. OK, alliance over. No Hazmat, don't kill the magic fruit tree! Awww, what did the magic fruit tree ever do to you? Nico seems to seriously doubt Chase (not without reason given his past history of crap decisions), and then someone drops the Darkhawk amulet into Chase's hands. Swell, give the idiot more power.

I like that page of the Academy kids celebrating having the fruit tree while Nico and Chase sleep. It's so happy, and they're acting like such kids, it makes the disintegration of the team-up hurt even worse. Plus, Reptil toasting X-23 with fruit while wearing a pteranodon head on his human body is kind of funny. It's a silent page, so credit to Alessandro Vitti's artwork for selling it. It's an important reminder these are kids, super-powers or no, past experience battling the forces of evil or not. They're under a lot of stress, they handle it in different ways - attitude, determination, pushing people away, trying to bring them closer - and they aren't always going to make intelligent decisions. I mean, as readers, we can be reasonably sure Chase didn't roast Reptil, but the way things play out, it's easy to see why Hazmat, X-23, and even Nico could believe he would.

Vitti's artwork feels like a combination of Kev Walker and David LaFuente, leaning more towards LaFuente. It's sketchy when the view is a long shot, character faces aren't as distinct or defined, but up close, the detail is there. Frank Martin's colors help. During the talking scenes, the lighting is ambient, the moon, or whatever is passing itself off as the moon. It's blue lighting, there are shadows, but they aren't deep or terribly distinct from the lit areas. Everything is sort of tranquil and out on the surface. That way, when things go haywire and kids start throwing around blasty powers, it's a contrast. Bright purples, greens, oranges, makes things stark, harsh, sharply divided.

Fearless Defenders #1, by Cullen Bunn (writer), Will Sliney (artist), Veronica Gandini (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - About Brooks' cover. I want to think Valkyrie and Misty are up on the balls of their feet because that's a proper fighting thing. Not standing flat-footed. You think that's it, or is this like a Deodato thing, where he can't help drawing women like they're wearing invisible heels regardless of whether it's appropriate? Like I said, I'd prefer to assume the former, but who knows.

Misty Knight tries to shut down a smuggling operation. Then a helicopter full of goons working for a LeFay show up and destroy the ship. Misty escapes with a single artifact, which she brings to her client, a Dr. Riggs. Who activates some trigger in the artifact, causing the dead to rise. Which is when Valkyrie shows up and she and Misty shut them down, then opt to return to Asgard for answers about some "Doommaidens".

The Valkyrie/Riggs kiss felt forced. Maybe if we had more time to get to know Dr. Riggs, or see her interact with Val, it might have worked better. As it was, it didn't make much of an impression. That sums up this issue pretty well. It didn't make much of an impression. I found myself focusing on things like why Misty wasn't wearing any shoes during the fight on the boat. Is that going to give her better traction in the rain, or had she been wearing fins and ditched them after getting onboard? The writing is passable, but there wasn't anything that jumped out. No snappy bit of dialogue, for example. Sliney's art was largely OK, but again, nothing much jumps out. The full-page splash of Valkyrie on Aragorn behind Misty looked nice. Pretty dramatic. The fight scenes are solid, though the action looks a bit awkward at times. It's annoying, because there's nothing about the book that merits ripping, but also nothing I want to sing to the heavens about.

What I Bought 1/22/2013 - Part 1

The comics came in the day before I departed on another brief trip. So I decided to wait until I returned to do the reviews. Well, I'm back, so let's review.

Avengers Arena #1-3, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank Martin (colorist), with Jean-Francois Beaulieu on #2, Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Yeah, I decided to start with this. What the hell.

The story, you probably know. Arcade somehow spirits away several teenage super-types from around the globe, and deposits them in some hidden location. Then he tells them they've got a month to kill each other. He expects only one of them to be alive when the month is over, or else he'll kill them all himself. Which he has possibly developed super-powers for the purpose of doing so. The kids scatter, some forming small groups, but someone is picking them off one at a time. Or appearing to pick them off.

That's the big thing about this story for me. There's an air or deception, or sleight of hand hanging over everything. Part of that is by design, since Hopeless and Walker are keeping the person attacking the various camps out of sight, and part of it is the things that don't quite add up. Arcade's powers, these Braddock Academy kids, some of X-23's actions. Everything is off, in a way that it feels staged, that all the most important stuff if happening off-panel. That's how I'm reading so far, like a mystery. Everything is a clue, and I want to piece it together before Hopeless tells us.

It's a detached way of looking at it, but I'm not indifferent to the characters. If you must know, I'm rooting for Darkhawk and Cammi myself, though things weren't looking too good for Chris Powell there at the end of #3. Like I said a while back, though, the deaths don't bother me much. If Marvel wants to ignore the results of this story, they will (assuming there isn't some trick to the deaths). In the meantime, Hopeless is trying to make us care about the characters. He hasn't done much with the Braddock Academy kids yet, but Rebecca Ryker's story in issue 2 was pretty effective. A girl who's been regarded as an instrument her whole life, by her dad, SHIELD, someone in this current group.

Kev Walker's art probably helps the book a lot. You can tell he's really trying to, anyway. I thought the campfire scene in issue 2 especially. He definitely tried to convey something about each of the Braddock Academy bunch with their postures. Kid Briton holding up the fiery sword in front of him, but the way he stares at it with this forlorn look. His faces are less busy than they were the last time I saw them (in Annihilation: Nova). No repeats of "Quasar as current Robert Redford" here. A less is more approach, stronger lines, but fewer of them. The action sequences look good, too. I don't know who to credit for the sort of blur effect on some of the flashbacks (like Cammi's). Seems like something Walker might be doing, but it might also be Martin, as part of his color effects. I do like the color work generally. A lot of action takes place in either snow, or at night, so Martin gets to show off against either a predominantly white or black background, which helps everything else stand out more.

I had been expecting this to be a lot worse. The dangers of reading too much Internet hyperbole. It's not a great book, but it's not the dumpster fire a lot of people have made it out to be, either. There's a lot of mystery so far that has me interested, there's Walker's very good art. Mostly, I have all these different suspicions and theories about what's happening, what will happening, and who is responsible, and I want to stick around for the answers.

Why I'm Giving Avengers Arena A Shot

I mentioned on Wednesday Fearless Defenders would be the third Marvel title I'd add over the next 4 months. One of the others is Captain America (at least I shouldn't have to worry about fill-in artists). The other is Avengers Arena, which has gotten a bit of a negative reaction, for a variety of reasons, among the fans, the ones I've seen, anyway. Negative Internet reaction is no guarantee of anything, but I figured I could discuss why I'm going to give it a whirl.

1. Dennis Hopeless. The only thing he's written that I've read was Legion of Monsters, the mini-series Marvel published last year. It was pretty good. There was a nice sense of tension, of the heroes working against the clock, which expresses itself in some of the in-fighting and desperate decisions. Which is the sort of thing that ought to fit in a story about a bunch of teen heroes on an island fighting for their lives. The romantic subplot between Elsa Bloodstone and Jack Russell felt a bit forced, but other than that, it was very entertaining. If he goes to that well again, I think it'll feel like more of a fit, since we're dealing with a cast of mostly teenagers under stress, and they can be prone to abrupt, head-scratching decisions.

2. Kev Walker. I haven't read anything Walker drew since Annihilation: Nova, which was, jeez, six year ago? But, other than his Quasar having a Robert Redfordesque, worn boot leather face, it's good work. I know I read some good things about his work on Thunderbolts with Jeff Parker. Of course, with Marvel and their shipping schedule (5 issues in the first 3 months), I suppose I ought to be concerned with the other artists. Just from a few pages of Secret Warriors I found, I'm not sure if Alessandro Vitti's style really meshes with Walker's, but the two of them might be able to modify. Really, as long as they stay on the same page about what characters are supposed to look like, or are wearing, it shouldn't be a huge issue. And Hopeless could always avoid that problem by switching focus to different characters depending on the artist. Like how the DnA Guardians of the Galaxy used Wes Craig on the team that was lost in time during War of Kings, and used Brad Walker for the issues about the group that was still in the present.

3. Arcade and Darkhawk. They're both in the book, I like both of them, especially Arcade, so that's a win. I recognize Darkhawk could very well die, but. . .

4. I'm fairly inured to deaths in comics these days. If a character dies, and someone else wants to use them down the line, they'll show up. There may be an explanation for their not being dead, there may not. I like to think I've reached the point I can roll with these things without flipping out too badly. If it's really bad, I can always ignore it. I've gotten pretty good at that over the last few years. I wonder if it'll really be as bad as all that. They're teenagers who have an adult trying to make them do something, and they're heroes, who have the remarkable tendency to pull the rug out from villains. I figure there have to be at least a few fake out deaths in there.

5. The similarities to Hunger Games don't bother me. Marvel's been pretty open about them, but I know it bugs some people. I get that, in a way. It can be irritating when you something comes along and seems to be ripping off some preexisting thing that we really like. Back when Firefly first started, I about lost my mind on a forum complaining about how it was ripping off Outlaw Star. In this particular case, I have no affection for Hunger Games, so it doesn't really bother me. I'm not sure I even knew what that was until the movie came out. If I'm thinking about stories involving kids being pitted against each other to the death, I'd probably think of GrimJack's time in the Arena, or that Stephen King (written as Richard Bachman, though) story The Long Walk. Heck, I used to make up stories about superheroes being pitted against each other by a villain. What else were action figures for?