Saturday Splash Page #163

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday Splash Page #86

"The Rare Appearance of the Spider-Corset" in Black Cat (vol. 2) #2, by Jen van Meter (writer), Javier Pulido and Javier Rodriguez (artists), Matt Hollingsworth (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

This was the second mini-series Felicia Hardy had gotten (the first coming back in the mid-90s). This one was tangentially tied in to the Spider-Man storyline "The Grim Hunt", which involved Kraven's family resurrecting him via some process that required targeting people with spider-related powers. Or something. I bought some of the issues of Amazing Spider-Man that led up to it (as part of "The Gauntlet"), but I didn't pay attention to the main show.

Here, all the Spider-Man stuff is running in the background. Spidey and Felicia interact for most of the first issue, and a few pages each issue after that, but they don't have much time for each other. Spidey doubted her, which wasn't smart, and later, he's worn down and just trying to survive. So neither one is in a position to help the other.

A guy whose family has served the Kravinoffs (but I'm assuming not related to The Chameleon) for generations is infatuated with Ana Kravinoff, and decides to reacquire every piece of art of treasure the family lost when the tsar fell. He's not a good enough thief to manage it, so he frames Felicia for a botched heist and murders a security guard to try and draw her in. At which point it turns into a cat-and-mouse between him and Felicia and her crew. You know how that goes. The bait-and-switch, the times where one side appears to have outsmarted the other, but it was really all part of the plan. 

It's enjoyable because Felicia's able to read her opponent and figure out what he's really after, and how to turn that to her advantage. Pulido draws the guy as very wide-eyed and eager anytime he's around Ana. There's one panel where he's showing her pictures of the items he's planning to recover from a book, and she's moved close enough to put a finger on the page, and the dude is actually sweating he's so excited. Visions of how his dream might come true if he can just get all these things.

Pulido draws most of the mini-series, but Javier Rodriguez steps in for a few pages in this issue and one other. Pulido's figures are a bit exaggerated - I think that panel up there is one of the few times I've seen Spider-Man with a narrower waist than Felicia - but he and Rodriguez both have a knack for the scenes where Felicia is stealing things. Hollingsworth tends to use a lot of blues and blacks in those scenes, so the red for any laser defenses really pops. Felicia's face is usually entirely shadowed, with just her hair and the white parts of her costume for contrast. It all looks very cool, and I'm always here for stories where Felicia is shown as taking her craft seriously. I'm not sure van Meter ever references the bad luck powers, and there's no point where we're told she's making conscious use of them. Definitely not during heists.

The Many Ways Steve Rogers Is Aging, All At The Same TIme

I'm curious what the deal is with Steve Rogers these days. I know he lost his Super-Soldier Serum somehow, so he's supposed to be a 95-year old in appearance as well as age, but there's quite the variety to how he's presented.

In most of the Avengers titles, he has essentially the same build, it's just the face has a lot more lines and his hair is grey or white. But he's in his Commander Steve Rogers get-up, rocking some pretty decent muscles and getting in the middle of battles. But those are the big event books, and Steve is supposed to be leading the opposition to the Illuminati and their blow up worlds for ultimately no purpose. Maybe it undercuts that if he can't be at the forefront, directly fighting for what he believes in.

Deadpool titles have opted for a different approach. Steve's a lot scrawnier, almost like he's regressed to his state pre-serum. He's got a cane he heavily leans on, and liver spots, the hair is kind of messy, and his bones are a lot more pronounced. But of course, those are Deadpool comics, it's meant to be a gag, and it's funnier if Deadpool's hanging out with an old geezer who just so happened to be Captain America. Steve Rogers as Grandpa Simpson.

And then there's a lot of the other books, which split the difference to varying degrees. They usually give him a cane, as Pulido did in the above page from She-Hulk. But how much he leans on it varies. He seemed to not need it terribly much in that story, walked easily enough, still had more than sufficient strength to K.O. Dr. Faustus in one punch. He's got a bit of current Robert Redford to him, weathered but apparently still capable of making people swoon based on presence and how he carries himself. He showed up in the final issue of the most recent volume of Captain Marvel, as Carol read the will of her friend Tracey, and he seemed to be a lot more reliant on it. They were supposed to release her ashes on a beach (except not really, because sneaky old lady), and Steve couldn't really venture out onto the sand, because it was too unsteady for the cane. It emphasizes his frailty more, but not as a joke. Steve winds up sitting on the grass at the edge of the sand watching the younger folks play in the ocean, which could make him a stand-in for Tracy, since he's the aging friend, and I'd have to wonder how long he'd last.

You might have guessed I prefer the third type, since it makes a certain amount of sense to me that 95-year old Steve Rogers would be in decent shape, but not "leap off building and jump kick a guy off the top of a moving vehicle" condition. It still allows him to be around other heroes, but maybe in a more advisory role, supporting or encouraging. Steve Rogers is generally portrayed as a good guy, capable of being easygoing and friendly. Play up his experience and his personality, rather than his ability to do cool stuff with the shield.

What I Bought 3/24/2015 - Part 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I Bought 1/26/2015 - Part 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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