Tuesday, August 29, 2006

On 19 & 26 July, 2006 -- Part II: Everywhere Else

Catching up. Part I is here

Reading music: Kitty Donohoe, This Road Tonight; Leahy, Lakefield

--Warning: Spoilers ahead--

DC

Blue Beetle #5: Jaime Reyez makes a truly public debut as Blue Beetle. I think it's good publicity. He still doesn't have complete control over the Scarab, but he does manage to save a baby from a bizarre religious demon creature. We learn more about the Posse, and Jaime learns (at long last) he's the only one hearing the voice in his head. ("I'm not crazy. I just hear this voice in my head!") Inasmuch as the main storyline focuses on the Posse and La Dama, the two Brenda pages seem kind of thrown in. They're good bits, just oddly placed. Blue Beetle is consistantly good, and it's probably about time I added it to my standing pulls.

Do I Know What I Just Read? Yes
Do I Care? Yes

Image

Elephantmen #1: "See the Elephant." I'm not a fan of any portrayal of George W. Bush as an utterer of wise words, but it's easy enough to put the inside cover page out of mine and focus on this little vignette of innocence lost. Or gained, or never had, or... something. The Elephantmen, creations of a mad scientist, are born and bred to be soldiers, and like many soldiers who have been to war, they have regrets and trouble integrating into society at large. That's the case with Ebony, at least. He has disturbing bloody flashbacks, and they are triggered by Savannah, a young girl in pink, the very picture of innocence. And maybe she's the key to unlocking some sort of innocence in him. It's a sweet story, actually.

"Just Another Guy Named Joe." A vignette from the perspective of a man who resents the Elephantmen and their place in society. This is a short one, very dark, and somewhat tricky to get a real handle on, at least here. Call it a small window into a big fictional world.

Do I Know What I Just Read? Yes
Do I Care? Yes

Marvel

Black Panther #18: Iron Man and Cap are too royally cheesed off at each other to stick around for the ceremony. It's a shame they miss it, too, because ceremony consists of Ororo and T'Challa making dramatic entrances, then going to the spirit realm to face the judgement of the Panther god, who slobbers all over Ororo, finds her tasty, and says she's cool to join the club. After the ceremony, Spider-Man fights a drunken Man-Ape, and the newlyweds receive an invitation to Latveria from a surprisingly cordial Dr. Doom. So ends Marvel's wedding season. And divorce season? Just around the corner!

Do I Know What I Just Read? Yes
Do I Care? Kind of?

She-Hulk 2 #9: So J. Jonah Jameson is insane. His son and his new daughter-in-law aren't exactly thinking at full capacity, either. (Why else would they elope? In Vegas? With an Elvis impersonator??? This is more entertaining than the T'Challa-Aurora and Jessica-Luke nuptuals, but it's also more disappointing. Maybe that's the point.) Mallory and Awesome Andy are under the same spell as the newlyweds. Naturally, that leaves Pug tearing his hair out, as he is perhaps the only major character who is compos mentis. And he knows it. Poor Pug...

Do I Know What I Just Read? Yes
Do I Care? Yes

Virgin

Snakewoman #1: The, well, the hissing and such is justa wee bit corny, and Jin (Jessica's roommate) is a tad two-dimensional. In spite of that, though, Snakewoman endeavors to answer a question of trust. Consider the men. Raj, the new neighbor, seems nice enough, but Jessica is wary of him. Maybe her trust is "delicate," but this time she's probably right to trust her judgement. I takes a surprisingly short time for her to find him in bed with her boy-crazy roommate. Then there's the man in plaid, Brinkley, an eccentric regular at the bar where Jessica works. He seems to know Jessica's schedule, tips only her, and writes prophetic poetry for her. And he bothers some people. She trusts him though, knowing that he's harmless. It's the nice-looking gentleman with the golden bracelet who throws her. The Naga within her, maybe, makes her drop her guard. He turns homicidal, and so does she. Later, with blood on her hands, she is confused, frightened, and cold. Her judgement has failed the heck out of her. That's where this first issue leaves off, with a frightened woman not ready to come to grips with a dual nature.

Of course, green and purple seem to be her colors of choice. Go figure.

Do I Know What I Just Read? Yes.
Do I Care? I do want to see where this is going...

Week's most memorable moment: Mallory Book and Awesome Andy relax in She-Hulk 2 #9

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