OK, let's do a post about my recent comics purchases:
Shaft #1 (Dynamite): I'm getting these for the Cowan/Sienkiewicz covers, I admit. Wait, can I afford to do that? OK, a Cowan/Sienkiewicz cover caught my eye, and I decided to give it a shot. This is an OK first issue, with a bit of backstory about a young John Shaft choosing his self-respect over crooked fight promoters. The interior story won me over. Bilquis Evely's art is decent storytelling art, closer to M.D. Bright than to Denys Cowan, and that probably serves the story well. David F. Walker's script is decent enough.
I think the only thing I actually disliked in this issue was an ugly and kind of gory house ad for "Smiley the Psychotic Button." Apparently this is where the Chaos! characters are published now.
Let's see, the next four are from Marvel:
Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1: In which Bendis and Cho get back together, IN SPACE! Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's what I guess is the present GotG squad: Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Flash Thompson in the Venom pants, and of course Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, who is as I recall the reason I'm even buying this (Bendis!) book.
Also, it has a nice Gamora-centric cover.
We get to see Rocket Raccoon drawn in a style not wholly unlike Frank Cho's
Liberty Meadows funny animals, and vaguely Kirbyesque Skrulls, and a bunch of--
( look, should I cut for spoilers here? )Spider-Man and the X-Men #1: I was not planning to get this series. But then I saw it on the stands, and I thought, "Hey, Spidey used to be a schoolteacher! Wouldn't it be cool if he were brought in as a chemistry teacher at the Jean Grey School!" Well, I flipped it open, and that's not what they're doing. Instead, he's some kind of "Special Class Guidance Counselor," brought in as a request of the dead Logan. I bought it anyway, though. It's trying to be funny, mostly. It gets in a jab at super-teams that sit around waiting to be attacked instead of trying to go out and help regular people, which I liked in a meta way.
And today's purchases:
Captain Marvel #10: OK, I wasn't too happy with the Flerken story, but this issue and the last are moving Carol's book into the position of my favorite comic book. This is somehow Carol's 100th solo issue, and it's a little oversized, with David Lopez splitting the book with Marcio Takara and Laura Braga. Parts of the book are narrated by different characters: Kit (Lt. Trouble), Jess (Spider-Woman), and Rhodey (Rhodey), giving natural breaks for artist switching. It says it's "part one of two" but it largely stands alone, even if there's a bit of tease at the end. Lila's still around, and it's pretty fun, even if the supervillain gambit was defeated quickly and implausibly.
Ms. Marvel #10: This is a third of four parts. Not an enormous amount happens outside of "trying to deal with the Inventor, and getting slammed by his machines," but what does happen moves the story forward. Kamala finds out why people are willingly joining the Inventor (it's sad) and Lockjaw gets kidnapped, and lots of fighting. Lots of fighting.
