A quick rundown of the rest of this month's purchases.
Ms. Marvel #12 (Marvel)
A genuinely lovely Valentine's issue, a one-off, straightforward story in which Loki crashes Kamala's school dance. It's simply very sweet, funny and beautifully, simply told by G. Willow Wilson, perfectly complimented by Elmo Bondoc's mellow art style. With all these gigantic comic events going on, in particular in Marvel, which will shortly reboot so none of it really matters anyway, it's a pleasure to read a self-contained, low stakes and intimate story like this.
Multiversity: Mastermen (DC)
On the subject of big events, this is dragging a little now. While the conceit of a different comic and a different story each month worked well to begin with, last month's Multiversity Guidebook upped the ante, so to drop back to another (mostly) self-contained story seems retrograde. In a series like this, the odd misfire doesn't matter so much, since we'll be off to another reality next time. However, the Nazi-ruled world of Earth-10 just isn't that inspiring a setting. Uncle Sam battling Overman might seem like a great idea, but there's really only so much you can do with it that isn't crashingly obvious. Mastermen starts with a full page image of Hitler taking a strenuous dump, and that's the height of its wit. Ready for the finale.
The Wicked + The Divine #8 (Image)
It's the Dionysus issue, so of course it's going to be fun. A magic-induced rave in full, glorious technicolor, with the art dream team of Wilson and McKelvie creating eye-popping sequences to a panel-by-panel beat. It's probably really evocative to people less boring than me, who actually go to raves and things. Still, this is a filler issue, dropping a couple of hints to the ongoing mystery and moving the story on by just a fraction. Style over substance - but such style.
The Amazing Spider-Man #15/ Spider-Gwen #1 (Marvel)
And so, Spider-Verse comes to an end, sort of. This issue announces that Secret Wars: Spider-Verse is coming, so it is clearly seguing the two big events together. Presumably, the incursions that Spider-UK is so concerned about are related to the reality damaging event that is set to hit the Marvel universe. Even the next issue of Spider-Man is being touted as "Caught in the Web of Spider-Verse," so the fallout from this will be running on for a while. The issue itself is effective enough, but is mostly concerned with providing a final coda to the Superior Spider-Man arc, which needs to be done and dusted now. Spider-Gwen gets off to a promising start, with an
unremarkable but enjoyable first issue that pits our heroine against the Gwenverse version of the Vulture. Gwen only has her own series because the character was such a surprise hit, and wisely this first issue sticks to her strengths. She's fun, sardonic and quippy, but in a totally different way to Peter Parker. With Silk, Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman all continuing their adventures after this, there's no shortage of female Spider-heroes going forward, but Gwen looks to be the most enjoyable right now.
Ms. Marvel #12 (Marvel)
A genuinely lovely Valentine's issue, a one-off, straightforward story in which Loki crashes Kamala's school dance. It's simply very sweet, funny and beautifully, simply told by G. Willow Wilson, perfectly complimented by Elmo Bondoc's mellow art style. With all these gigantic comic events going on, in particular in Marvel, which will shortly reboot so none of it really matters anyway, it's a pleasure to read a self-contained, low stakes and intimate story like this.
Multiversity: Mastermen (DC)
On the subject of big events, this is dragging a little now. While the conceit of a different comic and a different story each month worked well to begin with, last month's Multiversity Guidebook upped the ante, so to drop back to another (mostly) self-contained story seems retrograde. In a series like this, the odd misfire doesn't matter so much, since we'll be off to another reality next time. However, the Nazi-ruled world of Earth-10 just isn't that inspiring a setting. Uncle Sam battling Overman might seem like a great idea, but there's really only so much you can do with it that isn't crashingly obvious. Mastermen starts with a full page image of Hitler taking a strenuous dump, and that's the height of its wit. Ready for the finale.
The Wicked + The Divine #8 (Image)It's the Dionysus issue, so of course it's going to be fun. A magic-induced rave in full, glorious technicolor, with the art dream team of Wilson and McKelvie creating eye-popping sequences to a panel-by-panel beat. It's probably really evocative to people less boring than me, who actually go to raves and things. Still, this is a filler issue, dropping a couple of hints to the ongoing mystery and moving the story on by just a fraction. Style over substance - but such style.
The Amazing Spider-Man #15/ Spider-Gwen #1 (Marvel)
And so, Spider-Verse comes to an end, sort of. This issue announces that Secret Wars: Spider-Verse is coming, so it is clearly seguing the two big events together. Presumably, the incursions that Spider-UK is so concerned about are related to the reality damaging event that is set to hit the Marvel universe. Even the next issue of Spider-Man is being touted as "Caught in the Web of Spider-Verse," so the fallout from this will be running on for a while. The issue itself is effective enough, but is mostly concerned with providing a final coda to the Superior Spider-Man arc, which needs to be done and dusted now. Spider-Gwen gets off to a promising start, with an
unremarkable but enjoyable first issue that pits our heroine against the Gwenverse version of the Vulture. Gwen only has her own series because the character was such a surprise hit, and wisely this first issue sticks to her strengths. She's fun, sardonic and quippy, but in a totally different way to Peter Parker. With Silk, Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman all continuing their adventures after this, there's no shortage of female Spider-heroes going forward, but Gwen looks to be the most enjoyable right now.
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