Black Widow #9 - Man, that is the saddest, schlumpiest Punisher i have ever seen.

What's wrong, was he all out of wife-beaters and cheap beer? And this was worth a splash panel? An entire page devoted to that? All of Noto's art continues to be stiff. The scene with Crossbones walking around the ship, it's like, you could do better posing action figures, and again, what a waste of space.

He's dynamically swinging around to grab Black Widow's gun in that final panel, in case you can't tell. Clearly you would frame that shot at close range with no background so that you can't tell exactly what's happening. All of the art is like this. Storywise, i guess it's a basic, albeit content-lite, spy plot, except Black Widow's whole mission here is a cluster and she learns nothing, and there's a scene with her i guess? maybe? capturing the Punisher at the end that is left to our imagination. Continuity-wise, the last time i saw the Black Widow interact with the Punisher, it ended in a pretty bitter fight and the Punisher getting imprisoned by the Avengers. But none of that is mentioned here. It's like, we should be excited to see these characters but we shouldn't expect them to act at all they've ever appeared before. All in all, pretty lame. I don't know how we got nine issues into this series already. Min? Can we drop this?

She-Hulk #7 - It was pretty clever of Marvel to give us two issues of the worst art i've ever seen in a comic book so that when we get back to the quirky weirdness of Pulido i'm willing to embrace it wholeheartedly. This issue actually is exactly what this book should be. A fun "case" for She-Hulk showing both her legal and super-hero sides, and with some good interaction between her and Hellcat. A fun story. Hellcat trying to use Henry Pym's helmet to talk to ants: "It's like talking to a million ten year olds! All they want is sugar!" Since i've already got my scanner fired up, let me use it to highlight some art that i think is interesting instead of just bitching about Noto's bad Widow art.

Captain Marvel #6 - I have been liking this better since we actually got into the heart of what the Spartaxians wanted the planet for. The resolution here is pretty obvious, but it's a fun bit of space battle and basic politics. We saw the Guardians of the Galaxy movie this past weekend, and one of things that struck me was how in the movieverse, the Spartaxians are as non-relevant as they were in the comics before Bendis' GotG comic. At the very end, Starlord is identified as being half-human and half something that the Xandarians aren't familiar with, and that's it. I assumed that the Spartaxians would play a much larger role in the movie, hence Bendis' revision. The fact that that isn't the case as all makes Bendis' decision - and the fallout here - all the more bizarre. Anyway, i only mention that here since this comic takes an obvious cue from the GotG movie by having Captain Marvel flying away listening to a mix tape. In any event, next issue promises to be about the flerken cat so i suppose it's worth sticking around for that.

New Warriors #8 - This continues to be fun. As long as Hummingbird says something like "I'm going to fight you with my brain" every issue, i'm good. I am a little disappointed to see the whole issue devoted to these new Inhumans and just waiting until the last panel to advance the Maelstrom's Minions plot or anything else that's going on. But i guess it was good to wrap that part up for now, and i definitely enjoyed the issue.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #14 - By the way, this book and New Warriors, definitely my two favorite books right now, are selling less than 20,000 copies each on the direct market. I am obviously not a good gauge of what most people like. But in my humble opinion, this issue is just fantastic. This is a comedy heist book, but since we're talking about art, let's just take a random scene to show some actual sequential art that i can only wish existed in the actual action comics.

And that's in addition to lots of little breaks to do funny stuff like this.

And on top of that, humor and intrigue that anyone who likes movies like Ocean's Eleven or Guy Ritchie's early films would enjoy. Except since it's in the Marvel universe, it's about stealing things like a portrait of an unmasked Dr. Doom or the (still alive) head of Silvermane. So that's my pitch. If everyone reading this blog goes out and adds this to their pull list, we can move that 17,826 number up to like 17,831 or so. We can do it!

The last three panels of Superior Foes reminds me of the Ultimate Spider-Man animation series. I must admit I don't think I'd have pulled any of those comics due to the art. I might be stuck in my ways of how I like my comics to look.

Black Widow: this whole thing is just sad. is the purpose of it to make Black Widow into the most ineffective super hero ever? there hasn't been a single time where she actually completed a mission successfully in this series. are the creators at Marvel incapable of writing a story with a female lead who isn't a loser? Captain Marvel got depowered and a brain tumor and harassed by a neighbor while she contemplated her purpose in life. She-Hulk got fired from her high paying lawyer job and is working in some basement someplace with no actual clients and being depressed about that. they made Sif crazy. wtf?

and that's before you consider doughy Punisher and art that shows nothing.

we are so dropping this.

they don't even tell you Crossbones is Crossbones. he just shows up, also looking doughy. there are some people out there who don't know who he is, you know. just sayin'. when a new character walks on the set, you should say their name even if they are well-known.

She-Hulk: very happy Pym got carried off and it didn't turn into someone coming in ti save the day for She-Hulk. i am upset about the thing in the last panel and that i am going to have to read an issue with him in his current state. grrr

I have no opinion on Black Widow because I'm not reading it, but Fnord, buddy, it's time to let the Rucka Punisher War Zone mini go. Marvel is not going to tell you how he broke out of jail. Just assume he did it the way all of the super-villains did it.

As for having the Avengers and Punisher reference their battle, I think that would be helpful for you and I and the other 20,000 people who actually read that mini, but for everyone else, it would just kind of sound like a weird Family Guy flashback. ("Cap, stop punching me! This is just like that time you and the other Avengers arrested me because I was helping that Lady Punisher who will probably never be seen again.")

Hehe, i will stop using that as my example UM. The thought process for me was a) the art stinks, b) the story stinks, and c) it feels completely cut off from the rest of the Marvel universe, so why am i getting this? I disagree on the references, though. At least from my own experience reading comics all through the ages, footnotes and references when i had read the previous comics were "yep, that happened and it's cool that they're building on it here" moments. But more importantly when i hadn't read the previous comic it was a great way to glimpse into the backstories of characters for books i wasn't able to keep up with, or just show that these characters have rich histories that are relevant, and it made the books seem deeper than just whatever plot of the month was happening.

That's always been the distinguishing factor for Marvel for me, and it's what i want from Marvel comics or else i should just read books with much better stories like Saga and Locke & Key. The complaints you see on this site from me are just the seismic shifts as my brain slowly and painfully adjusts to the fact that it's not what Marvel is interested in producing right now.

I agree with fnord in regard to footnotes. I used to get a kick out of reading so and so battle so and so in book 121. Even more so when they fought five years ago. It really did add to the characters history and it showed that events mattered.

Everyone knows the mantra: every book is someone's 1st book. That's what I look for when I pick up a comic but too often I find that characters aren't introduced, you're supposed to, apparently.

fnord, and anyone else for that matter, why do you still read Marvel?