Captain Marvel #3, by Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), Dexter Soy (artist, pgs. 1-16), Rich Elson & Will Quintana (artists, pgs. 17,-18), Karl Kesel & Javier Rodriguez (artists, pg. 19), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - No, you're not reading that wrong. 19 pages, not 20. Nice, Marvel. As though I wasn't questioning myself buying the title enough already.Carol helps fend off the Prowler attacks. She lets one Japanese pilot return to his base and bring everything they have, so he'll know when he loses that he never stood a chance. A. . . questionable strategy to put it mildly. Carol also confirms the Prowlers are Kree, though what they're doing her she doesn't know. She chats a bit about her origin with some of the ladies she's fighting alongside, morning comes, the fight starts. It's going well, then the Prowlers form into a giant mech. Hmm, second mech in the last two days. The Elson and Quintana bit is about several female pilots, including Helen Cobb, butting up against bureaucratic stupidity/institutional sexism that keeps them out of the NASA. That last page is, I don't know what, unless it's a sign Carol's appearance in WW2 is already changing history.
I have absolutely no idea where this story is going, why Carol's in the past, how those two bits at the end are connected, no clue at all. Which is more frustrating than having a hunch, because then I could at least judge whether I thought I'd like how it'll go. Soy's artwork is, hmm, there's some good work with the expressions, especially in the quieter moments, when Carol's talking to Daisy and Bijoux (that's a great name). Some of the others are a little flat, not really clear on what the character's feeling. The fight scenes are dull, there's no real sense of flow, just a bunch of vaguely interconnected panels. That might be how it's scripted, might just be how Soy does things, I don't know.
Hawkeye #2, by Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist), Matt Hollingsworth (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer) - I know a lot of people are going ga-ga over these covers, but they're a bit too minimalist for my taste. Oh, and I still haven't gotten my hands on issue 1. I saw a copy available online, but they wanted 23 bucks because it was an Adi Granov variant. Cripes, I may not love these covers, but I sure as hell ain't paying that much for a comic with a cover done by an artist whose work I can't stand. I mean, I'll take Granov over Greg Land, but probably not ahead of Harvey Tolibao, if that gives you an idea of where his work stands on my personal spectrum.Clint's recruited Kate Bishop into whatever this big thing he's investigating is. It starts with a circus performance for a bunch of mob boss types, including Wilson Fisk and Madame Masque, among others. Turns out it's the Ringmaster and his revamped Circus of Crime, out to rob all these wealthy crooks. This seems ill-advised, as the Kingpin doesn't take kindly to such things, but what the hell. Kate and Clint stop the heist, mostly without incident. Other than Clint taking a crowbar (and several fists) to the head, and Kate getting grazed with a bullet. Then they steal all the money, so now all the mob types will be after them. I repeat, ill-advised. Clint's does a pretty poor job of explaining why he wants Kate to work with him, but eventually is honest enough she agrees.
So it's interesting. There are times I wonder if he isn't being written as too much of a dork, but I mostly write that off as him trying to be a helpful teacher to Kate, when she's more than capable, especially in some areas where Clint has very little experience. Certainly this Hawkeye rings more true to me than Remender's, whose Clint still seems too purposefully abrasive, rather than simply speaking without thinking.
As for Aja's art, it's gorgeous. I mean, there are a couple of pages where the faces are kind of rough, but on the whole, the expressions are good, he lays out the action in clever ways where it flows clearly from one panel to the next. Even the brief skirmishes Clint and Kate have separately (page 11), where it switches from one to the other from panel-to-panel work, because it serves to highlight how their respective fights are going in opposite directions. Plus, there's a nice bit in panel 5 where Clint's punching one guy as another leaps at him from the right. In panel 6, Kate is on the left side, slugging an attacker to the right with a fire extinguisher. It's like the guy jumped into the next panel, wound up in an entirely different fight, and got clocked.
Also, Hollingsworth's colors. They aren't extremely bright, like the Horie's work on Dial H, but they're effective. They aren't murky, or obscuring the art. They monochrome backgrounds in places highlight the Aja's linework and made the figures stand out more. It's great stuff. Hopefully Fraction's writing can keep up. He did use the word "cornpone", which is one of those words like "poltroon" I wish I used more often. That's promising, in its own way.
I love ending on a positive note. Tomorrow, I don't know yet what tomorrow's post will be. See where the mood takes me.
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