The one downside to going running is that lots of people around here let their dogs run loose, and dogs like to chase things that run. If they just wanted to bark that'd be OK, but my experience is they act like they want to remove my Achilles tendon. I did manage to stave that off today without having to break stride. I just had to spin and run backwards. It kept my eyes on the dog and it lost interest pretty fast. Maybe dogs can't understand backwards running.
Secret Avengers #31-33, by Rick Remender (writer), Matteo Scalera (artist, 31 & 32), Andy Kuhn (artist, 33), Matthew Wilson (color art), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I prefer Adams' version of Carrion there on the cover to Scalera's in issue 32. I wouldn't have even known it was him if he had shouted his own name as he attacked Venom.Let's see. Most of the team in Bagalia is under the control of Abyss, except Venom and Ant-Man. They run for a bit, then try to stop Abyss from spreading itself by loading its slaves onto airliners. They stop all the planes but one, the one which has Hawkeye on it. With Captain Britain and Pym otherwise occupied, it's up to Natasha to try and stop that plane. And she fails miserably, which is kind of a surprise. Ant-Man and Venom try to get the crown off Taskmaster, which doesn't go so well until Flash covers Tasky with the symbiont, which cuts him off from Abyss' influence. The day is saved!
Except Natasha knows O'Grady is a Life Model Decoy, and Captain Britain knows the Descendants are planning something big with a power-dampening station. And Hawkeye ignores all of it, because he wants some sleep. So Natasha leaves the team in a huff?
Wait, what? Did O'Grady pump stupid gas into the ventilation?
Anyway, in #33, O'Grady-Bot (I'm not calling him Black Ant) sends Original Recipe Human Torch to the Descendants, and lets a bunch of them on the base, where they proceed to attack Valkyrie and Flash mid-coitus, and send them into space. Then they burn the place down. Meanwhile, Hawkeye and Braddock are in the 666 Reality trying to get the Orb of Necromancy from the Avengers of the Undead. Except, surprise, they plan to use it to spread undeadness across the multiverse. And Braddock wonders why the Captain Britain Corps gets no respect in the 616 reality.I still have that vague sense of things being off from my expectations. Hawkeye and the Black Widow in particular. It's not real bad, we aren't talking Bendis trying to write Dr. Strange here, but there are little things, actions or outcomes the characters take which seem to be primarily in service of the plot. Other than that, it's pretty good. Tense, decent amount of foreshadowing, though I'm not clear on if they're retrieving the same Orb of Necromancy we heard about back in Remender's first arc, or if this is another one, from another universe, the Captain Britain opted to deposit in the 666 reality. I'm guessing the former, and that it probably ties in with Uncanny X-Force, but Remender failed to make that clear. Seriously, how about an editor's note directing us to a relevant trade? I wouldn't mind some more delving into O'Grady-Bot's perspective, as a machine given the memories of a dead guy. He acts like he is the dead guy, while remembering his death, which isn't the most unreasonable approach in a universe with as many resurrections as Marvel's.
I really think Scalera needs to shrink the Widow's chest a bit. It's kind of ridiculous, as you might guess from the fact even I'm mentioning it now. Also, some of the facial expressions are a little too exaggerated. The character seems gobsmacked/screaming when the dialogue suggests they're only tense or nervous. Scalera's style may not be built for subtlety. The actions sequences are well done, Matthew Wilson's colors add a lot. Bagalia in general is much darker than the scenes on the airliner, and even more so in the inner sanctum where Taskmaster is sitting with the crown. Lots of deep purples and blacks. Effectively moody. Andy Kuhn's style is a bit different, he uses thicker lines for one thing, seems to use a lot more shadows, but it's still close enough to Scalera's there isn't any trouble recognizing characters. He's definitely a more effective sub in terms of maintaining tone than Rios was for Soy. Interestingly, Wilson's colors seem less varied, less shaded than they did for Scalera. Maybe it's a reaction to Kuhn's lines versus Scalera's. I thought the Horie's went with stronger, deeper colors on Green Arrow once they were dealing with Freddie Williams instead of Tolibao's very light linework. Could be a similar thing, though I think on the whole, the art was better on the Scalera issues.
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