Angel & Faith #17, by Christos Gage (script), Rebekah Isaacs (art), Dan Jackson (colors), Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt (letters) - You know, I've always been curious as to why the book has two letterers. Does one handle dialogue, and the other sound effects? Or do they split the book 50-50?Faith justifiably blows up at Angel, seeing as how helping him through his martyr shit has blown her life to pieces. Venting finished they set about tracking down who stole Giles' body, quickly arriving at Ethan Rayne. Who I did not realize had died during Season 8. That fact helps Angel realize that Eyghon is behind all this, and after some quick searches for real estate purchases, they're off. Meanwhile, Nadira and the other Slayers get their deceased friend back, thanks "Giles", except it's a part of Eyghon inside, rather than her. And the Slayers find themselves in quite a battle, without even having started in on the boss battle yet.
I initially thought our heroes pulled together what happened to Giles too quickly, but I think I'm just used to decompression. Other writers would have spent five issues getting to this point, but Gage understands that sometimes when one piece fits, the others start falling into place. Domino effect. Once you know Rayne was at the funeral, and Angel knows he's supposed to be dead, it comes together. I like Nadira's caution, and the limitations of it, seeing as she knows jackall about magic. That's one of those scary moments in life, having to trust someone you don't know, because you also don't know enough about something to recognize any dangers. Also, the situation is dire enough you may not care.
Isaacs gives us quite the design for Eyghon. Much more drippy, or perhaps slimy, than I expected. In a way that makes me feel it's his skin itself sliding off, not simply some ooze he secretes. I like the argument between Angel and Faith early on. How Isaacs plays with the distance between the two. Faith is usually advancing on Angel, getting in his face, but when he tries to close the distance in a conciliatory manner, the gap actually increases until Faith goes on the offensive again.
Also, I'm pretty sure I have several coworkers who would swoon at Isaacs rendition of Ripper Giles.
Hawkeye #6, by Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist), Matt Hollingsworth (colorist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer) - I see the credits are now simply listing this book as being "by" Fraction and Aja, without specifying roles. Does Fraction have any art background? I'd be curious to see him draw an issue, while letting Aja write it. Probably be a train wreck.It's what the cover says. Six days in the life of Hawkeye. Can't be a linear six days, though. Nooooo, of course not. Got to jump around and shit.I really hope I was just distracted by something, because I don't feel like I should have had as much trouble keeping the timeline straight as I did, considering they tell me which freaking day it is. Clint gets injured in a fight with AIM guys, decides to take some time off. He's enjoying his time off, until the stupid Russians show up again and beat the shit out of him. Are we ever going to have an issue of this comic that doesn't involve Clint getting his ass beat? This is like Spider-Man during that "Gauntlet" mess from three years ago. The Russians - in their inimitably stupid way - tell Clint to leave or they will kill everyone in his building. Clint considers this, gets chewed out by Kate, and decides to stick it out. Having made this decision, he turns his attention to more important tasks, like trying to get all his home entertainment equipment set-up so he can watch "Dog Cops". Nice to know TV in the Marvel Universe isn't any better than it is here.
The bit on Page 3, with the Avengers fighting AIM, that was supposed to remind me of those side-scrolling beat em' ups, right? That was my first thought, that it was like the old X-Men arcade game I loved so much. Clint needed to shoot the oil drum, that would have sped things along. Complaining about the time-skipping aside, I do actually enjoy it (as long as I can keep the order straight in my head). It lets the meaning of scenes take on different meanings if you read about what came earlier after. The bit about Clint being able to unpack his life like a grown man reads differently once you know Kate chewed him out for planning to run. Before that, you just figure Clint's disorganized (see his mess of cables and A/V stuff), or maybe he's a packrat. So he doesn't unpack because it's mostly useless junk. After Kate storms off, it's a whole other story. So that's nice.
That said, enough with the "Bro" stuff. It's annoying as hell, to the extent it makes me want Hawkeye to murder the annoying Russian guys, and I don't like that I want Hawkeye to murder them. "Bruv" is still OK, because they used that in Attack the Block, and I love that movie, but NO MORE "BRO". Please.
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