Spider-Girl, Invincible Iron Man

Invincible Iron Man 600

What a mess.  Bendis crams a bunch of random events together into his final issue, none of which are very interesting.  There’s no closure, but he never made me care enough about anything these threads to really want any. He does himself no favors by having AI Tony Stark call it out:  “I love the chaos. I love knowing as much as I know...and not knowing what is going to happen next.” Mission accomplished, you left this title in chaos.

But let’s not forget that Bendis gave us Riri.  That’s enough for me out of this title.

Thank you for her, Bendis.

Spider-Girl 2-5, 9, 11-13

I really have zero idea why I bought such a huge chunk of this title.  I must have gotten an amazing deal on them. I haven’t even read any of these issues ever, so this won’t technically be a re-read.  

Like Spider-Gwen, this title spun out of a one-shot appearance (What If?, in this case).  Like Spider-Gwen, it’s a take on a teen-aged, female Spidey. And like Spider-Gwen (which I’ll be reading immediately after Spider-Girl), it’s okay.  It’s very much of a bygone era, when even the complicated life of a budding hero (parents, school drama, homework, and villains of the month) can be sorted out in 22 pages.  It feels almost quaint, like an all-ages title. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Tom DeFalco’s execution is spot on. He’s painting by the numbers, but it’s still a fine looking work at the end of the day.  And the actual art by Pat Olliffe hearkens back to that earlier time as well, very Marvel house style.

DeFalco makes the very interesting choice of writing his narration in omniscient second person.  I can’t recall another instance of it in comic books, and it really stands out.

The time travel story in issue 11 where May meets her teen-aged parents is cliche, but makes for some really nice moments nonetheless.

Ratings after I finish reading all the DeFalco issues, I don’t expect the quality to shift from issue to issue.