Ocean's Eight, Black Widow, Squadron Supreme

Ocean’s Eight

Exactly what I expected, exactly that I was looking for.  It successfully takes on the torch passed by the previous Ocean’s movies, and I hope that many sequels follow.  It’s missing that little extra cleverness that made the Clooney movies so good, but it gets really close.

Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway are particularly strong.  Bullock and Blanchett’s girlmance is as relaxed and easy as their male counterparts.  Hathaway brings a depth that I did not expect from her role, and makes me want to watch the movie again to catch the nuances I must have missed.  

Awkwafina channels Donald Glover in her performance.  Something about the way she cranes her neck forward and leads with her face, her nonchalance and comfort in her own skin strongly reminds me of him.  

Regret watching? No

Would watch again? Yes

Would buy on DVD? Yes

Rating: Good

Black Widow Vol 1 3

I found a comic shop that had a bunch of back issues to fill out some holes I discovered in previous reviews.  Nothing surprising, but it’s nice to complete the Devin Grayson/JG Jones miniseries.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Black Widow Vol 3 4-6

Same thing here with the Richard Morgan/Goran Parlov/Bill Sienkiewicz collaboration.  (Though I’m still missing issue 3.) I’m curious about the art credits on this title:

1 - Artist: Sienkiewicz

2, 4, 6 - Layouts: Parlov; Finishes: Sienkiewicz
5 - Art: Sienkiewicz and Parlov

Why the different designations?  Just how much did Parlov contribute?  It all looks like Sienkiewicz to me. (As I’ve said in the past, Sienkiewicz’s inks have a tendency to obliterate the penciler’s style.)  

I didn’t realize until I read this interview that Morgan was the one who originated the concept of the Red Room, or the agent sterilization program that so pissed off idiot fans in Joss Whedon’s Avengers 2.  Some nice lasting contributions to the canon there.

While I’m happy to have tracked down these issues (and I’ll keep digging around for the last missing piece), I don’t think it’s great enough to merit purchase of the sequel Morgan wrote as a follow up.  Maybe if I see it on sale.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Squadron Supreme 1-12

I was very worried going into this re-read.  My experiences with lauded 80s Marvel comics have generally gone poorer than expected - The Stern Avengers, Byrne Fantastic Four, and Nocenti Daredevil did not age that well.  They were exposition and stilted dialogue heavy, and I slogged more than read my way through them. I was expecting more of the same with Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme, despite my positive recollections of it.  Would all of the moral dilemmas he addressed come across as preachy and outdated? Would I quickly tire of the awkward thought balloons and melodramatic exclamations?

Nope.  The pages flew by and I tore through the trade in one sitting.  The plot zips along at a rapid pace, and Gruenwald doesn’t linger for too long on any of his ethical questions.  He spends just enough time of each of them, addressing both sides before letting his characters provide their own answers and moving on.  And there are a ton of them.  

It’s a testament to Gruenwald’s writing skill that I understood, if not condoned, just about every point of view on display.  The members of the Squadron (and Nighthawk’s team of rebels) are all flawed characters with a genuine desire to serve society to the best of their abilities.  The totalitarian, brainwashing solutions that they end up with are wrong by just about any measure, but this may be the closest I’ve ever come to thinking that if the right people were in charge, just maybe…

That both sides have the best of intentions makes their final battle all the more tragic.  I appreciate that Gruenwald elects to have a lengthy casualty list; This war had fatal consequences, which made it all the more believable.  Props also to the pencilers (John Buscema, Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, and Paul Neary) for solid art for the entire series (despite cycling through four artists!).  That last fight in particular - There were nineteen (I think) combatants, and the choreography was clear the entire time. Everyone had their moment, the action never lagged, and I was completely impressed by the execution.  

This is a classic that aged surprisingly well.  It’s exactly the kind of reading experience I was hoping to find over the course of this project.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Good