Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Uncanny Avengers, War Machine

I’ve been reading way more than usual.  Getting ahead of myself. Anyway, let’s go:

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 4

I keep reading good reviews for this title.  Every time I have the chance, I’ll give it a read in the bookstore, borrow it from the library, or in this one case, buy an issue.  Every time I come away amused but not sold.

There’s so much to love here, from the self-aware fourth wall breaking to the genuinely funny humor.  The footnotes are hilarious. I love the idea that Squirrel Girl and Galactus are buddies. Ryan North and Erica Henderson have created what should be a comic that I wholeheartedly love.

And yet, and yet.  I group this comic with Moon Girl, Unstoppable Wasp, and Ms America, titles starring a new group of Marvel superheroines.  But aside from the gender of the protagonists, they also share that irreverent sense of humor and uber-competence, which I love reading.  So why is Wasp the only one that I never stopped buying? No idea. I wish it were otherwise.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Uncanny Avengers 1-4

Right after the events of AvX, Red Skull steals the brain of the dead Professor X and somehow gains his telepathic abilities.  Captain America calls on Havok to start a new team comprised of both X-Men and Avengers to help ameliorate human/mutant tensions.  Fighting happens after Red Skull stokes anti-mutant hatred to a riot pitch.

I bought this for John Cassaday’s art.  So beautiful.

Laura Martin on colors.

Love the composition on the first panel.

The retro concentric circles remind me of Jim Steranko.

Rick Remender continues to do fine but unspectacular work.  Not even Cassaday’s art could overcome the meh of it all. I’d like to read it all someday just to look at the pretty pictures, but not enough to buy it.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

U.S. War Machine 1-12

Holy jeez.  This is a trainwreck that I could not tear myself away from.  I can’t deny that I was entertained, but this series is filled with one unfortunate decision after another from the much-maligned Chuck Austen.  (I don’t hate him the way the internet does, and I actually like part of his JLA run. On the other hand, I never read his infamous X-Men.)

A partial list of the questionable stuff:

• The sexualization of Josephs.  Rhodey’s more professional than that.  
• The shoehorned discussions of black politics.
• Horrible storytelling.  That first mission in particular was incomprehensible.  
• What was up with the Darkhawk nonsense?
• Bad choice to do this in black and white.  When there are six War Machines in a battle, blurry face paint is not sufficiently distinctive enough to distinguish them from each other.
• That Doom armor in issue 11.

It's the neck that really kills me.

This title gets a ‘Huh’ from me.  I can't, in good conscience, give it a positive rating. But for all its faults, I never wanted to stop reading it, which is more than a lot of the things I’ve gone through.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Huh