Saturday, September 26, 2009

web 2.0

drive-by readings

Spider Woman #1 (Marvel)
"Agent of S.W.O.R.D."
Brian Michael Bendis
Alex Maleev
Cory Petit
are we really still on the Skrull thing? they're so 2008. but oh well ... i guess we all have to exorcise our demons sometime.

now recruited into S.W.O.R.D. (who just like S.H.I.E.L.D. got effed over during the Skrull Infiltration and Invasion) by Hank McCoy's probable still-girlfriend Abby Brand, Jessica Drew becomes a one-woman Skrull hunter (ummm, Skrull Kill Krew, anyone?). Abby figures Jessica needs to reconcile her being the face of the Skrull invasion, and needs to lash out, hence helping her in that regard. the difficulty of getting a grip on yourself and reality is rendered beautifully by Maleev's noir paints and Bendis' narrative. there's a lot more color this time, as compared to Maleev's excellent Daredevil stint, despite both characters being bedecked in red.

the prevalent school of thought here is that Bendis loves Spider Woman so much, he's made her the linchpin of most of the major storylines he's written. but i think he hates her that's why he screws with her that much. if Susan Richards or Janet Van Dyne was the Skrull queen, it would be difficult to make them pariahs, though certainly there would be some backlash. Spider Woman has always been a mysterious quantity and thus the character was perfect for the roller-coaster mind-bending crap Bendis needed to unleash.

i await the eventual meeting with Nick Fury - oh, that double/triple agent recruitment thing was oh-so-long ago.

2 comments:

Comics Cavern said...

Nice to see somebody review the actual story - some critics seem to think the fact that Jessica has girl parts hinders the reading experience: http://6731k.tk

Although I must admit that cover pic did draw my attention to the rack - the comic store rack, I mean!

grifter said...

the question is, which section of the comic store was the rack in question located?