Marvel has been developing a lot of new characters lately, many of them females carrying their own books. I’m glad to see it, and even more glad to be enjoying it. The new Wasp showed up a while ago in one of the Avengers books, and wandered around as a background character briefly. Now, she gets her own title in “The Unstoppable Wasp.”
Luke Cage episode 11, “Now You’re Mine,” picks up right where episode ten, “Take It Personal,” left off. The gunfight is raging at Harlem’s Paradise, and people are wisely running for their lives. Cage is crouched behind the bar, shielding Misty as best he can with his bulletproof body. Cage signs for Claire to stay where she is, out of harm’s (at least immediate) way, and Shades is out on the street looking surprised. I keep thinking of Shades as Wile E Coyote and his succession of bosses (Stokes, now Diamondback) as the ACME products: Shades has things under control until something blows up in his face. I almost feel bad for him.
The new Champions (absolutely no relation to the 1970’s team) is continuing to come together. They have their membership established, as far as we know, but they are still working things out like who’s in charge, which comes up over and over this issue. Personally, I’d probably vote for Ms. Marvel, but who knows what’ll happen.
I’m not quite sure what they’re doing with the scheduling for Agents of SHIELD, but it’s getting a bit odd. They took a random few week break, came back last week, now this week is their “winter finale.” I guess working for SHIELD must come with a great vacation package.
The brave Rebel Alliance and the tyrannical Empire clash in their seemingly endless war. Everyone knows the two sides and what they stand for. But what about other people? No war has everyone take one side or the other. This annual tells the story of Pash Davane, a large and powerful laborer nicknamed Bash. Her planet, Skoril-Lei has been harshly damaged by the Galactic Civil War, and all she sees is death and destruction on both sides.
After an odd few-week hiatus, the Agents of SHIELD return to “Deal With Our Devils.” Of course, with Ghost Rider running around, that might not be a figure of speech. What we do get is an interesting continuation of where things left off, and some pretty interesting story-telling techniques.
Luke Cage’s ninth episode is the somewhat confusingly titled DWYCK. They never explain this during the actual show, so I had to go hunting around a bit before I found out that means, “Do What You Can, Kid.” I don’t know where that’s from, but I’d never heard it/seen it before this. EDIT: Apparently the initials are from a song that had a somewhat shady meaning, and, as Cage tends to do, he gave it a better meaning.
Luke Cage’s eighth episode is “Blowin’ Up The Spot,” and opens where the last one stopped, with Luke and Claire both very surprised that he got shot. He gets taken away in an ambulance, which Claire says is being driven by a friend of hers who is “discreet.” It doesn’t matter how discreet he is, as the shooter follows them and uses some kind of explosive to knock the ambulance over. The shooter stalks them, and apparently knows Cage from his early life, as he calls him, “Carl.”
I’ve been reading comics a long time. I remember reading a good bit of the original run of Power Man and Iron Fist. I’ve always enjoyed the pair, and their odd friendship. The new title has been enjoyable, and I’m happy they are back together. The current issue is a really fine piece of writing.
“Manifest” is the seventh Luke Cage episode. It starts off with an amusing scene of Zip trying to do a gun deal. Cage walks up, and everyone runs off to his, “Do I even have to say it?” Zip makes an ominous comment and then runs off after his clients while Luke makes short work of the guns.
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