Cover to Cover: "He's pointing at Arcturus! Go way back!"

Ah, do you smell that?

It smells like. . . new comics.

Don't get too much of a whiff now, though. You're gonna need your effort to go through some of these with me today, not the least of which is. . .

Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #26
by Jeff Parker and Ig Guara

Jeff Parker's second issue in his four-issue return to MA:TA is here!

And yes, the cover art is true: The Avengers play in a game of baseball against Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

Speaking of whom, it appears that the cosmic two are getting a lot of page time. They just wrapped up a three-issue arc in Nova, after all!

But baseball isn't all that happens here. In the regular Marvel Universe, the ultimate nullifier was the only weapon that could instill fear in Galactus, but its function was never really stated. Parker here makes a healthy retcon, and says that the ultimate nullifier nullifies quantum reality and reshapes it according to its user's wishes, which leads to all sorts of craziness besides baseball!

A great issue that's kid-friendly and done-in-one. It's really a shame that most people take kid's comics for granted.


Birds of Prey #120
by Tony Bedard and Nico--Michael O'Hare????

Solicits, you're breaking my heart.

This is the third time that you've lied to me. Over here, you say that Nicola Scott would continue as artist, but that's not the case when I picked up Birds today. I'd bring up the other two instances, but it would just be too painful now. I mean, I knew that Nicola would be leaving sometime to join Gail for a Secret Six ongoing, but I didn't know it'd be this soon!

. . . Do you hear that? Of course you do. That's the sound of my tears hitting the keyboard.

Anyways, new artist Michael O'Hare doesn't do a half-bad job, but he certainly doesn't stand up to Nicola Scott yet. The feet on everyone just looks wrong, and the eyes occasionally look too big. The faces on Oracle and Manhunter and Infinity are consistent, but Black Canary just looks too scrawny, and it makes her look too young, which makes no sense at all.

Away from the art, there's also, um, the story, which left me a little cold. Oracle and Canary meet up again, but the reunion is kind of cold, and the two continue to be secretive around each other, which is bad =(.

There's also a scene where the Joker gets angry at people for stealing his Joker gas when he was on the Hell Planet (as per the miniseries Salvation Run), but that wasn't too strong.

Mostly build-up this issue, so hopefully next ish is better.