Tag Archives: Jubilee

Review: Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #15

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patsy-walker-aka-hellcat-15On the outside, Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #15 seems like a special catch-all holiday special issue with Patsy, the temps, Jubilee, and special guests like her landlady Sharon King and Ms. America enjoying some mid-February cheer after some stressful times with Civil War II, Hedy, and most recently, Black Cat. But then writer Kate Leth, artist Brittney Williams, and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg make a comic take a turn for the reality warping thanks to the common  With trips to Hell and magical bags, Hellcat has always been pretty trippy to go with its slice of life meets quirky street level superheroics, but it’s mostly been contained into special locales. But the weird visuals have arrived fully formed at Patsy’s temp agency building, and Williams gets to draw all matters of mostly adorable and occasionally creepy images intruding on the “real world”.

In addition to featuring a fierce, sentient tiger plush named Mr. Sniffles, chibi Jubilee, and a Canadian flag rocking Ms. America, Leth uses Patsy’s sickness and possible new powers to zero in on how she is changing. She has spent so much of Hellcat fighting and dealing with drama that as soon as it’s party time, she sneezes out the personification of her stress and negative feelings. Instead of doing yet another team up with friends and save the day plot, Leth has Patsy fight her own battles and use her words and agile kicks to overcome her fears. Mr. Sniffles is pretty much Patsy’s subconscious so she uses her knowledge of herself and what’s she really freaked out about (US politics in 2017.) instead of her past or insecurity. It’s also kind of nice to have a superhero uncertain about how the United States is going to turn out under Trump, and this feeling stems from Patsy’s deep friendships with women, queer people, and people of color in both her home, work, and superhero circles.

And in focusing on Patsy’s “secondary mutation”, or whatever the Disney/Inhuman friendly phrase in this day, Leth and Williams don’t neglect her supporting cast. Ian and Tom Hale are hopefully off smooching somewhere, but Sharon King, Ms. America, Bailey aka Attache, and Jubilee each get a moment of badassery, insight, or cuteness. Sharon is really the only character with both feet firmly in the real world of rent and bills, and her resignation-filled dialogue bits are some of Hellcat #15’s funniest scenes. She gets to punch something too. True to her reputation, Ms. America does a lot of punching in this comic and also gets an adorable pajama set from Williams and Rosenberg. And Jubilee seems to be the one constantly getting transformed in different going from tiny to giant in turn of a few pages and is also very understanding about the changes in Patsy’s life and power set.

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Brittney Williams’ artwork on Hellcat has occasionally featured chibis, but she gets to all out with them thanks to Patsy’s new sneezing abilities. Chibi Jubilee puts Skottie Young’s baby covers and Marvel Tsums Tsums to shame especially when she starts petting Mr. Sniffles. But Williams can tap into horror too when Patsy sneezes out a giant wasp that leads to a lot of sad reaction faces from her friends. Rosenberg takes a break from her soft, happy palette and uses an angry pink background for the wasp attack. If you look at the background of every panel, you can tell Patsy’s emotional state instantly thanks to her colors, which furthers Hellcat #15’s goal of being an intense exploration into her character and a general turning point.

Kate Leth, Brittney Williams, and Rachelle Rosenberg throw out a bunch of crazy ideas in Hellcat #15, including connecting the sniffles and Scarlet Witch-lite reality warping powers, and most of them stick thanks to the fact that the weirdness stems from Patsy’s own issues. Also, Jubilee shapeshifting into a cloud will never not be hilarious.

Story: Kate Leth Art: Brittney Williams Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.2 Recommendation: Buy

Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Review: Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #9

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Hellcat9CoverPatsy Walker AKA Hellcat #9 reaches new heights of fun, happiness, and queerness in an issue that features Jubilee being the best assistant ever and rocking the cappucinos, Tom Hale singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” at karaoke, and a couple of bad boys from Patsy’s past showing up again. Writer Kate Leth delivers a script full of puns, heartful character moments, and just a touch of sadness as Patsy is still coping with her BFF, She-Hulk, being in a coma thanks to Civil War II. Artist Brittney Williams gets to show off her flare for action as Jubilee and Patsy get to team up against her ex-husbands, Mad Dog and Daimon Hellstrom. She can do misty eyed romance and enthusiastic friendship as well, and her fun, fierce, and cartoonish art style solidifies her as one of Marvel’s best current pencilers. And colorist Megan Wilson gets to add hellfire red to her usual pink, blue, and yellow palette, especially as Daimon ends up being too hot to handle.

She doesn’t get much panel time in Hellcat #9, but Leth, Williams, and Wilson elevate Hedy Clarke to arch-nemesis in the space of a single page. Most of the time, Hellcat is a slice of life sitcom, a quirky superhero adventure, or a Saturday morning cartoon, but the opening page of this issue is pure film noir. There’s a close-up on a martini glass and a cold blue backdrop from Wilson. Williams gives Daimon Hellstrom a classy suit, and Hedy Clarke, a red and black dress that pairs well with her stone-faced stare Hedy gives him when she lies about Patsy. And Hedy’s evil plan is pretty damn ingenious as she feeds on Daimon and Mad Dog’s negative feelings toward Patsy and lets them cut loose when she isn’t really in superhero mode. Plus Daimon Hellstrom is quite the powerhouse, and Leth and Williams show that as he ends a fight with one wave of his staff and a creepy pentagram.

Luckily, Hellcat #9 isn’t all darkness and evil. There are puns too. Most of the issue (except for the end of comic fight) is concerned with Patsy trying to make ends meet at her temp agency as she must balance paying rent on her building with paying her employees. Combined with her feeling down about She-Hulk’s injury, Patsy is running out of steam. Enter Jubilee, who is a happy ray of vampiric sunshine into the comic’s supporting cast. The spare roomwhere she holds court is super adorable with its mix of typical office trappings, like an espresso machine and mini fridge, and baby stuff for Shogo Lee, like a Wolverine plush, toy dinosaurs, and way too many sets of alphabet letters. Williams’ skill at background jokes comes in handy in this space, especially when Jubilee’s Magneto mug is concerned. “Magneto was old” could sort of be a thesis statement for Hellcat  as its characters are more concerned with helping out their friends and making ends meet than grand ideologies.

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And speaking of adorableness, the karaoke bar sequence is Hellcat #9 at its most queer friendly as Tom Hale and everyone’s favorite bisexual Inhuman Ian Soo aren’t victims, but joyfully singing, drinking, and maybe even falling in love. Tom’s choice of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” is kind of perfect, and the play of pink and blue from Megan Wilson creates a warm, tingly romantic feeling. (Full disclosure: I had a boyfriend, who had that as his go-to karaoke song too.) Williams also uses glances, little bits of hearts, and hilarious reaction shots from other characters to slowly craft the romance. Also, Leth writes Jubilee as the perfect wing woman with her slick one-liners about Tom not just being Ian’s boss. They should just kiss already, but this is a superhero comic and the smooching is put on hold for fighting. For now, at least.

Hellcat #9 is a flat out fun read as Kate Leth, Brittney Williams, and Megan Wilson put Hellcat and her friends through the wringer while also letting them live a little and enjoy life. There’s action, comedy, romance, plenty of cuteness, and a cliffhanger that is like something out of Stranger Things.

Story: Kate Leth Art: Brittney Williams Colors: Megan Wilson
Story: 8.5  Art: 9.5 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy

Review: X-Men #26

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xmen026The introduction of an all female X-Men caught many fans off guard when it was announced over two years ago.  It is not that the fans were not prepared for an all female team, because the new team was as a response of fan requests, but rather because the all-female team was taking over the mantle of the team’s masculine name which did not accurately respresent their gender.  Regardless the fans got what they wanted even if the fit of the characters to the title was never as strong, as some of them debated over the use of the name in story.  What was noteworthy about this title was how effective the series was, in that while there were occasionally some lighter moments, that the femininity which was displayed was not of the trivial kind but instead allowed all of these powerful characters to interact with one another.  With the advent of Secret Wars, X-Men is due to be canceled.  This might come as a surpirse for a series which has been doing well enough both in sales and in its critical reception, but then again a lot of other series are being canceled to coincide with Secret Wars.

The story here wraps up the last story arc of this series.  After journeying to the desert and finding the semi-intelligent version of Krakoa, the team was trapped underground and forced to struggle for their lives.  Both Storm and Rachel Grey managed a way to the surface and the battle continued, but not before a moment was taken to reflect on the actual meaning of their actions, especially so that their own Krakoa was sick back at the X-Mansion.

The resolution to this story is as good as the series could give, given its feminine focus, but at the same time this story arc marks the end of what was a project that never really was.  Although the quality of this X-Men title was never in doubt, it never really either broke through either.  Most of the stories were interesting and engaging enough, but most also never really rose above what one might consider an average story line from any other comic.  Such was the case here again with this story arc and this issue, and while the run has been strong enough over the past couple of years, it still feels as though more could have been done.

Story: G. Willow Wilson Art: Roland Boschi
Story:  8.3 Art: 8.3  Overall: 8.3  Recommendation: Read

X-Men: Apocalypse Finds its Jubilee.

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Director Bryan Singer has announced on Twitter the latest addition to the apparently still growing cast to X-Men: Apocalypse. Lana Condor will be the latest actor to portray the character in the film. We couldn’t find much, actually nothing, as far as her previous roles.

Condor is the fourth actress to play the character in a live action film. Heather McComb played the character in the Generation X television film, Katrina Florence was her in the first X-Men film, and Kea Wong played the role in X2 and X-Men: Last Stand.

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Catching Up on Reviews, Part 12 — Wolverine & Family

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Sorry about the delays, but I’m still trying to get caught up on reviews for the last few months…

Daken – Dark Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – This is a consistently well-made comic. Daken isn’t my favorite character, but he is always interesting and there is a lot of room for good writers to explore him. Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu tell a good tale here.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – I’m not a big fan of Madripoor stories and have never really liked them, but if a character more fits into the setting than Daken, I’m not sure who it is.

Story: 8 Art: 7 Overall: 7.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – For me the jury is still out on whether or not X-23 is a good character, but I definitely do not like Gambit. It makes sense to have Daken and X-23 interact, though, so this storyline isn’t without merit.

Story: 7 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7.75

Daken – Dark Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Not sure I’m fully on board with this Daken-X-23 crossover, but there is a lot of great art in this issue from Marco Checchetto.

Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8

Daken – Dark Wolverine #9.1 (Marvel) – There is still a lot of room to explore the relationship between Daken and Wolverine and this is a good entry into the ongoing story.

Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

Daken – Dark Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The execution here isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of things to like in this issue. Rob Williams introduces Daken to a drug addiction that is brilliantly shown by artists Matteo Buffagni and Riley Rossmo. The issue also introduces a great new female character, Donna Kiel, an FBI agent on Daken’s trail. I’d like to see her used a lot more.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

Daken – Dark Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Basically following up on all the elements of the previous issue, this one executes them a bit better and adds Taskmaster, one of my favorite Marvel characters of late, to the mix. I’m a fan.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25

Daken – Dark Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – Buffagni and Rossmo’s art is adequate during the regular story, but stellar during the scenes where Daken is on heat. Williams story continues to get even better, with Daken setting up a complex heist plan that is very original and then has Donna Kiel figure it out.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Daken – Dark Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – Adding Moon Night and the questionable portrayal of his mental illness to the mix doesn’t really help, but it doesn’t really hurt, either.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8 Overall: 8.25

Daken – Dark Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – This is a complex and entertaining story and I can’t wait until the next issue comes out so I can figure out what the hell is happening.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine – Deadpool: The Decoy #1 (Marvel) – I’m trying to figure out a reason this story was published and I’m drawing a blank. The main story, meant, I guess, to reinforce all the same qualities of Wolverine and Deadpool we’ve seen a million times. The back-up story with the Great Lakes Initiative is designed, I think, to make you feel less crappy about wasting money on this comic. It doesn’t work.

Story: 6 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.25

Wolverine: Debt of Death #1 (Marvel) – This isn’t a bad story, but it doesn’t really add anything new to the long tale of Wolverine and it seems overly familiar, as if we’ve read this story before. David Aja’s art is very nice, though, and it’s worth a look.

Story: 7 Art: 9 Overall: 8

Wolverine: The Best There Is # (Marvel) – I’m not sure why they don’t just call this Wolverine MAX, since that’s what it is. Which means pointless and excessive violence, sexual references and bad jokes. Juan Jose Ryp’s art is way too busy and cartoonish for me and it seems out of sync with the story.

Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine: The Best There Is #5 (Marvel) – This one is a little better than the previous Contagion chapters, but not by much.

Story: 7 Art: 5 Overall: 6

Wolverine: The Best There Is #6 (Marvel) – If this series didn’t star Wolverine, one of my all-time favorite characters, I would’ve stopped reading it long ago, since the quality is poor and the intent behind that low quality isn’t that great in the first place.

Story: 6 Art: 5 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine: The Best There Is #7 (Marvel) – This is probably Ryp’s best art in the series to date and now that the story is moving away from Contagion, it’s much better. Wolverine’s recovery from his full range of diseases is the best the series has been to date.

Story: 9 Art: 7 Overall: 8

Wolverine: The Best There Is #8 (Marvel) – Ryp’s art continues to improve and there are a lot of good panels in this comic, despite much of it still being too cluttered and busy. The story isn’t bad, but I’m not sure it’s holding my interest.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

Wolverine: The Best There Is #9 (Marvel) – Whatever momentum the series had been gaining in recent issues, this is a setback for it. It looks bad and the story is dull and offensive

Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5

Wolverine #5.1 (Marvel) – Pretty creative tale here, as you have all of Wolverine’s friends getting together for a suprise birthday party that Logan, of course, can’t make it to because he’s caught up in a Wrong Turn-style story. Very entertaining tale from Jason Aaron.

Story: 9 Art: 8 Overall: 17

Wolverine #6 (Marvel) – The aftermath of the “Logan Goes to Hell” story is interesting, particularly with the look into Scott Summers’ brain and the heavy load he carries in terms of having to plan to take out all of the members of his race if they were to get too powerful and go down the wrong track. The “Wolverine Protocols” is an idea that is traceable back to the Dark Phoenix saga and is good writing again from Aaron.

Story: 9 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75

Wolverine #7 (Marvel) – Daniel Acuna’s art is at its best here and Aaron continues to show he’s a name that should be quickly rising up the ranks of comic book writers. Logan’s internal battle here is as well-done as the external combat against his teammates.

Story: 9.5 Art: 9 Overall: 9.25

Wolverine #8 (Marvel) – Another great issue, this one has some of the funniest moments in Wolverine history and it’s great to see characters like Nightcrawler and Phoenix back, even if they are only in Logan’s head. The ending is also a pretty chilling moment.

Story: 10 Art: 9 Overall: 9.5

Wolverine #9 (Marvel) – Wolverine vs. Mystique seems a story we’ve seen enough times already that we don’t need to really see it again. That being said, the creative team on this comic is good enough to make any tale, even one retold this often, fresh enough.

Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine #10 (Marvel) – The art isn’t as good this time around, but this is an intriguing opening chapter to a good Wolverine story.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #11 (Marvel) – Some of the characters here are not my favorites, but the story structure is good and gets you a lot of information that will pay off later.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #12 (Marvel) – This series is very consistent at this point, with great writing, art that is good enough and beautiful covers by Jae Lee et al.

Story: 8.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 8.25

Wolverine #13 (Marvel) – This story keeps getting better and better. It’s a revenge tale aimed at Wolverine for his past sins. The mystery is that there is something bigger going on here than what we know at this point and the cliffhanger ending here leaves you very intrigued.

Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5

Wolverine #14 (Marvel) – If the art was a bit better here, I’d consider this a perfect comic. That being said it’s still one of the most shocking endings to a Wolverine story ever, and that’s saying a lot. No one could’ve predicted where this tale was headed.

Story: 10 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.75

Wolverine #15 (Marvel) – It’s hard to follow up a shocking story like the previous issue and not have a let down, but Aaron manages to pull it off. The art doesn’t measure up, though. Kevin Smith and John Romita Jr.’s 9/11 back-up story is amazing.

Story: 9.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 8.5

X-23 #6 (Marvel) – X-23, Gambit, Mr./Miss Sinister, art that is pretty good, story that isn’t groundbreaking. Meh.

Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7

X-23 #7 (Marvel) – The art here is a bit better, even if it is too anime for my tastes. The story has Gambit and pirates, so, in other words, not much going for it.

Story: 6 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.75

X-23 #8 (Marvel) – This one looks a lot better and bringing in Daken is a good idea, but it still seems like the series isn’t really exploring the character the way it should and could.

Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7.5

X-23 #9 (Marvel) – Marjorie Liu’s best writing in this series to date is matched up with continually improving art. Now if they’d just get rid of Gambit.

Story: 8 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25

X-23 #10 (Marvel) – Back to Sana Takeda’s anime-style art and an appearance by Wolverine and vampire Jubilee make this issue passable, but not great.

Story: 7 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.25

X-23 #11 (Marvel) – Takeda’s art is a bit better here and the vampire-themed tale is mildly interesting.

Story: 7.5 Art: 8 Overall: 7.75

X-23 #12 (Marvel) – This is Takeda’s best art on the series and the vampire story really kicks it up a notch here. This is the best issue of the series to date.

Story: 9 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.75

X-23 #13 (Marvel) – Phil Noto brings a pretty different style to the issue’s look and Liu brings in more guest stars, this time Spider-Man and the FF. I’d like to see some of these issues get rid of the crossovers and focus on developing X-23 on her own.

Story: 8 Art: 7.5 Overall: 7.75

X-23 #14 (Marvel) – This really much more of an FF issue than an X-23 issue and taken that way, it’s not bad. The final panel is awe-inspiring. I’m still disappointed that we aren’t getting enough X-23 in her own comic.

Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8

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