Comic shop comics: February 29

Aquaman #6 (DC Comics) This is probably the weakest issue of Geoff Johns and company's new volume of the series. The artwork looks pretty off, with Mera—who takes the lead role in the story—looking strangely elongated and even somewhat misshapen. This is most likely due to the fact that regular pencil artist Ivan Reis is here credited with layouts, while regular inker Joe Prado is credited with finishes. I appreciate the attempt at consistency, but given the result, the title might have been better-served by a fill-in artist, as this particular story is something of a done-in-one, temporarily changing focus from the story of a no self-esteem asshole named Aquaman being pissed-off at the surface-worlders for not liking him as much as he wants them to, to focus instead on a no self-esteem asshole named Mera being pissed-off at the surface-worlders for not liking her as much as she wants them to.

(Now that I think of it, I wonder why it is that I like Namor's pissiness with the surface world, but don't like Aquaman and Mera's...? Is it that they seem to be more entitled and, well, douchey about it? More insecure than Namor, who seems to hate the surface world plain and simple, while the Aqua-people hate the surface world for not loving them...? Or simply that it was Namor's schtick first?)

Anyway, in this issue, Mera goes to a grocery store to buy dog food, and there she meets a comically, ridiculously sexually aggressive grocery store manager, who, within one second of meeting her, asks if she's biologically compatible and how her costume comes off, touches her hair and grabs her side. He does this after sexually harassing a co-worker, and, in both cases, in a grocery store full of other shoppers and employees, including at least one cop/security guard?

I see what Johns was going for, but its a little...much, and might have worked a bit better if Mera found herself in a bar or confronted by a drunk guy on the street, rather than a sexual predator in an apron at the grocery store.

The art doesn't help. I don't know if it was deadline pressure or what, but the art in the scene doesn't serve the story well. The manager tells his first victim that she'd look prettier with make-up on, even though she a) looks exactly like Mera, whom he's head-over-heels in desire-to-molest with, and b) sames to have the exact same amount of make-up on as Mera and all the other women in the book. Also, the grocery store seems to be abandoned—a better setting for his advances—up until Mera snaps his arm, at which point a panel reveals the store is jammed to the gills with other people.

All in all, it's a pretty skippable issue. The art's not as good, the writing's not as good, and doesn't advance the story of the last six issues, aside from revealing Mera's retconned origin (which is actually no longer a retcon, since DC rebooted their university between Brightest Day and the launch of this series) and showing that she's just like her husband, only maybe even more violent.


Captain America and Bucky #627 (Marvel Entertainment) Writers Ed Brubaker and James Asmus has Cap fight some robots, and some robots fight each other. It's pretty plot-heavy, with nothing much to it beyond that plot. Artist Franco Francavilla's artwork is the chief pleasure, my favorite parts being a sorta clever two-page spread in which the main panel is star-shaped, with smaller panels outside the borders of the star featuring Cap chucking various Cap-bots to the ground.

May favorite panel was one in which Cap throws a whole pile of shields at his foe. I guess his shield always bounces or circles back to him like a boomerang when he tosses it, so he doesn't really need it, but I think it'd be funny to see him always bringing along a wheelbarrow full of shields to pitch at especially resilient foes.