Two new ones this week! (Well, three, but I'll probably get to that third one later, as it's a book I have three months worth of issues for but haven't read them. Ahh, DC Comics apathy...)
This week's issues are Gambit #8 and the first issue of the new Young Avengers ongoing. There may or may not be spoilers below the cut, so if you don't want to be spoiled, avoid clicking - you have been warned!
Gambit
I've always loved that the new Gambit ongoing series makes no bones about what it is - While it strives to have a spy-movie adventurousness to it, it is also by and large cheesecake for women, in the way so many titles headlines by women superheroes are for men. The writer, James Asmus, said one of the title that This book focuses on the two most important aspects of Gambit: #1 that he's sexy, and #2 that he's the preeminent bad ass thief of the Marvel Universe. Notice which one he led with. :)
And while I would have bought the title either way, I do appreciate that it plays up this aspect, because let's face it - its a big part of his character. He's meant to be this sort of smooth, suave guy and a lot of the time in group books it either gets eclipsed by other aspects or played up to overbearing proportions.
Now, that being said, the book seems to be having a bit of an art shuffle, and this was the first issue I found the art to actually be a detraction.
This was also the first issue (maybe again because of the art?) where I just wasn't as invested. It was okay. There was nothing terribly wrong. but after the MI/007 antics of the first seven issues, this felt sort of out of left field and inconsequential. Also, there were dinosaurs. And killer gum that looked like snot. I just... I didn't know what to make of it.
Bad enough to make me drop the series? Not by a long shot. But a disappointing aberration in a series which has, thus far, maybe not been the most incredible thing but has given me in spades exactly what I wanted of a Gambit title.
Young Avengers
The art was also weird here. I'm not an artist, and I have very little vocabulary to explain what was weird to me, but the best way I could describe it to my sister was that the characters all looked like plastic dolls.
That aside, I liked the opening with Kate, though I have no idea how she got there and I can totally hear the gross fanthings yelling "sluuuuuuut!" from here. I wanted to cheer for Teddy both when he was making a little bit of a hash of pretending to be Spiderman and when he was up-front and honest with Billy about his feelings and his needs, and frankly on how selfish Billy had been behaving. And while I don't know that I agree that Billy should have just gone and done what he did (Well, I mean given the ending I KNOW he shouldn't have, but even as I was reading) but I understand why he did it.
Also, I think I kind of like Ms. America. Like, a lot. We'll have to see as the series goes on, but I love the no-nonsense attitude. Also, I think she's brilliantly designed.
Kid Loki I could take or leave, not having the background of his last series to endear him to me. I understand that he's kind of a big thing in Marvel fandom right now, but he seemed so unconnected to the rest of the book.
And that ending. That ending! Why do comics hate parents? I just... I don't get it. That better not head where I'm fearing it might. Luckily, it's a Marvel title. If it were DC, at this point, I'd already be operating under the assumption that they were goners.
Overall, it doesn't have the same feel as the original Young Avengers, but I think that's okay, and it feels like there's a potential here to make this a good thing in its own right. There's just not enough from only one issue to figure out if it will live up to that potential, for me at least.
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